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R-CALF lawsuit takes aim at Canadian beef
New mindset needed?
Earls is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’
Protectionist ranchers’ group says checkoffs promote ‘less safe and less wholesome’ imported beef By JENNIFER BLAIR AF staff
Consumers are starting to call the tune about how cattle are raised, and the sector needs to respond, say industry observers
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group of cattle ranchers is suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, claiming their checkoff dollars are being used to promote Canadian and other imported beef. The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America — best known as R-CALF — also claims imported beef is “less safe and less wholesome.” But the lawsuit filed earlier this month is “a fairly typical R-CALF action, accompanied by pretty typical R-CALF rhetoric,” said
see R-CALF } page 6
By ALEXIS KIENLEN AF STAFF
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onsumers are demanding sustainable beef and many want it sooner rather than
later. That’s a key lesson from the Earls Restaurant controversy — and evidence producers need to change their thinking, say experts. “The first thing the cattle industry has to do is stop believing that there is no money to be made with niche markets. There is money to be made,” said Sylvain Charlebois, one of Canada’s most well-known experts on the food industry. “The second thing the industry has to do is come up with a strategy. Define what sustainable beef means and execute a strategy as quickly as possible.” Earls’ controversial (and since reversed) decision to source Certified Humane beef from the U.S. shows that consumer trends move quickly — but the beef industry has trouble keeping up, said Charlebois, dean of the faculty of
see BEEF } page 6
Cattle prices have ‘just one direction to go’ and that’s why producers should be embracing niche markets for natural or ‘certified humane’ beef, says Hanna rancher Colleen Biggs. PHOTO: TK RANCH
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