Feds must take real action on livestock crisis, Article by CFA,

[Willowcreek]

[Beef Producers Need To Start Preparing for COOL



CKNX AM920 - Canada

1/16/2008



The Vice-President of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association says we've got to start using the systems we've got in place - in order to be ready for country of origin labelling.



Brad Wildeman says if we don't do anything - COOL could effect the prices we are getting in the US.



But Wildeman notes that there are Americans who do want our product because its a bit leaner and has a bit of a different taste.



That's why if we can use age verification, and on-farm food safety programs that don't costs a lot -- we could see a big benefit.]

Apparently CCA can see the handwriting on the wall too- there won't be any exemptions for any country this time...

Every civilized nation in the world has a form of COOL involving their food products except for the US and Canada...Its time we caught up...

[kato]

We must also remember that most of our beef, especially in western Canada is processed by large American corporations. They have no interest in undercutting themselves or paying more than they have to for a captive supply of cattle.

In the cattle business over the years we've found there is ONE law that cannot be broken. That is the law that says your word is to be trusted. We've done many large deals on cattle on just a handshake, and were always sure that what was agreed on is what would happen. I'm not sure what it's like in Alberta or Saskatchewan, but here in Manitoba if someone makes a verbal deal and then backs out or changes it, he will not be in business for long. He will be basically blacklisted.

We had a feedlot agree to purchase two semi loads of steers once, and then call us half an hour after they were supposed to be picked up and tell us that cattle had gone down two cents and he didn't want them any more. He stuck about six guys that day, and within a year he was out of business. No one would deal with him any more. If you get a rep for being crooked you will even find yourself being run up trying to buy cattle at the auction, and run down if the buyers find out it's your calves in the ring. Lose respect and it will take many years to gain it back, if ever.

Above all else, having a reputation for living up to your word is the highest priority around here. If the American government with their deal changing ways was an individual in our area, they'd be out of business and wouldn't have a friend left unless he was a crook too.

[per]

Kato, those are sound principals for all aspects of life.

[sagewood]

Well boys and girls another interesting topic. Just to get your blood pressure up a bit more, I recently was invited to an upscale restaurant in downtown Calgary called Ruth's Chris Steak House. The waiter started by telling us how wonderful all their AAA U.S. beef was and how it was raised and how it was cooked and how outstanding is was and so forth. I could not keep my mouth closed and mentioned that he was talking to a lot of beef producers at the table who had been badly hurt by the BSE and the US response to same. They had ONE, and only one Ab. beef dish on the menu--I selected that or I would have had to eat the vegan salad. I was told that the only reason that the Ab. beef item was on the menu was that the board of directors from the Calgary Stampede had eaten there just after it opened and sent many, many emails of complaint to the restaurant about the lack of Ab. beef on the menu. To tell you that I will never, ever eat there again is an understatement. What annoyed me the most was the way the waiters were all praising corn-fed beef and how sweet it was and so forth. I have eaten corn fed beef over the years in my U.S. travels, and let me tell you I cannot get back home to Canada and Alberta and have a decent piece of grass/barley fed beef.

I do not know what the answer is to the giant multinational thing. The only thing that I do know is that it is the multi-nationals who get the biggest handouts and it is them who can just raise their prices to cover their cost of doing business, while those of us left on the family ranch/farm are still price-takers--I don't ever see us being price-setters..with most of the young people getting out of ag. as quickly as they graduate, I can only see the big multinationals running the land and a few of us will be left asking for the rent and living out our years driving the combine/tractor or whatever for an extra bit of wage. Not a bright future I know, but unless and until the general public understand that their excellent and safe food supply is threatened in this country, we will continue to be told "if you can't make it on the farm, then sell and get out--why should my tax dollars support you". The sad fact is that the public will pay tax on houses, gas, toys, holidays and so forth and not bat an eye at the escalating cost of those items--but let them think that the food they eat is not going to be 'cheap' and 'perfect' and 'natural', then by god they raise hell. Nothing like food shortage and a little starvation like the Europeans had back in the 40's and early 50's to make the public realize how valuable their local ag producers are...in short--I don't know the answer either--we live beside a 300# gorilla (my apologizes to the species) and the U.S. will do what they want and when they want and the rest of us are at their mercy. There were high hopes for Rancher's Beef at Calgary when it opened its state of the art plant and look how long it took before their market dried up and sent them into receivership. One can only admire the courage of those involved to risk their capital to try to make our beef industry come to life again. There was an old expression about 'hanging on to the cow's tail and she would pull you through". I always believed that to be true--however on this go'round, I am not so sure anymore.

