When mad cow disease was discovered 16 years ago in England it was only a year later that an animal was found in western Canada with the same disease. You, the Canadian consumer, never stopped buying and eating Canadian beef.
Everyone is a consumer and farmers routinely eat even more meat daily than the average consumer. Even 15 years ago, Canadian farmers had a good system of tracking where beef came from.
All our purebred animals were identified by ear tags, tattoos, or registered drawings or pictures of each animal and their markings. Ancestor records could be tracked back for generations. When animals changed hands, all sales and purchases were recorded.
Where did mad cow come from? Although it was never very well-known, rumours in England pointed to a chemical that sheep were routinely dipped in to kill ticks in their fleece that may have started the disease.
How did it spread? Many feed companies used meat meal, blood meal or bone meal from butchered animals as a source of protein, essential amino acids and minerals. This was a worthless waste product until it was mixed into rations for farm animals and pets to increase necessary mineral, amino acid and protein content in animal feed.
It was later discovered that mad cow disease only could be passed on from ruminant to ruminant by consuming body tissue. It could not be passed on from fowl or pigs. Many companies that made animal feed in North America were also integrated with abattoirs that produced these waste products every day.
After mad cow was discovered, an electronic tagging system was introduced in Quebec and soon used all over Canada. Every animal gets an electronic ear tag shortly after birth and it is used to identify the animal as long as it lives. Even after the animal dies, the number remains in the data base for years to come so that if an animal is ever found again with mad cow, both that animal and its ancestors can be traced back to every farm that was ever involved. Within days from the first Canadian cow was declared to have mad cow cattle prices plummeted. Sometimes when a farmer sold an animal at the sale barn he received nothing for the animal but a bill for transporting it to the sale and another bill for trying to sell the animal.
It was very disheartening for farmers to see hamburgers at a fast food restaurant and beef at the grocery stores sell for almost the same prices as before mad cow.
Farmers take their hats off to the consumers for trusting the Canadian health system and continuing to buy and feed their families safe Canadian beef even though there was a tremendous difference in the price that the farmer was paid and what the consumer had to pay. It is obvious that someone in the middle got a lot of markup.
Once again Canadian farmers are taking their hats off to our consumers who this time are choosing dairy products marked with the little blue cow that are made with 100 per cent Canadian milk.
Since the USMCA trade deal we will soon see many dairy products on the shelf that do not have the blue cow or dairy farmers of Canada mark on the product. Some of these products may contain milk from US cows injected with rBST growth hormone to make them milk more, or some US cheeses may even contain potato starch to make a cheaper product. Frozen pizza made in the US may also contain these cheeses. Canadian dairy farmers have been adhering to the Canadian Quality Milk program for many years now.
Canadian dairy farmers are demanded to take and pass a day long course before even entering into the Canadian quality milk program. The manual that precisely lays out the program every Canadian dairy farmer must know and maintain is in a binder about two inches thick. This program has very strict rules that demand animals be very well looked after, track every treatment on every animal, dictate safe storage and administration of every drug and treatment on every animal, demand cleanliness and cleaning procedures on everything on the dairy farm, demand a zero tolerance of any drug found in milk, (punishable by fines that can be thousands of dollars and even stop the farm from shipping milk until reinstatement), demand electronic tracking of milk cooling and washing procedures and temperature of every wash cycle, identification of every animal, and humane treatment of every animal.
Inspectors routinely inspect facilities and monitor farms to ensure every procedure is carried out to the T. Many countries do not have a quality milk program like this in place.
Since the USMCA trade deal was brokered, thousands of loyal but concerned consumers have flooded Dairy Farmers of Canada with calls asking how do we know that dairy products contain only Canadian milk? The answer is simple. Look for the little blue cow or the dairy farmers’ of Canada symbol on every package of milk, yogurt, cheese or any other thing dairy in the store.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon
on land that has been in his
family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
