[4Canada]

<strong>Written By:</strong> 4Canada
<strong>Date:</strong> 2005-04-23 11:46:53
<a href="/article/85253665-harmonization-of-canadaus-food-standards-scarier-than-scandal">Article Link</a>

For example, Health Canada does not allow dairy cows to be fed a bovine growth hormone used in the U.S. for fear that the resultant milk could harm humans. Nor does Health Canada permit meat to be sterilized with X-rays, as the Americans do.

Yet, the quiet, bureaucratic changes envisioned in Bill C-27 could change all of that.

If, for instance, the inspection agency decided to allow irradiated U.S. hot dogs into Canada, it would be harder for Health Canada to argue that domestic producers shouldn\'t be allowed to do the same.

So far, the government has given C-27 the lowest of profiles, saying only that it is part of its effort to introduce \"smart regulation.\"

Politically, this is shrewd. In 1999, the last time Ottawa tried to mess with food safety in order to promote trade, there was a public outcry. A chastened Liberal government eventually allowed that bill to die.

But the impetus never went away. Major farm groups such as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and the Canadian Cattlemen\'s Association, as well as agribusiness and the biotechnology industry, have long been dissatisfied with what they see as the excessive cost of Health Canada\'s food safety regulations.

They would prefer everything to be run by the food inspection agency, an arm of the federal agricultural department and an organization deemed, as Conservative Saskatchewan MP Gerry Ritz put it recently, more \"farm-gate friendly\" than Health Canada.

Yet, the National Farmers Union\'s Pugh says the food inspection agency operates under an impossibly contradictory mandate.

It is supposed to both protect the food supply and encourage agribusiness. When the two come into conflict, critics say, it sacrifices safety.

The 1999 bill would have explicitly given all of Health Canada\'s food safety duties to the inspection agency. The current bill appears to be aimed at doing much the same thing, but in a more roundabout way.

If an election is called soon, C-27 — like all government bills still in the legislative pipeline — will die. However, transcripts from the Commons agriculture committee suggest that even if this were to happen, it would rise again.

That\'s because rural MPs belonging to both the Liberal and Conservative parties support the gist of Bill C-27.

And so far, few other Canadians seem to know about it.

source:<a href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1114207812030&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist969907626796">http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1114207812030&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist969907626796</a>




[Proofreader\'s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 23, 2005]

[whelan costen]

I just watched, Country Canada on CBC newsworld, and it was very clear that the U.S. has different, corporate friendly laws, compared to Canada. It featured the BSE crisis, and reported almost 500 cases of it, that were not reported in the U.S., also one small company wanted to test every animal and was willing to pay to do so, in order to open up the market to the Japanese, but the U.S. gov said no, because the giant companies don't want it! Apparently a safe food supply is not as important as the money! We should be concerned about tying our regulations to any other country's and we should be making sure our laws are better.

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

[Spud]

The Gomery stuff is keeping the publics attention away from this stuff.
Which is what it was designed to do.
What is so fascinating is how the corporate world does anything it wants and the public just waits in line without a wimper.
The Canadian public is their own worst enemy.
Maybe it is time for Spud to find something better to do than try to inform people who don`t want to be informed and don`t care.Absolutly unbelievable.

[Rural]

" It featured the BSE crisis, and reported almost 500 cases of it, that were not reported in the U.S., "

This sort of thing makes me so mad as to be almost speechless. We must maintain independent testing and regulaions from those south of the border that push for "intergration" purely for their own benifit.

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When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to remember that the initial objective was to drain the swamp

[Guest]

And we in Ontario consume American beef.

-Perturbed.

[Brother Jonathan]

<blockquote>Health Canada does not allow dairy cows to be fed a bovine growth hormone used in the U.S. for fear that the resultant milk could harm humans.</blockquote> <p>That’s interesting. The producers of milk without rBST here typically cite the protection of the cow’s health rather than that of humans.</p> <blockquote>Nor does Health Canada permit meat to be sterilized with X-rays, as the Americans do.</blockquote> <p>The Spring 2005 issue of <i>American Heritage of Invention & Technology</i> has an article called <i>Inside the Atomic Kitchen — Why are microwaves good but gamma rays bad for treating food?</i>, which compares the general popularity of microwave ovens with the generally negative view of irradiated food. It notes the following:</p> <ul> <li>Our Food and Drug Administration treats irradiation as a food additive, which means that irradiated food has to be tested on animals at 100 times the normal dose. (Gamma rays don’t remain in the food, but they can produce chemical by-products.) That’s a high enough dose to render many foods inedible, which is one reason why irradiation isn’t used as widely as could be possible.</li> <li>All irradiated food must be labeled with a biohazard symbol, with the legend <i>Treated With Radiation</i>. Perhaps I haven’t been looking closely enough (or perhaps I buy all the “wrong” food…), but I have yet to see any irradiated foodstuff in any of the markets that I frequent. The article’s author notes <blockquote>But sun-dried tomatoes are treated with a form of radiation that is known to be harmful to humans, yet they bear no label. And how appealing would a bag of carrots be if it said “Fertilized With Animal Feces”, possibly accompanied by an appropriate graphic symbol? <i>Organic</i> sounds much more cuddly.</blockquote></li> <li>It’s possible to use electron beams rather than radioactive isotopes to irradiate food, but the cost of the equipment to do that is currently prohibitive.</li> </ul> <p>Anyway, be sure to write your MP so that your food will be regulated by your preferred regulators!</p>

[Guest]

I thought all U.S. fruit exports to the Ontario area were irradiated.

