New Orleans Refuses Canadian Beef

[farmers_son]

http://www.canada.com/news/world/story.html?id=233e9df3-fce5-490d-8704-3760e2c5775d

PENSACOLA, Fla. (CP) - A Canadian icebreaker was told Wednesday not to unload its entire cargo of relief supplies.

The icebreaker, the Sir William Alexander, was ordered not to unload its foodstuffs destined for New Orleans flood victims. The foodstuffs contained Canadian beef and could not legally be imported.

[rkaiser]

Heard of a few loads from the EU and Russia as well.

Amazing

[WoolyBear]

Its not that far south to Cuba...... I am sure that Castro would appreciate it. What a pile of crap...... we try to help and this is the thanks we get.

Glad to see the Canadian Navy/CG doing their part.

[blackjack]

...was it in a box with product from Canada labeled by Cargill or Tyson...lol...maybe we could do a little PR and have the N.O. refugees come a board and have a good old western meal with our soldiers...maybe that is not such a good idea...the Montana reporter might write...

Headlines in Montana Star
Candians feed tainted beef to refugees in N.O.

[cowman]

Well I would have to question what kind of idiot put that beef on the ship in the first place? Didn't he/she realize the US had health laws regarding beef?
How would the USDA look if they allowed this beef in? Can you just imagine how R-CALF would have run with that one?
Good to see the USDA is on top of the situation and doing its job!
We might not agree with the US position on BSE and the border, but there is a process we need to follow and it is not helpful for somebody to try to circumvent that process? Whether through a deliberate action or through ignorance.

[farmers_son]

I was always raised to believe you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

The Canadians put together a response to Katrina even before the U.S. asked us for help. While I have no way of knowing for sure, it is likely the beef was in preprepared individual meal packets or IMPs that provide a fairly decent meal quickly.

Somewhere along the way the U.S. seems to have forgotten they have BSE too. And that food safety is equivalent in the United States and Canada.

Cowman: If the USDA was on top of the situation and doing its job they would have put into place rules to see normal trade resume with Canada long ago. Maybe I am missing something but there is no difference in risk of BSE between U.S. and Canada. There is no reason to be blocking any of our product. None whatsoever.

Especially when it comes to helping victims of Katrina.

[WoolyBear]

I don't know but I would think that even if the "beef" was Canadian, it would still be a whole lot better than the Ready to Eat military rations that the Americans sent out.

[cowman]

The point here is: If the law says one thing you don't break it because of one local situation? No one starved to death because the USA upheld their food safety laws?
It would have been very irresponsible for the USA to violate its own rules?
Whether we think those rules are crazy or not, doesn't matter? There is a process to go through here and bypassing that process just gives R-CALF more ammo to scream the USDA is incompetent and not protecting the American consumer!
Again, I would question who would be ignorant enough to try to send a banned product to the USA? I doubt very much if this food aid was donated by the supplier. I have no doubt the Canadian government donated it...but who did they buy it from? Pretty sure it wasn't UTM meat stamped "product of Canada" with all the paperwork!
If that banned product had gotten into the USA it could have led to all kinds of problems? In case you didn't realize it we have an enemy down there who delights in trying to smear our product and likes nothing better than painting the US government as a bunch of globalists trying to "destroy" the American food supply!

[farmers_son]

And I suppose the tents that were on ship to create a tent city of 1800 emergency shelters had a softwood lumber pole in the middle. Our military should have left them at home too.

The area was under martial law, people were dying. Either they needed help or they didn’t. I doubt if even R-Calf would dare to raise an issue with donated food to help flood victims. I saw on TV that Americans displaced by Katrina are in Alberta attending university where they have been given free tuition. Should someone tell them not to eat the beef?

[cowman]

farmers son: You are arguing apples and oranges here and you know it! Tent poles are not a banned product. They are not a health safety issue.
The fact is R-CALF would have definitely used this if they knew. When have they ever showed they were rational thinkers?
I think you are simply American bashing? I realize you don't particularily like the Americans and seem to think they are evil or something! There are a whole lot of things wrong with America, I will agree, but there are a whole lot of things that are very good about America?
Canada is not some kind of Utopia where all the superior people in the world landed! We have a whole lot wrong here too and a whole lot of evil people, also?
The USDA has a process in place to resume trade in cattle and beef? They are our customer and we need to give our customer what they want? Trying to thwart that process so somebody can move some product at the Canadian taxpayers expense is not helpful nor necessary? Nobody starved or went hungry because the USDA wouldn't break its own rules? You are not being rational on this subject.

[farmers_son]

First, the ongoing ban on Canadian beef is a trade issue, not a food safety issue. It is acknowledged that BSE is found in both the U.S. herd and the Canadian herd, although at very, very low levels. It is further acknowledged food safety protocols are harmonized and identical on both sides of the border.

It is my opinion that R-Calf is just a convenient excuse for the Bush administrations foot dragging on resuming trade in Canadian beef. And make no mistake about it, foot dragging is what is happening. You say the USDA has a process in place to resume trade in cattle and beef. I say lets see it.

