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 The Canadian Beef Advisors consist of elected leaders and staff representation of the seven national beef organizations responsible for policy, marketing, research and sustainability. Canada Beef President Michael Young is among the diverse group of experienced industry representatives who are responsible for advancing the National Beef Strategy, providing recommendations on future direction and reporting results against strategy goals and objectives. The Canadian Beef Advisors meet quarterly to review one pillar of the 2020-24 National Beef Strategy. This allows for updates on activities and identifies opportunities for collaboration between the groups. The July meeting focused on the Competitiveness Pillar with updates on Specified Risk Material (SRM) policy, the United Nations Food Systems Summit and the drought. With Canada having obtained Negligible Risk Status at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Canadian Meat Council (CMC) recommends moving towards harmonization with the U.S. for SRM policy. The general request to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is to develop an outcome-based review of the SRM Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) based on risk and science-based requirements. CMC members have updated the costs survey for SRM removal. Total costs are estimated at $31.7 million, with under 30 months (UTM) at $15 million and over 30 months (OTM) at $16.7 million. In addition, the North American Renderers Association estimates it costs $6 million more to Canadian packers to remove SRM from 500,000 head of OTM cattle than in the U.S. due to an additional estimated 25 lbs. of SRM removed from each OTM animal processed in Canada. This does not take into account extra labour, loss of raw material or loss of rendering options. The CMC has presented five key recommendations towards harmonization with the U.S. on SRM removal. The Canadian Renderers and the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada are supportive of the request. The CMC has presented the paper to the CFIA and they have responded with some follow up questions, which will be addressed as next steps. Other priorities related to Canada’s negligible risk status include market access barriers and feeder export requirements. The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and the CMC have submitted priority market access goals to the federal government related to Canada’s new risk status and it was agreed that the groups would work together further on a joint strategy to share with government. The United Nations Food Systems Summit was convened to enable the global food system to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals; the pre-summit took place in July with the actual summit set for September. Throughout the summit planning process, farmer and rancher organizations have been concerned with some of the participating stakeholders utilizing the summit to bring forward anti-meat priorities, and that summit organizers were not effectively engaging with the producer stakeholders. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the number of undernourished people in the world continued to rise in 2020. Between 720 million and 811 million people in the world faced hunger in 2020. Given that high value proteins are the limiting nutrients, making animal sourced foods less affordable to marginalized people will only exacerbate the problem. The CCA worked with partners such as the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, International Meat Secretariat, the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock and other Canadian agriculture associations to share the perspective of farmers and ranchers in the summit. The CCA hosted a Canadian dialogue in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada on sustainable protein production to help inform the summit of Canadian made solutions and future goals for sustainable food systems. The CCA is pleased that the summit has refocused its work on animal proteins recognizing the importance of animal agriculture in sustainable diets and food systems. This shift was substantive as it moved the conversation from which foods a consumer should choose, to how each food consumers choose can be sustainable. The UN Food Systems Summit, to be held in New York, starts September 23; at the same time, an industry-led Celebration of Food will take place in Ottawa. These coordinated efforts of industry will be helpful going into COP26 UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for November 2021, which is about commitments. The drought in western Canada was discussed with each of the organizations outlining their activities from policy recommendations, to development of producers resources (e.g. Drought Management Strategies), and support for mental wellbeing in times of crisis. Learn more about the National Beef Strategy at www.beefstrategy.com. The National Beef Strategy is a collaborative effort by Canadian national beef sector organizations including the Beef Cattle Research Council, Canadian Beef Breeds Council, Canada Beef, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (and its provincial member associations), Canadian Meat Council, Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, and the National Cattle Feeders’ Association. Back to main page |
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