Should the Canadian border be closed?

[Bruce14]

Its time to get things fired up on this board. Do you think the Canadian border should be closed to American beef? Yes it may be a bit early but when do we say enough is enough and try to help our feedlots by at least eliminating competition to ALL beef raised outside the country.

Yes it would lead to a pissing match but it is pretty frustrating checking the supermarket flyers and seeing no change in price to the consumer when we have a surplus building by the day.

[ALICIA]

pissing them off is not going to get the boarders open any faster. As the saying goes If the shoe was on the other foot. Plus Mr. P. M. has all ready do that job.

[Bruce14]

Alicia I understand that making them mad will not make the border open sooner. BUT I am sick and tired of the typical pacifist Canadian attitude of not fighting back. No J.C. Superstar has not helped the cause but at least now someone is finally using the approach that "Hey who's to say that cow didn't come from the U.S.?"

There's no way for the American's to prove that she didn't so let's play that up a bit. In the world court of opinion Canada is looked upon much more favorably than the U.S. Let's use that to our advantage.

[jensend]

Ever since this situation started I have said that it would be worse for us if the BSE had been found in the US because that is a large market and if they decide to cut their beef consumption it will cause us more long-term pain than what the present situation is likely to do. Of course we have known all along that the N. American market is so integrated that the infection may have originated there but it won't do us any good at all if that is the case. We are going to have to let the politicians have their fifteen minutes of fame but if we upgrade our traceability of beef it can only do us good in the long run. If our system is proven to work and then the Americans are found to have some BSE cases of their own our product may be the preferred one.

[Bruce14]

Very good points jensend however the Americans are using scare tactics over BSE on the American consumer without looking down the road to their first REPORTED case of BSE.

The sad fact that by the time the politicians get done playing in the sandbox the Canadian industry could well be beyond repair.

The only buyers for our calves this fall may well be the Americans. We are preparing to feed our own if needed.

[Muttley]

The Americans are thinking of there own, and how can you blame them.

My local store is selling more pork and chicken than they have ever, if we are concerned why should they not be?

I think the border being closed is mostly political, from the American view it makes more sense to be safe than sorry, we would do the same thing!!

[ALICIA]

Your absolutly right If the shoe was on the other foot.
I tag, but I hate doing it.
I've seen some pretty sad cases at the sale barn (mostly holstens)
The saying was if you take sooming to the sale barn never take it back home because you don't know what it picked up and you could expose the rest of you cattle, now it doesn't matter the tagging means the cattle at home are know longer safe.

[nakodo]

One can see the analogy, the angry Cdn. mouse closing the border to US cheese and quietly starving to death while the US cheese makers go "Canada? where is that????"

[ALICIA]

I do love cheese.

[ALICIA]

I think we should close the border. Not because the USA might have BSE. As far as the science goes, it does not have any. But neither do we. One cow had it. It is dead and gone, out of the food chain, and none other has been discovered even after intensive and exhaustive investigation. Therefore, we do not have it. We are therefore as BSE free as the USA, or any other country for that matter. Therefore, the USA ban on Canadian beef is now illegal. Since it is illegal, we have no choice but to respond with a border closure to imported beef. This is necessary for environmental reasons, since feeding market ready beef beyond their date of slaughter is environmentally unfriendly. Further, it is necessary because the border closure is now an unwarranted phony terrorism of our industry, and every day that it is closed costs not just the feedlots, but the cow-calf, the slaughter plants, and our governments millions of dollars in subsidies, lost employment, lost tax revenue, etc. In addition, closure of the borders, even temporarily (two weeks) will send a clear signal that Canadians have confidence in their own beef, and in their Food Inspection Agency.

[ALICIA]

I should point out, that since we no longer have any BSE, the US ban on our beef is illegal under NAFTA and WTO.

[ALICIA]

When I read what you have just said. I believe that you right, and I think know that back in May if our goverment really would of closed our boarder also, and called it for safty reasons, Then when every thing was cleared up, both boarders would of opened at the same time.
But hine sient is 20-20 and its to late again for this action is it not. Plus unfortionatly every thing is a learning experence and everyone did want they thought was right at the time.
Would it not of made us look even worse if we would of do that? By not closing the boarder I think it makes us look pretty sure that it was just the one case, and we didn't have a bigger problem.

[rusty1]

I once heard the numbers - maybe someone out there knows. If we didn't import any foreign beef. I think I heard that we would use close to if not more than 60% of our own beef. Add some foreign trade and the number gets better. Keep some of our wasted "Equalization Paments" and we could all enjoy our own crops at home.
P.S. 2 of my family members work at MacDonalds and they shipped their frozen US beef back from at least 1 store.

[rusty1]

Interesting Alicia what you have said. I see it a bit differently, although you raise a valid point, which could have also been done. Even so, I think a termporary border closure to imported beef would send a very clear message, that our own beef is perfectly safe. Since it is healthy beef, we cannot simply destroy it uselessly - what rational person would expect that? We need to sell it.


Apparently, Canada has a ban on Japanese beef already, I recently heard. Because of their BSE a few years ago. But anyone know how many cases they actually had then, and what procedures they now use to protect against it?

[Muttley]

Japan is causing us as much problem as anyone.

Maybe we should stop buying anything that says made in Japan, and see how long it takes them to shutup and eat are beef(like the politicians over there aren't allready doing it).