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Letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Veneman by Paul Beingessner
(Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004 -- CropChoice guest commentary) --
Dear Secretary Veneman,
I sat down today and decided I would have to write a letter directly to
you. It's come to this because all the pleas to the flunkies around you
seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I guess I'm not the only one who knows
how hard it is to get good help.
When you saw the Canadian stamp on the envelope, you likely figured
right away I was writing about this whole mad cow business. But before
you dismiss me like the Japanese did to you Americans, let me tell you that I don't have a big beef with you over our cows. Well, actually I
do, but that isn't the purpose of this letter. We'll save that for
another time, preferably after time has put a bit of space between us
and the cow from Washington state.
It's sheep that concern me today. You see, when you closed the border to
our cattle, in an "abundance of caution", you also cut off our sheep
exports. Sheep, it seems, have the same number of stomachs as cows. Now,
I can't figure out the connection between wasted brains and multiple
stomachs, but it appears there must be one, because the bureaucrats who
set the rules between our countries lumped cows and sheep together.
I can see why you did what you did about banning our cattle. At least
initially, I mean. After all, we did it to everyone else, so we can't
expect much different when the shoe is on the other hoof. And I did
appreciate that you started letting in boneless cuts of beef. It brought
the price of cattle up a bit here. Now, if only I had sold my calves
then... My defense for missing that boat is that I was following the
advice of Harlan Hughes, an American cattle specialist, who said I would
stand to cash in big when the border reopens.
Now that the border opening to live cattle looks remote again, I need to
figure out what to do about those calves. I've got a few options here.
Well, one really... it's to background them until next fall and sell
them as yearlings. Doesn't do much for the cash flow, but at least it
delays the problem.
But I gotta tell you that the real trouble is with my sheep. It may be
news to you, but sheep don't keep. I can't throw my lambs on pasture and
sell them as long yearlings next year. In about three more months, they
won't be lambs any more. Once they hit one year old, they'll be sheep.
As far as the market is concerned, any sheep is an old sheep. While old
sheep may be great to count when you can't get to sleep, no one wants to
eat them. Well, no one except the folks in the country to the south of you.
The people in Mexico seem to have quite a liking for Canadian sheep.
They'll take all the cull ewes and rams we send them, and even pay a
decent price. Trouble is, we can't get them there, because your country
is in the way. Not only can we not sell our lambs to you, we can't even
ship our sheep across your country in a truck! There's no pulling the
wool over your eyes on this one, either. Nothing gets by your border
guards anymore. Heck, my truck-driving brother-in-law was even forced to
down his roast beef sandwich before your gun-totting border patrol would
let him take his reefer into your country.
I know sheep don't make much news down there. Nor up here either, for
that matter. Maybe it's because admitting in public that you raise sheep
just gets all those tired old jokes going, so us shepherds are pretty
quiet folk. Meek as lambs you might say. But just because we're not
flocking to the streets doesn't mean you should ignore us. Sheep
producers are taking a pretty bad bleating here, and we don't even have
the options the guys with cattle have.
And the real irony is that everyone knows sheep don't get mad cow
disease. In fact, I'm willing to bet even you and the pencil pushers at
the USDA know that. So, what possible reason can you have for keeping
the border closed to our lambs? With the stroke of a pen you could make
this baaad business all right again. If you don't, I might be forced,
like a true Canadian, to send you another letter full of bad puns. Lord
knows, we could all do without that.
Regards,
(c) Paul Beingessner (306) 868-4734 phone 868-2009 fax
beingessner@sasktel.net | |
