The Rural Voice, 2001-01, Page 14BARN
RENOVATIONS
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• Concrete Work ..nvT
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• Using a Bobcat Skid Steer
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R.R. #6, Owen Sound
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10 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
Are we as safe as we think from BSE?
This past month has seen two
major developments in the story
around BSE (bovine spongiform
encephalopathy) in Europe. Not good
news on either front, and it provides
an early warning for North America.
There have
been new
outbreaks of
BSE where none
were before.
These have been
in domestically
raised cattle and
not imported
cattle in
Germany and
Spain, and in the
Azores where
German cattle
imported four
years earlier now
have symptoms
of this disease.
Europe thought it was safe from
the "British Blight", but it is now in a
full blown crisis. Some meat
wholesalers say their beef sales are
off 50 per cent. The open border
policy within the European
Community is being attacked, as is
the lack of any control measures.
To counter this outbreak new
control measures have rapidly been
put into place this past month,
including banning the use of any
livestock offals and bonemeal in ALL
animal feeds. This has been well
reported in North America as it
should lead to the increased exports
of soybean meal to Europe. There is
also the same increased sales
expectation for fish meal which has
been excluded from the ban.
The other, less well-known factor
in the sad saga of BSE has been the
long awaited release of the report of
the public inquiry in BSE in England.
This is a heavy 16 -volume door-
stop that examines the 10 years of
British handling of the outbreak,
disease, research and government
response to the problems. The report
is said by one commentary to
"resemble the entire BSE saga as it
bores, scandalizes, disgusts and
terrifies all at the same time."
The report identifies the secretive,
bureaucratic culture within the
Ministry of Ag and Food in England.
It points a finger at the government
that was shown to be too keen to play
down risks to human health, for fear
of alarming the public.
What has happened in England,
and could well happen here, is that
public trust in science and the
government's ability to regulate it,
has plummeted. On the positive side
this report has shown the need for,
and hopefully the action that must be
undertaken now, for governments to
know how to handle scientific
uncertainty. Alongside that,
governments must rethink how much
information they need to share with
the public, when and how.
Hazardous waste takes on a new
meaning in Europe now as the
estimated three million tons of animal
scrap from the slaughter houses must
now be incinerated or stored, rather
than recycled through the feed
industry.
Any outbreak of BSE starts slowly
and then explodes. England had over
177,000 cattle affected. France has
found that their 31 cases in 1999 are
already at 110 by October 2000. New
cases are also reported (for the first
10 months of 2000) in Ireland (57),
Portugal (86), Switzerland (31),
Belgium (8), UK (1,149) and now
Germany (1) and Spain (1). Canada
must not be complacent.0
Robert Mercer was editor of the
Broadwater Market Letter and a farm
commentator in Ontario for 25 years.
The Rural Voice
welcomes letters and
will publish as many as
space permits.
Write:
The Rural Voice
Box 429
BLYTH, ON NOM 1H0