Do American Ranchers have any pull?

[SASH]

For those of you who subscribe to the Canadian Cattlemen magazine. they had an article back in about March 2003 about R-CALF and what tactics they were taking to try and close the border to Canadian beef. This BSE has been a godsend for them and they will milk it for everything it's worth.

[cowman]

Personally I don't blame the old cowboys of R-CALF for trying to protect their industry. However I question some of their tactics as not exactly being overly smart?...Like standing on a stage with a bunch of anti meat wingdings! Or painting themselves into a corner by saying if you have one case of mad cow then the whole damned industry is diseased! I suspect both of those blunders will come back to haunt them?
I have always found that any organization that is too rabid and radical usually self destructs in the end whether it be a political movement, a religion or a special interest group.
And in a way I find that disheartening, because R-CALF could have been a good grassroots cow/calf group that advanced a lot of issues the mainstream cattle organizations weren't dealing with?
At one time there was talk of a Canadian cow/calf organization because people weren't happy with how ABP and the CCA were working! Our own little R-CALF?

[kpb]

rkaiser, sorry I didn't read your post 'til today, things are so g-d busy around here right now. It's so mucky around here I don't think I could get out to burn down anyone's barn even if I wanted to, which I don't. As far as our discussion is concerned, I don't expect everyone to agree with me and goodness knows I don't even have all the questions let alone the answers. I'm just trying to push things along to get people thinking about some different ways out of our mess. And just trying to get along.
I respect your point of view, agree with you sometimes and always read what you have to say even if I don't agree. That's what this is all about, right?

[oxbow]

Cattlemen in the US have no political juice simply because of quantity. GW Bush attended the NCBA convention a couple years back, and NCBA clearly supportes Bush. But NCBA and Rcalf have opposite positions (with NCBA having more members.

[cowman]

I'm no expert on the NCBA but I expect they are a lot like the CCA in their desire to see trade and common sense prevail. However having said that, I will admit sometimes they seem to be working at odds with the needs of the cattle producer? They seem to be slanted towards the feedlots and the packers?
BIG C has an agenda that I believe supports the cattle producer? And by cattle producer I mean the cow/calf guy not the middlemen. The only guy "producing" cattle is the cow/calf guy...the feedlots are just adding value and so is the packer.In reality we could get along without them...if we had to? I really don't see where BIG C has said anything really radical despite some ABP delegates labelling them "socialists"! It would be helpful if R-CALF could tone down the rhetoric and "spin"? Surely they can stand up for their members without condemning the USDA, all Canadian beef, and getting cuddly with the animal rights nuts? All this does is assure that the consumer will lose confidence in the safety of the beef supply? Seems to me their leaders need to not shoot from the lip so much and think beyond simplistic solutions?