NCBA, AMI, ARS Aim to Streamline Food Safety Research Efforts

Industry-government collaboration is key to enhancing food safety, beef production, and nutrition objectives according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).   To that end, NCBA hosted a meeting with USDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and staff from the American Meat Institute (AMI) to discuss opportunities for combining resources, efforts and streamlining focus in key research areas. 

The April 9 meeting, coinciding with NCBA’s Spring Legislative Conference brought industry, producers, and government together to exchange ideas and status reports on existing projects.

            “A big objective of this meeting was to set specific research priorities that will positively enhance our other industry efforts,” said NCBA’s Vice President of Research and Knowledge Management Bo Reagan.  “Research dollars are limited, and we need to collaborate as much as possible to avoid duplication of efforts, and to focus on research areas that show the most promise.”

            ARS shared recent results of research projects of importance to the beef industry, and NCBA and AMI discussed common research priorities, and pending projects related to beef safety, nutrition, production, and genomics. 

NCBA has routinely met with ARS to collaborate on research efforts.  This was the first time that a joint meeting was held with AMI.