I think it was a slap in the face of Canadians and for sure Canadian beef producers when the Americans refused our food assistance. The U.S. was rude and showed poor judgment. This was not about moving Canadian beef into the U.S. at government expense. It was about Canadians offering to help Americans in their time of need and I do not think anyone on this side of the border was in the least bit worried about the expense.

The fact of the matter is that American disaster victims who could have been helped were not helped because of a totally unscientific and totally protectionist ban on importation of Canadian beef. If anything positive comes out of this I hope that pressure is finally brought to bear on the U.S. government to resume trade in beef. It seems to me that Canada is way too laid back in fighting for a normalization of beef trade with the U.S.

Let there be no doubt about it, this is not about food safety. And it is not about American bashing. What should a Canadian producer say to this? What I hear you say is how stupid of us to send food aid to flood victims that contained beef. I say how stupid of the U.S. to look in a gift horse in the mouth and how stupid of the U.S. to continue to ban Canadian beef. Not about food safety, not even a little bit.

The ongoing ban on our beef is driven by economic self interest on the part of the Americans. It is not about the safety of our beef.

I see on the news that the Canadian ships are returning home early, whether it is because of this or not I do not know.

[WoolyBear]

I Still think they should take all the supplies and go to Cuba....... or even still to Grenada. Both those countries would appreciate it too. They could even stockpile it for their next hurricane.

[cowman]

Well farmers son you say it is a trade issue, but the USDA says it is a food safety issue? And seein how they make the decisions, and not you, I guess the reality is "IT is a food safety issue"?
You obviously don't agree with that...but thats just how it is! Get used to it.
It was totally unecessary to be sending banned beef to this area? Either the person doing the shipping was ignorant of the law or was trying to do an end run around the rules?
You obviously have a real problem with the Bush administration and America in general. A lot of your speculation is just that...speculation...and is not based on facts. You use statements about the USDA hiding behind R-CALF for their own hidden agenda when in fact there is no proof of that at all.
Blaming the Americans for all our problems is not rational thinking? I believe we could point the finger right back at our own wonderful Liberal government? Who created the climate where we got BSE? Who created the situation where we are so overloaded with cattle?

[farmers_son]

How can anyone claim that a U.S. ban on Canadian beef is a food safety issue when the U.S. has BSE too?

There is no reason why a Canadian beef producer should not have real problems with the Bush administration. Our cows and OTM beef continues to be banned from the United States. And for what good reason? The U.S. has BSE too. Even though there is cause to believe the USDA has concealed a number of their BSE positives, as a result of investigative work done by the USDA Inspector General, a BSE positive test on a domestic U.S. cow did come to public attention after earlier results, even earlier positive results, had been swept under the rug. I ask you what food safety reason can possibly be behind the continued ban on our product entering the U.S. now that the U.S. has been forced to acknowledge they have BSE too and thousands upon thousands of tests clearly show the incidence of BSE is very low and comparable in both countries.

Certainly R-Calf is at the forefront of the protectionist movement. But have we all forgotten that the NCBA also supports banning our beef until U.S. trade resumes with Japan? Is that stance based on food safety or trade protectionism? How do you explain the length of time it has taken the USDA to publish a rule allowing OTM beef into the United States after OTM beef was retroactively removed from the original rule published in December 2004? Since that rule was published the U.S. has admitted to having BSE just like Canada yet there is still no announcement. What food safety concerns could possibly be behind this delay in resuming trade with Canada when it is acknowledged the safety of our product is exactly equivalent to the safety of U.S. beef. Can there be any doubt left that the continued closure of the border to Canadian beef has anything at all to do with food safety and that the border closure is not 100% based on protecting the U.S. producer from the costs of their own BSE problem, thereby passing all those costs onto Canadian producers.

So yes, you are right to say I have a problem with the Bush administration. No I do not have any problem with the American people. The flood victims in New Orleans would have been glad to receive Canada’s donation of food aid and I was glad that we sent it and that Canada was able to offer assistance.

I for one believe that if the U.S. wanted the border to be open to our beef it would be open. If you want to believe the only thing standing between Canada and free trade is R-Calf you are certainly entitled to that opinion. I think it is fair to suggest that the USDA and the Bush administration has not been as aggressive in seeing a normalization of beef and live cattle trade as they could have been. I am not blaming the Americans for all our problems, I am blaming the Bush administration for delaying the normalization of trade in beef and live cattle from Canada entering the United States.

[cowman]

farmers son: I can see you are stuck on this concept of "This is how it should be"? I'm sorry, but that isn't how the world works.
The situation we are in with the USDA is just "How it is" and we have to deal with that reality?
They hold all the cards. They are calling the shots.
They say "These are the rules of the game" and we either live with it or don't play? Doesn't matter if it is fair or not...it is their ball and they can take it home whenever they choose?
So there is our choice? Either play by their rules or quit!
You can argue it with me forever and it won't make one iota of difference! You seem to enjoy crusading against things you can't change?