Serve domestic markets first
The recent federal commitment to spend up to $6 million to eradicate disease, enhance traceability and improve on-farm food safety practices in the sheep and goat industry directs all monetary support to directions that will ultimately not benefit the sheep and goat producer – only sectors trading for export. What we need is money designated so that each province has dedicated slaughter, so that we can have our product marketed locally (in our individual provinces).
I continue to ask why the push for traceability when we do not have a herd big enough to supply our own Canadian market and there is no way to have properly slaughtered and inspected animals here in our local markets.
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Manitoba funds look to improve farm equipment interoperability
PAMI’s getting another $25,000 to help farm machinery and their digital systems, across different brands, work together.
Once again, the push is to prove that the RFID technology will provide a benefit to our industry. Yet you cannot show that any of the original traceability has provided a return to ours, or any other livestock sector.
I have yet to hear a cattle producer say that having RFID and age-verified cattle has actually given him a real market advantage. Any advantage has gone into buying the technology and recording and forwarding of information, not into the producer’s bank account.
We have traceability now. Your end-line facilities do not have any guarantee that the number attached to any animal, be that CSIP tag or RFID, is actually the one the producer attached to it. As with all things… we, the little guy coming up against big business will have no way to prove that we have not sent a sick animal through the food chain. Once the skin is off, and without something like a DNA match to sire and dam, we are at the mercy of the situation.
Lorna S. Wall Poplarfield, Man.
Nearly a billion dollars for security, 60 trucks, and two or three helicopters hauling snow some three hours away is another waste of money.
But to step up to the plate and give freight assistance for feed shortages for cattle farmers in southwest Manitoba and the Interlake region is a burden on the treasury. Politicians and organizers tell us to look beyond the cost of the Olympics, and use buzz phrases like “sense of pride,” and “showcase Canada” to justify the Games. The Games! Let them begin! – to the benefit of a few.
C. Derbowka Dufrost, Man. that is effective in achieving this objective.
Regarding adverse effects of a large transmission line, Manitoba Hydro is being very proactive to ensure that the impact this line will have on our province is minimized. Great care is being taken to route the line around some of our pristine parks and protected areas, as an example. We are also very concerned about minimizing the impact of this line on agricultural lands. The extensive consultation process, currently underway, has been designed to identify and address concerns from all parties respecting potential routes in their area. We are making every effort to work with local landowners to minimize impacts on agricultural production.
Regarding stray voltage affecting livestock and equipment, extensive research has shown that electric and magnetic fields from direct current transmission lines do not adversely affect human health or animals. We are also proud of the safe 40-year operating history with Bipoles I and II, which are similar systems to what is planned for Bipole III, and which further supports this lack of adverse impact to human health and animals.
We are confident the public consultation process we are undertaking will provide every opportunity for residents along the proposed routes to express their views and concerns. These perspectives are very important to us, and will be taken into consideration with the final routing of this line.
Bob Brennan CEO, Manitoba Hydro
Winnipeg, Man.
But is it free range?
Regarding the Feb. 11 editorial “Pork. The food of love,” is this the “new cure-all” for those with waning libidos? Is this the aphrodisiac the world has been waiting for?
What a breakthrough – consuming pork could be the final answer to conjure up those desires of our youth.
I can see it all now: the advertisements proclaiming this wonder food, (and Manitoba Pork has certainly qualified as being an expert at billboard displays in the past); the butcher shops scrambling to keep their shelves stocked as throngs of adults are literally filling their baskets and shopping carts with “oink” products.
The Cialis (ask your doctor) commercials, where a couple arrive very late for a concert and the waiting taxi scenario will still show, but advertise, Pork (ask your butcher).
One very important question remains however. Is this free-range or factory-raised pork? I’m sure it makes a difference.
It was just a few weeks ago that I read a published article “Animal antibiotic overuse hurting humans, and the public have been warned about PAYLEAN, the “growth promoter.”
Is that a coincidence? John Fefchak Virden, Man.
Please forward letters to Manitoba Co-operator, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, R3H 0H1 or Fax: 204-954-1422 or email: [email protected](subject: To the editor)
