Blame Game

I read an article today that blamed the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> for the whole <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> mess the cattle industry is in. Unfortunately the publication I read it in is not available on line so I am unable to link it for you. What it was reporting though was that many in the cattle industry are blaming the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> for the fall in cattle prices because when they announced the discovery before Christmas of a cow with <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym> they say it should also have been reported that the cow in question was from Canada.<br />n<!–more–><br />nThese people believe that it would have made a difference to countries that import our beef to know this fact and speculate that they would not have shut down the beef imports from the U.S. to their countries if they did know this. I think that they are making the wrong assumption. These countries do not care where the cow came from, only that it was butchered in the U.S. and its meat entered the food chain. These facts alone are enough for them to shut down trade. This reason and normal political pressure to protect there domestic producers is why the trade was shut down.<br />n<br />nTrying to find somebody to blame for this is not a productive use of their time and resources. We have to take the fact that it has happened and go on. In fact the way it has happened is a blessing in disguise for the cow-calf industry (which I am in). Most ranchers market their calves in the summer or fall so the market has many months to settle down before marketing decisions have to be made. Another thing to look positively at now is the fact that the cow in question is from Canada. We as cattle producers can say to the world that even though the cow is not from the U.S. we are going to take measures to ensure the safety of of our product and protect everyone since this cow was discovered here. Cattle producers need to look at the long term and how we can deal with this to help the industry, not the short term griping about the loss in market value since "it wasn't our fault."<br />n<br />nSome people are not happy it seems unless they have somebody to blame for there problems so I will attempt to help them on this issue. Let's see, I think we could blame the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> for testing for <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>. Hell everybody knows it is not in the U.S. The Canadians are a good candidate too. Why if they wouldn't have the gall to raise cattle none of this would have happened. Who else, the British of course. If they wouldn't have admitted there was a problem, there wouldn't be a problem to worry about. Let's stick our head in the sand and the problem will go away. Blame someone, it's easier than dealing with things.<br />n<br />nP.S. <a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com/citylights/index.php?m=200401#225">Ed,</a> did I get my apostrophes right.<br />n<br />n<b>No one to blame!… That was why most people led lives they hated, with people they hated…. How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one&acirc;