A42-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 4, 1995
Beef Industry Representatives Di;
VERNON ACHENBACH JR,
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster
Co.) America has the safest
and most abundant food supply in
the world.
It’s a statement often repeated,
though apparently many American
consumers arguably very una
ware of the real-world conditions
the average human being faces,
concerning food safety and
availability don’t seem to
believe it.
Nevertheless, that statement is
the pnde-cry of the meal industry
and it was the preface to comments
made Tuesday during a panel dis
cussion of theUSDA’s administra
tion of its “Zero Tolerance” rule,
held as part of the annual Lancaster
County Cattle Feeder’s Day, at the
Farm and Home Center, in
Lancaster.
County Livestock Agent Ches
ter Hughes put together the panel
which was moderated by Dr. Bill
Henning, a Penn Slate University
GOLDEN LEAF
Sgg? TOBACCO CO. INC. SgS?
ATTENTION TOBACCO FARMERS
We are no longer receiving tobacco at our Kirkwood Receiving Station,
We thank all farmers for support In our first year on the
Southern end of the county.
Bareville will continue receiving tobacco 8-4, every Mon through
Fri. at our location 'A mile east of RL 23 on Graybill Rd., next to
Harry’s Auction in the village of Bareville, Pa. (the old scales
factory) until Feb. 15, 1995. Any farmers interested in pro
cessing their tobacco should contact the Bareville office.
Consider Golden Leaf Tobacco Co. when marketing your 609 or
41 type tobacco. A company with an outstanding reputation for
supporting Lancaster tobacco farmers year after year.
Golden Leaf Tobacco Co.
Mac Bailey (717)354-8177
Michael Bailey Aaron Miller
(717)529-2886 Ans. Serv.
(717)572-2575 (717)656-6109
Clark Stauffer
(717) 733-8921
(717) 575-0622
(717) 738-2328
I We Welcome >cu Rack Ic C ur I
ANNUAL MULE AUCTION
MIIiPC4y, IHHAI.A 1),) 993
I Starting at 11:00 a.m. at the Lancaster Silo Farm
| Location: 2008 Horseshoe Road Lane, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601
| Take Route 30 south to Route 340, east 1/2 mile, at light take Horseshoe Road
| left, go 1/2 mile and watch for sign at end of driveway, right.
| THE SALE WILL BE HELD INSIDE-CONSIGNMENTS RECEIVED START
• ING AT 12 NOON ON FRIDAY. WE EXPECT APPROXIMATELY 100
| HEAD OF BIG DRAFT MULES FROM 16 TO 18 HANDS. WE WORKED A '
• LOT OF THESE MULES ON THE FARMS LAST SUMMER
EARLY CONSIGNERS INCLUDE:
| • Kemp & Reese, TN •4 PR young, 17H, Broke • Gary Estis, IN
| • John Kelso, TN •3 PR tall fancy sorrels, 17H • Roy
! • Jack Slrood, TN Epperson, NC
I •3 PR fancy, young, 16.2 -17 H Broke .2 pp Big heavy mules, worked in log
| on his farm *Mervm Hoover, KY woods, 16.3 H, out of Ml
The 2(j mule team we plan tc hitch cn February H th.
Sale mules will be hitched on Friday before the sale. If you are
looking for a team of “broke mules” here is the place to come.
Commission: 5% No sale charge: $2O per head
There will be no commission on the top selling pair of mules.
AUCTION BY DIFFENBACH’S AUCTION 225 L 393-4464
Raul S. Smucker
2CCB tierseshee Read, Lancaster, |>A 17601
Rhene (717) 299 3721
"There will be a, 15% discount on all Lancaster Silo Parts
and machinery. Also on silo orders."
SIMMMMMIitiItMUIiNIMMHIIMIMIiIIIMHMtIMMIIHHMIIHMMIHttMMHimiMIMtMMMMIHIIHtIMI
meat specialist, in its Department
of Dairy and Animal Science.
On the panel were Billy Lloyd,
representing the National Cattle
men’s Association, based on
Englewood, Colo.; K.T. Miller,
pubic relations director for meat
processor Monfort Inc., a subsid
ary of Conagra Red Meat Compa
nies; Walter Olsted, who is a staff
officer of the USDA Food, Safety
and Inspection Service; and Myron
Stoltzfus, of Stoltzfus Meats Inc., a
family butchering and meat pro
cessing business in Intercourse.
Henning began the discussion
by stating several facts about the
meal industry and the related
health concerns that have come to
public attention, more so in recent
years.
An incident in 1993 in which
several people died from eating
improperly cooked hamburger that
was contaminated with a deadly,
rare form of E. coli caused a lot of
finger pointing within the industry
and resulted in the adoption of a
717-354-8177 717-656-8452
Dennis Hess
(717) 627-4075
For Financing Call 291-ISSS
LCall bafora aala iota. AaK for Bill
policy for slaughter houses of
zero-tolerance for contamination
of meat carcasses by common E.
coli-bearing materials, such as fec
al material, or other material from
the digestive tract
As imposed, federal inspectors
on line at slaughter houses have the
obligation to stop production lines
if they observe carcasses with
specs of possible fecal material,
and then have a worker trim the
offending-looking material, along
with meat from the carcass.
