Are Canadian food and food imports safer?

[kickysnana]

Does anybody have any insight into whether Canada is doing a better job with its food supply and if their exports meet those standards or have a lower standard for foods going to the US? Just wondering. Canada is a "surrounding state" for a lot of states in the US so transportation costs are lower.

We have been trying to switch to locally gown and/or organic foods depending on what information we can glean about them.
Generally you pay between 2 and four times what we pay for Skippy, Hidden Valley, veggies, fruits, beef, chicken etc but our growing season is just starting.

I saw broccoli from "Canada" at Christmas at Cub which further confuses me.

So far we have found that tips like drained plain yogurt replacing cream cheese are not for us. Yuck! We are "tasters" and have a hard time finding foods we like to begin with.

[MrPrax]

1. I don't know...

I am inclined to think it's a false idea as Canada has been in lock step with the US 'de-regulation' climate for awhile...

But why don't you also post your question in the Canada forum here at DU...you might get a better response.

You can find it via this path: Home » Discuss » State & Country Forums » Canada (it's listed at the end of the state forums)

Post it there...I'll kick it for you ;-)

[achtung_circus]

2. Foods for export

are regulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. My expertise is primarily in meat. CFIA standards for meat are higher than meat processed in Provincially regulated plants which consumption is limited to the province of slaughter.

The CFIA standards are primarily in the areas of facilities, which must meet CFIA specs and HACCP. Any CFIA plant must have a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system, which is not required in Provincial plants (yet).

As far as BSE testing, Canada does a far better job, we find BSE because we are looking. The US doesn't look and in fact has prohibited companies from doing their own testing.

Canada has a mandatory Canadian Livestock Identification Agency. Animals MUST bear an ear tag, which in the case of cattle incorporates a RFID chip. This traceability system makes contamination and disease traceback possible. The US farmer is actively fighting implementation of a similar systemin the US.

What we call supply management is a quota system for the production of milk, chicken, swine, eggs, turkeys. They are somewhat self-regulating and their enforcement is ruthless. I deal with these guys on a fairly regular basis and far from covering for their industries, they kick ass.

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/agen/agene.shtml

I have issues with the CFIA, but they are not food safety issues. They are very specific animal transportation welfare issues.

Hope this helps.

[Posteritatis]

8. *Prohibited*? Really? Do you know why? (nt)

[achtung_circus]

9. My files are at work, can't access them from home, but a quick Google

IIRC the USDA has appealed. Stripped of all the BS, if you don't look for BSE you don't find it and can therefore say that you are free of the disease. We have a tougher stance and are aggresively looking (and finding). We are a couple of years ahead of the US in this regard, the US (and again the files are at work) recently scaled back what BSE testing is done.

It's similar to the Country of Origin Labelling (COOL), proposed for the US. It's about markets.

Federal judge rules Creekstone can test for BSE

http://www.hpj.com/archives/2007/apr07/apr9/FederaljudgerulesCreekstone.cfm

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, LLC, won its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled March 29 that the Arkansas City, Kan., meatpacker must be allowed to test its cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, thereby opening up the chance for private industry to test cattle for BSE.

The ruling (Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, LLC v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, et al., Civil Action No. 06-0544) stated that the government does have authority to regulate the use of diagnostic tests in general, but that it lacks authority to prohibit the private use of BSE test kits, which are not used in the treatment of BSE, but are used on cattle that are already dead to see if they had significant levels of BSE infection. Judge Robertson noted that many other countries test large numbers of healthy-appearing cattle for BSE at slaughter and suggested that USDA's stated concerns about the conclusions consumers might draw from private BSE testing were not within USDA's statutory areas of responsibility. However, Robertson did put his order on hold until June 1 for the government to appeal.

[kickysnana]

10. Intersting, thanks.

[IntravenousDemilo]

3. Oh, probably not.

NAFTA gives companies like Monsanto pretty well free rein to do what they please here, and we can't even pass standards legislation to protect ourselves if it cuts into their bottom line, or else they'll sue. Not that organic agriculture has ever been sufficiently supported by Canadian governments, which is one reason organics are so much more expensive, with a few exceptions.

