Another interesting article

[grassfarmer]

Check out the latest from The Badger on imported US beef.
http://thebadger.ca/2010/02/09/think-that-beef-is-canadian-think-again/

[kato]

Way to go Sheri Monk and Christoph Weder! Thanks for posting that.

[rkaiser]

I guess I didn't realise that you and Christoph were talking about picketing these store GF. I thought it was about conventional beef products. I might even join in with you or see if we could grab a bit of the "natural" pie...LOL

[Willowcreek]

An Op-Ed by Sheri Monk...

AMEN- Sheri...

The devil inside

9 February 2010 88 views 2 Comments

Some of you may not like what I’m fixing to say this week, but I can deal with that.

If you have any interest at all in the beef business and haven’t yet read page four, please do so and come back to me.

A dedicated reader alerted me to the American beef being sold in Canadian grocery stores and I went after it like a pitbull. I talked to pretty near a dozen ranchers and almost every single one of them was outraged. And only one allowed me to quote their angry outbursts. And for the record, I don’t think I would have bleeped out the curse words. You know why? Because it’s a genuine and honest reaction, a gut response and beyond all else, it was real. And I can’t be the only one that craves a little realness more than fish craves water. And yet, we’re drowning in our own bullshit and no one wants to acknowledge the stench.

In the course of my cattle industry coverage, I have been fortunate to have encountered folks from all over North America and a few other cattle-producing countries like Australia. Some subscribe and others read the coverage through a mailing list. And this story is a wee bit embarassing. And as the phone became heavier in my hand and this entire sorry situation became heavier in mind, I think I started to lose my grip, just a little.

Rewind a couple few years to the Canadian cattle industry as it bloated and grew, in lust with America’s seemingly insatiable market. And then freeze at May of 2003, the day the cow business stood still.

BSE like a thief in the night descended upon this industry like a plague. And all of a sudden, we start paying attention to American grassroots cattlemen’s group, R-CALF. They received headlines (and numerous death threats) for trying to keep Canadian cattle out of their country.
They were denounced as being opportunistic protectionists trying to finish off an already-crippled industry. And maybe that would have been accurate, if in 1999, had the group not filed a complaint against Canada countervailing and for using the U.S. as a dumping ground for excess cattle.

The theory? That retailers and packers were using cheaper Canadian cattle take a larger margin and to manipulate markets in an effort to force domestic prices down.

Oh, but then it was just free enterprise, right? Painted with self-indignant contempt, we wore our persecution complex like a fine suit and armed with OIE guidelines in one hand and a NAFTA bible in the other, we sent our politicians marching to open those borders. And now fully open, we’re still drowning.

In 2007, we introduced expensive SRM removal laws to safeguard the system from BSE-causing contamination. The brainchild of a CFIA drunk on power and inflated self-worth, the few national packers we had left were stuck with expensive changes in processing, but don’t worry – they shared that burden with cattle producers on the edge of the abyss.
And what of traceability – a beast the U.S. managed to crawl out from under just last week? Who paid for that? The packer? The retailer? The consumer? Yeah, keep guessing.

So instead of reassuring foreign markets with blanket BSE testing like every other country in the world did – except for Canada and the U.S. – we just introduced unmanageable, unrealistic and financially impossible regulations, quickening the death of this business.

Perhaps most incredibly, while the government didn’t even blink when sending the industry to its knees with extra legislated costs, it also didn’t even think about holding our trading partners to the same standards. We pay through the nose to send it out and because of ‘free’ trade agreements, we are obligated to bring in foreign meat.

And then under the burden of mounting costs and pressures, the politicians and the big hat cowboys running the industry organizations decide not to take on issues like competition, price discovery and captive supply.

Instead, they decide the best thing for the industry is to try and stop America from telling her people where their beef is coming from.
Is this what your check-off money is paying for?

Do we really want to fight COOL? Do we really want to keep any meat consumer – of any nationality – from knowing where their food was grown? What does that say about us, as producers, as a people?
If I’m going to shop for beef, damn straight I want to know where it’s from. Because I want to support my country, my nation and I expect nothing less from any other nation. How could I not and still be able to look myself in the mirror?

The free trade, free enterprise supporters, they’ll reassure each other in a pseudo-political circle jerk, but they’re not the ones being castrated by a thousand bureaucratic papercuts.

