PEORIA, Alta.- There’s nothing much to distinguish ground zero of the beef disasterfrom any other farm on the Prairies.
In front of Marwyn and Lisa Peaster’s neat farm home are pots of bright purple flowers. On the concrete driveway is a small tricycle and a red wagon.
Across the road there is a long line of shiny grain bins, a large farm shop and some new John Deere equipment parked along the poplar trees. Look past that to the cleaned and rebuilt corrals, and there is a difference.
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The rough sawn lumber nailed to the fence to slow the winter winds isn’t even weathered. There’s not a single piece of cow hair caught in the boards from animals rubbing along the sides. There’s not a cow in sight.
Peaster has not replaced his herd since all 160 head were ordered destroyed after a single blackcow he owned was diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
No one expected 11 weeks after the May 20 announcement of the discovery of BSE that the borders of 34 countries would remain closed to live cattle.
Like other farmers, Peaster worries what will happen if the United States and other countries don’t resume buying Canadian livestock.
“We’ve got to get the border open,” said Peaster standing beside the sprayer he uses to custom spray crops for Agricore United in Wanham, Alta. As he talks, his two young boys crawl over the sprayer like playground equipment.
“Feed grain prices are in the tank,” said Peaster, before the Aug. 8 announcement that the U.S. is partially lifting its ban.
Along with the worries of feed grain and cattle prices, the farm couple also hears the whispered comments that as the ones who had the BSE cow, they should pack their bags and move back to Mississippi.
“It’s not too bad,” said Lisa as she cradled their month-old baby, Nicolla.
“There’s been some people make comments, but nothing you can’t handle.”
Marwyn believes many of the comments come from a misunderstanding. When people realize he only owned the eight-year-old cow for a few months before it was slaughtered, they realize he was the unlucky last owner.
“It’s been positive for the most part. There’s a few people that don’t really understand,” said Peaster when he explains how he happened to buy the animal already infected with BSE.
“Once they hear, they realize there isn’t anyone whose fault it is.”
About two years after Peaster moved to Peoria, he began to gather a herd of cattle. On Aug. 23, 2002, he bought a group of cattle from a Saskatchewan farm, forced to sell because of the drought. Included in that group was the cow that he would later learn was infected with the brain-wasting disease.
Fleeing back home to the U.S. to escape the barbed comments isn’t an option. The Peasters move from their Mississippi grain and catfish farm to the quiet farming district of Peoria four years ago was permanent.
“We’ve never considered moving back,” said Lisa about the coffee shop rumours that the family had fled to the safety of her husband’s American family.
“That’s just one of the million rumours,” she said.
Ben Boettcher, a farmer from nearby Wanham and a director of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, warned a group of Conservative MLAs during a recent agriculture committee meeting that the mood in rural Alberta could turn ugly.
“This is alarming,” said Boettcher. “We had a northern reeves and managers meeting a few weeks ago. I was there as the AAMDC zone director. They told me, ‘go to the BSE farm. Tell him this: that if there is not significant movement by October, after he has his harvest off, he should plan on not staying the winter. He should move back to the United States with his Canadian family because … his safety cannot be guaranteed’,” reported Alberta Scan, a weekly political newsletter.
Peaster’s neighbour John Braun said people are beginning to blame Peaster for taking his animal to the abattoir to salvage a few dollars instead of shooting it behind the barn. Before the discovery of BSE, it was common for producers to take sick or downer cattle to an abattoir or the auction market to recover a bit of money.
“Eighty or 90 percent of farmers would have done the same thing,” said Braun.
“I definitely have nothing against him. I don’t feel it was his fault.”
Shirley Wells, the UFA bulk fuel agent in Wanham, said she hears producers blame Peaster all the time.
“They just can’t understand why he didn’t just shoot the cow,” said Wells, who counts Peaster as a customer.
But Peaster is careful not to say he regrets his decision to take the sick cow in to be slaughtered to provide meat for his freezer.
“We want the consumer out there to understand the food we have is safe and not all sick animals are taken out to the back 40. That’s why the system is in place, so those kind of animals get caught.”
Lisa is not quite so cautious. She would have gladly not have been in the firestorm’s centre.
“We never would have brought the cow in for anything.”
At week 11 of the border closure, the Peasters are willing to do what they can to help reopen the border. On Aug. 8, a Japanese television station, NHK, was at the farm to show its viewers first hand where BSE was first discovered.
“They’re trying to prove to Japan we don’t have mad cows everywhere. They think the streets are crawling with animals about to flop over. They’re trying to make it better for Alberta beef,” said Lisa.
Until foreign governments are satisfied Canadian beef is safe, there is little Peaster or any farmer can do to change the situation.
“There really isn’t anything anybody can say to make the situation better,” Marwyn said.
