This morning I was greeted with news of the largest beef recall in history.
Chino, Calif.-based Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. has voluntarily recalled about 143,383,823 pounds of raw and frozen beef products that USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined unfit for human food because some of the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, USDA announced on Sunday.
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Product that has not been consumed and has gone to domestic nutrition assistance programs has been on hold since Jan. 30. Westland was actually named Supplier of the Year for 2004-2005 to the National School Lunch Program, to which Westland was a major supplier for years.
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“We do not feel this product presents a health risk of any significance,” Under Secretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond told reporters, noting the chances of even downer cattle testing positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy are extremely low, and that specified risk materials are removed under FSIS inspector surveillance.
-MeatingPlace -USDA PR
This is a recall that has to do with choices made after the farm in the processing plants. They were slaughtering downer cows. Cows that couldn’t walk and may have had BSE - that is to say Mad Cow Disease. This has nothing to do with farms, nothing to do with small farms, yet the USDA has been using this excuse of Mad Cows to justify their proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
Joe and Jane Q. Public don’t know the difference. The government purposesfully confuses them to justify the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on NAIS. It’s a slight of hand as they take away our freedoms and choices.
Get those kids off school lunches. Moms need to stop being lazy and pack them. Everyone will lose weight in the process,
Comment Suz — February 18, 2008 @ 7:01 am
the video was perhaps an eye-opener for folks who think the ‘happy cows’ from California are treated with kindness. How can people do that to animals? It makes me sick.
Comment arlene — February 18, 2008 @ 8:44 am
Not all the downer cows means Mad Cow. There are several other diseases besides mad cow that creates a downer cow. But yes the point is they are slaughtering sick and diseased animals to put into the human food supply. NAIS will never stop this because the slaughter houses continue to find a way around the inspections.
I firmly believe that the USDA wants NAIS so they can slack off eve more in inspecting the food supply. The USDA wants the general public to feel “safe” and not question their ineffective inspection processes.
Comment Anna — February 18, 2008 @ 8:56 am
You’re right, Anna, let’s just chip our children, our animals, and our elderly. That way we can let someone else take the blame, and we don’t have to show any feelings or responsibility for our lack of actions. I cried thinking about cattle so crazed and sick that they can’t even walk.
Comment Jo Smith — February 18, 2008 @ 10:45 am
I just sent this letter out to
the Organic Consumers Association and to the Center of Food Safety:
Dear Sirs:
Since the news on the slaughter house shows abuse I want to take this minute
to explain some important information.. The activists which is the Human Society of America showed a video of cows being abused by fork lifts while alive. This video was shown months after the fact and the first question
would be why did it take so long for them to put this out in the open and what is the motive? They did the same thing with horse slaughter.
This very group also promoted Horse Slaughter in a very bad light instead of making it better therefore getting people to shut it down. Now the horses are being shipped and slaughtered in Mexico with no oversight. Now none of
us can ever make a difference. Slaughter is not nice no matter how you look at it but it could have been made better here…. instead of worse there
I do not condone what the slaughter house did, they should have put the cows
down on the spot. Due to no oversight from the USDA who claim they do not have enough inspectors to enforce. This statement from “Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection violating health regulations”. If
they had the evidence why was this not taken care of then?
I ask where are the inspectors? The USDA inspectors should be assigned on a rotating basis to the slaughter houses to monitor all shifts so that
non-ambulatory after passing inspection and violating health regulations are enforced….
The USDA is not doing their job, I am asking if the Center for Food Safety and Organic Consumers Association can put out an Alert to get people to see this and to send a strong letter to congress to enforce inspections once again.. We need to be extremely careful that our slaughter houses are not sent to Mexico as then no oversight will be enforced to the safety of our food. The Human Society of America as much as people want to put there faith in this group is behind horrendous dog and cat laws now affecting law
abiding people. These bills are now being slowly submitted state by state.
We must be smarter to out wit these groups. We can not let our slaughter houses be transferred to Mexico as this is the whole motive behind this video. We can’t let this HAPPEN…. Our food safety starts here at home not
abroad.
