Manitoba_Rancher
Well-known member
Enough U.S. Cebull!
By Murray Mandryk
Date: March 15th, 2005
To hell with R-CALF USA! To hell with Judge Richard Cebull! To hell with all of them! Let's build a slaughtering and meat packing industry right here at home.
Admittedly, this isn't a short-term solution. Nor is it a cheap one. But what choice do we really have in the wake of the Montana judge's recent ruling to keep the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef?
We could do what we always do, which is rely on U.S. markets and the Americans' processing industry. After all, by the time we re-build a Canadian slaughter and packing industry (our own industry followed our cattle south years ago), the border might be opened to live Canadian beef.
Moreover, our own slaughtering and packing industry may not satisfy the Americans, anyway.
While the border is still open to packaged Canadian beef, the protectionist hypocrites in R-CALF are moving to have Canadian boxed beef banned, too. (Yes, they're hypocrites. A strong word, I realize, but what else do you R-CALF members that bought up cheap Canadian cows – 30,000 at a time – after the May 20, 2003 ban was in place. Wasn't the American ban supposedly in place because, as North Dakota Kent Conrad put it, Canada is a "a country known to have mad cow in its herd and a record of failure in its attempts to ban illegal feed"?)
There again, if R-CALF is successful in its attempts to use the U.S. courts to keep the border closed for years, what would be gained by sitting around and waiting for the Americans to play fair? Why should we hold out hope that the Americans will do the right thing?
If Cebull's ruling has taught us anything, it's that this isn't about protecting the U.S. food supply or science. It's about Americans protecting an American cattle industry. Cebull (a good name, because he's clearly full of it), ruled that opening the border to cattle under 30 months would cause "serious, irreparable harm." It was an incredibly ill informed and biased ruling, given that the youngest animal to develop mad cow disease was 68 months old.
But science had no place in Cebull's courtroom. His 28-page ruling just got more ludicrous, arguing that BSE could be passed on through animals' saliva – a notion that no reputable scientist seriously endorses.
The judge that R-CALF also went to last year to get another favourable ruling of lesser consequence also ruled Canada has insufficient testing – an amazing bit of logic given that the US Department of Agriculture has criticized its own inspectors for not testing older animals. In Canada, we test older animals, which is why we found the cases of mad cow and why the Americans haven't. They aren't looking for it.
But perhaps the most preposterous part of his ruling was Cebull's notion that increased truck traffic would now cause environmental damage. This from the country that won't sign on to the Kyoto Accord, anyway!
So what do we do?
Well, if we can't sell into the U.S., let's develop a local slaughter and packaging industry that will have the world clamouring for Canadian beef over the U.S. product. Let's ban all rudiment parts in feed – even for chickens and pigs – if that's what it takes. And let's rebuild our own meat packing industry with smaller plants in rural Saskatchewan that will allow us to trace beef from farm to fork.
Let's test every animal that goes into those facilities, if that's what it takes.
Let's get our provincial government to provide tax incentives for packers to build these facilities.
Let's relish the notion of attracting American meat packers and feedlots that have lost an estimated $1.7 billion since the border closed.
Let's hit the Americans and R-CALF where it hurts most – right in their pocket books.
To Hell With R-calf forever! May you burn in eternity!
Thought this was very well said!
By Murray Mandryk
Date: March 15th, 2005
To hell with R-CALF USA! To hell with Judge Richard Cebull! To hell with all of them! Let's build a slaughtering and meat packing industry right here at home.
Admittedly, this isn't a short-term solution. Nor is it a cheap one. But what choice do we really have in the wake of the Montana judge's recent ruling to keep the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef?
We could do what we always do, which is rely on U.S. markets and the Americans' processing industry. After all, by the time we re-build a Canadian slaughter and packing industry (our own industry followed our cattle south years ago), the border might be opened to live Canadian beef.
Moreover, our own slaughtering and packing industry may not satisfy the Americans, anyway.
While the border is still open to packaged Canadian beef, the protectionist hypocrites in R-CALF are moving to have Canadian boxed beef banned, too. (Yes, they're hypocrites. A strong word, I realize, but what else do you R-CALF members that bought up cheap Canadian cows – 30,000 at a time – after the May 20, 2003 ban was in place. Wasn't the American ban supposedly in place because, as North Dakota Kent Conrad put it, Canada is a "a country known to have mad cow in its herd and a record of failure in its attempts to ban illegal feed"?)
There again, if R-CALF is successful in its attempts to use the U.S. courts to keep the border closed for years, what would be gained by sitting around and waiting for the Americans to play fair? Why should we hold out hope that the Americans will do the right thing?
If Cebull's ruling has taught us anything, it's that this isn't about protecting the U.S. food supply or science. It's about Americans protecting an American cattle industry. Cebull (a good name, because he's clearly full of it), ruled that opening the border to cattle under 30 months would cause "serious, irreparable harm." It was an incredibly ill informed and biased ruling, given that the youngest animal to develop mad cow disease was 68 months old.
But science had no place in Cebull's courtroom. His 28-page ruling just got more ludicrous, arguing that BSE could be passed on through animals' saliva – a notion that no reputable scientist seriously endorses.
The judge that R-CALF also went to last year to get another favourable ruling of lesser consequence also ruled Canada has insufficient testing – an amazing bit of logic given that the US Department of Agriculture has criticized its own inspectors for not testing older animals. In Canada, we test older animals, which is why we found the cases of mad cow and why the Americans haven't. They aren't looking for it.
But perhaps the most preposterous part of his ruling was Cebull's notion that increased truck traffic would now cause environmental damage. This from the country that won't sign on to the Kyoto Accord, anyway!
So what do we do?
Well, if we can't sell into the U.S., let's develop a local slaughter and packaging industry that will have the world clamouring for Canadian beef over the U.S. product. Let's ban all rudiment parts in feed – even for chickens and pigs – if that's what it takes. And let's rebuild our own meat packing industry with smaller plants in rural Saskatchewan that will allow us to trace beef from farm to fork.
Let's test every animal that goes into those facilities, if that's what it takes.
Let's get our provincial government to provide tax incentives for packers to build these facilities.
Let's relish the notion of attracting American meat packers and feedlots that have lost an estimated $1.7 billion since the border closed.
Let's hit the Americans and R-CALF where it hurts most – right in their pocket books.
To Hell With R-calf forever! May you burn in eternity!
Thought this was very well said!
Any way we could talk Murray Mandryk into beocming chairman of the Canadain Cattlemans Association. Finally another man who stands up with a public statement that even the Rcalf cooks cannot dispute.