I for one never buy bottled dressings like Hidden Valley because I can make it better and cheaper, and I definitely don't buy Skippy or Jif or Kraft peanut butter because it's cut with shortening and icing sugar. There's a health food store a few blocks away that grinds organic peanuts into PB while I wait. It's fresh, it tastes much better -- actually like peanuts! -- it's better for you, and the price is about the same.

I reckon the Canadian broccoli you saw at Xmas was probably grown in a greenhouse.

And you know, I never realized that using pressed plain yogurt in place of cream cheese (or sour cream) was a "tip" other people have suggested, because I kind of stumbled upon that myself and discovered I like it, and have used it ever since. I just happen to prefer the sharper flavour. To each his own, I guess.

[DoctorStrangelove]

4. Different uses of pesticides

From the Globe and Mail,

"With globalization making pressing demands for change on national economies, Canada must defend its food-safety sovereignty. Since 1996, Canadian and U.S. regulators have been working to harmonize pesticide regulations under the North American free trade agreement. As a result, Canada is set to raise its limits on pesticide residues on fruit and vegetables for hundreds of products — the United States allows higher residue levels for 40 per cent of the pesticides it regulates, due to its longer pest season ...

Short of agreeing on standards, Canadian regulators are constantly trying to accommodate Washington by harmonizing standards. The problem is that what's good for Americans may not be good for Canadians. With its warmer climate, the U.S. uses more pesticides. If we lower our standards, Canadians may suffer from greater health consequences than Americans, who are used to higher pesticide exposure." -- Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, assistant professor in the faculty of business administration at the University of Regina.

An intersting issue...

[newyawker99]

13. Hi DoctorStrangelove!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[TexasProgresive]

5. If my memory is correct the first tainted pet food was

traced to a Canadian plant using Chinese wheat gluten. If you want safe food I guess you'll have to grow your own or find a local gardener/farmer that you trust.

[kestrel91316]

7. The Chinese wheat gluten was the problem there, not the Canadian plant per se.

[TexasProgresive]

12. My point is that because of globalism there is no safe food. n/t

[kestrel91316]

14. Well, you're partially right. Globalism means we have no control over

the safety of food imports. But we still have a measure of control over food produced in the US.

BUY local.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food

[tiptoe]

6. Here's a LTTE & telling video re a former (2003) Can. Min. Agric by Stanley Prusiner (prions):

(comment about Lyle Vanclief and apparent Canadian policy towards exports to U.S.A. in 2002/2003. Vanclief owns a farm in Ontario and was Min Agric under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. )

VIDEO (.ram 3m 11s): http://tinyurl.com/23eet6

Stanlet B. Prusiner (Nobel Prize winner for discovery of Prions):

...
They don't want our comments.
...
Well, I tried to see Ann Venemon last summer, after the cow in Canada got sick. And I went to see Lyle Vanclief, who was the Minister of Agriculture at the time, who...after talking to him and understanding the level of ABSOLUTE IGNORANCE about what he was trying to contain, I thought that I should go and see the U.S. Sec of Agriculture...because what was clear to me was his ENTIRE policy was driven by what the US was telling him to do.
...
So, now, after some time has passed, it's OK for bones beef products from under-30-months-old cattle to be exported from Canada to the US: This is what his goal was, NOTHING ELSE MATTERED (...and his aides, after he left the room, made it clear to me that was ALL THAT MATTERED)...And so, THEN I wanted to see Ann Venomon: FIVE TIMES Dan Glickman, the former Sec of Agriculture [1995-2001, appointed by Cinton], tried to set up an appt for me with her to tell her what was going on, and it never worked. Eventually I met Karl Rove...and that is how this happened (...he's the one who arranged the appointment.)...So, I'm just trying to give you a sense of the distance.
...
I think that PRIONS are bad to eat...and you can DIE from them.

