Western Standard - June 15, 2022


EXCLUSIVE： Ryder Lee, on the Health Canada beef labelling issues.

Topics
local grassroots outreach
Mentioned
Saskatchewan Cattlemen Sangeeta Sharma Mad Cow Corey
EXCLUSIVE： Aurora Townsend of Planet Theta WHO renames monkeypox because scientists call it “discriminatory”

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

171.02

Word count

2,364

Sentence count

151

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Health Canada is proposing a health warning label on ground beef products with a beef warning on the front. What does this mean and why is this a good idea? Dr. Sangeetha Sharma, a registered dietitian and nutritionist, joins us to talk about the implications of this proposed health warning.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Health Canada is proposing labeling ground meat products of beef and pork with a health warning label.
00:00:06.560 I mean, they're treating a perfectly healthy domestically produced product as if it was cigarettes.
00:00:12.780 Yeah, it's frustrating to say the least, but that's why groups like ours exist to work on government
00:00:19.280 when they head in directions like this and help them make better informed decisions, we hope.
00:00:24.800 Yeah, so what do you, I mean, I guess it's speculative on your part,
00:00:28.240 but what would the motivation of such a label be?
00:00:30.400 I mean, there are, I mean, philosophically, I don't think the government really should be there telling us
00:00:34.660 and digging so far into what's good or bad for us to eat.
00:00:37.480 We can kind of figure that out on our own.
00:00:38.780 But if you're going to start picking on types of food items,
00:00:41.580 there's a long list of things that are a heck of a lot more unhealthy than beef is.
00:00:46.320 Why are they targeting beef?
00:00:48.600 Well, and things that will be exempt from this, like, you know,
00:00:51.940 your Halloween candy bars won't have this warning on them, even though they are high in sugar.
00:00:57.520 So this is kind of an extension of what we already have with, you know, your information label that has,
00:01:06.580 you know, there's so much of these different nutrients and it's such a percent of your daily allowances,
00:01:12.080 but it's on the back and you got to go look for it.
00:01:14.900 And so the attempt here is to shove some of that information on sodium, on saturated fat, and on sugar.
00:01:23.960 If they're higher than a certain trigger, then whammo, this warning goes on the front.
00:01:30.000 And really aiming that at, you know, we don't have a calorie deficit here in Canada.
00:01:36.720 We've probably got too much being consumed, especially in highly processed foods that really are only bringing calories and a few other things.
00:01:46.320 They're not bringing the nutrients that you need in a balanced diet.
00:01:50.500 And we talked about it in COVID, slowing down, cooking more, and ground beef's a big part of that.
00:01:57.700 Well, it goes into so many meals for us and it's a cost-effective way to consume beef.
00:02:02.360 And everything's about, I mean, if you listen to any reasonable dietician, they talk about it's moderation is everything.
00:02:08.040 I mean, yeah, you don't want to eat a pound of regular ground beef every day.
00:02:11.480 You're going to have a problem.
00:02:12.440 But you don't want to eat a bucket of ice cream every day either.
00:02:16.000 It doesn't mean that the product was bad.
00:02:17.520 It's how you utilize it.
00:02:19.280 It is.
00:02:20.140 And balance is so important.
00:02:22.120 And we think that that protein, along with other things, is what beef is so great at providing.
00:02:32.000 Iron deficiency is a real thing.
00:02:34.040 Even here in Canada, for certain parts of the population, and iron's available in different ways from different food products.
00:02:43.640 And one of the most available ways is from red meat.
00:02:47.100 So that's something that gets lost in this.
00:02:50.460 Whether you've got babies or mothers in their childbearing, able years, this is a real challenge.
00:03:00.140 So anything that gets in the way of people being able to meet those needs, whether it's, like I said, iron, vitamin B12 is also something that we're seeing shortages of.
00:03:12.680 And you can fix it easily with a Taco Tuesday or, you know, we call them dad burgers in my house.
00:03:19.200 But, you know, cheeseburgers on the grill in this season are huge, simple, and kids will eat it.
00:03:26.440 There's a lot of other things that are harder to get.
00:03:28.960 My kids comfortable with, but those two are home runs all the time. 1.00
00:03:33.600 And we need to, we need to do, not get in the way of that.
00:03:38.680 And parents, I mean, they naturally want, of course, their children to be as healthy as possible.
00:03:43.420 So, I mean, they can be afraid if they see labeling saying, oh, my Lord, I've been feeding my kids something dangerous.
00:03:49.660 I mean, we don't want to take options.
00:03:50.760 These proteins, actually, particularly single ingredient ones, non-processed stuff,
00:03:54.600 with a growing family, plus with the budgetary constraints right now, ground beef is a fantastic, cost-effective way to get that to the family.
