R-CALF Files Motion
Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) filed a motion last week asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana for a summary judgment — an early ruling — in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The motion maintains that USDA has failed to exercise sufficient caution in protecting domestic animal and human health. R-CALF also requested in the motion that the court halt all imports of Canadian boxed beef.
In an R-CALF release, Leo McDonnell, organization president and co-founder, stated, “R-CALF filed a motion for summary judgment partly as a matter of standard legal procedure, and partly to prevent a long, drawn-out court battle when it’s obvious to anyone who has reviewed the record that USDA does not have a reasoned or scientific justification for allowing cattle and beef from a BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy)-affected nation into the United States …”
Meanwhile, the USDA has taken its own offensive course, with plans announced Tuesday to host a roundtable discussion June 9 regarding BSE in an effort to present what Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns called the “cold, hard facts about the beef industry.”
In announcing plans for the roundtable, Johanns stated his concern surrounding the industry’s long-term consequences of continued interruption in beef and cattle imports from Canada.
Researchers Develop Drought Monitor
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have launched a pilot study to determine the feasibility of measuring localized water-table readings in an effort to predict and reduce losses associated with drought conditions.
According to ARS, agency geologist John Daniel and cooperators are using a statewide meteorological network throughout Oklahoma to interpret water level changes and explain the effects of drought on groundwater supply. The network, known as the Oklahoma Mesonet, provides readings on air temperature, wind, rainfall, humidity, solar radiation and soil temperature at its more than 110 automated weather stations.
Real-time data collected through the network can be viewed online at www.mesonet.org/public.
Meat or Soy Protein: Neither Harms Bones
In a separate ARS study, researchers concluded that meals with protein from meat or soy didn’t harm the bone health of 13 postmenopausal volunteers — a finding contrary to the theory that high-meat regimens may leach calcium from bones.
Scientists at the ARS Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center and colleagues at the ARS Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center also determined that the volunteers, ages 52 to 69, absorbed and retained calcium equally well from regimens containing meat or meat plus soy protein. Their findings appeared in the January 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (volume 90, pages 181-189).
Golf Tournament Nears
Remember, the Angus Foundation is hosting its annual Golf Tournament in conjunction with the National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) July 19 in Denver, Colo.
If you would like to play in the tournament or be a tournament sponsor, please let us know by filling out the sign-up form available on the Angus Foundation Web site, www.angusfoundation.org, or by contacting Callie Meinhardt, Angus Foundation assistant, at (816) 383-5132.
— compiled by Crystal Albers, Angus Productions Inc. assistant editor
