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U.S. Cattlemen Split Over Ban

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frenchie

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U.S. Cattlemen Split Over Ban - Industry Fears Protectionism Will Backfire
Gina Teel, Calgary Herald (Billings, Montana - Saturday, March 26, 2005)


CREDIT: Tim Fraser, Calgary Herald
Bill Donald, president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, says the closed border will hurt his industry over the long run.

At the back end of a pockmarked parking lot in a gritty industrial area on the south side of this gritty Montana town sits a small, unremarkable building.

Dwarfed by the towering refinery a stone's throw away, it's clear from the building's exterior that it's seen better days.

But just inside the double front doors, in a postage-stamp-sized room barely large enough for the desks of a bare-bones office staff, is the headquarters of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, or R-CALF USA.

This is no high-tech buzz centre.

Yet earlier this month, this small but tenacious lobby group with a protectionist bent successfully used its spin on the science of BSE to persuade a Montana judge to grant a court injunction temporarily -- and perhaps permanently -- blocking the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan to resume the cattle trade with Canada.

That unexpected victory has raised the dander of Canada's struggling cattle industry, which, according to the Bank of Montreal, had been hit with more than $5 billion in losses since May 2003 when Canada's first case of BSE caused the U.S. border to be slammed shut on Canadian cattle exports.

But Canadian cattlemen are not the only ones hurting.

R-CALF's activist tactics are also fuelling a bitter rivalry within the U.S. cattle industry that some liken to the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral.

"R-CALF has definitely built a fence between people who used to be friends," said Bill Donald, president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association, from his ranch near Melville.

"It's like our Civil War."

Like many opposed to R-CALF's position on trade, Donald takes exception to the organization's strategy.

R-CALF claims the resumption of trade in younger cattle from Canada will expose U.S. consumers to an increased risk of contracting a fatal disease from eating BSE-infected meat and infect the American herd, creating economic harm for producers.

It's a position that goes against the internationally accepted science regarding BSE and how the disease is spread.

Donald says R-CALF's position is related to economics and has nothing to do with human or animal health -- a position supported earlier this week by the influential Washington-based consumer organization, Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The closed U.S. border has sent American cattle prices soaring, benefiting the smaller producers R-CALF represents.

But Donald argues it's a short-term fix that in the longer term will have a detrimental impact on the entire American cattle industry.

And evidence of that hardship is mounting. News reports of suspended or reduced shifts at packing plants across the U.S. are a regular occurrence.

If the border stays closed some plants, especially those in the Pacific Northwest, could go out of business, Donald said. In the end, ironically, U.S. producers could find themselves paying to truck their cattle north of the border for processing, he said.

"If we follow R-CALF's approach (to trade), as an industry we'll end up squabbling over whose slice of the pie is the biggest," says Donald from his 10,000-hectare ranch.

"My approach is, let's build a bigger pie by increasing market demand, and you don't build a bigger demand by telling people they'll die from eating beef."

R-CALF president Leo McDonnell sees things differently.

"I don't think you're going to gain consumer confidence . . . by increasing your exposure to potentially contaminated product," he says.

Until the science used by the USDA to draft its minimal risk rule is proved by an international peer review and practiced by the international community, allowing cattle from Canada or other places with BSE to mix with the U.S. herd is simply too risky, he says.

"I believe the USDA calls it a minimal risk rule, which recognizes that there is a risk," McDonnell says in a telephone interview from his home in Columbus, Mont.

McDonnell cites the bans on U.S. cattle and beef exports following the Dec. 23, 2003, discovery of a Washington state dairy cow with BSE that was later attributed to Canada.

This differing viewpoint on how trade should occur is at the heart of the antagonism between upstart R-CALF and organizations such as Montana Stockgrowers, founded in 1884.

But the rift doesn't end there.

Jim Peterson, state representative for central and eastern Montana, says the division extends all the way to the state legislature. It's a situation where emotion is overriding common sense, he says.

"So we're making poor decisions and we're making decisions not based on common sense and facts."

It's also the source of a sore spot for the American Meat Institute, a Washington-based organization that represents the packing industry.

David Ray, the institute's vice-president of public affairs, said the shift occurring within the U.S. packing industry is going to get worse with a prolonged border closure as Canadian packing capacity and cattle production increases.

