Growing up on a dairy farm, you certainly learn discipline and a commitment to purpose.
Food safety involves everybody in the food chain.
We're going to do everything possible to make sure that food safety is always paramount, and that we work with the industry as aggressively as we can to make sure that we're paying attention to the food-safety issues.
Blaming your faults on your nature does not change the nature of your faults. After growing up on a dairy farm, everything in life seemed easy
When one cow was found with BSE in 2003, many of our trading partners closed their borders to our beef.
There is a tremendous amount of support for the approach we have taken, which again is to base our decisions on risk analysis and thoughtful scientific process.
The goal is to normalize trade relations based on sound science and consumer protection.
The industry is becoming very ready for animal identification.
Producers are so much better-educated in issues related to terrorism.
There is a certain amount of momentum that is achieved when one country after another reopens their borders.
My goal with the Canadian border is the same goal I have for Japan and Korea.
In beef trade issues, we base our decisions upon science.
We need to always be vigilant on the sanitary issues.
We asked ourselves and the world to base decisions on good science, and I really believe the United States can be the leader in delivering that message to our international trading partners.
The president has been a true friend of the ag industry, because he continues to invest large amounts of money at a time when savings is really the goal of the federal government to deal with the deficit.
Today, we can tell people we have a testing process and facilities in place on a nationwide basis.
I ended up being the governor of a very ag state, Nebraska.
Our job is to ensure that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, accurately labeled for the benefit of the American consumers, and to make sure that they are in compliance with all federal laws.
The world is really figuring BSE out, and that's positive.
The meat and poultry industries are outstanding industries, and it's going to be a very natural fit for me.
People enjoy our meat and our poultry, as I do as a consumer.
Science is the international language, so when we are able to convince countries that good decision-making for human health and animal health is based upon science, that’s a real success story for us.
On the professional side, those 18 years on the farm instilled my love for agriculture.
Fortunately, when it comes to meat and poultry, I have the really wonderful situation of having producers and processors that produce and process a very high-quality product.
We had Taiwan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Oman open their markets to our beef, and we're excited about that.
