Alberta's beef industry: 10 years after mad cow crisis

Alberta's beef industry is still in decline,withCanadians eating lessof the meatand fewer producersraising cattle 10 years afterBSE, ormad cow disease,savaged the industry.

"The financial impact at thetime was devastating, both the financial challenge and emotional strain for a lot of producers,"said Rich Smith with the Alberta Beef Producers.

On May 15, 2003, a lonecow was discovered on a remote northern Alberta farm with Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis or BSE.

The international reaction was swift as borders slammed shut. To this day,someare stillnot fully open, such asMexico and Japan.

Now a decade later there's been a sharp decline in the number of cattle producers in Alberta, due in part to an aging population, drought, rising feed and labour costs, the rising value of the dollar and BSE.

Ted Haney, with the Canadian Beef Exporting Federation,wasin the thick of the crisis at the time and describes the fallout as far worse than anyone expected.

"BSE to some degree robbed our industry of that real optimism and in its place has been a shrinking industry underfinancial difficulty -- not confident internationally and become defensive in its domestic life," he said.

Edmonton Stockyards a BSE casualty

The number of animals slaughtered down by illion from a decade ago, something Ken Daynard knows first hand.

He worked atthe the Edmonton Stockyards, one of the city's original businesses, shut down a couple of years after the BSE crisis hit and now an empty field.

"When you're in the business as long as we were you have a huge customer base and to see that customer base fade away it was difficult," he said.

"Ten years after the BSE hit and there's nothing," he said looking where the stockyards once stood. "Looks like an old gravel yard to me."

Before theBSE crisis, the province exported $2.2 billion in beef productsevery year.After the disease, that numberfell.

"In 2012 we exported about $1.2 billion of beef products around the world so a significant drop from 2002," said Peter Kuperis, an economist with Alberta Agriculture.

"We dropped to virtually nothing and then we gradually recovered access to markets around the world."

ButBSE also left a lasting impression on consumers.

Beef-loving Alberta eating less

Even in Alberta, the amount of beef consumed declined by more than 10 per cent over the lastdecade.

Ellen Goddard, who teachesagricultural marketing at the University of Alberta,said for some it's lifestyle choice,but for othersit'sabout therisk in eating beef.

"BSE probably changed peoples risk perceptions considerably," Goddard said.

That focused consumers'attention to howcattle are raised and made the industry more consciousof keeping consumers onside," she said.

"They need to keep public opinion positive about the industry," she said.

That has led theindustry tomake changes including more stringent record keeping,making it easier totrace beeffrom the farm to the fork, country of origin labeling and more testing for older animals.