Demand is outpacing supply in Cargill’s Canadian Beef Sustainability Acceleration program, the company says. The program is now looking for more producers, particularly cow-calf producers, to join.

To sign up, producers must be trained and audited by VBP+ or be audited by Where Food Comes From. They must then register for BIXS and age-verify their cattle in BIXS or the CLTS database. BIXS then disperses funds to qualifying producers. The program website states that producers received $10 per head for qualifying cattle during the first quarter of the pilot, $20.11 per head during the second quarter and $18.52 in the third quarter.

Currently only Canadian cattle slaughtered at Cargill’s High River plant are eligible for the program, Meat+Poultry reports, but Cargill plans to add cattle from the Guelph plant in the future.

For more information, visit the Canadian Beef Sustainability Acceleration website at cbsapilot.ca.

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Chris White is the new president and CEO of the Canadian Meat Council. He comes to the council with 20 years experience in government and industry relations as chief of staff for five federal cabinet ministers and vice-president of government relations in the finance, insurance, and auto sectors. The Canadian Meat Council represents 400 federally inspected meat processing establishments with annual sales of $28 billion, including exports of $6.1 billion, and 66,000 jobs making it the largest component of this country’s food processing sector.

Grant Zalinko has been promoted to the position of executive director of the livestock branch in the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. He was previously the manager of the livestock development unit and chiefly responsible for the development and updating of the ministry’s livestock strategy. He and his wife also manage a small commercial cattle operation near Rouleau.

Garner Deobald of Hodgeville, Sask., has been re-elected president of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council. Joining him on the board are vice-president Roger Peters from Red Deer, and new directors Jay Cross, David Sibbald, and Tessa Verbeek from Calgary, and Reed Rigney from Westlock, Alta.

Bruce Holmquist of Saskatoon is the new president of the Canadian Western Agribition, an organization he has been involved with as a volunteer and executive member for the past 40 years. He is also the general manager of the Canadian Simmental Association. Joining him on the executive are: vice-president Chris Lee from Arcola, past president Stewart Stone of Regina and directors at large Kim Hextall of Grenfell, Ross Macdonald from Lake Alma and Bryce Thompson of Regina.

David Sibbald is the new president and chairman of the board of the Calgary Stampede. He is also the current president of the Canadian Angus Association and will continue to fill that role until the conclusion of the CAA annual meeting in Brandon on June 10. His term as president of the Stampede board runs until 2019.

Cattlemen Tim Oleksyn and George Cooper were inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon on April 22, 2017.

Tim Oleksyn, a rancher and farmer from Shellbrook has been a supporter of beef research for decades. He has been a board member and chair of the Western Beef Development Centre and the Beef Cattle Research Council and served on the board of the Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund, Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute and the new Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE). He is currently on the fundraising committee to secure the remaining funds needed to make the LFCE a reality.

George Cooper of West Bend served on the boards of the Canadian Shorthorn Association, Saskatchewan Livestock Association and Canadian Western Agribition, and was president of the Regina Bull Sale. He passed away in August 2016.

Also inducted were Art Mainil a founding member of the Palliser Wheat Growers Association and founding president of the Weyburn Inland Terminal, soil researcher Bob McKercher, seed grower and community advocate Donna Edwards, and biotech researcher Wilf Keller.

Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) presented three Awards of Distinction during the recent Livestock Care Conference in Leduc to recognize individuals or groups that have made exceptional contributions to farm animal care in Alberta.

The Communication Award was presented to Alberta Beef Quality Starts Here, a non-profit, industry-supported organization that has operated as the provincial delivery agent for the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program since 2003. In 2016 the agency had to step up its training and communication activities to include three new modules addressing animal care, stewardship and biosecurity under the VBP Plus (VBP+) program.

The Award for Industry Leadership was presented to Jackie Wepruk, a founder and current general manager of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC). The NFACC has facilitated the development of updated codes of practice for the care and handling of different livestock species in Canada, and the development of animal care assessment programs.

The Award for Innovation was presented to veterinarian and long-time farm animal care advocate Dr. Merle Olson, for his tireless efforts in the research, development and commercialization of economical pharmaceutical options for pain management and parasite control in livestock. As vice-president of research and development at Solvet Dr. Olson developed Meloxicam Oral Suspension — a new product for cattle available at www.afac.ab.ca.

