Comment from Pamela J Potthoff

The US hasn?t had a case of FMD since 1929. The USDA has been trying to sell producers the idea that we need to be able to trace a foreign disease. Wouldn't it be better to prevent it coming into the US in the first place? We don?t want to further jeopardize the opening of furture foreign markets when we are so actively trying to prove to everyone that US beef is disease free and the safest in the world. Let's get our export markets opened before we open our borders to more imports of questionable safety. I feel that this policy of opening up regions within a diseased country will open the door for other countries to do the same. Since the BSE cow from Canada was found in the US, we have been struggling to prove our beef supply is safe. Let's not jeopardize the progress we have made. Thank you.