GeneThera Announces 10th Case of Mad Cow in Canada

By: Marketwire, May 8, 2007 04:39 PM

Stick up for COOL (Montana Standard,Our Readers Speak, 12/12/2004)

I take offense to Ed Lord's letter opposing the current COOL in Our Readers Speak of The Montana Standard's Dec. 5 issue. He is obviously a member of the National Cattleman's Beef Association. I was a member of that organization for years until they changed their agenda. Now everything they do is to help the pending industry make more money, chiefly by lowering the price they pay for U.S.A. raised beef. To lower our prices, they want to import more foreign beef, which is often unsafe and diseased and endangers the health of consumers and our domestic beef herds.

While Canada still has a BSE (Mad Cow disease) problem, NCBA and the United States Department of Agriculture has been pushing to open the Canadian border to permit the importation of live animals.

Let it be known that one of their mad cows went into the animal feed chain and their traceability of that feed is very questionable. The USDA and NCBA and the packing industry works hand in hand. In fact, a good many packing industries and NCBA former employees and staff were appointed into the USDA to work under Ann Venemon, head of the USDA, who has now resigned.

NCBA's and Lord's position against COOL is that it is now mandatory instead of optional which makes it practically useless as a means to get the country of origin labeling on imported food products.

While Canada and Mexico can send in enormous numbers of inferior or diseased cattle across the border and lower our domestic prices all to the benefit of the packing industry, it does not and will not make a safe food supply for U.S. consumers.

We raise the best and safest beef there is so why should we not want COOL?

Ed Lord, NCBA, the packers, and the USDA say it will be too costly to identify home-grown and feed cattle. Why? We have a brand law and brucellosis tags, shipping permits, and sales receipts for our cattle. All they have to do is keep track of the imports to weed out the unhealthy, uninspected meat that goes in the meat case at your grocer.

Don't let them get away with it. Stick up for COOL.

Forrest Baker

( Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief to retire from politics CBC News, December 11, 2003 )

[achtung_circus]

11. I'll take exception with the writer of your second snip.

To lower our prices, they want to import more foreign beef, which is often unsafe and diseased and endangers the health of consumers and our domestic beef herds.

Bullshit. That's the same argument that Bush makes when saying that foreign drugs are crap and American consumers should be protected from those evil foreigners with their lower prices.

While Canada still has a BSE (Mad Cow disease) problem, NCBA and the United States Department of Agriculture has been pushing to open the Canadian border to permit the importation of live animals.

and the US doesn't have BSE? Pull the other one. The North American beef herd is so integrated that for all intents and purposes it can be treated as one. If there is BSE in Canada there is BSE in the US, and vice versa.

Let it be known that one of their mad cows went into the animal feed chain and their traceability of that feed is very questionable.

Questionable? Says who? What are their credentials? How does the US livestock tracability system exceed Canada's? Oh, wait, the US doesn't have one.

NCBA's and Lord's position against COOL is that it is now mandatory instead of optional which makes it practically useless as a means to get the country of origin labeling on imported food products.

COOL is not about tracibility. It is protectionism, pure and simple. So a calf born in Montana, raised in Montana, fed in Montana and slaughtered in Brooks, Alberta is now "Canadian". If the animal TOUCHES Canadian soil it's no longer a product of the US? That's COOL.

While Canada and Mexico can send in enormous numbers of inferior or diseased cattle across the border

Again, Bullshit. All livestock entering the US are subject to CFIA movement permits, healthy when loaded, they are subject to USDA inspection at the border and yes, USDA does turn some animals back. Slaughter cattle move under seal from the border to the plant where they are subject to the normal US ante and post mortem meat inspection regime. Boxed beef from Canada is inspected under CFIA rules, including HACCP.

Ed Lord, NCBA, the packers, and the USDA say it will be too costly to identify home-grown and feed cattle. Why? We have a brand law and brucellosis tags, shipping permits, and sales receipts for our cattle. All they have to do is keep track of the imports to weed out the unhealthy, uninspected meat that goes in the meat case at your grocer.

All of which does not add up to a workable tracibility system. Brands? Which brand? A steer may have several by the time it is slaughtered. Similar arguments work against the other paperwork cited.

And what uninspected meat is this writer talking about?