Canadian beef producers and the businesses allied with them aren't waiting around for the government to make a move. They're working to rally support to get the U.S. border reopened for live cattle - and sooner is better.
This week in Alberta, a group of supporters who want to export live cattle to the United States, talked about their effort with the CBC - the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The border for live cattle between Canada and the United States has been closed since May of 2003 when a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found in Alberta.
The group has been gathering signatures for a petition using the Internet and claims to have more than 70,000 names. The aim is to take names to the country's capital - Ottawa - and present them to the Prime Minister in October. The Internet effort is located at OpenTheBorder.com.
The U.S. border has been open to Canadian beef since last September, but that's only cuts of beef from carcasses younger than 30 months of age. Canadian producers want to be able to ship live cattle across the border.