[Guest]

Yah!! Bovine growth hormone for everyone!!

[Brother Jonathan]

<p>If that is the case, then one could conclude that it is currently legal for some irradiated foodstuffs to be sold in Ontario…</p>

[Guest]

"I just watched, Country Canada on CBC newsworld..."

I am so sorry. If only we had honest news here...funny how all the stuff is all of a sudden coming out now from all the government sponsored "news" outlets, now that our Canadian beef producers are...ta, da...suing the federal government for BILLIONS of dollars. No word at all about ANY of what those evil bastardos down south were "covering up" for all this time about all those gazillions of cows that were even madder than OURS were until... ...cute. Lawsuit against federal gov' come' a knockin', the Lib'ral knee' start a rockin', and viola...a plethora of stories emerge as if by MAGIC from countless federal government owned propaganda outlets, about how "THEY" (you know,"them"...south of us...the ones we love to hate) messed everything up in Canada by doing all the usual diabolical covering up that "they" always do whilst trying to take over the world and dominate the universe ...not our OWN wonderful Liberal government by golly...they are our buddies..our good, trusted friends who would NEVER lie to us good Canadian sheeple...and we love them so much for being as honest as they have been all the time they've been governing that we're going to believe anything they put out on the 'ol airwaves now, right? Sweet! And with Layton offering up his selling price to be bought by the Briberals on the budget, we have even more political parties we can trust. Add the NDP to the Briberal gov'...together forever(if the price is right)..how romantic. Seems to me that used to be called prostitution. Guess it's just me. I've been eating too many of our cows and have gone mad. Or I've been watching too many CBC programs about "their" cows being madder than ours lately, and I'm beside myself with jealousy...we CAN'T be outdone galdurnit...OUR cows just HAVE to be madder ...

[Guest]

Canada will be forced to raise food standards? Excellent!

[whelan costen]

To anon above who states: 'I am so sorry. If only we had honest news here...funny how all the stuff is all of a sudden coming out now from all the government sponsored "news" outlets, now that our Canadian beef producers are...ta, da...suing the federal government for BILLIONS of dollars.'

This was on CBC newsworld, but these were Americans speaking out about their food system, about MAD COW in the U.S. and the lack of sufficient treatment of the food. This site is not about anti-; but it is about pro-Canada, unfortunately in order for us to stand for Canada, we have to stand against those things, insitituations, laws etc, which threaten our country's ability to stand as a sovereign nation. In Canada we also had people wanting to test every cow, but we too are faced with objections, from U.S. packing plants in Canada. They are the ones who have benefited from the farmers lose, they got nice handouts from our government. True that shows poor management from our government, no denying it.

We cannot help but face the fact that the multinational corporations are mainly rooted in the U.S. They are mainly protected by the WTO, which is also controlled by the U.S., the fact that the rules of the world, seem to be made for everyone except U.S. corporation, is something we object to.

This news is finally being shown on regular media, but I don't think it is a shock to anyone who has been observing the situation. As you lash out so angrily, I have to wonder why people can't seem to see the rules are made in favour of the corporation and their bottom line, whether they harm the people or not really doesn't matter, that is something you should be angry about, no matter which country you call home! It isn't about their cow is madder then ours, and I think you know that, it is about the food supply, ours, yours and theirs, the people of the world are at the mercy of inspectors and regulations, and they should be of the highest standard, not the lowest just to make a profit. I agree get angry, but not at the messenger! Unless of course you own one of those corporations and aren't one the less fortunate who depends on the food supply, then I can see why you'd be angry at the media on this issue.

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

[Guest]

Arrr matey!

It's time to plunder me some prion booty!

- Sask. River Pirate

[Guest]

EVERYBODY READ THIS LINK and maybe this will explain why the US wants intergration, it is quite a facisnating piece and i highly recommend it, i asked Vive to put it on this site but have yet to see it, please read this link, The argument may seem<br />
oversimplified, but it provides a lever to achieve some really astute<br />
observations, explore the high-lited areas, also, this link also applies to us Canadians, a must read.....<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/beattherightinthree.htm">http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/beattherightinthree.htm</a>

[Diogenes]

I believe I know how you feel on the topic of trying to inform folks of the dangers of a globalist agenda.
When I read comments like “Well its been going on for years.” As though the length of time is some sort of justification, or the ever popular “Get a life.” In response to criticism of a letter writing campaign it does go to the Rimmer Red Dwarf quote about hitting them hard wit a pamphlet campaign
Pearl before swine Spud and unfortunately all to believable !