CHARLEBOIS: Mad cow disease shook the Canadian beef industry 20 years ago

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The BSE crisis began 20 years ago this week. May 20, 2003 means little to most Canadians. But for the beef industry, the situation was downright dire. It brought devastation, bankruptcies and broken families. It was a nightmare.

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On May 20, 2003, the Food and Drug Administration of Canada announced that a Northern Alberta Black Angus cow had been diagnosed with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. In response, the United States promptly imposed an import ban on Canadian beef and cattle, prompting about 40 other countries to take similar action.

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Mad cow disease is a deadly disease that causes gradual damage to the brain and spinal cord in cattle. Although humans cannot get mad cow disease, in rare cases there is a chance of developing a human variant called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is also fatal. Over time, vCJD leads to degeneration of the brain and spinal cord. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 500 Americans die each year with symptoms consistent with the disease. To properly diagnose the disease, an autopsy is required.

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Canada could not export anything. With 60% of our beef going abroad, Canada suddenly had too much beef. It took more than two years for the United States to reopen its borders. Japan only reopened its borders to Canadian beef in March this year, almost 20 years later.

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When borders closed and Canada had excess beef capacity, Canadians bought more beef to support. In fact, at the time, Canada was the only country in the world to experience an increase in domestic demand for beef following the discovery of the first domestic case of BSE. Everyone expected Canadians to be scared of the product, as we’ve seen in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. But it didn’t happen. Demand for beef per capita rose 4 pounds from 2002 to 2003, the highest increase ever. It surprised many. Beef consumption per capita in 2003 was 33.6 kilos. Today it is 24.8 kilos.

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Seeing all of this in 2003, the late and great Anita Stewart, a renowned culinary writer, created Food Day Canada to encourage people to eat more Canadian foods, including beef. Only recently our own Parliament officially declared the first Saturday in August as Food Day Canada.

The beef industry has changed in many ways as a result of the BSE crisis. Significant improvements have been made in testing and surveillance measures to detect and monitor the presence of BSE. These include stricter protocols for screening cattle, especially high-risk animals, and improved diagnostic techniques. In addition, stricter regulations have been put in place for the use of animal protein in cattle feed, which has been identified as a key factor in the spread of BSE. Canada, like many other countries, has bans and restrictions on feeding ruminant protein to ruminants to prevent cross-contamination and possible transmission of the disease. Comprehensive risk reduction measures have therefore been taken to prevent the introduction and spread of BSE. These measures include the removal of specified risk materials (SRMs) during meat processing, which are tissues most likely to be BSE infectious.

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What hasn’t changed, however, is the dominance of meatpackers in Canada. In 2003, when beef prices were incredibly low, meatpackers made fortunes as retail beef prices barely changed. In some markets, prices fell by around 10%, but rose again months later. The BSE crisis started when our own barbecue season started, so packers and grocers probably didn’t see any point in lowering prices at all. Higher retail prices angered ranchers and they attempted to set up their own processing plants. At that time, over 350 projects started, but only two plants started operations, one in Alberta and the other in Saskatchewan. Regrettably, both plants have now closed, leaving us with a huge oligopoly in meat packing, with three plants processing the majority of beef in Canada. This lack of options makes it difficult for cattle farmers to integrate vertically into the meatpacking industry.

The BSE crisis showed us how resilient the beef industry is. Many families had to sell their farms and relocate to find work as their businesses became unprofitable overnight. Canada remains one of the dominant beef players in the world, despite the crisis the sector suffered 20 years ago. It’s something to celebrate over a nice, grilled steak or hamburger.

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