Dr. Donald E. Buckingham has been named CEO of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, an Ottawa-based independent non-profit research organization that develops policy options for the agricultural and agri-food sectors. Buckingham is currently chair of the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal. His new position is effective July 1, 2017.

The Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP+) program has officially launched a new website, which offers a single-stop comprehensive resource for all matters related to VBP+. It can be found online at verifiedbeefproductionplus.ca.

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The Mexico announcement is the final step in normalizing the Canada-Mexico beef trade. Canadian officials had approved Mexico to export beef to Canada two years earlier. Prior to the October 1, 2016 implementation, a team of Mexican officials will visit Canadian beef-exporting facilities, likely this summer.

Currently, the most significant remaining BSE-related market restriction that CCA and the Government of Canada are continuing to work on is expansion of access in China to full under-30-month (UTM) from boneless UTM. In 2015, China became Canada’s second-largest export market, up from fifth place in 2014. The value of Canadian beef exports to China more than doubled in 2015 and there is further potential once access is expanded.

These are important considerations for Canadian beef producers as they continue to make their individual production decisions. An additional consideration is the Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP+) program. Launched in June, VBP+ includes training and auditing for animal care, biosecurity and environmental stewardship along with on-farm food safety practices within the cow-calf and feedlot sectors. Through validating sustainable practices at the primary production level, VBP+ enables producers to publicly demonstrate their commitment to responsible stewardship of both cattle and resources.

While this program will help industry respond to future situations like we saw earlier this year with Earls, this is no flash-in-the-pan effort. VBP+ is an expansion of the original VBP program, which grew from its roots in the Quality Starts Here program, an educational initiative started by the CCA years ago to help the beef industry move toward the highest beef quality in the world. Work to expand the national program offering and enhance provincial delivery across all provinces was initiated in late 2013 to address growing consumer demands for transparent, accountable, and sustainable beef production. VBP+ is operated by the Beef Cattle Research Council. Funds to develop and deliver VBP+ are provided through the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-off and the Government of Canada under Growing Forward 2’s AgriMarketing Program — Assurance Systems stream.

Programs like VBP+ are about what producers can do to be more responsive to the future direction of the industry. I reiterated this message to participants attending the Beef Farmers of Ontario’s Beef Youth Development Program in July. I discussed industry politics and opportunities, and underscored the need to embrace innovation and research for a viable industry going forward.

I was pleased to travel to Edmonton to address delegates at the Alberta Beef Producers semi-annual meeting. I met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Ottawa, where he later announced that Mexico will fully reopen to Canadian beef in October. At a luncheon in the Parliament Building in honour of President Peña Nieto hosted by the Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Small Business and Tourism, I was fortunate to be seated with Minister Chrystia Freeland and several members of the Mexico delegation. Over a lunch of delicious Canadian striploin, the delegation shared its delight with increased access to Canadian beef, which is held in high regard in Mexico, and potential workforce opportunities at Canadian packing plants and on Canadian farms.

Of course, earlier this year I was in Brussels, Belgium with Minister Freeland as she promoted the benefits of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) to the European Union (EU) Parliament’s International Trade Committee meeting. In the uncertainty following the Brexit vote, the European Commission presented a formal proposal to the Council of the European Union (EU) to sign and conclude the CETA.

As I write this column, the commission had just pitched the proposal as a “mixed agreement,” meaning the deal will need to be approved by each of the EU’s 28 member parliaments. The proposal is thought to be the fastest way to get the CETA ratified amid uncertainty over the U.K.’s future in the EU. If, as expected, the council next meets in October, and if a consensus decision is attained from all 28 EU parliaments, it will be possible to provisionally apply CETA.

The Liberal government said it looks forward to signing CETA with its European partners this year and to its ratification in Canada and by the EU Parliament early next year. The CCA will continue its efforts to resolve long-standing technical trade barriers with the EU in the meantime.

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He has always aimed to apply sound production and environmental practices with his 500-head commercial cow-calf operation and 7,000-head-capacity southern Alberta feedlot.

He and family members at Bear Trap Feeders, near Nanton south of Calgary, do make sure they are using proper and recommended procedures for handling cattle, attend to proper animal health protocols, and apply proper water and pasture management practices. They follow the procedures and keep proper records. They have completed the Canadian Cattleman’s Association Verified Beef Program (VBP) and are fine-tuning recommendations under the provincial Environmental Farm Plan.

