Veneman: Canadian border will open, Japan 'stonewalling': Pete Hisey on 1/11/05 for Meatingplace.com: In what may have been her last appearance as Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, speaking at the American Farm Bureau Federation conference on Sunday, vowed that the Canadian border would reopen as scheduled on March 7 and accused the Japanese Agriculture Ministry of "stonewalling" after promising to reopen its border to American beef.

According to a Reuters report, she urged the Bush administration to renew contact with Japan "at the highest levels" to get the border reopened. Veneman added that meetings with South Korea produced a clear result: "They will not move until Japan moves."

During her speech at the convention in Charlotte, N.C., Veneman mainly recapped USDA's progress under her tenure. She noted that despite a series of crises, from the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in England to the first North American case of BSE to the 2003 discovery of BSE in the United States, USDA maintained consumer confidence and averted major market disruptions.

"Under the Bush administration, we have increased funding for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by 86 percent and for the Food Safety Inspection Service by 26 percent," she said. "We have dramatically increased surveillance efforts and research into key pathogenic agents and strengthened our protection infrastructure through laboratory networks and university-based Homeland Security centers of excellence."