As an Albertan, one of the few local brands I (and likely anyone I ask) clearly and fondly recognize is Alberta beef. We love it. We are proud of it. Unfortunately, the definition of the product is not as clear as the brand might imply. As it turns out, any beef that is processed in Alberta is considered Alberta beef and may proudly carry this respected label.

“Right now, a meat processor could bring in a strip loin from Argentina, or New Zealand, or Australia, or the U.S. and cut it into steaks, and that’s called further processing, and so it could be sold as a product of Canada,” says Wally Foremsky. He has been in the meat business in Alberta for 35 years. He is now sales manager and partner in Canadian Celtic Cattle Company, a small group of Alberta ranchers who specialize in naturally raised Galloway beef.

Canadian Celtic is also partnered with and is the exclusive supplier of two retail locations (Second to None Meats on Fourth Street S.W. and on Bowness Road). On a visit to the Fourth Street shop, I chat with Foremsky and ogle the beautifully marbled steaks in the shop’s display case.

I’m surprised when Foremsky tells me without hesitation that it is cheaper (this may change due to the rising price of oil) to import beef from Australia than to buy it from the Alberta ranchers who supply his meat. “It’s grown on the grass,” he says of Australian beef, “so it would be lesser quality.” Alberta-raised beef is typically barley-fed, he says, “but I could label it ‘naturally raised Canadian beef.’” Celtic doesn’t do this; he’s just making a point.

This practice of tracing cows back to their place of birth would be very difficult for larger meat producers like Cargill. The company processes roughly 5,000 cattle a day in its Alberta processing plant. The source of the cattle depends on ever-fluctuating prices. Once at the plant, the meat is not segregated according to its location of origin and so ends up mixed together — quite literally, when it comes to ground beef products that, unlike single cuts, generally contain the meat of more than one cow.

All Alberta-processed beef is regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), so we can be sure that it is properly inspected and high-quality regardless of its province or country of origin. However, the CFIA guidelines for food labelling, set back in the ’80s before the massive globalization of our food industries, state that if at least 51 per cent of production costs (which can include everything from processing to packaging) were incurred in Canada and the final transformation of a food product occurs in Canada, it can then be labelled “Product of Canada.” Goods labelled “Product of Canada” may contain ingredients or other raw materials from any country in the world. Changes are currently being initiated, but officials are consulting with industry before they complete the new guidelines.

The official Calgary Stampede burgers are labelled “Product of Canada” and are made with beef from across Canada. In contrast, Canadian Celtic supplies guaranteed 100 per cent Alberta-raised beef products to the Stampede’s private club, ranahans, to the ultra-elite Lazy S, and custom produces a “naturally raised” Galloway beef burger for the Big Four Dining Lounge; a separate product from the aforementioned official burger sold in other Stampede concessions.

“I guess our point of view is that we’re just so happy that people are eating beef,” says Lori Creech, Alberta Beef Producers communications manager. “In light of everything that’s happened with cattle producers in the last five years, we don’t care if they’re consuming Canadian beef. I mean, the bigger demand is for beef as a whole. That helps us all out. We’re all in this together.”

This whole issue is reminiscent of a recent apple juice exposé in which it was revealed that juice labelled “Product of Canada” was in fact made from apples shipped here from China. Whereas consumers are in most cases concerned with whether or not foods or merchandise is Canadian, branding Alberta beef as such distinguishes the product from that of other provinces — say, Saskatchewan beef or Ontario beef.

Country of Origin Labelling (COOL), implemented as an amendment to the 2002 U.S. Farm Bill, has been used in New Zealand to differentiate New Zealand lamb in international markets and is to be put into practice in the U. S. by October, 2008. COOL requires that all fresh beef sold at the retail level in the U.S. be labelled with its country of origin. For a product to be labelled as a product of the U.S., it will have to have come from an animal that was born, raised and processed in that country. Similarly, if a steak came from a cow that was born in Canada but processed in the U.S., it would have to specify both on the label.

For Canadian beef exports, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association estimated in 2003 that if unmitigated, the implementation of COOL guidelines will cost the Canadian beef industry between $280 million and $300 million per year, or $90 to $100 per head just to specifically label the country of origin, never mind the province of origin.

Although it is not required to do so, Canadian Celtic values the connection between farm and plate and is proud to be able to trace all of the beef products it sells right back to the ranch they came from. “If you choose a piece of meat, I can tell you the day the calf was born, where it was raised and when and where it was processed” says Foremsky. “We thought it was important, and we took the steps to ensure traceability.”