Madam Chair, what the member means by captive supply is that cattle are owned by the facility that ultimately is going to slaughter and sell them.
They do have a situation in the U.S. that they are addressing at this time. We do not have that situation in Canada. With the dissolution of Tyson at Brooks, Alberta, which had a 75,000-head feedlot that it filled or did not fill depending upon volumes and accessibility, this was very much checked, audited , looking at where the money went and so forth, after BSE, and it was found that it did not use that in a captive supply way.
Having said that, I know Cargill does offer a bonus. It contracts with farmers to get certain marbling, size and so forth, and that gives those farmers a premium. That is the good thing that happens when a processor works with producers.
In Alberta and some of the industry in western Canada, they are working to have better records from the slaughter facility that will redirect producers to grow better beef. I think that is a holistic approach to what is required.
I did read the NFU report, and I had the same feeling about that report as the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. The end result might have been workable, but how they got there is not. It requires a rationalization of the industry that would take out every small town that has a beef operation anywhere near it. It would take out all the farm machinery dealerships. There would be collateral damage that was not in the report. We will not go there. This is a market-driven industry.
The member is right to point out the problems, the trials and tribulations that country of origin labelling is giving, especially in our livestock sector. This is not for the processed beef; this is directed at the live beef that goes south.
It is a huge problem for the American industry as well, because they rely on a good percentage of solid Canadian product going there to give them a solid bottom line. They are as upset as we are. We are working on the American administration, from both sides, to make positive change.