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Government of Canada applauds Alberta’s traceability initiative

December 16, 2008 

Ottawa, Ontario, -The Government of Canada is committed to working with the Alberta Government to develop livestock traceability programs which are critical to protecting the health of Canada's livestock herd and important to expanding international marketing opportunities.

"Canadian farmers are proud of foods they produce and more complete traceability systems will give our customers the information they need when they make their purchasing decisions," said Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. "Improving traceability will continue to show the international markets that Canada's livestock industry is one of the safest in the world."

Alberta's Livestock and Meat Strategy supports the development of a traceability system to identify the location of herds, report the movement of livestock, and record the birthdates of cattle under a national framework established by industry and government. This kind of system will allow officials to handle herd health issues more quickly and effectively. International markets are increasingly requiring traceability of livestock for market access. Further strengthening our livestock traceability system will create additional marketing opportunities around the world.

Proposed traceability initiatives under the federal-provincial-territorial Growing Forward framework will complement provincial traceability initiatives by providing support to industry infrastructure.

"We will continue to work with Canadian farm families every step of the way to make sure that livestock traceability systems work for them and deliver a strong return to the farm gate through new opportunities in global markets," said Minister Ritz.