Those representing the meat
processing industry complained
not so much about the waste of the
process, but the fact that it slowed
down lines, resulting in carcasses
being exposed for longer periods
of time to temperatures and condi-
Maryland
Meetings
FREDERICK, Md. Two
different Maryland farm program
are scheduled for Feb. 7 and Feb. 8
at the Walkersville Fire Hall.
On Feb. 7, the annual Frederick
County Winter Meeting is sche
duled with registration and a trade
show to start at 8:30 a.m., and the
formal program to start at 10 a.m.
Registration is $3.
On the program are topics of
weed control, intensive grazing,
pasture management, government
programs, organic by-product fer
tilizers, and alternative agriculture
options.
A large part of the winter meet
ing is the interactive trade show
it takes up more than half of the
huge fire hall. The show contains a
wide range of agribusinesses and
related industries, in addition to
educational displays by different
agencies.
On Feb. 8. at the fire hall, the
Frederick County “Dairying
Today Program,” is to be held.
Registration starts at 8:30 a.m„
and the formal program begins at
9:30 a.m.
Sponsored jointly by the Uni
versity of Maryland Cooperative
Extension Service and the agricul
tural business community,
registration is $3 at the door.
This program will also feature a
trade show. The formal education
al program is to include keynote
speaker Dr. Bob Milligan, an agri
cultural economist with Cornell
University, show specializes in
farm and other small business
management
Other topics include raising
dairy replacements, and raising
com specifically for silage.
For more information on either
program, call (301) 694-1594.
* >
1
/ >< s
* 4
From the left, USDA and beef cattle industry reprei
cuss the zero-tolerance regulation and upcoming chai
left Is Walter Olsted, Billy Lloyd, K.T. Miller, Myron'
moderator.
scuss Safety Co
dons that could spread the
growth of bacteria.
They also complained that
the zero-tolerance regulation
was not based on any type of
scientific (logical) reasoning.
The visual identification of
material on a carcass as possib
ly coming from the animal’s
digestive tract has no bearing
on whether it constitutes a con
tamination of the carcass by E.
coli bacteria.
The industry representatives
were in consensus that what is
needed are testing procedures
for bacteria which are fast,
effective and reliable; a
science-based system of
slaughtering and carcass chill
ing that stresses the final state
and condition of a processed
carcass; more research and
political support for sound sci
ence; and an insistence that
end-product users be held
responsible for their actions (90
percent of foodbome illness has
been traceable to food service
industry mishandling, and
about 10 percent to household
mishandling).
According to Henning, from
the time a domestic meat ani
mal leaves the farm, the only
way to ensure the food safe
from possible contamination of
E. coli is to cook the meat prop
erly, to a temperature of at least
155 degrees.
Olsted, gave a perspective of
the USDA under the regime
which implemented the “zsero
lolerance” rule.
According to Olsted, for the
first time since the USDA’s
Food Safety Inspection Service
inception in 1906, there is a
lawyer administering the prog
ram, Mike Taylor, formerly
with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration.
According to Olsted, Taylor
has realigned some of the pow
er at the top of the organization
and has brought in a physician
to head a new agency to advise
him on food borne illnesses.
Also, former Agriculture
Secretary Mike Espy created
the position of undersecretary
of food safety, so now the admi
nistrator of the FSIS has more
power, he said.
Hie group of panelists also
discussed the implementation
of HACCP, which is a program
Tayler brought to the depart
ment HACCP is an acronym
for Hazard Analysis and Criti
cal Control Points.
HACCP is a method of exa
mining a system and locating its
weak points, and then focusing
on those weak points. It can be
used with any type of industry.
It could even be implemented
< •%}
\ yi *
ncerns
on a family -farm to increase
worker safety, or to stave off
mastitis in a dairy herd.
Ironically, at the same time
on Tuesday that the panelists
were telling the 200 or more
attendees to the program about
H ACCP, it was being published
in the Federal Register as prop
osed regulations.
According to a Wednesday
article published in the Wall
Street Journal, acting Agricul
ture Secretary Richard Remin
der said, “We are proposing to
reinvent the meat and poultry
inspection system, which is cur
rently based primarily on sight,
touch and smell."
The proposal is to be pub
lished in final form after four
months of review by the public,
according the report
Perhaps the most striking
comments from board members
were those made by Myron
Stoltzfus, who related in a pre
pared statement conditions of
working with the regulations
coming from the USDA, the
voluminous details, constant
revisions, extra and additional
associated costs, some of the
prima donna behavior of some
federal inspectors, and the
frustration of trying to maintain
a small business in the face of
ridiculous, politically or
bureaucratically motivated
regulations.
In his opening statement,
Stoltzfus said the USDA should
be aware that, especially in rela
tion to the zero-tolerance
requirements, the "... tolerance
level of small business is about
zero.”
Stoltzfus, who repeated the
statement that America has the
safest food supply in the world,
and in history, said it was a
challenge to understand the
actions of the federal
government.
He said he read statements
from people in Washington
saying that the regulations can’t
wait for science to catch up.
That doesn’t make any sense,
he said, in light of the fact that
one of the leading experts on E.
coli bacteria has suggested that
perhaps the reason that the rare
deadly form of E. coli formed
was as a result of the almost
nuerodcally bacteria-frcc meat
that the American system
attempts to demand.
According to Stoltzfus, the
researcher has suggested that
perhaps the best way to ensure
that deadly forms of E. coli
(normally a common harmless
bacteria found almost every
where) do not culture in food, is
to allow the harmless bacteria
to take hold.