[grassfarmer]

Agree with most of that sagewood, I think you hit the nail on the head with having to let the public know what is going on. I think you are wrong though to suggest that the public are prepared to spend their tax dollars on houses, gas etc without batting an eyelid but are unprepared to pay for food.
I share my comments on the "industry" with our beef customers and they appreciate it - they have absolutely no clue what is going on. I assume most consumers are the same and think we must do a better job of educating them. The majority of consumers we speak to would always back the family farm over corporate America. When you point out that they are already paying twice for their food - once at the store and then again through taxation to fund the support mechanisms that keep farmers on the land once the corporations have stolen our produce at a fraction of it's worth. The ones I've told that to are as mad as hell and often change their shopping habits as a result.

The food supply is changing big time in Europe at the moment as there have been large price increases in many staples but again this is largely fraudulant as the retailers are upping prices "to reflect the increase in grain prices and it's affect of meat products". In reality instead of a $1.50 loaf containing 6 cents of farm gate wheat it now contains 9 cents worth but the loaf has gone up to $2.00. We need to expose these lies for what they are and the consumer will back the truthful one.
I think this is our one chance to change things, work to get consumers on side, one at a time if need be, until the pendulum of majority swings - then the politicians will act.
I liked the comment made by Stewart Wells in his new year message that his greatest wish would be for there to be a "separation of corporations and state."

[gcreekrch]

Now you're talking Grassfarmer!! I enjoy keeping in touch with these treads but at the same time wonder why we are trying to convince each other who's right- who's wrong. The issue of who gets what from the consumers' dollar needs to be made public. BIC and it's affiliated groups do a fair job of marketing but could take the facts a step or two further. After all, we do pay a fair portion of their operating fund. Here in BC we are now subect to the "big guys" in that they have taken our right to farm gate sales away. In the name of food safety we cannot sell dressed meat off the farm any more. Is it a BSE issue? If it was we should have our custom killed animals tested. There has NEVER been a case of food related illness here from farm gate meat sales yet we have been shut down in the name of food safety. Bull$it. It's in the name of big business. If it was for actual food safety it would be acceptable. Another point, if we're successful getting in getting our finished product tested for BSE, I wonder how many CFIA jobs would become redundant. Remember, one of our federal govt's mandates IS to create jobs you know!!

[Willowcreek]

"Freetraders" (elitist Corporate interests and Politicians bought out by Corporate interests) in both countries don't want to challenge NAFTA- because under US law NAFTA cannot influence/restrict US sovereignty or stop any laws passed by Congess- since only treaties are allowed that-- and in order to be a recognized treaty under US law (Constitution)- it has to be ratified by 2/3 of the US Congress and signed by the President....
NAFTA could not get (and never has got) the 2/3 ratification vote so is essentially only an agreement signed by President Clinton- and therefore has no standing in what laws the US Congress now wants to pass!!! Hillary Clinton is now saying it was a bad agreement for US producers/workers....

And right now- and definitely after the Democrat party takes control in January 09- with their America First policy- I doubt if they could even get a bare majority to support NAFTA...."Freetraders" are just trying to hang onto all the profitteering they can from NAFTA without shaking the boat- and cattlemen can be damned..

[vagabonddreamer]

New here!! First off...an abundance of well thought out and eloquent ramblings from BOTH sides of the 49th...the contributions show keen minds and well thought and laid out ideas...

i gotta throw a different angle on what the government needs to look at...they need to address the small family ranch/farm and its impact on the thread of society...two of my kids have done 4-H (beef) for coming up to six years...one is just finishing high school and going into veterinarian medicine (large animals)...the other is BOUND and determined to ranch...he is already looking at courses through Olds College in Alta....

We live in an urban/rural interface area in the Okanagan Valley of BC...and run a small herd of Hereford/Angus/Speckle Park...we were kind of ahead of the curve when BSE hit...we had already started exploring freezer beef market...so we didnt take many animals to auction...we finished what we calved and sold it as finished sides of beef...now that as well is on tenuous ground...

My point about societal contribution goes beyond the definitive and into the intrinsic...the students at our local middle/high schools are very fortunate to have everything from high density urbanites to redneck cowboys like my son...lol...the mix is amazing...and all parties benefit from interaction...

Should Canada (and the US) lose the (albeit small) ABSOLUTE baseline contribution to the core fabric of REAL existentialism that the small family ranch/farm provides...i believe...we will all suffer the consequences...

