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

We had Taiwan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Oman open their markets to our beef, and we're excited about that.

We need to always be vigilant on the sanitary issues.

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.

We asked ourselves and the world to base decisions on good science, and I really believe the United States can be the leader in delivering that message to our international trading partners.

Fortunately, when it comes to meat and poultry, I have the really wonderful situation of having producers and processors that produce and process a very high-quality product.

On the professional side, those 18 years on the farm instilled my love for agriculture.