Ralph the bonehead!

[cowman]

Pandianna: the fact is perception is the whole ballgame. Now the Japanes insist we have everything tested. Which is how they operate. If we want to sell into their market...we test. And frankly if we want to sell into the American market we test????
And quite frankly what is the problem? We test we sell, we don't test we don't sell! Why is this a problem? Is it the $25-50? No problem here!
I just got an E-mail that there is a quicker, cheaper test out on the market. Will we go that way or will we risk pissing off the Americans who seem to have no interest in safe beef?

[carebear300]

I am for testing every slaughter animal and every other measure that is deamed necessary to get the beef moving across the border into the united states and the rest of the world. The only thing is that there had better not be any meat let into this country that is not tested or once again the canadian farmer will be put at an economic disadvantage to other producers in the world.

[dalek]

carebear I'll go you one more and add no beef should be let into this country from any country that doesn't have a traceback system. Ohhhh what country do we know that has NOOO way of tracing most animals back?

[rusty1]

Tere's one thing for sure - if we test every animal we will find another BSE. Lets get real - we'll test just as many as the rest of the world. If the USA test 205 we'll test 20%. If they test 75% AND report everything, we'll test 75%.

[ValueChainFX]

If we test 100% and have a true tested, verifiable trace back / trace forward system the supplier of that product will have another marketing tool!

This would be a good thing!!

[Bruce14]

Now I realize Ralph isn't perfect and agree that the SSS statement played well a couple of months ago but is getting old now. (Kind of like telling the same joke 3 times at the same party to the same people).

BUT if you Albertans want to send him one province east some of us would gladly take him. We'll send you the two leaders that are running to be our next Premier in a two for one deal. In my mind its pretty weak choices with McClaren and Hermanson.

Yes if we test every animal over 30 months we probably will find another case but as Valuechain states at least our customers would that the hamburger they are eating came from a negative animal. We need to have higher standards than the rest of the world now especially the US.

If I have to spend $60 to gain $600 it seems like a pretty good return on investment.

[cowman]

Valuechain is right on this one. We need to test every animal going for slaughter. Then we know every piece of beef we eat is 100% safe from BSE! At the same time do the test for Johnes and E coli.
They say there is a new test coming down the pipes that can be done on live animals. It's relatively cheap and fast. Now has our government been pumping any money into this research? If not they sure should be!
It would be imperative that any other country sending meat to Canada would need to have the test done. That rule is allowed under WTO I believe...food safety. The Americans, Australia, and South America would either have to play catch up or stay out of our markets. Maybe we could raise the whole level of food safety to another level, worldwide. And for the consumer that has to be a good thing?
If we had our own packing plant and tested everything how would that play out in our domestic market? If you went into Safeway and saw a steak that clearly stated "certified BSE free" would you pay the extra one cent on the price? Generic steak $5.98...certified steak $5.99? Based on a $50 test per animal and 500 lbs. of saleable meat? Why wouldn't this work?
I suspect the Americans wouldn't be too happy! This certified product would tend to show what hypocrits they are on this whole BSE deal! Their own people might realize that their packing plants and government don't really care at all about the consumers safety.

[cowman]

Well I guess my math isn't so good this morning. Should have been 10 cents not 1 cent!

[carebear300]

No problem cowman even you can make a small mistake not like our politicians and bureaucrats that never admit to ever making a mistake no matter how glaring!!!!!!!!! The difference between a honest person and the type of individuals we have in positions of responsibility in this country.

[ValueChainFX]

Up until now, all the new costs have gone to the producer! Ear Tags, shipping to the cities to kill (centralization of services works good in the cities but adds costs to producers) etc. Now if the producer was able to say to the marketer you can have the regular product or "CERTIFIED BSE PRODUCT" @ $.10 ... $.15 or $.20 which do you think they would take! I wonder if they would pass that cost on to their customer??????? If a producer plant were in place the producer could use this advantage, if a regular plant were to do this “WHO DO YOU THINK WOULD PAY THE COST”?

I also believe "Ralph" would be there to do the right thing, if he didn't have all those little "agriculture experts" pulling his strings, they are the same ones pulling our chains!