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Moving past the Bill 6 rhetoric AgCoalition meetings focus on creating sensible workplace safety rules
New verified beef program makes a timely debut Revamped VBP program means producers can document their animal care, biosecurity, and environmental practices
By JENNIFER BLAIR and JILL BURKHARDT AF staff/contributor
T
he Alberta government’s town halls on Bill 6 last winter were explosive, but recent industry-led meetings didn’t produce similar fireworks. “I thought the meeting went very well. There were lots of ideas thrown around between farmers and the facilitators,” said Turin-area farmer Kevin Serfas, who attended AgCoalition’s producer meeting in Lethbridge on June 22. “The atmosphere was more, ‘OK, let’s work with government.’ There’s some good things about this bill, but there’s some really bad things about this bill, so let’s work with them and throw ideas around. “There are compromises that can be made that will keep most people happy.” The Alberta Agriculture Farm and Ranch Safety Coalition — more commonly known as AgCoalition — hosted producer meetings at three locations in Alberta in late June to “offer feedback into the consultation process with the government,”
The marketplace is sending signals it wants verified sustainable beef, and the new VBP Plus program gives producers a way to show they are doing just that. PHOTO: CANADA BEEF
see BILL 6 } page 6
By ALEXIS KIENLEN AF STAFF
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he newly launched Verified Beef Production Plus program is taking Canada one step closer in its quest towards verified sustainable beef, says one of its designers. “This is just from my perspective, but we have always had early adopters — the people who believe in it — but there have never been clear market signals,” said Cecilie Fleming, chair of the committee that revamped the original VBP program. “People did it just because it was the right thing to do. Now we’re getting market signals that the end-users are looking for those attributes. No longer can we say what we’re doing — they are asking us to demonstrate what we’re doing.”
Thistle weevils
VBP Plus builds off the original Verified Beef Production, which focused on on-farm food safety. The new, voluntary program — open to cow-calf producers, backgrounders and feedlots owners — contains modules that address animal care, biosecurity, and environmental sustainability. It is part of the Canadian Cattlemen’s programming, approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and meets the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef’s recently drafted indicators for sustainable beef. The rollout of VBP Plus also seems timely, since retailers such as Earls Restaurants and McDonald’s have recently put an emphasis on sourcing sustainable beef. But the timing is coincidental as VBP Plus has been in development since 2013. “This is part of the push to define sus-
tainable beef and our program is one of the programs that can make that happen,” said Fleming, who raises Angus seedstock near Granum. “My phone, and the provincial co-ordinator’s phone, has been ringing off the hook. Before this was coming, people knew it was coming and they wanted it, especially after a lot of discussion and social media came to light with Earls. “There was evidence that we didn’t really have a full robust program and now we do. It’s not in reaction to Earls — it’s just our timing.” Consumers’ growing interest in how cattle are raised means food retailers and the food-service sector are also interested in sustainable beef, said the national manager of VBP Plus.
see verified beef } page 6
you’re going to want some of them } PAGE 2