It seems the only way we’re permitted to try and save this industry is by dismantling that of another. How can we fight for market share with brutal trade weapons and still expect to win the heart and stomach of the consumer?

There is a chasm of disconnect between the average producer and those that toy at representing him. Somewhere between the ranch, the CCA and Ottawa, all sense and fairness becomes meaningless. And so desperate are the ranchers, they look down and away and hope for salvation in any form, even if it comes wrapped in hypocrisy.

I’d rather go down fighting for what’s right than choking on the stench we all pretended isn’t there. There’s no victory in saving an industry that has already sold its soul.

[burnt]

The old line -

How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?

When his lips are moving.

The new line - How can you tell when an rcalfer is lying?


When he is breathing . . . .

[kato]

OT, and your point is?????

Our problem is not with MCOOL in principle. It's with an MCOOL rule that's written with conditions that contravene an existing trade agreement. Every time our government brings up a new program here, they bend over backwards, and water it down to a point where it's useless, all in the name of adhering to trade agreements.

So while we go on our merry way, all the way into oblivion, secure in the knowledge that we have kept our part of the bargain, others do not think twice about rewriting existing agreements after the fact.

What we're mad about is the fact that we are the only ones who follow the rules!

And you may have noticed that people who do not follow the rules, do not get respect. If you don't like how NAFTA is written, then open it back up for negotiation, and we'll talk. There's lots of people here who don't like NAFTA any more than people in your country do, and I for one would like to see us take back that little clause about sharing our last drop of oil with you.

But of course, that's not going to happen is that?

[grassfarmer]

So if the consensus is Sheri that we shrink the cattle herd back to domestic supply proportions I could live with that. Ultimately Canada could live with that - less ranchers but who cares we are losing them now anyways? I guess to be fair we should stop trying to export our energy resources to the US too? Canada could live with that to - but the US couldn't survive without it.

[TheBadger]

Grassfarmer,
Unless we can turn SRM and unwanted cuts into a
universal energy application for heating homes or
fueling vehicles, I don't think comparing cattle to
fuel as commodities is representative of reality.
I think that if Canada wants to maintain the size of
its mother herd beyond what domestic supply can
support, then we are courting foreign markets in
completely the wrong way.
Nor do I believe that to be the only issue affecting
our cattle industry, bloated supply is merely one.
Forgive me for not getting into much detail online.

Now that I own my own entity, I have to try and
keep paper sales up. Gotta feed the kids.

[TheBadger]

P.S.
I have no idea why my text is being formatted in such
narrow paragraphs.

[kato]

I think the references to fuel don't refer so much to cattle, as to what I've always thought was the driving force behind NAFTA in the first place, which was American energy security.(and water too for that matter) The American government wanted a claim on our resources, and guaranteed access to them, and others saw that as good opportunity for profit, so made the best use of it. This wasn't just the meat packers, but you also may notice our Prairie Pools are all gone and have been replaced by multinationals as well.

As far as I'm concerned, this whole debacle started way back with the death of the Crow rate. That was the beginning of the end of agriculture in the Prairies as we knew it.

To make the Americans happy so we could sign on to NAFTA, we also dumped pretty much every safety net we had.

Our good buddies in the Alberta government bought into the line that they really needed a huge American corporation set up in the province, and then we'd all get rich. NOT. What is good for Alberta is not always good for everyone else. Manitoba took the biggest hit from all this, and quite frankly has not come back from it to this day. The way things were set up back then, most of the slaughter capacity in Western Canada was in Winnipeg, and a couple of spots in Saskatchewan. Since we were not dependent on American exports at that time, this made sense with rail connections to eastern Canada.

So along comes Uncle Sam with offers of good times ahead. Ya right. The western economy had been set up based on grain exports, and it was working pretty well. The farms were diversified, they were making enough money to survive, and there were a lot more of them. Now all of a sudden, in post Crow rate times, in Manitoba, you could ship oats to the coast and get a bill for freight. Grain here was worth next to nothing. There was no choice but to raise livestock to get rid of that $1.00 bushel of oats.

So up goes the cattle numbers, as at the same time our Canadian packing plants shut down one by one. The perfect storm is on the horizon.

So now we find ourselves having given up the best things we had going for us in our economy based on a promise by our trading partner that we actually thought meant something. Little did we know that this agreement, from the other side, was never written with the intention that it would be adhered to. It seems that on this side of the line it's a trade agreement, and on the other side of the line it's merely a guideline. A guideline only to be followed when it suits the purpose, and disregarded whenever a lobby group decides it's against their own personal interests.

