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NCBA, R-CALF, COOL, USDA (No Politics!)
Costly new mad-cow rules a 'fiasco,' say slaughterhouses
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<blockquote data-quote="Oldtimer" data-source="post: 405211" data-attributes="member: 97"><p><strong>This plan now is just a further divider between the two countries...First off the additional rules tells US consumers that the Canadian government (CFIA) recognizes or believes Canada has a much greater problem than the US (while they still have no way to identify Canadian beef to make an informed choice)-- then it again pits the US cattleman against The Canadian because with the costs of this rule IF the border by chance should open to OTM's it would be more economical to ship all cattle to the US for slaughter (where there isn't the cost of these rules)- destroying the US cull cow and bull market-- while making the US the dumping ground of the higher risk potentially infected SRM's..... </strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Testing all is what Canada should have done/should be doing instead of this new SRM removal plan - a lot cheaper in the long run, would actually identify how big a problem they have and give them an indication when they have it eradicated, would reassure consumers of safe beef, and could have opened up other markets for Canadian beef instead of having to ride the US's hind teat...</strong> <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /> <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite4" alt=":mad:" title="Mad :mad:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":mad:" /> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>--------------------------------------------</p><p></p><p><strong>Costly new mad-cow rules a 'fiasco,' slaughterhouses complain</strong> Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service</p><p></p><p>Published: Monday, July 09, 2007</p><p></p><p>Canada</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>CHILLIWACK. B.C. -- Cattle carcasses hang from giant hooks on the ceiling at B.C.'s largest slaughterhouse. Rivulets of blood and bone dust trail off into drains on the cement kill-room floor.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The animals' lungs sit in a bucket waiting for a local farmer to fetch them for his hungry mink. Other animal parts - the brains, spines and organs that can harbour the infectious prions that cause mad cow disease -disappear down special chutes. They fall into bins that will be taken by waste-hauling trucks along the Trans-Canada Highway to Calgary and turned into everything from chicken feed to dog chow.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>But this elaborate and controversial recycling system becomes illegal in Canada this week as part of the federal government's sweeping "enhanced" feed ban.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>On Thursday, cattle tissues linked to the spread of mad cow disease must be removed from carcasses and destroyed or permanently contained. They are no longer allowed in pet or animal feed, and are banned from fertilizers and bone meal widely used on farms and home gardens.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The change sounds straightforward, but insiders say it is anything but.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>"It's a bureaucratic nightmare," says Dave Fernie, who runs a small slaughterhouse in the B.C. interior.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Fernie and many others were still in limbo last week, waiting to find out if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) would allow them to drop their high-risk tissues in landfills or if they have to ship it to a special processing plant in Alberta.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>And the $80 million the Harper government promised to help ease the transition a year ago has yet to reach many people on the front lines whose bills are soaring as they scramble to meet the new rules.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>"It's enormously frustrating," says Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, which is asking the federal government for another $50 million to offset the "extraordinary" costs piling up because of government funding delays and continuing confusion about the rules.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>"We're not asking for a handout to cattlemen," says Laycraft. The $50 million is needed, he says, to cover the escalating cost of getting the high-risk tissue collected and into landfills while the government resolves outstanding policy questions, and incinerators and other plants are built to destroy the risky tissues.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>These so-called "specified risk materials," or SRM, include the skull, brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and the nerves attached to the spinal cord and brain. They must be removed from slaughtered cattle 30 months or older. The distal ileum, a less than one-metre chunk of the small intestine, must be cut out of cattle of all ages.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Under the new rules, SRM must be removed using special equipment and precautions, hauled away in dedicated trucks, processed and then buried in landfills, burned in high-temperatures incinerators, or dumped into composters and bioenergy plants. Permits from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are required every step of the way.