CCA comments

[Willowcreek]

Fact- Mr. Pallet-- By testing ALL, Japan has found 30-40 head of infected cattle that they were able to keep out of their human food chain...Maybe they missed 1 or 2-- but I'd rather play Russian Roulette with 1 cartridge in the cylinder than 5-- or as I feel Canada is 6....

How many infected Canadian cattle have already gone into the human food chain?

And the reason I say Canadian is because the statistics/numbers show that is the cluster or concentration area for the disease in N.A.- and that is still manifesting itself thru a feedban that didn't work....

And I just don't have the same faith in the multinational Corporates and their SRM removal that you do...I guess my years of brand inspecting at a Corporate owned plant did not give me much faith in the employees they had/have- many of which not only can't read or write, but can't speak English,lived like animals, and had a turnover rate faster than a tumbleweed in a hurricane....The local plant was hauling in a new truckload from California every other week... I have a tough time convincing myself that these folks are taking added care in a procedure that my Vet says can easily contaminate other meat and that does not remove all prions anyway (especially when each country has a different definition of what is an SRM)....Seems to me a human life is worth the added step of testing.....

[kato]

The reason Canada doesn't test? Or even consider testing?

Pressure from the Americans for fear they will have to test too. That's why.

What if we tested? What if we sent tested beef to the U.S. under MCOOL with a big maple leaf on it that had BSE tested stamped underneath it? What if you found even one positive in the U.S.? Thanks to the fear mongering of a few, the price of Canadian beef would pick up a bit, to say the least.

Be careful what you ask for.

[Willowcreek]

Kato- Do Canadians have to ask the US for permission to go to the bathroom too????...

This only points out what a sad situation you've (Canadian cattlemen) allowed your cattle groups and government to put you in...But no one up there (except Ol Kaiser and Big-C) even seem to want to do anything about it-- as long as you can get back to the status quo of riding on the US producers shirttails.....

[kato]

You've obviously never been on the receiving end of your country's foreign trade policy. You guys are not easy to deal with.

Here's an article from the Cato Institue. (No relation. LOL) It pretty much sums up the joys of doing international trade with America.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-164.html

I know you will slam this group for being liberal and all that, but you can't deny that this fellow seems to have a pretty high level of intelligence.

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Willow, do you understand how idiotic you sound? You point fingers at Canada for possibly allowing infected animals into the food chain, yet its pretty obvious that the US has done the same. Only someone exceedingly dense could possibly not see the evidence.

You're a hypocrite, Willow, and I grow weary of your banter that serves no purpose other than to attempt to rile someone up. Why don't you spend some of that energy on trying to fix YOUR government? I see you always posting away about how us Canadians should leave you Americans alone and how we have no say in your industry, so right back at ya. Until your garbage industry is fixed up, shut the hell up and quit being a hypocrite.

Rod

[jensend]

oh heck let (the) montana dick keep on dishing out ignorance. if nothing else we canadians can feel intellectually superior when you consider this guy is a spokesman for r-calf.

[kato]

Ah yes, but here's the catch. When you answer back to allegations like we have to, there are more people reading our responses than we will ever know.

There are lots of reasonable and intelligent cattlemen south of the border who have open enough minds to see both sides of an argument, and sift out the truth. They can actually see that some of these border and MCOOL shenanigans will affect them too.

They know that this obsession with Canada is diverting attention from the real problems in the cattle business. They see that while we are scrapping back and forth, the beef in Argentina is lining up for export. They know that as a united team, the North American cattle producers may be able to influence our futures. Divide us, and weaken us. Same old story, and we're falling into it again. We'd be more than willing to band together and tackle a lot of issues that affect us all, but no, that won't do. It's much more convenient to attack the next door neighbours according to the small band of litigators who like to think they represent the majority. The fact is that they do not represent the silent majority, just the vocal minority.

The silent majority are the people who's opinions count, and if OT wants to give us a platform to give our side of the story and inform as many people as possible about the true state of affairs, rather than just letting them read press releases from Montana, then so be it.

That's cool with me. (as opposed to MCOOL LOL)

[wshaver]

Well!
this is a fine kettle of fish stew we're in! isn't it. the border is about to open for brood stock to travel south & your all still pointing fingers who did what & when, get real all of you. time to start feeding like your supposed to cattle are grass eaters, not carnivorious as the feedc industery has tried to do since the 1970's because somone said it'd be cheaper, well wake up & get back to farming like your supposed to!

[grassfarmer]

I take it you have never tried to feed an orphan calf in it's first few days with an all grass diet?

[Willowcreek]

Reuters – Tuesday – July 10, 2007 – 5:10 p.m. EDT

Americans support use of meat-origin labeling: poll

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers overwhelmingly support stricter food labeling laws, with 92 percent of Americans wanting to know which country produced the food they are buying, a consumer magazine said on Tuesday.

Consumer Reports said recent food scares, including worries about peanut butter and lettuce, have made Americans more interested in knowing not only how their food was produced but where it was made.

[Willowcreek]

I was reading thru the poll--An interesting point made is that the sentiment of strict/stricter labeling requirements was from across all demographic segments of the country...

Looks like our USDA/NCBA/AMI are completely out of touch with the US consumer...So probably is your ABP, CCA, CFIA, since they also follow the Packer goosestep....

Besides 92% wanting Country of Origin Labeling,

90% believe that Meat companies should be allowed to test for Mad Cow disease and to label the meat as such...

62% of consumers say they would choose the beef that is tested for Mad Cow if so labled....

89% want meat and dairy products from cloned animals labeled as such...

88% want to allow milk from cows raised without Synthetic Bovine Growth Hormone to be labeled as such.....

55% of the consumers said they would choose the Hormone free milk......

Also much more on the identifying of All Natural and the opposition to hormones, and overuse of antibiotics and pesticides.....

http://consumerist.com/consumer/white-noise/92-of-americans-want-country-of-origin-labels-on-food-277777.php

[cattleman2]

WillowCreek - Question though is the Consumer willing to PAY FOR THIS INFORMATION? The consumer poll is great but most times as soon as teh price has to go up to cover the reporting, or cost of production increases (re BGH) they will soon disregard their wants...
How about yourself? Are you willing to pay another say 50 cents/bushel for grain (barley/wheat/whatever) to feed to your livestock, if it has the label, Seed developed, crop grown and processed in the USA? Not likely...