The meat and poultry industries are outstanding industries, and it's going to be a very natural fit for me.

When one cow was found with BSE in 2003, many of our trading partners closed their borders to our beef.

Our job is to ensure that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, accurately labeled for the benefit of the American consumers, and to make sure that they are in compliance with all federal laws.

We're going to do everything possible to make sure that food safety is always paramount, and that we work with the industry as aggressively as we can to make sure that we're paying attention to the food-safety issues.

The meat and poultry industries are outstanding industries, and it's going to be a very natural fit for me.

There is a tremendous amount of support for the approach we have taken, which again is to base our decisions on risk analysis and thoughtful scientific process.

Today, we can tell people we have a testing process and facilities in place on a nationwide basis.