I KNOW there are some...who are proponents of that very thing...go very BIG or go home...and i know that most of you have been approaching this thread from a monitary/political perspective...it just saddens me to see our country lose an integral part of what we are as Canadians...and to lose the ability to know WHERE our food comes from and how it was raised...thx..vs

[gcreekrch]

If any of you have been watching the news, the sooner we get this BSE testing issue solved the better. By the way things look the Americans are going to have a tough time buying their own beef products, let alone ours. We need action from govt' and our blessed prov' foot dragging associations in order to access Asian and European markets now. NOT NEXT YEAR OR SOMETIME AFTER!

[kato]

I agree.

I think what all Canadian farm families need to do is take a page out of the activist handbook and start promoting ourselves. No one else is going to do it. This country stands to lose a lot if it stands by and allows the death of the family farm.

For instance, if you look at the situation with hogs, they are a lot closer to the brink than even we are. What will happen during this most recent downturn? I think that the corporate barns will simply empty and wait until the market improves. They have the resources to sit idle a lot longer than an individual producer will. After the market improves, the corporations fire back up again, pick up the barns from the bankrupt individuals and motor on. Small family run hog operations will become very rare, and the corporate hold on the business will be almost complete.

We do not want this to happen to us!

Now is the time to address this situation, not a year from now when it's too late.

The way things are now, the bigger feedlots are hurting badly. Cow herds are being sold off at a very fast pace. In two years, will there be enough of a Canadian cattle herd to support those big packers in Alberta? I'm not so sure there will be. If that's the way it's going, then we could very well lose at least one of them. When the time for expensive upgrades comes, don't be surprised to see them pack up and decide to spend their funds in Argentina or Australia.

Canadians need to be ready to step in and take back the industry. I think we'll move away from big feedlots and toward finishing at home. This would be more suited to a packing industry based on smaller more local plants. Opportunity for promotion locally would increase dramatically.

If no one thinks this is possible, just think back to the changes we have lived through already. Thirty years ago if someone had said that there would be no such thing as a weanling pig sale we'd have said that's impossible. They simply don't exist any more, even though they'd been around forever. There was once a time that feeder cattle sales were also extremely rare. Manitoba had one auction in Winnipeg, and that was it. Cattle moved by train. Every province had packers.

The only thing that's consistent is that things keep changing.

[cakadu]

First and foremost welcome, vagabonddreamer. it's always great when someone new starts to post and brings in a new perspective.

Just to clarify - when you say farm gate sales, do you mean that you have your meat processed off-farm and cannot sell it once it is brought home for storage, labelling etc? Or are you referring to being able to kill it on the farm and then sell the meat?

Here in Alberta I'm not sure when the legislation came in to prohibit the sale of uninspected meat, but we cannot sell any meat that hasn't been processed in a provinical plant at a minimum. There is some work being done with mobile processing plants, but that certainly isn't the normal path to the customer.

Good choice for your child and Olds College. Best of luck to that child on getting accepted.

Thanks for the clarification.

[vagabonddreamer]

We have our animals killed and processed at a local provincially approved "butcher"...this avenue is fast being taken away however with the new federal (i think) regulations...we then have the customers pick up the cut/wrapped/frozen meat directly from the butcher...it is a shell game...we are really selling the customer a half of a "live" animal and just supplying transportation of said live animal to the butcher...

i am in NO way a proponent of government in business...but when it comes to food supply i believe people (general public) will forgive the government involvement....smaller localized meat cutting/processing operations will allow better control from a health perspective....(although the local butcher has been in operation since dirt and has never had a health issue)...we have a large enough market to sell beef by the side...i do realize...that a majority of the public cant affoard nor do they have room for a side of beef...but they can opt to get groups together as some of our customers now do...it is a matter of educating people that THEY have to change as does the world and the industry around them....

this "home freezer" market allows local people to purchase local products and eliminates the entire auction/transport segment...it is a very small drop in a very large bucket..but it WOULD provide a market for the smaller family producer...

hope i havent confused things more with my clarification...lol...

ya..Olds College will be great if there is an industry for him to come back to....

thx for the welcome....vs

[gcreekrch]

I have been butchering beef and lamb myself on my own property for nearly 30 years. One of the meatcutters I use to deliver my customers orders to once told me that the quality/cleanliness of the lambs/beef I was bringing to him was far better than what was being delivered from the govt' inspected local kill plant. This plant is located 380 kms. from our operation. Does it make sense finacially to haul live animals that far and then go back at a later date to take the finished product to my customers? Forget that! It is my belief that a lot of these food related health issues are caused by the incorrect use of disinfectants that end up creating superbugs such as E-Coli etc. They have even gone so far that it is against the law for local orgs. to have bake sales. I have never sold an animal for meat that I would not have gladly eaten myself, although I know of others who don't seem to care what they are selling, as long as the almighty dollar goes in their pocket. I guess these are the producers that CFIA is potecting the public from.