I would  like to share this article I found in our local farm magazine pertaining to our current beef situation in Alberta.

"BSE, low beef prices, and then high feed costs have decimated Alberta's cow herd, but a turnaround is in view...
Canadian cattle producers are receiving strong price signals to begin expanding their herds - but will that be enough to reverse the decline in the national herd?

New cattle farmers have been as rare as decent profits for most of the post-BSE period. Alberta's cow herd peaked at 2.2 million head in 2005, but the 2011 agricultural census found the herd had shrunk to fewer than 1.6 million cows.
The number of producers fell even faster. In 2001 , nearly 29,000 farms had cows on them. A decade later , that number had plunged by nearly 10,000. A few counties lost 10 to 20% of their cattle producers, but drops of 30 to 40% were not uncommon.                                                                   ALBERTA FARMER "

What this means is cattle farmers that are left in the industry are going to be cautious with any expansion. That will mean a slower increase in numbers over the years to come. High prices for the farmer and inevitably for the consumer.
And those young farmers looking to get into the business are going to be faced with high cattle prices to get in. Along with the fact that most young people today do not want the workload and commitment that goes with raising livestock...as it is a way of life. Most would rather follow technology and grain farm and have some time and quality of life with there young family.  The next couple years will be years of change in the industry as cattle farmers look to get back some of the losses over the past 10 yrs by selling young stock for slaughter and there will be no fast track to expanding the herd. One glimer of hope for the industry is some young people who have left the farm for the oil patch wanting to come back and invest in the farm again when prices are on the mend. Time will tell!

I found this article printed by Farm Business Communications Jan 20/14, very interesting for anyone convinced that organic is more about transparancy, not perception:

  "It was just a matter of time before the Achilles heel of organic food production was going to be exposed, and a recent CBC news report hit the issue right between the eyes.
   The report stated that 45% of organic produce randomly tested by the CFIA showed traces of pesticides. The reality is the industry has always known that residue testing was the weak link in their marketing efforts. That's why virtually every organic marketing and lobby group in North America fought to not have mandatory residue testing as part of any certification process.
   Its worse in Canada where the CFIA does not have threshhold or testing clauses in its Canada Organic certification standards. At least the USDA organic standards testing and pesticide thesholds are addressed.
   The organic industry appears to accept that the residue levels that were found are extremely low and pose no health risk. But that's also true of almost all non-organic regular food products. It's rather disingenuous to state that regardless of the testing results, organic food has lower levels of residues than regular food, when the testing is in minuscule parts per million or even parts per billion.
   In the bigger picture, honest labeling should be the goal of the food industry and that includes the organic sector. For many food products, it's not possible to make claims that they are pesticide free, GMO free, hormone free. This  testing report proves that point. Will the entire marketing chain collapse and consumers revolt if we had mandatory labels that stated that a food product may contain certain chemicals, GMO's, additives, whatever, but are perfectly safe to eat. What a giant step for product awareness that would be for the consumer. However, I fear that in some areas of food marketing, perception is still more important than transparency."                               Alberta Farm Express

It all comes down to the consumer doing their homework if they want to access good , clean , fresh , food. Talk with the farmer producing the food, ask questions, go and see their farm. Most farmers would be happy to be able to showcase what they do and how they do it. You're local grocer can't tell you where anything they sell comes from or how it was grown!