Also speaking to the executives were Barry Carpenter, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, and Karen Stuck, Food Safety and Inspection Service, to review a plant's quality control responsibilities and review of country requirements and export certification process.

Taiwan Reopens for U.S. Beef - Taiwan will resume trade with the United States for boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age. The U.S. exported over $56 million worth of boneless beef to Taiwan in 2003.

Canada Confirms BSE Case - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed an other case of BSE. The case was a six-year old cross-bred cow in Alberta, Canada. According to CFIA, no part of the animal entered the human food chain or animal feed system. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns stated that he did not anticipate any change in the "status of beef or live cattle imports to the U.S. from Canada under our established agreement." The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) said, they did "not expect this case to affect the beef trade status between the United States and Canada or other countries. We believe the United States should continue to engage in trade that is consistent with the international standards outlined by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and we expect countries that trade with us to do the same." The National Farmers Union (NFU) however called for the Canadian border to be closed. NFU asked Secretary Johanns to "suspend all imports of Canadian cattle immediately, until we can be assured that Canada has its problem under control, and it can meet U.S. meat inspection standards." Japan has indicated that this latest case will not affect Canada's beef exports to Japan.

Calls for Hearings on Packers & Stockyards - A bipartisan group of twelve Senators led by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IS) has called for the Senate Agriculture Committee to hold hearings on USDA's failure to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act. This is the result of a USDA Office of Inspector General's audit report that found that USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) management "prevented employees from conducting investigations into complaints of anti-competitive market behavior and covered up the lack of enforcement by inflating the reported number of investigations conducted." The report found that there have been no anticompetitive complaints filed by GIPSA since 1999. Records were incomplete in over half of the investigations that GIPSA claimed to be active. GIPSA did not refer competition complaints to the USDA General Counsel for prosecution between November 2002 and February 2005. The audit report was requested by Harkin in April 2005.

Farm Bill Hearings - The House Agriculture Committee announced the first two farm bill field hearings. The hearings will be held on February 6 in Fayetteville, N.C. and on February 7 in Auburn, AL. These are the first in a series of hearings the committee will conduct this year to review the 2002 farm bill. The committee wants to hear from farmers, ranchers, agribusiness, and government officials. The hearings are to give producers the opportunity to tell the committee what parts of the 2002 farm bill are working and what changes need to be made when Congress begins writing the new farm bill next year.