By Tiffany Williams
Editor
The Alberta Beef Producers hosted government officials to help address issues in the beef market at a special producer summer meeting on July 24 at the Rimbey Community Centre. More than 125 people attended the session to hear from John Knapp the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from the Alberta government and MP for Wetaskiwin Blaine Calkins.
During his speech Knapp encouraged the producers to give the government feedback on the new Alberta Livestock and Meat Strategy.
“It’s a start. It is something we are inviting suggestions on. This program will be run by the government but we hope that it will eventually be industry run,” said Knapp. “There was wide consultation done for the strategy and there is still a need for more input.”
One of the many questions that was poised to Knapp was how can Alberta get rid of the BSE stigma.
Knapp said that they need to go to the market places with closed doors and show them the changes that have been implemented since BSE and prove to them that Canadian beef is a better product.
Calkins felt similar when addressing how to deal with getting the message across that Canadian beef is a superior product.
“It’s been a rough few years but we need to sell ourselves. With the Product of Canada labeling a lot more Canadian consumers will be buying Canadian produced product,” said Calkins.
He also noted that the Canadian government has been working with other nations such as Japan and South Korea to have them open their doors to Canadian beef.
Greg Bowie, zone director for zone six of the Alberta Beef Producers was pleased with the meeting. He thought that overall it was a success and was what he expected.
“We wanted an opportunity for the producers to talk with the government officials face to face and we provided that venue,” said Bowie. “I know some producers wanted more details but the government has some details that they still need to figure out.”
He says there are positives and negatives with the new strategy.
“There are parts of the new strategy that will be of a benefit such as they are looking to increasing research dollars into feed grain research and that is definitely a positive. The beef producers have already put money into that and according to their new strategy, the government will help as well,” said Bowie. “The ABP does have some concern on the mandatory age verification. There are people that were getting a premium for age verified calves. Now the premium is gone, and once it becomes mandatory there is no longer a premium.
He thinks there are lots of little details that the government still needs to work out and how they handle these issues will determine the success of the program.
Sherry Gummow, president of the Ponoka Agriculture Society thought that Calkins information was trying to address some of the many concerns out there. She thinks it took a long time to get into the current situation and it was not just one thing it was drought, the dollar, fuel prices and BSE it all combined.
“It was very eye opening. You hear and read about it but to sit there and listen to the producers say they can’t do it anymore and knowing where the world food supply comes from and knowing how much we are down in stores,” said Gummow. “The World Wheat Stores are down 11 per cent in the last year to the lowest level since 1980. There are only two months left of corn in the world reserve because they are making ethanol out of it. The agriculture industry has been hit from all sides.”
She thinks the new strategy will help a segment of them although she notes some farmers will be getting out of the business from the discussions she had at the meeting.
The strategy was introduced on June 5 and was unveiled with a $365 million investment to help to stabilize and strengthen Alberta’s livestock industry. It includes eight key points including: a shared vision, animal health and food safety, Alberta Livestock Information System, differentiation initiatives, marketing and diversification initiatives, environmental stewardship, cost reduction and regulatory barriers initiatives and industry government and transition.