“To produce cattle that qualify as verifiable sustainable beef didn’t require many changes in how we do things on our ranch,” says Lowe, who is also chair of the Alberta Beef Producers. “We know what the recommended practices are, we just had to make sure we were following them to the best of our ability and were keeping proper records. It’s probably not much different than what many producers do anyway, but it involves making adjustments where needed and keeping records.”

Lowe figures producing livestock within the relatively broad term of sustainable beef is what’s going to keep the Canadian beef industry in the game in terms of meeting the evolving needs of markets, retailers and consumers.

The system — the protocol, the tools — are there to do it. It can be done. Now it is up to Canadian beef producers and the rest of the industry to grab the ball and run with it.

Lowe doesn’t expect an overnight change, but he says it would not only be a shame, but ultimately costly if the whole beef industry doesn’t seize the opportunity to move toward the sustainable beef realm.

McDonald’s project

That one-year pilot project wasn’t about producing beef for McDonald’s, it was about developing a system or protocol the Canadian beef industry could use as it markets beef not only domestically but around the world.

“The project was about seeing if we could produce verifiable sustainable beef and we did,” says Lowe. “It is the type of beef that McDonald’s want to use in their program, but it also identifies a production system for producing beef that will appeal to broader markets. Canada is in a unique and enviable position because we have the programs and also the tools to make it all work. Years ago many complained this cattle identification system we have in Canada was just a nuisance, but in this changing marketplace it may just prove to be our saving grace.”

McDonald’s Restaurant chain is a tremendous ally of the Canadian beef industry. Internationally, McDonald’s uses about two per cent of the beef produced in the world. Just in Canada the burger giant sources 65 million pounds of beef annually for a 100 per cent Canadian beef claim. It stood by the Canadian beef industry during and following the BSE crisis of 2003. And in 2013 it approached the Canadian Cattleman’s Association’s (CCA), Canadian Round Table for Sustainable Beef and asked the industry if it was interested in a pilot project to produce not just good quality beef but “verified sustainable beef.”

Lowe who headed the CCA environmental committee at the time, viewed it as an opportunity, but admits being a bit naive at the outset. “Going into this I thought it was a program we could probably hammer out in an afternoon,” he says. Two years and many, many meetings later the pilot program was launched in 2015. In the spring of 2016 the project wrapped up with nearly 9,000 head of cattle classified as “verified sustainable beef.”

In all the discussions that went on to design the pilot project, Lowe says there were two main aspects he welcomed. First, in producing sustainable beef, McDonald’s wasn’t talking about producing beef with “freedom from” (freedom from hormones and antibiotics). In fact, the project welcomed science and technology — what tools can modern beef production use that increase efficiency, reduce the environmental footprint, respect animal welfare yet yield a very healthy, safe food product? “And it wasn’t a prescriptive type of approach that ‘you must do this,’” says Lowe. “As an industry we were able to say, ‘You tell us what you want, what you would like the end product to be, and we’ll tell you how we can get there.’ They were eager to work with the industry to achieve the final product.”

Project numbers

“So we know we can do it,” says Lowe. “Now the challenge is to get the Canadian beef industry all working toward that goal. It is a shift for the entire beef industry and we need producers to embrace it. The value of doing it may not be reflected in the price per pound of beef, but just in being able to stay in business. It’s about adopting these practices on our own as beef producers, rather than being legislated. And down the road, even as we continue to produce good quality beef, if we aren’t producing cattle that meet the verified sustainable beef criteria we might not even have a chair at the international trade table.”

So what’s involved in producing “verified sustainable beef?” As Lowe found, for many producers it’s not really that big a stretch from what most do already. But in some respects it is formalizing that process, documenting it, keeping records and having it audited. Proper production practices with land, water, cattle, animal health procedure, and farm safety are among the key “indicators” that have been established. Practices and procedures through the whole beef production chain need to be monitored or audited by a third party, and all cattle need to be traceable through the production system.

Tools are there

The five indicator categories (or principles), which pilot participants were measured on, encompassed:

1. Natural resources — such as ensuring soil health, water supply, and wildlife and plant biodiversity.
2. People and community — includes ensuring a safe work environment and commitment to supporting the local community.
3. Animal health and welfare — such as adequate feed to drinking water and minimizing animal stress and pain.
4. Food — such as ensuring food safety and beef quality, including training and registration in the Verified Beef Production (VBP) program.
5. Efficiency and innovation — such as recycling and energy efficiency programs.

