| The appearance of mad cow disease in North America was inevitable and it won’t go away unless the government seriously overhauls the industry, says former Montana rancher and well-known agricultural activist and vegan Howard Lyman.
"To suggest there is only one mad cow in North America is ludicrous," Lyman told Fast Forward. "The only thing that surprised me is that the first one was in Canada, not the U.S."
Lyman, whose appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1996 sparked a high-profile lawsuit from Texas cattlemen, will speak in Calgary on October 2. He says slow government reaction to removing animal parts from cattle feed in the ‘90s likely allowed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, to emerge in the North American cattle population. He says the disease’s long incubation period means it is simply being detected now, and he doesn’t think it is restricted to the one infected cow found in northern Alberta earlier this year.
Lyman says the federal and provincial governments should be spending less time promoting Canadian beef with a public relations campaign and more on implementing improved safety measures. He says prohibitions on feeding rendered cow parts back to cattle are flawed, and the recently announced new procedures to test for mad cow disease in Canada are insufficient to guarantee consumers aren’t eating BSE-tainted beef.
"The bureaucrats in Canada are busy fiddling while Rome burns, as far as producers go," Lyman says. "I think it’s a death knell for the industry if they don’t change. It’s better to spend (money) testing all cattle than trying to get half of Canada to eat burgers."
Lyman is a former rancher whose health problems inspired him to investigate the use of chemicals in agriculture. Now a vegan, he says modern farming practices have created unhealthy beef and opened the doors to mad cow disease. He warned North Americans about the disease for years after its appearance in Europe, but his voice has been relatively silent compared to the powerful cattle industry.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, for example, recently contradicted Lyman’s criticisms of Canada’s new safety precautions.
"These added precautions will help reassure our export markets as well as Canadian consumers that Canada’s food safety system is among the best in the world," the association stated in a recent news release. "Canadian beef is safe."
That mantra has been repeated by all levels of government and many industry associations.
But Lyman says it’s obvious the precautions aren’t suitable because other countries still aren’t confident enough to resume importing Canadian beef. He adds that the assurances of the industry and government mirror the situation in Great Britain in the 1990s, which led to a devastating crisis.
"The government has to do something before we end up with every producer in the prairie provinces broke. (Regulations) don’t go near as far as they need to go."
Lyman argues that the only sure way to eliminate mad cow disease is to raise cattle in a healthier way, which requires rethinking factory farming – the intensification of livestock production and feedlot operations.
"If you really want to solve this problem, you have to go back in history and see what worked," Lyman says. "Sure it’s going to increase the cost marginally, but go out and see a producer right now and see if that is better than no market."
Howard Lyman is speaking at the University of Calgary (ICT Building Lecture Theatre One) on October 2 at 7 p.m. |
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