Roasted pig that no one eats
I have stood in that customs line at the airport as the “beagle brigade” walks past sniffing for anything that poses a danger.
In the past 10 years I have witnessed an increase in the number of dogs that U.S. Department of Agriculture employees have in use at the customs entry into the United States. It is on my mind for a couple of reasons but mostly because a dog in the Atlanta airport just flushed out a roasted pig in someone’s bag.
The USDA does go to great lengths to train these dogs to sniff out any food items that may present a risk of bringing in a foreign animal disease. I have had plenty of concern about how loose the system appears at times as I go through it myself but for the most part their track record is really good.
Our primary concern today is with preventing foot-and-mouth-disease and African Swine Fever from entering the country. The World Organization for Animal Health is reporting that only a couple of regions of the world are not considered FMD free at this moment.
Most of Russia is considered infected and one country on the South American continent (Colombia) has infected cases. We recognize that South America has had a serious problem but through vaccination, countries like Brazil have been able to achieve an “FMD Free” status. With that said I don’t feel a tremendous amount of comfort in importing fresh meat from Brazil because the integrity of Brazil’s food inspection service is not on par with ours.
So what exactly do we import from Brazil?
As of the first week of October, year to date we have decreased our meat imports from Brazil by 7 percent from one year ago but still the total is 31,416 metric tons. That would be the summary of mostly fresh pork (6,332 metric tons) and processed beef (25,074 metric tons). So while I am a free trade guy when all the standards are on par with ours, in the case of Brazil what are we really risking here and is it worth the risk?
On the other hand, we have a situation that lingers on my mind from Poland that should be a no brainer for putting a stop to. Poland does have African Swine Fever with 109 outbreaks in 2018. In fact, Poland reports that five of its 16 regions now have had positive outbreaks of ASF. Given those grave statistics, there should be no way we would allow fresh pork from Poland into the U.S. correct? If that’s what you think, you would be wrong.
Not only are we allowing fresh pork from Poland but we have increased the importation of fresh pork from that infected country by 17 percent to 51,069 metric tons. Why?
In the U.S., everyone must know that we have increased pork production to all-time record highs. In fact, it is quite exciting to be in the pork business right now because of the unprecedented growth in demand and infrastructure of the pork industry. Pork is the No. 1 consumed meat in the world and no one is better positioned to continue to be the supplier of that in-demand protein than the U.S.
I have asked the folks within the USDA why they are training the beagle brigade to identify meat that shouldn’t be allowed into the country through our nation’s airports when we are importing high-risk fresh pork by the tanker load.
I would close by reminding you that we have a couple of weeks yet when our elected officials are good listeners. Yes, you have greater access to your Congressmen from now until the election so I urge you to ask him or her why we continue to allow this risky behavior that could paralyze our nation’s food supply and destroy our farmers and ranchers.
Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
