Page 8 - #RealDirt - The Real Dirt on Farming: Saskatchewan Digest Edition

7 What about hormones?
fMurray, Bridget and Luke Andrews, cattle ranchers, Moose Jaw, SK
... Saskatchewan is the second largest beef-producing province in Canada?
8
The very word ‘hormones’ conjures up a lot of concern for many people. Hormones occur naturally in people, plants and animals. Here are some important facts and examples for you to consider:
• No pigs, chickens, turkeys or egg-laying hens in Canada are fed hormones. That’s been illegal for decades. And they’re not used in milk production either.
• There is no such thing as hormone-free beef; all animals produce hormones naturally, regardless of how they are raised.
• Some beef farmers use Health Canada- approved hormones in their cattle to help them convert feed into muscle (lean meat) more easily and quickly – meaning less feed and water used, and less manure produced.
• Hormone levels in beef from cattle treated with hormones are virtually the same as beef from un-treated cattle.
fffffWhat’s being done to keep our food safe?
• As farmers, we take our commitment to providing safe food very seriously. Remember, our families eat this food too!
• On-farm food safety programs help us identify critical points where food safety could be at risk, like when a new animal comes on-farm or when fresh produce is packed into containers. These same principles are also applied throughout the food chain, including mills that prepare animal feed, food processing facilities and even at your local grocery store.
• Participating in these programs means we evaluate what we do on our farms and keep records of it – and then have those records, and our farms, verified by an independent auditor.
• Thanks to modern technology and record-keeping, it’s possible to trace exactly what went into raising an animal or growing a crop from the farm to the grocery store. For example:
– Milkisidentifiedandsampledfromeveryfarmbeforeitispickedupbythemilktruck.
– ElectronicIDtagsidentifyalldairyandbeefcattleinCanada;thetagslinktoinformationabout each animal, such as birth date, farm of origin and identification numbers.
– Auniquenumberonpotatobagscanbeusedtodeterminewhenandwherethepotatoeswere grown and shipped to market. The same goes for greenhouse vegetables. They can be traced back to the very row in the greenhouse that they were picked from.
8 The Real Dirt on Farming