American ranchers have been battered by multinational corporations flooding the food supply chain with cheap beef imports from third-world countries, much of it ending up in supermarkets without consumers ever realizing it. Now, in a move to protect both consumers from flesh-eating parasites and support mom-and-pop ranchers, the Department of Agriculture warned Mexico on Saturday that the U.S. will cease imports of live animals — including cattle and bison — unless Mexico steps up efforts to combat pests.
Fox News first reported that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote a scathing letter to Mexican Secretary of Agriculture Julio Antonio Berdegué Sacristán, threatening to restrict US livestock imports from Mexico if its government does not urgently address the New World Screwworm by the middle of next week.
“I must inform you that if these issues are not resolved by Wednesday, April 30, USDA will restrict the importation of animal commodities, which consist of live cattle, bison, and equine originating from or transporting to Mexico to protect the interest of the agriculture industry in the United States,” Rollins wrote in the letter, obtained by Fox.