Democrat Seeks to Revive Mandatory Livestock ID Plan (mad cow)

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-madcow-congress.html

December 30, 2003
Democrat Seeks to Revive Mandatory Livestock ID Plan
By REUTERS Filed at 1:51 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer asked the Bush administration on Tuesday to support legislation requiring the U.S. government track meat from the slaughter house to the dinner plate, to document the history of an animal infected with mad cow disease.

The discovery of the nation's first case of mad cow disease in a Washington state animal last week has revived calls from consumer groups and some lawmakers for mandatory tracking of U.S. livestock.
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Schumer, a New York senator, introduced a bill in June that would require the USDA to assign a code to meat at the time of slaughter and at each destination in the distribution chain....infected with a disease could be traced back to its source, enabling all of the contaminated meat to be quickly pulled from stores if necessary..."We shouldn't have to play Sherlock Holmes to find out how much meat comes from cows who might have been exposed to mad cow," Schumer said in a statement. "But we have no choice because the meat industry continues to fight giving the USDA the ability to track the U.S. meat supply and other common sense measures."..


<snip>Schumer also criticized a move by House Republicans to delay a law requiring country of origin labels in October 2004. The delay is part of a massive government spending bill to be voted on by the Senate after it returns to work on Jan. 20.

The labeling law is opposed by U.S. meat processors, grocery stores and other retailers as unnecessary and burdensome. Consumer and farm groups support the labels as a way to give shoppers more information about the food they eat.

COMMENT: Nothing on removing Downer cows from herd before sending to slaughter, or on increasing the number tested to more than the tiny 20,000 we do now. Seems it is time for Hillary to take charge - again.

:-)