Senate of Canada Amends “Save Food for Canadians Act”

Oct 04, 2012

The Senate of Canada’s agriculture committee amended a new food safety bill Thursday that would require the federal agriculture minister to review the Safe Food for Canadians Act every five years to ensure that food inspectors have the resources they need in order to enforce food safety regulations. The Conservative majority Senate voted in favour of the amendment put forward by Conservative Senator Don Plett.

The Senate also voted down an amendment proposed by Liberal Senator Bob Peterson that would have had the auditor general conduct the assessment rather than the minister. Paterson criticized the amendment arguing that the minister would have a conflict of interest reviewing the bill and that it would be best served if that was something the auditor general would oversee instead. The bill still needs to pass the House of Commons before it becomes law.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.