I would submit to you that much of the BSE problem was used stategically by Tysons to gain market share and beat out producers. How did they plan that in an impromptu manner if it wasn't outright planned?
Let us look at some of the
facts If Tyson did outright plan the BSE crisis I would love to get their crystal ball or who ever was advising them. :wink:
According to the CFIA investigation of BSE in Canada our problem with native BSE was caused by
unknowing feeding feed made from a contaminated UK cow to a calf born in Sask. before the CFIA ban that practice in
1997. Then that calf was sold to a producer in Alberta where it lived until it was condemned and the head was held for testing. The test came back positive in
May 2003 . Now for Tyson to have planned the BSE crisis to gain market share
as Econ submits they would have had to have known about the contaminated UK cow in Canada and they would have had to have had something to do with the processing of her into the feed the Sask. calf was eating. Did any one from Tyson go to the UK and import cattle to Canada, no Canadian Producers did that all on their own. Did Tyson make the feed that the calf ate NO an Aussie based feed mill was the one named in the law suit with the CFIA. At the time that the actual contamination took place in Canada,
Tyson didn't own a slaughter plant in Canada. They never owned a plant here until they bought or mergerd with IBP in
mid 2001 6 years after the Canadian feed bans were implemented and 2 years before the cow was found positive so they could not have been the ones that even processed the UK cow now could they? Now according to the article I found on the internet, Tyson made a deal with IBP but because of some misinformation they felt they recieved from IBP they tried to stop the merger which would have stopped them ever owning the Canadian based Lakeside Plant. But because of a COURT ORDER they had to go through with their deal with IBP which then give them access to the Canadian market, again this took place at least 8 years after the the UK cow unknowingly hit the Canadian feed system that according to the CFIA set the whole BSE crisis in motion. So tell us again Econ how did Tyson plan the BSE crisis so they could gain market share in Canada or any where else? When the May 20th cow was comtanimated as a calf How did Tyson know that the science surrounding BSE would come far enough to allow countries known to have minimal amounts of BSE to Export? Someone at Tyson would have had to had very good abilities of looking into the future to see that the science would change and that owning a plant in Canada would be beneificial to their bottom line. If that person exsisted why didn't He or She warn Tyson not to make a deal with a few nameless US producers because those deals would wind them up in court?
one last point Econ if Tyson planned it they should have hired XL Foods psychic
While there is no appreciable monopsony market power exertion by beef packers in fed cattle markets, there is significant monopsony market power exertion in cull cattle markets.
then maybe they would have owned the only cull cattle plant instead of a Fed cattle plant or maybe they would have bought like the XL did. :wink: