One response to the mad-cow scare, and market forces, could be widespread electronic tracking of cattle to assure buyers of what they are buying and where it has been. A program is under way at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture now. At the beginning of the year, Canada began requiring such tracking, but U.S. cattle producers have resisted, saying participation should be voluntary. And Canada has imposed a ban on all beef from Brazil which has the world's largest herd saying the cattle lacked proof that they are disease-free. The North American Free Trade Agreement required the United States and Mexico to join the ban, even though there have been no reports of mad cow in Brazil.
Nobody wants U.S. beef to be next.
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