CATTLEMEN’S COLUMN

WHY THE PRIME ACT ISN’T A SOUND SOLUTION FOR CALIFORNIA’S CATTLEMEN

by CCA President Mark Lacey

I have received calls and emails about the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act, and whether CCA supports the bill. PRIME would expand the federal inspection exemptions beyond personal use to allow meat to be sold directly to consumers, restaurants, hotels and other food service establishments.

The short answer is that the CCA Executive Committee discussed PRIME, and voted not to support it. Before I explain why I want to preface the explanation by saying that I don’t think there is a CCA member or anyone on the executive committee who wouldn’t like to see a renaissance of regional packers, small processors or neighborhood butcher shops. But is PRIME the right path to get there??

The first reason PRIME wasn’t supported was a policy issue. CCA has Ag and Food Policy resolution 18-05 that says CCA supports the USDA Food Safey Inspection Service (FSIS) as having sole jurisdiction of the inspection of meat. I don’t when that was originally passed, but I can tell you that even if you don’t consider FSIS the gold standard domestic consumers, other countries do. It’s not about “USDA Choice” it’s about humane slaughter standards, plant sanitation and safety, animal disease surveillance and contaminant testing. It’s about the “USDA Inspected” stamp that implies that meat is safe to eat because of the very rigorous process it went through.

I have had people say the big packers have issues. True, but typically those products are recalled before they are sold because of plant testing and tracking. Think about the number of animals processed and pounds of beef sold annually, and then ask how many incidents have we had. The answer is not many because we have one uniform entity enforcing food safety guidelines.

We learned these lessons with the help of the checkoff back in the 80s about consumer perceptions of beef. Then again when there were E. coli outbreaks, BSE in 2003, and what those kinds of events do to beef demand. Because of those events, we improved procedures like “test and hold,”and eliminating SPR materials from entering the foodchain So, if we allow product to be sold without USDA inspection, what does that say to the consumer?

Now I would like to list a few other issues with eliminating federal inspection that range from political to ideological.

First, from a political standpoint, while PRIME expands the federal exemption from personal use to allow meat to enter commercial trade, it does not preempt state law; meaning about half of the states offer meat inspection equal to federal standards. Theoretically, his would allow the states to relax those standards. It would also allow states to exceed those standards, and in the case of California that is typically the case (i.e. air quality and water quality) so we need to be real careful because once that horse is out of the barn...you know the saying.

As an example of the risk for excessive regulation, in California last year, CCA helped beat back an attempt to have meat products labeled as carcinogenic under Prop. 65 the primary reason we prevailed was because of federal pre-emption. There is also court precedence because of a case brought by the one 8 California Cattleman September2020 and only Kamala Harris plus a couple other cases that resulted in the court saying that California can’t impose additional or different requirements than USDA. Not only has California wanted to label meat under Prop. 65, the City of San Francisco wanted labels with any antibiotic treatments, and there has been talk of beef being required to carry carbon footprint labels.

We really need to plan carefully if we want to move to a state inspection system, and if you are saying that because of PRIME there won’t be inspection, guess again. How likely do you think it is that California would allow meat to be sold without oversight? Sure, CCA would fight mightily to prevent onerous regulation, but every animal rights group, and don’t forget about the new plant-based food association whose lobbyist use to work for the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) that would descend on Sacramento like Burning Man on steroids to put the hurt on us.

Now, from an ideological standpoint what is our goal? To give the consumer what they want, right? There has certainly been a movement to locally-sourced and specialty products (i.e. grass-fed and organic) over the last decade, and it has accelerated due to shortages caused by the pandemic. This is all positive, right? Selling more meat is great! The question is: Will the consumer trade access to specialty products for less stringent food safety standards? The research says NO. Over the last 30 years when consumers are surveyed, food safety is always a top concerns. The real question is how do we give consumers the specialty products they want, uphold safety standards and create opportunities to increase custom processing facilities in California? I am totally supportive of increasing custom processing capacity in our state but there are many hurdles that need to be cleared to make it happen, and it will take a lot of determination to get across the finish line. To that end, I think some research needs to be done to determine how much capacity can be supported, what is economically feasible and what is doable from a regulatory standpoint.

I have worked with a friend that has experience with public/ private partnerships to develop a draft plan of how to get the ball rolling with county governments, but that is one small step. There are a mountain of issues, and details to address to move the ball forward that can only be achieved by the producers that have skin in the game, and an organization like CCA to help streamline the rules and regulations so it can happen. Frankly, PRIME would have little impact on increasing processing capacity in a state like California, but I do believe there are alternatives.

Angus-On-Dairy Value Indexes Launched VISALIA LIVESTOCK MARKET

Angus Genetics, Inc. (AGI) CATTLEMEN’S SELECT BULL & FEMALE SALE launched two new indexes targeted to select profitable Angus sires to be utilized in beef-on-dairy breeding SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 programs. A public index search for the 12 noon complimentary BBQ lunch Angus-On-Holstein ($AxH) and Angus1 p.m. sale of females, followed by sale of bulls On-Jersey ($AxJ) indexes can be found on the AGI website. Members can also download any indexes on owned, active animals in their herd inventory through Bull buyers have an opportunity to win a custom-tooled cactus saddle at the conclusion of the sale, donated by Zoetis Custom Animal Reports in AAA Login. Angus-On-Dairy $Value Indexes 100 top quality, hand-selected, are bioeconomic selection indexes long-yearling and coming 2-year-olds that allow multiple change in several different traits at once pertaining to sell from these reputable producers... a dairy-beef crossbreeding objective. The indexes are an estimate of how future beef-on-dairy progeny of each 60 angus • Furtado Angus 20 red angus • Ludvigson Stock Farm Angus sire are expected to perform, on average, compared to beef-on-dairy progeny of other Angus sires if the sires were randomly mated and calves • Azevedo Livestock • Eagle Grip Cattle Co. • Potter’s Emmett Valley • Garone Ranches 15 herefords • Mrnak Herefords West • P.W. Gillibrand Cattle Co. were exposed to the same environment. These indexes were designed as specific crossbreeding tools for Angus • Rhoades Ranch • Manzanillo Catlle • Ficken Angus Ranch 5 simangus No. 7 Simmentals bulls being mated to dairy cows. Two indexes have been developed for the dairy market: Angus-On-Holstein ($AxH) index and Angus-On-Jersey PLUS A SELECT GROUP OF FEMALES SELL AT 1 p.m. Top quality open yearling heifers ready to breed Fancy, young later fall/winter calvers • fall cow-calf pairs ($AxJ) index to help dairy producers identify the most profitable Angus sires for those markets.

Each index comprises several genetic traits weighted by the appropriated economics to serve this terminal beef-on-dairy sector including: calving ease, growth from birth through the feeding phase, feed intake, dressing percent, yield grade, quality grade, muscling and height (only included in $AxH).

Using a search tool found at www. angus.org, any A.I. permitted bull, 733 North Ben Maddox Way | Visalia, CA 93292 born in 2010 or later, can be searched (559) 625-9615 | www.visalialivestock.com using the index search functions. Any young bull not yet A.I. permitted can be Randy Baxley (559) 906-9760 searched using the individual’s American James Grantham (805) 610-0641 • Blaine Ketscher (559) 905-1945 Angus Association registration number. 10 California Cattleman September2020