This whole thing just gets me all wound up. At the time all these things were going on, we knew what it would lead to, and could see it coming, but just like right now, no one would listen. I was even asked for my opinion in a newspaper story about the Crow, and said way back then that it would disrupt the balance that had been built up over the past hundred or so years, and lead to trouble. I found that clipping a few weeks ago, and was surprised at how prophetic it was.

So now we find ourselves in a real mess, and have to re-invent it all over again. I always wonder how things would be if we didn't throw it all away in the first place.

Just an opinion from someone who lived it.

[Willowcreek]

Kato-- what I'm saying- and I think Sheri is saying is that the cattlemen/producers of both countries face essentially the same problems with the multinational packers/retailers-- captive supply, packer ownership, no competition, etc. etc.- and that we stand little chance of winning it- and none if we don't join together in the battle...As they use us back and forth against each other...

And as the packers have shown us before- if someone starts winning against them- they just go somewhere else to source their product- be it Australia or S.A. or whereever...That is the reason they are fighting so hard against M-COOL.

And without M-COOL in both countries- we can't even get help from our consumers because they have no way of identifying where the product they are buying comes from...

[cpallett]

Tough to argue with you OT, as that is what I have been saying for over 5 years now. You may recall that R-CALF was fighting hard to keep the border closed at that time and Judge Cebull was going along with the gag. If you are prepared to forego your R-CALF membership, or guarantee that R-CALF will keep their fire downrange from now on, you might actually gain a little credibility on this side of the border. Until then, however, it appears from here to be BS as usual:

'“We believe Canada’s subsidies on beef and cattle constitute an artificial propping-up of a Canadian cattle industry that is unsustainable at its present size but for those government subsidies, and further we believe that Canada’s subsidies are inconsistent with the very World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that Canada claims the U.S. has violated vis-à-vis COOL,” explained R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.'

Now why in the world would any self-respecting Canadian cattle producer run off and partner with a member of an organization that will stab them in the back the very microsecond their back is turned? A lifetime of habit is not unlearned easily, and R-CALF makes its living primarily from attacking Canada and Canadian producers.

You want credibility? Show me your NCBA card, and then we'll talk.

[TheBadger]

The NCBA?
Canadian producers need the likes of the NCBA as much as they need to fly to the moon.

R-Calf is anti NAFTA, anti free-trade agreements and any other measure they see as being
detrimental to American cattle producers.
And believe me, based on the reactions of the many producers I spoke to recently in regards to
American beef being sold in Canadian grocery stores, had this same shoe been on the other
foot, there's be an equal reaction north of the border.

What would be interesting, however, is a new organization without the baggage and history that
is formed first by auction houses and producers in our border towns and states.

I am especially hopeful Canadians will pay attention to the USDA and DOJ sessions on
competition and profit distribution issues specifically related to agriculture and particularly,
livestock, which are being held this year.

You cannot point to any one factor which is killing this industry. I think of it like AIDS, or for the
honey bee keepers out there, colony collapse disorder. Defenses are down and we're being killed
by any and every disease out there now.

[cpallett]

"On March 29, 1996 in the United States a joint statement was issued by the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, American Sheep Industry Association, National Milk Producers Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the Association of American
Veterinary Colleges announcing that they would immediately establish an
aggressive, voluntary program to ensure that ruminant MBM was not used in ruminant feed products." (paragraph 67 from BSE class action claim)

Granted, the fact that the NCBA was right once certainly does not guarantee credibility, but that was a big one and we should have listened. Colours my view just a touch.

[TheBadger]

Perhaps, but my that same 14-year-old value
system, a card from any of those organizations
should therefore impress you equally.

In 1996, I was 19 years old. Since then, I have
completed college, married, divorced, married,
bought cattle, had two children, sold cattle, worked
in all aspects of media, started a newspaper and if
history is any indicator, will likely divorce again
(news is like policing – they share high divorce
rates)

But, as you can see, a lot can happen in 14 years.
Including the merger of the National Cattlemen's
Association with the Meat Board – seen as the
packers' representation – which also happened in
1996.

And if the NCBA had anything resembling balls,
someone would be asking why Canada and the U.S.
were the only countries in the entire world who
experienced BSE that refused to blanket-test cattle
for BSE as a consumer confidence builder.

Things that make you go hmmmmm, eh?