A group of organic livestock producers is taking the first step toward implementing a quality assurance system that will differentiate their members’ product from conventional beef.
The Canadian Organic Livestock Association, or COLA, has received $55,000 in federal government funding to accomplish that goal.
The money comes from the Canadian Food Safety and Quality Program, a component of the agricultural policy framework. It will be used to develop a national strategy for an organic livestock quality management system.
COLA has registered a trademark that will identify beef products associated with the proposed quality and traceability system, said spokesperson Ken Hymers.
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“We wanted to identify ourselves beyond the commodity stream so that we can try to recover some extra money for the producers.”
COLA is a non-profit, producer-owned, livestock group that charges members an annual fee plus a two-cents-per-pound administration charge for marketing their cattle.
It consists of 64 western Canadian livestock producers who are either certified organic or are in the transition period.
“It seems to us that when you look around the world, the commodity stream is on a race to the bottom. We’re quite concerned that isn’t going to keep producers on the farm,” said Hymers.
He anticipates the proposed organic livestock quality system will consist of six or seven attributes, one of which will be a requirement for producers to be certified organic. Other elements could include animal husbandry rules or feeding methods.
The association plans to borrow heavily from the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency’s traceback program. And it has hired a consultant to survey producers and consumers to see what elements they would like in the system.
Hymers hopes the strategy development phase of the program will be complete by the end of this year.
The association will then apply for hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funding from the $62 million federal government program to complete the next phases of its quality assurance plan.
Subsequent phases include analyzing and identifying control points and processes, developing and delivering training courses and creating tools to implement the system nationally.
The end product will be a government-recognized food safety and quality control system that can be used by any organic livestock group.
Hymers believes that by taking the lead role on this initiative, his association will consolidate the organic livestock sector into a single-desk marketing system using the COLA trademark.
“Currently there are other groups out there. We’re hoping this strategy will help bring them into this system.”
