Two businesses are taking the bull by the horns in an effort to help Alberta’s struggling cattle ranchers by launching a “beef bank,” which will purchase meat from local producers and donate it to food banks around the province.

Calgary-based ATCO Group and Direct Energy have staked a total of $100,000 to get the Alberta Beef Producer’s Help Bank Campaign off the ground, an effort that will see 57,000 kilograms of beef moved from producer to plate, freeing up room for more cattle to be processed in the aftermath of discovery of a single case of mad cow disease (BSE).

“We’ve had a pretty momentous wreck happen to us in the cattle and beef industry, and processing and related industries,” said Calgary-area rancher and Alberta Beef Producers finance chairman Erik Butters. “We don’t know how much longer it’s going to go.”

Butters said while Alberta’s 35,000 primary cattle producers aren’t having trouble moving steaks and certain other cuts through the food production system, ground beef is plugging up the market.

But with the fresh infusion of corporate dollars, the Alberta beef help bank will buy that beef, warehouse it and distribute it through the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank’s provincial network of 80 food banks.

Photo courtesy Alberta Beef Producers
Direct Energy’s Lori Topp and rancher Erik Butters at conference.

“They’ve taken a lead in formalizing this campaign, and have backed that up with a sizable donation to get this started,” Butters added.

Monica Brinck, community co-ordinator for the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank, said the ground beef will feed hungry Albertans across the province.

The Calgary bank helped 135,000 clients last year, including 55,000 children under the age of 18, with 53,000 hampers.

Brinck said the rural food banks are likely experiencing the same demand. “Just to have access to this food is going to be phenomenal for them,” she added.

Both ATCO and Direct Energy – a wholly owned subsidiary of U.K.-based energy supplier Centrica plc which has bought the retail operations of ATCO Gas and ATCO Electric – are now challenging other Alberta companies to join the campaign.

“The news about the devastation of the Canadian beef industry caused by this one isolated incident of BSE and the loss of jobs, the impact on family has been pretty hard to ignore,” said Lori Topp, senior vice-president for Direct Energy’s western region. “I think we all feel a little bit frustrated about what we as individuals can do.”

Added Siegfried Kiefer of ATCO Group Technologies: “This program answers the question many Albertans and many of our employees have asked – ‘what is it I can do to help?’ ”

“I would ask other companies and other Albertans join us in helping those in need,” Kiefer added at a press conference last week in Calgary.

XL Foods Inc. of Calgary has already announced it will expand its donation of ground meat to a network of food banks throughout Western Canada.

Last month, the company committed to donating 36,000 kilograms of ground meat to food banks in Regina and Calgary, and has now expanded its move to Edmonton and Winnipeg, each of which will receive 18,000 kilograms of mixed ground beef and bison later this month.

Calgary-based Big Rock Brewery has also launched a program to donate $1 for each 12-pack case of Traditional Ale and Grasshopper Wheat Ale to Alberta Beef Producers. The Big Rock Lends a Hand campaign runs from July 22 - Sept. 1.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief has said he is confident the United States will reopen its border to Canadian beef by September, based on the deadline imposed by Japan on the U.S. to separate Canadian beef from American animals.

But the industry received yet another blow last week when Japan’s agricultural minister insisted Canada should enact similar inspection standards as his country has done to protect against another outbreak of BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Japan, the largest foreign beef market for the U.S., is the linchpin in the continuing closure of the border to Canadian beef.

Japanese officials are pressuring the Americans to keep the border sealed until a country-of-origin labeling system for cattle can be established, a condition that both the U.S. and Canadian cattlemen say will be difficult to meet.

But Japan says it must protect its own industry and consumer trust, hit hard two years ago by an outbreak of BSE which resulted in its beef being banned in many markets around the world, including Canada’s.

Japan’s agriculture minister, Yoshiyuki Kamei, said Canada’s inspection standards still fall short of what is necessary to ensure a safe beef supply. He has also noted that Japan only discovered additional BSE cases after the original single mad-cow incident because of rigorous testing.

Many Alberta cattlemen have spent the past few weeks watching their industry and livelihoods disintegrate, as 34 countries continue to turn away Canadian beef. A forum in Calgary last week heard that the mad cow outbreak will cost the Alberta economy up to $600 million by the end of this month. The federal government has estimated more than 2,600 people in Alberta are out of work because of the crisis.

Butters says he envisions the Help Bank campaign will be a long-term sustained effort, even if the borders are eventually reopened.

“Albertans are doing what they always do,” he said, “which is to come together to help out whichever way they can.”

Web watch:
www.albertabeef.org
www.calgaryfoodbank.com