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McDonald’s cage-free move gets thumbs down Egg Farmers of Alberta says enriched housing meets consumer concerns, and has advantages over free-run systems By Alexis Kienlen AF STAFF
T
he impact isn’t known yet, but Egg Farmers of Alberta isn’t pleased with McDonald’s Canada’s decision to switch to free-run eggs over the next 10 years. “From my perspective, I was a bit disappointed that they’ve chosen to go cage free, knowing the inherent benefits of the enriched housing system,” said David Webb, the organization’s marketing and communications manager. “I think (enriched housing) addresses a lot of the concerns people had with conventional housing in terms of animal welfare.” The Egg Farmers had no advance warning of the announcement, and didn’t have an exact number of Albertan farms that sell to Burnbrae Farms, McDonald’s supplier. But fewer than five per cent of egg sales in Alberta are from cage-free operations. While many consumers favour cage-free systems, mortality rates are often in the double digits while enriched housing and caged housing have a two per cent mortality rate. An American group called the
ELECTION 2015:
Action items for Alberta agriculture No matter what your sector, there are pressing farm issues for the next federal government Staff
W
ith the longest federal election campaign in Canadian history, you can’t say there hasn’t been time to discuss farm issues. But other than a few photo ops on farms, agriculture rarely gets a mention on the hustings. And, in a way, that’s OK with farm leaders in this province. Alberta Farmer reporter Jennifer Blair spoke to officials from seven major commodity groups and while their priorities differ, there was a common theme: They’re looking for action, not words and promises. Many of their action items reflect the
fact that today’s farmers have a global outlook. “At the end of the day, we only have 30 million people in this country, and we can only consume so much. We are an export country,” said Lee Markert, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission. “We have the land base and resources to provide for the rest of the world, and we really require these customers from around the world to make ourselves sustainable.” Along with election stories, this edition of Alberta Farmer also has a quiz (on page 2) on some of the buyers of the record $9.7 billion of agri-food products exported by the province last year. And as the graphic below shows, there is rich potential in upping that value through processing.
“It’s to the point where we do a lot of value added here in Canada and move different types of products from the same commodity to the rest of the world,” said Markert. “When you make those programs available, it can create a lot of growth within Canada and provide a lot of basis for value chains here.” Value added is just one issue: Rail transport, labour issues, trade deals, and not sacrificing supply management in trade deals were also top items. The bottom line is that whether the current government is re-elected or a new one takes its place, farm leaders will have a full list of priorities they want addressed by the next administration. The slate of election stories begins on page 3.
Adding up Alberta’s agri-food exports Although 44 per cent of Alberta’s agrifood exports are classed as “value-added products,” more than half of that is beef and pork. But the numbers are larger when looking at the domestic scene — food and beverage manufacturing generated an estimated $12.5 billion in sales in 2013. However, as the chart below shows, the growth in those sales has been slow for most of this century.
MCDONALD’S EGGS } page 6
VALUE OF SALES AND EXPORTS (2013)
PRODUCT CATEGORY
VALUE OF EXPORTS ($000,000)
Meat Products
5,671.2
1,298.1
Grain and Oilseed Milling
1,693.7
468.0
Animal Food Manufacturing
891.4
458.0
Bread and Bakery Products
346.0
33.0
746.1
274.8
968.0
79.1
All Other Food Manufacturing
ALBERTA FOOD MANUFACTURING SALES BY TYPE (2013)
VALUE OF MANUFACTURING SALES ($000,000)
Beverage Products
ALBERTA FOOD & BEVERAGE MFG. SALES ($ BILLIONS, 2000-2013)
BEVERAGES %
ALL OTHER FOOD MFG.
MEAT PRODUCTS
23.5%
45.3
% GRAIN AND OILSEED MILLING
13.5%
7.7
BREAD & BAKERY PRODUCTS %
2.8
ANIMAL FOOD MFG. %
7.1
Source: Alberta Government (Alberta’s Agricultural Processing Industry Overview Directory 2015)
12.5
12 B 9B
10.3 10.1 9.8 9.5 9.9 9.7 10.0 9.1 9.3 9.4
10.6
11.1 11.3
6B 3B 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013