editorial
Ranching in Alberta
Pity the Lonesome Cowboy.
Ranching is important to Albertans. It is part of
our roots, our cultural identity and our well-being,
since Alberta beef is still a significant component of
our economy and our diet. Vast tracts of rangeland,
unsuitable for cultivation but excellent for grazing cattle,
attracted the original entrepreneurs who established Alberta’s
first ranches. They discovered that thousands of cattle could
neither fend for themselves on the open range through our harsh
winters, nor produce offspring entirely without help. Ranching
practices changed to herds of manageable size with cowboys to
watch out for them. Of enduring appeal are the cowboy values of
care for the animals, closeness to nature, sensitivity
to beauty, self-reliance, fresh air and freedom.
For most of the 20th century, family operations
averaging 100 head were the norm. NAFTA opened
the US market for our ranchers, but also welcomed
US meat-packing companies into Alberta. Then in
2003, one BSE cow closed the American border.
This preventable catastrophe exposed serious
problems in our beef industry. We knew from the
disaster in the UK that cattle should not be fed meat
and bone meal (MBM) made from diseased cattle.
Such feed was banned in the UK in 1988, but the Canadian
government delayed nine years in instituting a similar ban in
Canada. The US border remained closed long after our beef was
declared safe by a certified team of international experts.
Our overdependence on the American market resulted in
devastation for ranchers. This situation revealed problems in our
country and our attitudes: 1. the unwillingness of our government
to stand up for Canadian interests, though we had clear grounds
under NAFTA to protest the border closing. 2. the folly of exporting
over 90 per cent of our surplus beef and live cattle to one place.
3. Canada’s short-sightedness in agreeing to import beef from
Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay rather than encourage a
domestic market for our own beef. 4. the limited slaughter capacity
within our own borders. 5. the dominance of two US owned meat
packers, which control prices and drive down revenues to producers.
6. fast fattening of cattle in feedlots on silage and corn never
intended for ruminant stomachs, resulting in bloat, huge quantities
of methane gas and concentrated mountains of stinking excrement.
7. the consequent necessary routine injection of antibiotics and
growth hormones into feedlot cattle making them ineligible for
European markets. 8. treating animals not as living creatures but
as mere commodities, without regard for the conditions of their
existence. 9. exploitation of immigrants purposely
brought from such places as the Sudan and Somalia
to do the underpaid repetitive kill floor work. 10. the
lack of understanding by independent producers,
perhaps especially Alberta ranchers, of the essential
role government must play in regulating food safety,
negotiating beneficial trade agreements and fostering
national pride and self-sufficiency.
The traditional hostility of ranchers to government
intervention may have contributed to the “hands off ”
government attitude that created the BSE crisis in
the first place—in not banning MBM feed. Emergency support
for the cattle industry exceeded $2.6-billion of taxpayers’ money,
and the irony is that much of it went to huge American-owned
meat-packing companies who profited from the crisis.
Free trade favours bigness. Big business worships the twin
gods of efficiency and profit over all other values. If ranchers
were delighted by NAFTA’s opening the US market to our
beef—competitively priced because we grossly undervalue our
depleting water, for example—they might now reconsider the
other values of cowboy culture.
a lberta views staff
Founding Editor
Jackie Flanagan
Associate Editor
Evan Osenton
Art Director
Steve Arthur
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Beth ED 403 243 5334 (ex. 1)
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kelie jensen
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nicole kajander
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Joe Wilderson
Calgary
403 243 5334
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Peter worden
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