Cam Ostercamp doesn’t need notes anymore when giving his speech.
With seven meetings of the Beef Initiative Group under his belt and more to come, the rancher from Blackie, Alta., delivers his message, in no-nonsense language, to rooms full of cattle producers: the message that Canada must be willing to test any and all cattle for BSE if it is ever to expand export markets beyond the United States.
Ostercamp’s anger fairly seethes at the dire situation facing the Canadian cattle industry. And as he peers over his reading glasses and fixes a steely stare on a crowd of about 50 Saskatoon area cattle producers June 30, it is somehow fitting that the air is filled with the smell of roasting beef.
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The series of meetings, organized under the auspices of BIG, are based on Ostercamp’s paper, Behind the Veil of Science: how the mishandling of the BSE crisis could lead to the downfall of the Canadian beef industry.
It talks about reduced profit margins, packer consolidation, Canada’s dependence on the U.S. market and U.S. indifference to Canadian beef supplies. Most of all, it talks about BSE testing and about meeting the testing requirements of export customers other than the U.S. (A copy of the paper can be found through www.producer.com.)
There is opposition to the BIG ideas. No surprise there.
But this group continues its meetings, talks to ranchers and proposes a solution. It collects feedback and says it plans to make findings public. Whether or not cattle producers agree with the concepts, it’s a welcome relief to hear someone put forth a potential plan of action rather than just define and commiserate over the problem.
Ostercamp and fellow BIG members Grant Hirsche of High River, Alta., and Doug Fraser of Okotoks, Alta., are not the only ones wrestling with solutions to the BSE crisis. They are, however, the only ones who have taken their show on the road to seek direct, one-on-one input from cattle producers.
They deserve credit for it.
The solutions to the BSE crisis seem clear to BIG, but perhaps they are less so to the many other factions that make up the Canadian cattle business. It’s going to take a few people with a lot of good ideas to salvage a healthy industry from the current mess. If all of them spoke up and submitted their ideas to public scrutiny, as BIG is doing, the solutions might be quicker to develop.
After an hour-long address, Ostercamp leans back, takes a pinch of snuff and awaits response. Producers and cattle industry officials must see that he and the rest of the group receive it.
