How are we doing? This is the name of a terrific article in the November Cattlemen magazine that should be required reading.
READ IT
It's written by Dr. Ron Clarke, and refers to risk assessment, and how it was not followed up, resulting in the BSE fiasco.
The article is not online, unless you have a subscription, but it contains such information as... and I quote..
"Preliminary guidance on BSE could have been provided as early as 1994, when Canadian authorities became aware there was a "very high" probability that BSE was incubating in the Canadian herd. That potentially devastating information was never made public. (World Health Organization 2006)"
"Economic policy between the first crude, but insightful estimation in May 1994, and the more elaborate risk assessment published in December 2002, on the eve of May 2003, encouraged both the expansion of the national herd and growth of the feedlot industry, especially in southern Alberta. Rapid expansion increased reliance on export trade with the U.S. Canada's exposure to the economic threat of a sudden and long lasting border closure rose steadily and dramatically between 1994 and 2003."
So, in a nutshell, not only were the warnings ignored, which was bad enough, they were ignored at the same time as policy developed that was full steam ahead to expand the industry with no regard to fact that a bigger industry would sustain larger damage. It was a perfect storm, and the worst part about it was that it didn't have to happen.
It was "Let's just make some money now and don't worry about the future. Forget about the consequences if it all falls apart.... it's someone else's problem."
Ya, it was someone else's problem, it was OUR PROBLEM. We, as cattle producers paid a big price for all this.
READ IT
It's written by Dr. Ron Clarke, and refers to risk assessment, and how it was not followed up, resulting in the BSE fiasco.
The article is not online, unless you have a subscription, but it contains such information as... and I quote..
"Preliminary guidance on BSE could have been provided as early as 1994, when Canadian authorities became aware there was a "very high" probability that BSE was incubating in the Canadian herd. That potentially devastating information was never made public. (World Health Organization 2006)"
"Economic policy between the first crude, but insightful estimation in May 1994, and the more elaborate risk assessment published in December 2002, on the eve of May 2003, encouraged both the expansion of the national herd and growth of the feedlot industry, especially in southern Alberta. Rapid expansion increased reliance on export trade with the U.S. Canada's exposure to the economic threat of a sudden and long lasting border closure rose steadily and dramatically between 1994 and 2003."
So, in a nutshell, not only were the warnings ignored, which was bad enough, they were ignored at the same time as policy developed that was full steam ahead to expand the industry with no regard to fact that a bigger industry would sustain larger damage. It was a perfect storm, and the worst part about it was that it didn't have to happen.
It was "Let's just make some money now and don't worry about the future. Forget about the consequences if it all falls apart.... it's someone else's problem."
Ya, it was someone else's problem, it was OUR PROBLEM. We, as cattle producers paid a big price for all this.
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