The US has opened its border again to Canadian beef. Since I spent a week with one of the affected parties a little while ago, there’s a few comments I want to make here.

It’s not just good news for Canadian cattle ranchers; it is even better news for the US consumers who have been paying artificially high prices for beef ever since the border was closed. The whole ban had little to do with mad cow disease with only a few isolated cases on both sides of the border. More than anything it was a deliberate move influenced by US meatpackers to manipulate prices. Even in Canada prices somehow remained higher than where they should have been despite the glut of beef. There’s one solution to fix this problem effectively, and that is order your beef directly from the ranch. The cost of the big freezer I have to purchase to store half a cow which will be delivered this fall is still more than covered by the cost savings generated by the direct order. And not only that, I am getting excellent cuts straight for the ranch rather than processed and pricey stuff from a the retail sector.