Asking “Where’s the beef?” anywhere in North America today is not likely to draw a laugh, particularly in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
As eastern Canada struggles to undo some of the economic damage done by SARS, along comes a mad cow to deflate all the hopes pinned on this spring’s blizzards and rainstorms to break a four-year drought that had shriveled up the prairie cattle industry.
When bovine spongiform encephalopathy showed up in a May 16 test on that cow’s brain it triggered alarms that shut down a $30-billion industry, putting thousands out of work in one day, as cattle auctions were cancelled and slaughterhouses and processors closed their doors.
All the burger companies are busy trying to put the best light on plummeting stock prices. By Thursday morning, most of the world had banned imports of Canadian cattle, processed meat and byproducts, and animal feed.
The Canadian government was busy doing immediate damage control, promising to “depopulate” affected cattle herds, claiming that “the system is working” and warning against public panic, an exercise not unlike trying to deflect a hurricane.
But, even as the government spokesmen were busy buffing the official image, some very serious questions were being asked: Why did it take from the Jan. 31 slaughter date to May 16 to test that brain? Why does Canada, the third-biggest beef producer in the world, test only 900 cattle a year, when Britain tests 1,100 a week? How rigid is the testing of processed Canadian cattle feed?
How did mad cow disease end up in a single cow in the middle of the back of beyond? And there’s bound to be more.
Looks like it could be a rough year for the Canadian economy
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian
