[joeclarke]

The price of beef, in-its-self is not such a huge issue, but I have to admit I'm less than tickled with the clean bill of health given to the meat packing industry by the Alberta govt yesterday.

It seems like all the government types in Edmonton ever want to do is bend over forwards for each and every business interest that comes down the pipe. Oil, meat packing, electricity generation - I'm starting to get a little sick of it.

I mean, come on. $400 million was poured into the cow-calf, feedlot, what-have-you industry in Alberta in supposed relief of the BSE issue. Yet finished prices seen at the retail level actually went up by 3% (2001 to 2003) while plant gate live prices drop by 50% or more in the same timeline. And the government says it has no reason to suspect that the packing industry is taking a revenue holiday?

Hey, $400 million - ended up benefitting the packing industry (almost completely US owned) through this BSE thing. That's four times the huge federal "sponsorship scandal". Yet the Alberta government brushes it off in less than 24 hours after a four hour chat with reps of the three biggest packers?