00:04:02.680 And if you've got parents suddenly afraid that, oh, my Lord, have I been feeding them something bad?
00:04:06.160 It puts more pressure on the family financially, it stresses them, and it's taking a perfectly healthy, safe item out of their grocery list.
00:04:14.960 Healthy, simple, affordable, you know, what so many parents are looking for when your time's stretched.
00:04:21.660 And if you're chasing after kids, you probably are, along with, you know, work and everything else.
00:04:26.940 So, it is big, and, you know, Dr. Sangeeta Sharma out of the University of Alberta was looking at this a few years back now
00:04:34.900 and just looking at, you know, urban at-risk populations, and she found that ground beef was the most affordable way
00:04:42.380 to get the nutrients that are most at shortage in these at-risk populations.
00:04:49.320 So, doing anything to get in the way of that is, to me, counter to helping our whole population be healthier in the future.
00:05:00.620 Yeah, and from what I've been hearing in the reports, if this happens, if it's not done yet,
00:05:04.720 so perhaps we can knock some common sense back into them,
00:05:07.460 but Canada would be the only nation on the entire world that labels beef this way, right?
00:05:12.560 That's my understanding, yeah.
00:05:14.300 And so, that's, you know, that's concerning for several reasons, but one of them is trade as well.
00:05:21.600 We export about half of what we produce, and most of the places that we export our beef to,
00:05:27.820 we're competing with others, and especially the locals,
00:05:31.180 and they look for any way to get a leg up on our product as we compete in their marketplace.
00:05:39.020 And having our own domestic warning sign on there, I can't see as anything but helpful to those protectionists
00:05:48.320 trying to say, well, look, even their own government thinks this is not worth, you know,
00:05:54.020 treating as good as our much superior product.
00:05:56.960 So, it does worry me as, you know, kind of kicking us in the shin as we try to walk into other markets and compete.
00:06:05.120 Well, yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up.
00:06:06.920 And it is very competitive.
00:06:08.420 I remember how eager some producers were in other markets when Mad Cow was going around just, you know,
00:06:13.980 it was more market-oriented than safety-oriented and trying to point out how dangerous Canadian beef was.
00:06:19.040 And if they could find another excuse to say, look, they don't even trust their own meat.
00:06:22.520 We shouldn't be bringing it in.
00:06:23.600 We should just buy here.
00:06:25.140 And as you said, half of our meat gets exported.
00:06:27.460 So, this employs a whole lot of Canadians.
00:06:30.180 I mean, this is a big industry for us.
00:06:31.680 It's important to us.
00:06:32.600 It is, and it's not just in Saskatchewan.
00:06:36.060 It's across the country.
00:06:37.900 You know, we're proud of what cattle bring to the environment because they turn a lot of land that you can't grow crops on into food-producing land.
00:06:47.500 And that's everywhere across the country.
00:06:49.440 So, from PEI to Vancouver Island, there's cattle out there grazing and renewing that land and employing people along the way.
00:06:59.420 It's important in every riding, pretty much.
00:07:02.700 So, that's an important part of why we're, you know, we're talking to as many people as we can to reach out to their MP, and especially if they live where a cabinet minister is, to tell them that this is not a good road to be going down.
00:07:19.260 It is, there is some political need there, and like I said, that's why groups like Canadian Cattlemen, Saskatchewan Cattlemen, the National Cattle Feeders are active on this file to make sure they know just what they're doing and what's at risk.
00:07:34.200 Yeah, well, and people just don't want to, you know, can't let these initiatives slide under the radar.
00:07:38.300 I mean, it's incremental things that are motivated by, I don't know, perhaps an ideologically driven individual within Health Canada.
00:07:44.980 And maybe if enough members of Parliament raise their heads up and say, hey, wait a minute, my constituents aren't too thrilled with this.
00:07:51.380 They might re-examine it.
00:07:53.140 It's exactly how it works.
00:07:54.580 Yeah, you know, there's all kinds of ideas that get thrown forward and don't see the light of day because, just like you said, whether it's at the MP level or at the advocacy level group,
00:08:07.280 but like we bring forward that the China light on, maybe that needs to go back to the drawing board or to be done a little different because being the only beef around the world that has that and even the only single ingredient product in Canada just doesn't make sense.
00:08:26.340 So we're hoping that some cooler heads can prevail and we can move on to growing and improving our competitiveness here in Canada.
00:08:35.980 Yeah, I mean, you've still got a very busy time and, you know, a challenging industry to work within as it goes without having to battle your own local health regulators while you're at it.