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The ban and its paper trail will stretch from the farm gate to slaughterhouses, rendering plants and landfills - which require not just special permits, but often costly renovations.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The 70-year-old company Johnston Packers, for instance, tucked on a mountainside near Chilliwack, B.C., needs a major overhaul: special filters on drains in the kill room to catch any bits over four millimetres in size, separate waste shoots, costly new saws and equipment for removing SRM, and an air-conditioned room dedicated to SRM storage.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Bonnie Windsor, assistant manager of the slaughterhouse, says the $1-million renovation project was derailed by delays in government funding; she and her colleagues have cobbled together an interim solution that entails erecting steel partitions in the kill room and segregating SRM so the plant can continue to operate when the new rules take effect. But there was no government financing available to help offset that cost - which she estimates at close to $200,000 - as the rules say funding for SRM renovations must be approved before the work is undertaken.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>"We've been left to burn," says Windsor.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>At his meat plant in Big Lake, Fernie's voice shakes in frustration as he describes his dealings with CFIA over the ban. "It's been a fiasco," he says.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Fernie asked the CFIA more that a year ago whether he would be able to dump SRM into a dedicated pit at the nearby Big Lake landfill east of Williams Lake with the other waste from his slaughter operation. He was still waiting for an answer last week.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The federal government announced the feed ban a year ago, along with the promise of $80 million to help implement the new rules.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>But the money didn't materialize until this spring, when federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl started divvying up the funding among the provinces after they agreed to kick in extra funding. The last of the federal-provincial deals to establish "a safe and effective disposal system" - a $3.8 million agreement with Prince Edward Island - was announced on June 29.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Federal officials concede there have been delays but say the responsibility does not lie solely with Ottawa.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>The provincial governments are responsible for distributing the SRM implementation money under the various federal-provincial agreements, says Freeman Libby, national director of the CFIA's Feed Ban Task Force.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>As for the SRM permits - and lack of them - Libby says the permitting process "is quickly picking up." He could not say how many permits have been issued, but says hundreds must be in place by Thursday to transport, store and dispose of the more than 100,000 tonnes of SRM generated in Canada each year.</p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>"One of the key problems has been the fact that many landfills across the country have not submitted an application," said Libby. Disposal sites must be assessed to see if they meet the new SRM containment rules; the CFIA has hired extra staff and is working with the provinces and landfill operators to get the job done.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oldtimer, post: 405211, member: 97"] [b]This plan now is just a further divider between the two countries...First off the additional rules tells US consumers that the Canadian government (CFIA) recognizes or believes Canada has a much greater problem than the US (while they still have no way to identify Canadian beef to make an informed choice)-- then it again pits the US cattleman against The Canadian because with the costs of this rule IF the border by chance should open to OTM's it would be more economical to ship all cattle to the US for slaughter (where there isn't the cost of these rules)- destroying the US cull cow and bull market-- while making the US the dumping ground of the higher risk potentially infected SRM's..... Testing all is what Canada should have done/should be doing instead of this new SRM removal plan - a lot cheaper in the long run, would actually identify how big a problem they have and give them an indication when they have it eradicated, would reassure consumers of safe beef, and could have opened up other markets for Canadian beef instead of having to ride the US's hind teat...