The Rural Voice, 2004-11, Page 21Representing Ontario at the Sheep
Summit were John Hemsted, chair of
Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency
and the Agency's general manager,
Cathy Lennon as well as Jay Lewis
of Holstein representing the feedlot
sector and Tony Facciolo, vice-
president of theOntario Independent
Meat Processors.
Hemsted reported the key
outcome of the summit was
the establishment of a joint
industry/government task force,
which will work on a tight timeline
to develop the recovery strategy.
"I was encouraged with Minister
Mitchell's commitment to move
quickly on a number of priority
issues that we've identified for our
industry," said Hemsted. "There are
other components however which
will require additional time to flesh
out fully."
This is the role of the task force,
which met for the first time on
October 18.
Components of the strategy
included investment in federally -
inspected processing capacity, a ewe -
lamb retention program, market and
industry development, improved
traceability and scrapie surveillance.
Jensen said she thinks to get long-
term effects, Canada needs to get its
own federally -inspected slaughter
plants "so the country doesn't have to
rely on export markets."
"We don't have enough sheep in
Canada to supply the demand that's
there already," she said. "The
problem is Canada is importing New
Zealand lambs because we don't
have federal inspection to use our
own."
Since big -chain grocery stores have
stores all across Canada, in order for
them to ship the lamb out of Ontario,
a federal inspection needs to be done.
Because Ontario doesn't have a
federally inspected plant, only
provincial ones, lambs can't be
shipped to other provinces.
"So if we could stop imports and
start processing our own meat, we
wouldn't have this problem," said
Jensen.
Jensen said freezer lamb is
inspected by provincial inspectors,
but the meat "must stay in the
province."
She said the reason there isn't
enough federally inspected plants is
because this "hasn't been a problem
until now."
She said before BSE hit, Canada
could ship live lambs to the U.S. and
buy back packaged meat, but
Canadians haven't closed the border,
so the U.S. is still shipping back
packaged meat, although Canada
isn't exporting any lambs.
"If they would close the border we
could feed our own people," said
Jensen. "It gets even worse because
urban people don't understand the
situation. They think farmers are
crying because they are always
crying, but what they don't
understand is a country that can't
feed itself is a Third World country."
Since the sheep industry is hurting
just as much as the beef, Jensen said
to help make ends meet, she sells
wool blankets and sheep skins as a
product from her sheep farm.
"It comes down to a few bucks
here and a few bucks there. Whatever
puts food on the table." she said.
She said although the little
amount of money that the
government is giving farmers is
appreciated, it's not the solution to
the problem.
"Giving money to help farmers is
like a band-aid approach. It's not
going to fix the problem," she said.
Jensen said it's not a question
whether the government is doing
enough to help farmers, but whether
it's doing the right things.
"The government needs to have
some backbone and stand up for
Canadians," she said.
She is sticking with the idea of
opening more federal inspection
plants and to close the border to
imports.
"It's going to take a long time to
get the backlog of animals through,
but at least it's a step in the right
direction. Eventually it would
balance out."
Jensen said she isn't scared for the
future because if the sheep industry
doesn't bounce hack, she "will do
something else, but won't get out of
farming in one way or the other."
"I enjoy farming too much to quit,
but if it comes down to it, I don't
have to farm sheep," said Jensen. "I
figure I work hard enough producing
commodity to feed others in this
country without having to get a job to
support feeding others."0
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