I just heard the news that the American border is once again open to Canadian cattle. This will make a lot of Canadian cattle ranchers very happy, but it raises some questions in my mind.

First of all, I'd just like to say that it seems kind of ridiculous that the border was ever closed in the first place because with as much cattle trading that happens between American and Canadian ranchers, it's not like their cows have any less risk of Mad Cow compared to ours anyway.

Now with the border reopening, it doesn't mean the threat of Mad Cow is any less than it was before (and don't get me wrong, I don't believe it's a particularly big threat, just that the problem hasn't actually been dealt with). With all the billions of dollars in government aid, I would have liked to see (or heard about anyway) what advances have been made in solving the actual problem of BSE (Mad Cow) instead of focusing all attention on the closed US border. What is going to happen in the way of reducing Mad Cow now that trade has resumed? Ironically the resumption of trade will probably be less, rather than more, of an incentive to find a permanent BSE solution.