Asleep At the Wheel

[farmers_son]

I reread this USDA release from Johanns and noted the first sentence:

"On Dec. 29, 2004, USDA released a final rule that establishes criteria for geographic regions to be recognized as presenting minimal risk of introducing BSE into the United States."

To me that says it all. These rules were intended to prevent the introduction of BSE into the United States. Now that the U.S. has BSE too why are we still jumping through these hoops.

[farmers_son]

because we are smart enough to figure it out but the powers that 'be' aren't !!!

[cowman]

I believe if they can head off that idiot Cebull, all these things will fall into place fairly fast. I suspect cow meat will be crossing before fall and live cows before the end of the year?
I personally believe that all of us in Canada should realize that we have a strong enemy in the US? It is not PETA or Earth First...but R-CALF! They have proven that they can be very dangerous, not just to the Canadian cattleman but to the US one as well? Any group that tries to cut its own throat to spite its neighbors is not exactly sane...in my opinion!
I also believe the CCA and ABP should spend some checkoff dollars pursuing a lawsuit against these economic terrorists? Maybe if they had to pay back the $7 billion dollars they ripped us off for they might think twice about trying to screw their neighbors?
I sort of sympathized with some of their ideas until the outright lying and smearing of our product took place! And the fact that they fully understood that they were lying, just so they could gather a few more sheckels, is really disgusting? They are so damned ignorant they still bluster and posture like they are something special?
Break them in the courts and get this blight out of the cattle industry!

[grassfarmer]

That's a sudden change of tack Cowman, I thought you were enamoured by the good ole boys of R-CALF and were telling us how they were just like us?
I don't believe for a minute that this group have single handedly inflicted all the pain on the Canadian producer. They've done a damn sight less harm than Cargill and Tyson in my opinion. Remember also Cebull was appointed directly by Bush and if the US had wanted the border open it would have been open long ago. I believe they have been used by the US administration as a convenient scapegoat to further the overall US aim of aggressively expanding their protectionist policies in agriculture.
R-CALF are a protectionist group but I think they are also a lot smarter than people give them credit for - for their size and finances they have played their hand a damn sight better than ABP, CCA or the Canadian Government in this fiasco.
I wouldn't dream of trusting ABP/CCA with yet more producer's levy money to try and extract financial retaliation on R-CALF. Chances are they would piddle the money away and lose the case.