"Canada is going to be going head to head with American cattlemen for competition in what's been a fairly static world market, and the U.S. is going to be the big loser in this equation if the border remains closed," Ray says.

"R-CALF needs to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that."

R-CALF's detractors say the message about lost jobs and permanent damage to the cattle industry isn't getting through to the grassroots organization.

Donald said the protectionist attitude of R-CALF strikes a real chord with the small American rancher.

"R-CALF is really popular right now because they stand up for the small rancher. Whether their information is factually correct or scientifically based is another thing, but they are standing up to protect the small ranchers in America, and that's what people like to see and that's why they donate."

McDonnell says R-CALF has experienced a surge in popularity over the past few months. The organization's paid membership is currently at 13,000, with members from 45 states and 57 affiliates.

Rallies are regularly held for fundraising, and lately it's not unusual for R-CALF members to raise $20,000 or more from an event -- amounts that are pretty well unprecedented in the cattle industry, McDonnell noted.

McDonnell said he doesn't draw a salary from the funds, which are used to pay for R-CALF's legal fees.

Alzada rancher Jim Courtney, a former president of Montana Stockgrowers, said R-CALF is out to raise money for its cause, and that's bad news for the industry.

Earlier this year, Courtney toured Alberta feed mills, slaughter facilities and feedlots as part of a trade-team mission with the U.S.-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

It was an eye-opening experience.

"They've (R-CALF) got this thing so cranked up from emotion and not the facts," he said. "And they have got all these ranchers hook, line and sinker."

To understand the protectionist fervour sweeping the U.S. industry, it is necessary to step back to the early 1990s.

The cattle market was in a slump, and resentment toward Canada was fuelled by a steady stream of triple-axle Canadian cattle liners delivering finished cattle to Montana and other northern states.

Many ranchers believed U.S. packers were using Canadian imports to depress American cattle prices. It was in this growing atmosphere of discontent that R-CALF was born.

Courtney remembers a seminal moment at a Montana Stockgrowers mid-year committee meeting in Glendive.

McDonnell, part of the organization's marketing committee, asked if he could investigate the number of cattle coming down from Canada and its economic effect on the U.S.

Courtney said McDonnell never returned with the information.

"He didn't come back to us, he just decided to start his own organization," Courtney said.

For his part, McDonnell said he did return with the information and is still a member of the Montana Stockgrowers.

R-CALF was founded shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1998.

"The reason why R-CALF was founded was because of a lack of leadership for that segment of our industry," McDonnell said.

By that fall, R-CALF had filed an anti-dumping trade case against Canada and Mexico, arguing big U.S. packers were using cheap Canadian cattle to depress the market in the mid- to late 1990s.

R-CALF lost its case with the ITC. But it did tap into a deep-seated resentment many cattle operations felt toward multinational agri-business and the North American Free Trade Agreement, and in 1999 it became a member organization.

Its cause? Ensuring fair trade for its members. When it comes to BSE, that means keeping Canadian cattle out until R-CALF is satisfied the science behind BSE is proven and practiced internationally.

"All we're trying to do is put the facts on the table, and to date the only group to lay down any science on the table is R-CALF," McDonnell said.

For more News Headlines and Commodity Quotes, please visit www.teamauctionsales.com
 
according to the Bank of Montreal, had been hit with more than $5 billion

I wonder what % of this lost money would have been spent on American products? (equipment,seedstock etc.)

"I believe the USDA calls it a minimal risk rule, which recognizes that there is a risk," McDonnell says in a telephone interview from his home in Columbus, Mont.

Ditto on the US, from Japan!

"My approach is, let's build a bigger pie by increasing market demand, and you don't build a bigger demand by telling people they'll die from eating beef."

As Hat would say, "Amen to that"
 
"R-CALF is really popular right now because they stand up for the small rancher. Whether their information is factually correct or scientifically based is another thing, but they are standing up to protect the small ranchers in America, and that's what people like to see and that's why they donate."



Guess we know why you R-calf Supporters have so much time to complain about Canadian cattle on here. It should read in the headline as "R-calf stands up for wanna be ranchers". If you had good sized herds you would be supporting the real organization NCBA! I always knew it took something special other than being totally brain dead to belong to R-calf. I bet when the teacher asked Leo what he wanted to be when he grew up-he answered " a pretend rancher" with plastic cows and plastic hay bales! :lol:
 

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