May 29, 2003 Stratford Beacon Herald (Ontario, Canada) by Bob Reid

It is related to the cannibalism that is rampant in Canadian agriculture which in turn can be easily traced to the ultimate source of the problem -- the sacred cow of our society whose impact is far greater than any mad cow -- our cheap food policy.

Mad cow disease is caused by feeding one animal to another in what amounts to barnyard cannibalism. Given other options, one cow does not eat another cow. Cattle don't naturally have an appetite or the right shaped teeth for eating one another the way chickens and pigs do. It is not natural. So the cow contributing to the meal portion of any such arrangement must be made more palatable to the dining cow. This is done by grinding up cow parts and adding enough herbs and spices to disguise the flavor so the eating cow can't even taste the cow being eaten.

Unfortunately, although the cow can get the meal down, it doesn't sit too well in her stomach and obviously it has proven to have detrimental effects on other parts of her body, i.e. the brain.

The question arises, why would you feed cattle to each other in the first place? That brings us directly again to the source of the problem, the sacred cow/cheap food policy.

Farmers have even tried feeding chicken manure to cattle as a cheap source of protein in their diet and perhaps still do. I don't think any farmer enjoys shoving that type of diet down their animals' throats. Watching cows munch contentedly on sweet-smelling, leafy alfalfa hay or wade into some moist, tasty corn silage is the type of free entertainment that beef cattle farmers can afford and do enjoy.

However, if the owner of a beef feedlot was losing $100 per head on every animal that left the farm after eating copious amounts of alfalfa and/or corn silage or he could make $10 per head by feeding them chicken manure, I think most who wanted to carry on in the farming industry would make the same choice of diet.

Ironically, chickens can do quite well pecking through and digesting cattle manure. They love scratching through a manure pile. It makes the egg yolks a bright yellow and gives them a good flavor but economics dictate chickens be closely confined in cages and fed otherwise. Cheap rules.

Cannibalism has become an accepted practice in farming. The bigger farmers have swallowed up the smaller farmers in an effort to survive ever-shrinking profit margins. They in turn are then often swallowed up by even bigger farmers.

Cutting costs had been the dictum by which all decisions affecting the future of agriculture have been made. Food safety has received some attention as of late in agriculture circles -- more as a vehicle for maintaining market share than strictly focused on food quality. Cheap is still the main focus, especially in competing with imported fruits, vegetables, etc. that could be grown on a nuclear waste site and sprayed with chemicals banned in this country years ago. If it is cheaper and looks good, people will eat it, demand it.

Governments apparently believe they get a bigger bang for their agriculture buck by slashing food inspection and research jobs and redirecting the money to Toronto advertisement agencies to devise a public campaign to show how safe and solid our food industry is.

Amongst all the coverage of the mad cow mania was a TV interview with a U.S. congressman saying he didn't have much confidence in a Canadian food inspection system that would leave the head of a cow suspected of having the disease in a freezer for four months. The first three months of that process were likely spent searching for a government agriculture institution that didn't have the electricity shut off yet so a freezer could be plugged in. The next three weeks would be looking for a place to outsource the lab work and failing that the final week recalling what position lab workers had been reclassified under in order to provide better service to the farming community.

And if the congressman thought that cow's head had been in the freezer a long time, he should see how long politicians have had their head stuck in the sand here when it comes to supporting agriculture. When the minister of agriculture portfolio carries as much significance in the House of Commons as a chief janitorial position, it does not bode well. If only he worked as cheaply as the people within the industry he represents.

Recent reports in the newspaper suggest government-owned agriculture buildings at the University of Guelph, long a beacon of hope and promise for the future direction of agriculture in our land, are deteriorating from neglect. I can't think of a stronger symbol for farm/food and government relationship than that.

The mad cow scare will soon pass. I suspect more people will die from being run over by a cattle beast than from eating one in Canada. That is a tribute to farmers, not the government or the market place.

The brief news spotlight on agriculture will provide a fleeting glimpse, a reminder, that food is actually produced on farms. That will pass as quickly as the last mad cow is laid to rest but the sacred cow of cheap food will live on.

It will gobble up all the small farms and chicken manure forced down its throat but ultimately neither the farm community or the consuming public will like what the sacred cow leaves behind.