00:08:46.580 So hopefully, you know, you can get the pressure on and get them back off so you can focus more, again, on marketing and better, you know, production techniques and all the rest of the stuff your associations typically deal with.
00:08:57.100 Indeed.
00:08:57.500 So what could people do then?
00:09:00.940 I mean, they can email their MPs, you know, they can support associations.
00:09:05.720 Like, are there resources online that they can go towards to quickly be able to reach out and bring attention to this?
00:09:13.540 Yeah, there is.
00:09:14.660 And it's something that's it's been been interesting to see how it goes.
00:09:20.840 We've got there is an online campaign going on as well.
00:09:26.740 That is a don't label my beef.
00:09:30.600 Oh, shoot.
00:09:31.100 Now I need to remember if it's if it's dot com or I'm looking up my links to that and I'm not finding it right off.
00:09:41.700 But I'll get that to you just in a moment.
00:09:43.440 Yeah, that's all right.
00:09:44.900 I did it on my opening monologue the other day and I entitled to get your hands off my meat.
00:09:48.820 But I imagine you guys are going to be a little more restrained and politically correct with how you're approaching it.
00:09:54.900 But just good memorable things so people can all jump in and take part and help out and try to inject some common sense into this issue.
00:10:02.280 Well, that's right.
00:10:03.160 And there's two things.
00:10:04.500 I mean, there's we like to provide people that that that outlet and it's it's a way that smooths it out and they can go to.
00:10:15.440 Yeah.
00:10:15.600 It's don't label my beef dot ca.
00:10:17.380 And it's a pretty slick way to to fire off some some feedback to your MP.
00:10:24.440 But a phone call and a personal outreach are probably more impactful.
00:10:31.380 So there's lots of people that that do know their MP or do know their MLA, their Minister of Health.
00:10:38.120 That direct outreach makes it real to them.
00:10:42.280 They sure do value feedback from from their voters.
00:10:46.180 You know, I'm one voice in Capital City and they're like, yeah, yeah, right.
00:10:49.780 I hear from you.
00:10:50.580 But I haven't been hearing this from my constituents.
00:10:53.720 So maybe when I do, then then I'll give you a call back and it'll be more important to me.
00:11:00.400 So people thinking that, no, no, it's being handled by our associations.
00:11:06.140 It is.
00:11:07.780 But that local grassroots outreach turns up the the give a care factor by by politicians a lot.
00:11:16.620 So that's really helpful when people do do step forward in those forums and do write letters and do make phone calls.
00:11:24.480 It's great to remind them.
00:11:25.560 We talked a little bit about that, actually, with the Senate, just as prior to your coming on as well.
00:11:29.320 You know, even senators, they respond to things as well, actually, and they've been more responsive lately.
00:11:33.440 And we've got to remind them of that now and then and let them know that we appreciate their efforts or when we don't appreciate.
00:11:39.000 But if you don't talk to them, they can live in a bubble and it's not associations that get them reelected.
00:11:44.260 It's voters.
00:11:44.800 So if you're calling them up, you can have an impact.
00:11:48.060 Absolutely.
00:11:48.760 So that's it.
00:11:49.520 Don't label my meat dot CA.
00:11:54.340 Don't label my beef dot CA.
00:11:56.160 Don't label my beef.
00:11:57.080 Oh, jeez.
00:11:57.780 Thank you.
00:11:58.620 See, that's why I correct.
00:11:59.960 Don't label my beef dot CA.
00:12:01.900 Don't listen to everything I say, guys.
00:12:03.580 Make sure we listen to these guests.
00:12:04.660 They know what they're talking about.
00:12:06.280 Well, I appreciate that.
00:12:07.240 And again, I think I had the old term way of saying Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association, Saskatchewan Cattle Association.
00:12:13.600 Now we get less gender specific.
00:12:17.700 I appreciate you coming on to talk to us about that today and just, you know, to stand up for such an important industry and give us the means and the direction to point us at so that we can head this one off at the pass before this misguided initiative gets entrenched.
00:12:30.580 Well, I appreciate coming on here.
00:12:34.020 I think there's lots of things that people hear a little bit about.
00:12:38.520 And when we can have a conversation in front of a bunch of them and just shine a little more light on it, hopefully everybody's a little more informed and going forward with some more information.
00:12:49.380 That's it.
00:12:50.400 And we got these great modern communication means now, so we can reach a lot of people pretty fast.
00:12:54.660 So hopefully this one's far from a done deal and we can stop that and then get back to doing the business we'd rather focus on.
00:13:01.040 So thank you very much for joining us today on short notice like that, too, and talking about this.
00:13:05.680 And I wish you the best on this.
00:13:08.060 Yeah, you bet, Corey.
00:13:09.160 Thanks for having me and right back at you.
00:13:11.220 Wish you all the best.
00:13:11.940 Take care.
00:13:12.640 Thank you.
00:13:19.380 Thank you.