The Meat Institute said properly prepared beef remains safe to eat and called for USDA and the CDC to provide worker safety guidance specific to beef processors to ensure workers are protected from infection.

“If we step back and look at what that means for farmland, we’re taking our energy production system from highly centralized production facilities and we have to distribute it,” says David Muth.

APHIS issued its final rule on animal ID that has been in place since 2013, switching from solely visual tags to tags that are both electronically and visually readable for certain classes of cattle moving interstate.

There’s a lot of hyperbole out there about USDA’s EID mandate — much of it serves as nothing more than fear-mongering.

Beef packers saw profits drop $54 per head to a loss of $18 per head. Pork packers saw average profits of $20 per head, down $2 from the previous week.

Beef Quality Assurance programs offered to help producers interested in a tune-up and certification on BQA practices.