Science Must Back Meat Industry Decisions

The World Meat Congress hosted by the International Meat Secretary yet represents a substantial portion of global meat production, often impacting decisions from organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Trade Organization. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association participated in a recent meeting, which facilitates direct involvement and key issues and technical advice sought by these global bodies, underscoring the importance of the beef industry and NCBA, Executive Director of Government Affairs, Kent Bacus.

“We still want to make sure that some people may wonder, well, why are we concerned about this? Why should we be engaged, and the simple message I would have there is that these conversations are going to happen with or without us. And so we need to make sure that US producers are properly represented, we can't trust other people to do that. We have to step up and do that, that science really is the driver behind all of these things, otherwise, the NGOs and the activist groups, they're going to be involved in a lot of these other UN meetings that are out there a lot of these other big global meetings. So it's important that we stay engaged, and that we're the ones that are standing up for producers. And so that's one of the reasons why NCBA looks for these opportunities, not only to engage with our governments but to engage on the international scale because these conversations are very important that we can't take for granted that someone will just accept the way we've done things for a long time.”

Kent Bacus with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.