Sunday, July 31, 2005

Cattle crisis followup

It may not count as a postscript just yet, but the CP points out a couple of the less-mentioned effects of the border closure.

First, Canadian cattle producers have lost enough equity in their ranches that they're now largely controlled by American interests. I'd be very curious how many of the new owners are the same member of R-CALF who argued against allowing the border to open.

Second, Canada's added slaughter capacity will continue to move processing northward, as even American cattle may be shipped here in larger numbers as a result of newer and better facilities. Good news for us in the short term at least, though we'll need to try to keep ahead of the curve in processing.

Third, our government's support for Canadian ranchers, while insufficient to allow farmers to actually maintain their equity, is about to result result in NAFTA challenges from American producers. Did we really need more reasons to follow Ian's advice and tear up the agreements that allow for this kind of insanity?

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