[/b] :( :mad: -------------------------------------------- [b]Costly new mad-cow rules a 'fiasco,' slaughterhouses complain[/b] Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, July 09, 2007 Canada CHILLIWACK. B.C. -- Cattle carcasses hang from giant hooks on the ceiling at B.C.'s largest slaughterhouse. Rivulets of blood and bone dust trail off into drains on the cement kill-room floor. The animals' lungs sit in a bucket waiting for a local farmer to fetch them for his hungry mink. Other animal parts - the brains, spines and organs that can harbour the infectious prions that cause mad cow disease -disappear down special chutes. They fall into bins that will be taken by waste-hauling trucks along the Trans-Canada Highway to Calgary and turned into everything from chicken feed to dog chow. But this elaborate and controversial recycling system becomes illegal in Canada this week as part of the federal government's sweeping "enhanced" feed ban. On Thursday, cattle tissues linked to the spread of mad cow disease must be removed from carcasses and destroyed or permanently contained. They are no longer allowed in pet or animal feed, and are banned from fertilizers and bone meal widely used on farms and home gardens. The change sounds straightforward, but insiders say it is anything but. "It's a bureaucratic nightmare," says Dave Fernie, who runs a small slaughterhouse in the B.C. interior. Fernie and many others were still in limbo last week, waiting to find out if the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) would allow them to drop their high-risk tissues in landfills or if they have to ship it to a special processing plant in Alberta. And the $80 million the Harper government promised to help ease the transition a year ago has yet to reach many people on the front lines whose bills are soaring as they scramble to meet the new rules. "It's enormously frustrating," says Dennis Laycraft, executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, which is asking the federal government for another $50 million to offset the "extraordinary" costs piling up because of government funding delays and continuing confusion about the rules. "We're not asking for a handout to cattlemen," says Laycraft. The $50 million is needed, he says, to cover the escalating cost of getting the high-risk tissue collected and into landfills while the government resolves outstanding policy questions, and incinerators and other plants are built to destroy the risky tissues. These so-called "specified risk materials," or SRM, include the skull, brain, eyes, tonsils, spinal cord and the nerves attached to the spinal cord and brain. They must be removed from slaughtered cattle 30 months or older. The distal ileum, a less than one-metre chunk of the small intestine, must be cut out of cattle of all ages. Under the new rules, SRM must be removed using special equipment and precautions, hauled away in dedicated trucks, processed and then buried in landfills, burned in high-temperatures incinerators, or dumped into composters and bioenergy plants. Permits from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are required every step of the way. The ban and its paper trail will stretch from the farm gate to slaughterhouses, rendering plants and landfills - which require not just special permits, but often costly renovations. The 70-year-old company Johnston Packers, for instance, tucked on a mountainside near Chilliwack, B.C., needs a major overhaul: special filters on drains in the kill room to catch any bits over four millimetres in size, separate waste shoots, costly new saws and equipment for removing SRM, and an air-conditioned room dedicated to SRM storage. Bonnie Windsor, assistant manager of the slaughterhouse, says the $1-million renovation project was derailed by delays in government funding; she and her colleagues have cobbled together an interim solution that entails erecting steel partitions in the kill room and segregating SRM so the plant can continue to operate when the new rules take effect. But there was no government financing available to help offset that cost - which she estimates at close to $200,000 - as the rules say funding for SRM renovations must be approved before the work is undertaken. "We've been left to burn," says Windsor. At his meat plant in Big Lake, Fernie's voice shakes in frustration as he describes his dealings with CFIA over the ban. "It's been a fiasco," he says. Fernie asked the CFIA more that a year ago whether he would be able to dump SRM into a dedicated pit at the nearby Big Lake landfill east of Williams Lake with the other waste from his slaughter operation. He was still waiting for an answer last week. The federal government announced the feed ban a year ago, along with the promise of $80 million to help implement the new rules. But the money didn't materialize until this spring, when federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl started divvying up the funding among the provinces after they agreed to kick in extra funding. The last of the federal-provincial deals to establish "a safe and effective disposal system" - a $3.8 million agreement with Prince Edward Island - was announced on June 29. Federal officials concede there have been delays but say the responsibility does not lie solely with Ottawa. The provincial governments are responsible for distributing the SRM implementation money under the various federal-provincial agreements, says Freeman Libby, national director of the CFIA's Feed Ban Task Force. As for the SRM permits - and lack of them - Libby says the permitting process "is quickly picking up." He could not say how many permits have been issued, but says hundreds must be in place by Thursday to transport, store and dispose of the more than 100,000 tonnes of SRM generated in Canada each year. "One of the key problems has been the fact that many landfills across the country have not submitted an application," said Libby. Disposal sites must be assessed to see if they meet the new SRM containment rules; the CFIA has hired extra staff and is working with the provinces and landfill operators to get the job done. [/QUOTE]
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Costly new mad-cow rules a 'fiasco,' say slaughterhouses
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