The House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the 2016 Agriculture Appropriations Bill July 8 that would block imports of fresh beef from Brazil and Argentina. The amendment requires the USDA to develop a comprehensive risk evaluation and conduct site inspections of processing plants in Brazil and Argentina before meat can be allowed into the U.S. This puts, at least for now, a stop to action taken in late June when the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced it was amending regulations to allow fresh beef into the U.S. from the South American countries. Beef from these regions has been banned from the U.S. due to a history of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in those regions. Read more at Western Livestock Journal…