TORONTO – For Ontario’s beleaguered beef industry, the BSE crisis is more than a financial disaster.
It is a poignant and painful illustration of the industry’s lack of power.
“Producers face the danger of becoming mere servants in their industry,” Ontario Cattlemen’s Association executive director Mike McMorris said Feb. 25 during the OCA annual meeting. “They feel like they’re sitting in the back seat on the road to recovery.”
President Ron Wooddisse made the same point, calling on the province’s 21,000 producers to organize for power and clout.
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“I certainly don’t want things to return to the way they were on May 19, 2003 (the day before BSE was reported in Alberta),” he said in his report to the meeting. “I’d like our producers to become stronger and more in control of their destiny. In order for this to happen, we need to instigate change of a magnitude never seen before.”
He told the crowd that in looking for ways to strengthen producer power, “everything, every option, must be on the table.”
In a later interview, Wooddisse said “every option” includes a discussion of whether a single desk marketing board would be useful.
“We would not go the route of supply management with production controls, border controls and quotas and fixed pricing, but we have to look at whether a single seller would give our industry more clout with buyers,” he said.
Within the industry, there is increasing talk of the need for a government-supported floor price.
The OCA president said industry frustrations with a lack of control have been around much longer than BSE.
“Look, there are 90,000 beef producers across Canada selling mainly to four large buyers,” he said. “That’s a very small funnel. That’s not much bargaining power.”
Adding insult to injury, he said, Ontario produces half as much beef as it consumes and while its producers are suffering from the same price collapse and unwanted herd growth as the rest of the country, trade deals allow imported beef to continue to pour into the province to fill the gap.
While other parts of the sector are making money, farmers are losing money and equity and living with growing stress. Some days, they have faced “a bottomless pit of despair.”
The OCA president said the crisis is taking its toll as it drags on.
“A large number of producers will exit the industry, whether from financial pressure or exhaustion.”
McMorris pleaded with producers not to lose perspective.
“This has been a stressful time,” he said in his report to the convention. “Recognize that. Talk about it with your family and seek help when needed. Don’t let BSE damage your family. It is priceless compared to cattle.”
The BSE crisis led to some radical proposals from delegates.
A number of resolutions called for a ban on the use of animal protein in feed for livestock and poultry. It was amended to ban specified risk material and then approved.
A number also called for mandatory testing of all cattle older than 30 months of age “in order to reopen export markets.” The majority of delegates rejected the idea.
