Tough choices in post-BSE world (June 28, 2005) The Edmonton Journal
Alberta beef producers have, according to this editorial, a glimmer of hope that the U.S. border will reopen to Canadian cattle now that mad-cow disease has turned up south of the border.

The editorial says that Danny Leroy, agriculture economist at the University of Lethbridge says that Canada should get serious about strategies that would diversify our export options and reduce reliance on the U.S market, and the place to start is to permit testing of each animal over 30 months.

Currently, the federal and Alberta governments, along with much of the cattle industry, oppose that approach even though it is the practice in many European countries.
That's partly because they do not want the Canadian industry to be out of step with its American counterpart, which up to now has opposed increased testing. It's also costly and unnecessary for food safety, they argue.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which controls BSE testing, has so far refused to give individual packing plants the necessary authority to test all animals. For instance, the small but ambitious Peace River Tender Beef Co-op, which recently moved across the border into British Columbia, hopes to adopt that practice and export meat to Europe.
 

The editorial says that alternatively, the CFIA could develop two protocols. All animals destined for the export market could be tested but those for domestic consumption could retain the existing level of safety. There's some risk Canadians might balk at two standards. But there's little sign Canadian confidence in beef has been hurt by the discovery of BSE here.