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‘Sustainable’ beef a golden opportunity Roundtable president says sustainability initiative can counter By Alexis Kienlen af staff / edmonton
Drenched again South inundated, but it could have been worse
hey’re still trying to nail down what it means, but Canada is at the forefront when it comes to the global effort to create “sustainable” beef, according to the head of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. “You guys are rocking when it comes to sustainability,” said Cameron Bruett. “You’re doing a fantastic job.” Bruett is also chief sustainability officer with the U.S. division of JBS, the world’s largest meat company. The Brazilian giant partnered with the likes of McDonald’s, Walmart, Cargill, and environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund to create the global roundtable. The definition of sustainable changes with the person you ask, but it’s nevertheless a great opportunity for Alberta and Canada, Bruett told attendees at Future Fare, the annual conference of the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency. “Sustainability is a great issue for our industry because no one has the story to tell that we do,” he told several hundred attendees in a packed conference room at the Marriott River Cree Resort. “There is no NGO (non-governmental organization), consumer
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The damage to infrastructure will take time to repair, and the effects on many farms and ranches will be long lasting
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As flood waters recede, Cecilie and Duncan Fleming’s battered corrals and fencing emerge. Photo: courtesy Cecilie and Duncan Fleming
By Jennifer Blair and Alexis Kienlen af staff
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he night Willow Creek flooded was a sleepless one for Cecilie Fleming and husband Duncan. Every hour, the couple slogged through the rain and the mud in their yard just east of the creek and used an electric fence post to measure the rise of the rapidly swelling torrent of water. Two feet became four feet. Four became eight. As the creek rose higher and higher toward where their house sits on a hill overlooking the water, Fleming turned to her husband and said, “Oh shit, what if this is the big one?”
“It was very intense,” said Fleming, a Black Angus seedstock producer west of Granum. “At midnight when you went out there, it almost looked like fake rain. The sleepy little creeks that flow were raging rivers.” The creek began to breach its banks in the early afternoon of June 17, but by then, their 100-head herd had already been moved to higher ground. The Flemings, after all, are no strangers to flooding. “They call them the 100-year floods, but they’re coming every eight years,” she said. “After last year’s flood, we made a decision not to rebuild down there. The infrastructure has been damaged so many times, we just quit putting things in flood’s way.” Last year’s flooding, which devastated the town of High River, destroyed the
Flemings’ corrals and cross-fencing, but this year’s flood was worse, she said. “I think the localized rain intensity, overland flooding, and pooling on the land is greater this year than it was last year,” said Fleming of the estimated seven inches of rain they got. “We’ve got roads just west of here that are still under water. All through the municipalities, there are roads cut, culverts washed out, bridges that may be weakened.”
Saving grace
Across the south, some are wearily facing yet more rebuilding, while others are counting their blessings. A state of emergency was declared in Lethbridge County on June 17, when the
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