Poor Poor Tyson

[rkaiser]

I will apologize for suggesting that your mind was manipulated farmer_son. I respect your thoughts but am simply frustrated with your position.

I will however stand by my statements blaming CCA/ABP for Canada's position on testing. I sat in front of the late Ag minister(thank heavens for the late part) and looked him in the eye when he said he took direction from industry, and industry in Alberta was ABP.

Have you seen Charlie Gracy's rebuttal to the Hugh Lynch/CCA BSE positon yet farmer_son? I don't have time to summarise it for you, and it would likely be easier if you searched it out yourself.

[farmers_son]

I did some searching for Charlies comments but did not find it. I am sure his views are well respected in the CCA.

I agree the Government of Canada looks to the CCA and ABP for advice. I think at one time producers did have a important voice in Ottawa however today government is listening to a far wider range of interest groups, including the packers. Primary producers seem to have to work harder and harder to effect change in government policy these days.

At some point, doesn't the blame for the absolutely unforgiveable delays in reopening the border to cattle and beef trade have to be place squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government? If it was up to the CCA, if it was up to the Government of Canada the border would be open long ago.

The incidence of BSE is the same in Canada as the United States. No science supports the continued closure of the border to trade in beef and cattle.

I know I certainly respect the opinions of those producers who are advocating BSE testing. And there are a lot of them. Myself, I think BSE testing was a reasonable response to the situation in the UK but the incidence of BSE in North America is so much less. And thank goodness for that. Canada needs to advocate science based rule making when it comes to trade but obviously there are governments out there that do not respect the rules and are unfairly blocking access to our live cattle for their own protectionist reasons.

[cowman]

I won't go into this a lot but will point out I said "test them all" from the first minute?
I didn't know what the prevalence of BSE was but I did know what the perception would be? Test them all...no argument! Piss around and every Tom , Dick and Harry would mealy mouth the product? you can look it up...?
Now I'm not so sure? The extensive testing done in Canada, says this is a very miniscule problem? Unfortunately those "unenlightened producers" called R-CALF have continued to follow an agenda that has nothing to do with science but sensationalism and following their dillusional protectionism! So I still say test them all....if that will get us some meaningfull change in our export markets?
This cow thing is getting to be an utter joke! Come on...$300 for a cow that is going into the restaurant trade! What a complete utter crock of BS! This is beyond bizarre!

[grassfarmer]

farmers_son, you say "Myself, I think BSE testing was a reasonable response to the situation in the UK but the incidence of BSE in North America is so much less."
To my knowledge they have never tested for BSE as a means to market beef in the UK. They were shut out of foreign export markets for 10 years on OTM beef and cattle and a bit less on UTM animals.

[Willowcreek]

grassfarmer--quote "To my knowledge they have never tested for BSE as a means to market beef in the UK."

I believe you are wrong on this grassfarmer...Cattle slaughtered in the UK over 30 months old are tested and marketed...The UK does not allow cattle born prior to 8/1/96 to be marketed for food at all...

There is a big stink going on there now because one of these prior 96 cows got into the food chain- even tho she had tested negative....

[Willowcreek]

Heres a link to one article on it....

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=102050

[grassfarmer]

I stand corrected. Since December 2005 they have been testing and marketing OTM cattle in the UK. The BSE cases began appearing in the mid 1980's though and from then through until 1996 hundreds of thousands of OTMs were slaughtered and went into the human food chain. Cattle showing symptoms were culled and tested to confirm BSE. They never killed whole herds out if there was a case of BSE in that herd. They did however have a cohort program after 1996 that went back and traced cattle that had eaten the same feed as BSE cases and culled them out. I don't know why because at that time all OTMs were being incinerated anyway. The point I was trying to make was that testing and marketing cattle as free of BSE was not a significant policy throughout the BSE crisis in the UK. Farmers were just expected to take a beating on cull cows for close to 20 years.