R-CALF accuses USDA of lying

Last Wednesday, R-CALF claimed a USDA report issued a week earlier was “factually inaccurate, unreliable, and biased” as well as constituting “government-promoted propaganda.” The report in question was the “Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) Summary of Feedback on the ADT Program” which was released Sept. 18. The group claims that the summary report was to serve as the foundation of a larger report that was presented last week during the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS’) traceability forum. R-CALF formally requested a correction of the information contained in the summary report and an investigation into the allegations it made. “In its report, APHIS claimed there was a consensus reached among industry commenters that both younger cattle and the requirement to use electronic identification devices could be included under the ADT as soon as the program was fully functional for older cattle,” the group said in its announcement of its action. R-CALF contends that there was no such consensus and that “important concerns expressed both verbally and in writing by thousands of American ranchers” were misrepresented in the summary report.