Keep the ban on Canadian cattle imports until the neighboring country can show it's free of mad cow disease.
That's the message agriculture leaders from 12 Midwestern states will relay to U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Bill Hawks during a meeting in Fargo Sunday.
"While the Canadians have made admirable progress in dealing with BSE (mad cow disease), not all of our questions have been answered yet," North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said.
The state agriculture leaders, all members of the Midwestern Association of State Departments of Agriculture, will hold their annual conference in Fargo beginning Saturday.
The conference, held at Fargo Ramada Plaza Suites, runs through Wednesday.
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State agriculture leaders will tell Hawks to resist political pressure to eliminate the ban. The U.S. border should remain closed to cattle imports until Canada's investigation is complete and the source of the disease is known, said Johnson, the association's chairman.
"We want to make sure we do everything we can to keep the disease out and to be able to quickly isolate if it would ever get in," he said.
Canadian officials reported in May that one cow near Fairview, Alberta, tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also called BSE or mad cow.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture immediately banned Canadian beef imports.
Mad cow disease attacks the nervous system and destroys the brain. People who eat meat from animals infected with mad cow can develop a related disease with the same deadly symptoms.
North Dakota ranchers want the ban to stay in place until there's no threat of mad cow crossing the border, said Wade Moser, executive vice president of the state's Stockmen's Association.
"We have expressed the same concerns," he said. "We want to make sure everything is science-based and not politically motivated."
Risk management
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On Monday, Ross Davidson, the USDA's Risk Management Agency administrator, will brief farmers and state agriculture leaders on plans to develop crop insurance that protects farmers' cost of production.
Farmers are encouraged to attend the discussion which will be held at North Dakota State University's Memorial Union. The discussion will begin Monday at 9 a.m. Admission is free.
Johnson said he'll also lead his counter parts on tours of several value-added agribusinesses Monday afternoon and Tuesday. The conference will conclude Wednesday with a business meeting.
Members of the association represent state agriculture departments in North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin and South Dakota.
For more information about the conference, call: (701) 328-4754.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Zent at (701) 241-5526
