What is the largest problem facing our cattle industry?
Pope: Loss of free market access to the US for Alberta/Canadian beef. There are restrictions on trucks, branding, feedlot and slaughter conditions and we cannot compete with our US counterparts whose prices are unhindered by USDA rules. Our beef prices are discounted versus the equivalent U.S. beef product. Along with high provincial levies, age verification and now livestock tracking we are on the verge of becoming extinct producers. ABM: What is the solution? Pope: Supplement the US market with the Far Eastern Japanese market; Japan is the gateway to further Far Eastern export opportunities. We need to open up new markets. We need to give the Japanese customer what they want. We have seen little progress in the past five years on this issue, but the very means of our deliverance is in BSE testing, something our two major cattle organizations won’t even discuss. Hence our governments won’t address the issue. While our industry withers on the vine our own cattle organizations are divid
