EDMONTON – Government officials who must make the final decision on what Canada’s enhanced feed ban will look like must walk a careful line between a strict feed ban that makes slaughtering cattle in the United States more attractive and one with fewer rules that gives Canada a poor image around the world, says the head of Canada’s national cattle organization.
“It is a balancing act,” said Canadian Cattlemen’s Association executive vice-president Dennis Laycraft during the Alberta Beef Producers semi-annual meeting.
“At the end of the day, market access is the number one priority.”
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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency published proposed changes to Canada’s ruminant feed ban almost two years ago in an effort to speed up eradication of BSE in Canada.
The enhanced feed ban would require removal of potentially BSE-infected materials from slaughtered cattle, sheep and other ruminants. An official announcement of the changes, and what will be included on the list, should be released this summer.
Laycraft said there are two issues with an enhanced feed ban: international acceptance of the feed policy and what will be included in the list as to not make it too onerous on Canadian packing plants to separate specified risk materials.
“We want to make sure we do what will allow people to readily comply with the rules and don’t have a whole bunch of overkill of the rules,” Laycraft said.
“It comes down to how do we make sure we don’t create rules in Canada that make it more attractive to process those cattle in the United States and don’t drive our processing industry south or don’t disadvantage our smaller processors in this?”
Separating specified risk material from the rest of the cattle offal won’t be a difficult process for large processors, he said, but the cost of having two pickups, one for offal and another for specified risk material, would be more difficult and costly for smaller processors.
“They really serve a very, very important function in our industry and we don’t want to put them in jeopardy,” he said.
At the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association convention in Estevan, Sask., outgoing president Brian Ross said he was concerned that the CFIA would implement a stronger feed ban policy “that could put us at a real cost disadvantage to the Americans.” He asked about plans to standardize with the U.S. on the feed ban.
CBEF president Arno Doerksen said he isn’t sure where that plan stands with either country right now.
“Up until a few weeks ago my understanding was that the U.S. and Canada were both to announce a stiffer feed ban closer to the same time.”
He said Asian markets like Taiwan would like to see movement from Canada on a feed ban before they get serious about resuming trade with the United States.
But he repeated several times that Canada has to do what’s right for its producers and said a “robust debate” is needed.
