Posted on 06/24/2017 8:39:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the immediate suspension of fresh beef imports from the South American country on Thursday after inspections uncovered public health concerns, unsanitary conditions and animal health issues.
The agency said the ban will remain in place until Brazil "takes corrective action."
Brazil is the fifth biggest supplier of beef to the U.S., ranking behind only Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico. It has sent nearly 50 million pounds of beef to the U.S. so far this year.
"Although international trade is an important part of what we do at USDA, and Brazil has long been one of our partners, my first priority is to protect American consumers," Sonny Perdue, the secretary of agriculture, said in a statement.
The agency said it has been inspecting all meet imports from Brazil since March, and had refused entry to 11% of fresh beef products. It said that figure is "substantially higher" than the rejection rate from the rest of the world, which is around 1%.
The Brazilian Association of Beef Industry said in a statement that "corrective actions to adapt production processes are already being taken."
The U.S. is the ninth biggest market for Brazilian beef exporters.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Had no idea that domestic production could not keep up with demand for FRESH meat.
But Chinese chicken?
No problem!
And our government has actually made it illegal for the country of origin to be labeled on our meat:
Chipotle announced they won’t be using Texas beef anymore but will be getting it from Australia.
I regularly see US beef at a variety of stores here in Germany. Pricey, though.
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