There were positive developments on the BSE front last week.
Forces in the United States that favour resumption of cattle trade with Canada have organized and launched an offence against the misinformation that R-CALF and its supporters have been allowed to spread.
Agriculture secretary Mike Johanns chose a troubled American meat packing plant that has laid off 60 workers because of inadequate cattle supplies as the backdrop for his announcement. He has scheduled a June 9 meeting to discuss what he called the “cold, hard facts” about the disadvantage that U.S. plants face by not having access to Canadian cattle.
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He said the market is already restructuring with slaughter capacity shifting to Canada.
That is evident in the numbers. Canada’s slaughter capacity has increased 24 percent in the last year and recently federal and provincial total slaughter has topped 88,000 head a week. Meanwhile, the U.S., which is in the tight supply portion of its cattle cycle, doesn’t have enough cattle to keep its plants occupied. U.S. slaughter last year was down eight percent.
The meeting will bring together USDA experts, beef producers and meat packers to discuss the safety of North American beef and the economic impact of the closed border.
Meanwhile, the American Meat Institute has created a website, www.openbeefborders.com, that it says “highlights the urgent need to restore full cattle and beef trade with Canada.”
It is good to see that the AMI’s site labels R-CALF supporters for what they are: isolationists. Unfortunately, it doesn’t also call them opportunists, although that clearly comes through on a section of the site that condemns R-CALF by using the statements of its own supporters, who make it clear their interest in keeping the border closed is not science or safety, but economic gain.
These moves won’t open the border. That is in the hands of the U.S. courts. But they might cause some American cattle producers and politicians who back R-CALF to start questioning its motives and press it to act more responsibly.
While generally positive for Canadian cattle producers, this campaign presents one nagging concern.
The argument about Canada’s packers taking business from U.S. plants, and allusions to millions of government dollars being poured into increased Canadian slaughter are overblown. It could leave an impression in American ranchers’ minds that Canada’s slaughter industry is a taxpayer funded giant.
While there has been some assistance to the packing industry, direct federal support in bricks and mortar has been minimal so far.
Also, the extra 500,000 head now being killed in Canada might seem like a lot but it is an increase of only 1.4 percent of Canada-U.S. total slaughter.
That is not the type of restructuring that will bring America’s beef industry to its knees.