Producing verified sustainable beef will in many cases require more management to not only follow but document production practices. And Lowe says producers shouldn’t be worried about the auditing process — it’s not a punishment. “If an auditor comes to your operation and grades you on a scale of one to five on some production practice and you get rated a three out of five, for example, that doesn’t mean you are doing a bad job,” says Lowe. “It’s just a report card. You can say that is good to know, here is an area where I need to make some improvement.”

Lowe admits he’s not keen on the word “sustainable” because it doesn’t properly describe the job ahead. “The dictionary defines sustainable as something maintained or static and that’s really not what we are after,” he says.

“The market is looking for a beef product that is high-quality, healthy, safe, produced humanely in an environmentally responsible way,” he says. “It is a sustainable program that is always moving forward and improving. Through this pilot program we’ve really been given a chance to shape our own destiny as an industry, and that’s something we don’t want to pass up.”

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While many may consider this a victory, the question I pose in this article is did we win the war or just the battle? I suggest that we won the battle, and that it is just a matter of time before another Earls or A&W comes along and questions through its marketing practices how Canadian beef producers conduct business. The elephant in the room is how will beef producers react the next time and the time after that, particularly if the next company is a really big player like Walmart or McDonald’s?

To look at this issue more closely, let’s look at the decision by Earls’ executives. While not privy to corporate thinking, it appears to me that this business saw an opportunity to fill a niche that it felt consumers were demanding, specifically for beef that is certified humane. Emphasis on the word certified! They were right in stating that they would have to look long and hard in Canada to find a consistent source of certified humanely produced beef. Not to say we do not humanely treat our animals; anyone who knows anything about the industry knows that such a claim would be totally removed from the truth! Unfortunately most consumers are not as well tied into agricultural practices and increasingly are looking for more than verbal assurances that their food is safe, that animals are treated humanely and raised in an environmentally sustainable manner!

When I look at the website of the American company that Earls’ beef was to be sourced from, it offers a high-quality product that among its long list of brand requirements is a statement on humane treatment of animals. This company goes the additional step of having its production practices certified under standards of Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC,) which is a non-profit charity. This organization has created a long list of standards that producers must adhere to in order to quality for certification. While one may not agree with everything listed, for the most part they reflect the common-sense values that the vast majority of Canadian beef producers uses when raising beef cattle and reflect many of the values that leaders of various beef organizations are trying to instil in Canada.

Consider for example the Canadian Code of Practice for Care and Handling of Beef Cattle released in 2013 through the National Farm Animal Care Council and the Verified Beef Production Program offered across the country through various provincial and national cattle organizations. Both lay out guiding principles for producing beef in a safe and humane fashion. They cover virtually the same areas of animal care and production that the American HFAC standards cover. The difference is that those American producers enrolled under HFAC are “certified,” while in Canada participation to a large extent is voluntary. Producers in VBP are verified and audited, however, the number of participating producers at this point is limited and sourcing a consistent supply of beef under this program from birth to slaughter would be challenging.

So how big an issue are we facing? Are calls for beef to be raised in a humane, environmentally sustainable manner a passing fad or the new reality? Will we see increasing demand by consumers (backed up through their spending practices) for certified food production practices? My gut feeling is that we are at just at the tip of the iceberg in this regard and that these programs will become increasingly prevalent with time. Accepting the status quo with regards to food production will no longer cut it with a large segment of society, particularly young people.

That is why initiatives such as the Canadian Round­table on Sustainable Beef are so important to the future of this industry. This multi-stakeholder initiative is working to develop a framework that will allow all players in the beef value chain (i.e. producers, processors, retailers) to produce and source beef that is verified as “sustainable.” Not only will this initiative define sustainable beef production with input from all stakeholders, it will develop for each sector of industry, sustainability production indicators that can be audited and verified. This vision which is available on the roundtable’s website is to have Canadian beef recognized globally as economically viable, environmentally sound and socially responsible. Attaining this vision will require widespread industry buy-in! The question is — are you up for the challenge?

Of course the alternative the next time a major chain questions how Canadian beef is produced is to respond, “I am not eating there anymore!” However, in the big picture, I am not sure such a response does much to help the future of the industry.

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