New Case Of Mad Cow

Isn't it interesting to note that all the "mad cows" come from Alberta?

Ed Deak. Rancher, Big Lake, BC.

Many (3/5 IIRC) have been linked to the same feed producer too. Hmmmmmm.

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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

What you expect from Conservatives.

Now what if the feed producer is a Canadian subsidiary of a US company?

Didn`t they just find a case of mad cow in the US about a week ago as well?

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Dave Ruston

No, a US meat packer send 'high risk parts', a part of a spine from a 6 month old veal to Japan. So Japan shut down all US beef imports.

Now they know how a politically motivated ban feels, as opposed to one based on science.


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"If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

>>Didn`t they just find a case of mad cow in the US about a week ago as well?<<

They never will. The only time they did admit to finding one mad cow, was when Japan stopped the imports. Australia at this point is providing a large portion of beef to Japan. Japan has had cases of the disease as well.

There are literally thousands of cases of mad cow, but they never get reported, just buried.

Theoretically, cows can get it from deer and sheep, but the main cause has been the feeding of cattle in "efficient", agribiz feedyards with the ground up carcasses of dead animals to put "marble" into the meat, stinking yellow tallow, North Americans are addicted to.

The feeding of dead meat is still going on, with certain parts, that contain the accumulation of the harmful bugs, removed.

My cattle don't get BSE, because they're raised organically and are only fed with grass, but what happens to them in the feedyards, after I sell them, I have no idea, or control of.

Ed Deak. Big Lake, BC

This latest case of BSE was expected, and factored into the last round of negotiations on border control. It will not change anything.

Although I understand it makes a nice jump off to slam Alberta cattleman, "agribiz feed yards", processors, feed yards, the entire cattle industry, or Americans - while, at the same time, promoting organic ranching (yet admitting that organic cows are co-mingled in feedyards).

Organic cattle are co-mingled in feedyards, because there's no market for them and we're forced to sell them at the auction sales, where they get pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones and steroids as they're loaded on the buyers' trucks.

A few are being bought and sold, as a racket, by specialty stores, so they can charge $15-20 per pound for meat we could sell cheaper than the feedyard garbage. But nobody buys it.

So, if people are stupid enough to eat crap, they're welcome to it. Our freezers are full of healthy, organic veal and that's good enough for us.

Ed Deak,

I would like to see you say that to a group of farmers Ed. You casually dismiss honest and hardworking ranchers and farmers while insulting the wisdom of the Canadian consumer. The truth is, no one has gotten sick by that one case of bse and no one will get sick from this one. Don't confuse bse (a political non-tariff barrier to block Cdn access to foreign markets) with issues of food taste, quality, health or price. Put simply this is bullshit.

Canadians enjoy one of the safest food supplies in the world. You can have your so-called organic veal. I for one gladly enjoy the "crap" as you sanctimoniously call it produced by our Canadian beef industry.

I happen to be a working farmer and rancher, with experience, both in corporate agribiz farming and in organics, going back to 1948 on two continents.

You must have a good imagination to claim that I'm insulting honest and hardworking ranchers, because I'm one of them, with more all around me in this ranching area. Our PO is named Big Lake Ranch PO and we had a good fight with the authorities to keep it named so.

The feedlots are not "honest hardworking ranchers", but controlled by the multinational corporate mafia.

We're watching with desperation how our ranchers are being taken to the cleaners by the corporate agenda to get us off the land and confiscate our lands for next to nothing. If we didn't have our old age pensions we could't have continued ourselves.

All our rancher friends would be happy to sell good, wholesome beef to city people, but we're prevented by the corrupt structure and are forced to sell to the buyers of the feedlots, controlled by the multinationals, like Cargill, Tyson, etc. who are conspiring to keep our prices down and rake in the obscene profits, supported by Harper's Conservatives.

When we had to sell our 1200 lbs cows for $20, and I had to give away a perfectly healthy, 1500 lbs., 5 year old bull for nothing, have you seen any price reductions on the meat counters of the supermarkets ? And then you have the audacity to claim support for hard working farmers and ranchers?

To prevent our land falling into the hands of developers, loggers and corporations, we just GAVE it away to a young couple, who will continute our work and appreciate being ranchers. Of course we'll stay here forever, even our ashes.

Figure this one out, if you have the capacity in your fanatic support of corporate feedlots. If you were farmer you'd know what it is like having the threat of extermination hanging over your head by the "competitive equilibrium of the global marketplace". Like the thousands of Indian ranchers who committed suicide when they've lost their lands to subsidized dairy imports.

Ed Deak, Big Lake , BC.

That's quite a yarn you spin Ed. The bit about "thousands" of indian ranchers committing suicide, because of Feedlots was esp noteworthy. Nevertheless, you still haven't backed up your statement that Canadian beef is "crap". Nor have you proved anyone has fallen ill from Cdn beef due to bse.

Have you ever seen a feedlot? We are not talking pastures here. They are enclosed pens and these corporations use the "feed""lots" for nothing more then fattening cattle by any economical means available. You are not eating cattle from a farm. Kinda like chicken factories, isn't it.