Congress has earmarked 9 million dollars in the Farm bill to continue the
implementation of the National Identification System, This very money that will continue to enforce Stalin’s and his comrades to forcibly collectivized US (Soviet) agriculture by forcing Farmers, ranchers, hobbyist to register private property, Animal Identification and the reporting of movement ….
We need to demand from Congress to redirect the NAIS funding for USDA inspectors so our food being produced for school luncheons, fast food and retail is deemed safe here in AMERICA.
Comment Gisela — February 18, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
I can guarantee that if there were no video tape there would have been NO action taken by USDA….time to reflect on how much of the same is being done at other processing houses -unrecorded
Comment David — February 18, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
No kidding #6. We take our beef cattle to a local USDA plant for slaughter. When the inspector is looking over their shoulder the guys there are MUCH more genetle with the animals than when he is absent. I yelled at them not to goad and use the prod last time. No need. I got in there and moved the steer along with some pats and talking no problem. Idiots. The problems are at the farm they are at the processor. That is who the USDA should be keeping an eye on and tagging. Not us.
Comment Anna Flume — February 18, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
I posted a comment at NAIS, general comments. I cut and pasted the article, and the facts USDA failed at the slaughter and school lunch program. Now they want to track pet chickens, please reconsider. Please leave them a note too :)I can only hope they have to report their feedback in a public way.
Yep, only the humane society tapes let this get out to us.
Comment MTarot — February 18, 2008 @ 5:44 pm
You get what you pay for…in this case I wonder who got paid to look the other way?
More inspectors won’t solve a thing in a flawed system.
As long as food production and slaughter is high speed and profit driven…we can complain until the cows come home (or in this case they won’t be coming home)
WE have to do alternative things, THEY aren’t going to change.
Roll ‘em roll ‘em roll ‘em keep them doggies rolling!
…nice video of the happy healthy cows being “herded” with a forklift eh?
Top down production and inspection will always undermine true food quality and safety…but hey it’s sooo
convenient huh?
Even if you rent an apartment, you can start a food buying group, talk to a friend who owns land, start a garden with some friends, Go in on 1/2 a pig with a neighbor etc. Not everybody can do the same things, but we
all need to stop asking what “they” are going to do about food production and safety and start doing what we can do…we don’t have to ask permission to buy local (yet).
Hit the library and take out a book on gardening, buy from a local farmer or farmer’s market, seek out ways of changing YOUR habits…
We can’t change them, it’s too big an untertaking…so divorce yourself from that system, start small if you have to but participate in growing and buying local.
Besides by growing some of your own food you get to own cool things like shovels and hoes and wear grubby clothes and feel good about what you eat, you can actually talk to people about the need for more rain and stuff like that, who knows you might even like it! :)
Comment Bob Constantine — February 19, 2008 @ 7:41 am
I worked at a USDA packing plant in the late 70s/early 80s and believe you me I saw things I could barely stomach!
We averaged 6000 hogs a day at that time,small by todays standards.
I grew up on a real farm and then when I was 18 left the state to work in this plant, growing up I had to manhandle a cow or somthing from time to time and yes at times even get a bit rough,but the normal day to day at that plant made me sick,some guys and gals cared but a vast majority didnt,
many didnt speak english other than a few choice words that they liked to use if you told them to knock it off and quit treating the cow/hog like a nonliving thing,got into a few fisticuffs over that issue,buts thats another story :),needless to say I went home back to the farm,no amount of money was worth putting up with that stupidity.
I will however caution folks to remember the so-called Humane Society is not the friend of livestock keepers,this latest ploy is simply part of their ongoing attempt to seperate humans from animals,and to ban any human use of animals, [This is a very, very important point that Lee is making. The HUSU and it’s head are vegans bent on turning everyone else into vegans and destroying our rights to farm livestock. Beware of anything with the HUSU attached. -WJ]
(I am glad that this kind of abuse got exposed,but like I said before its gone on a long time and it wont stop just because of this vidio and in fact if Bush (and cronies) have their way this type of hidden camera will probably be “TERRORISM” before long)I have talked to local and national activists(HS) about NAIS and they were not bothered by it,it goes along with their plan so-to-speak,now I’m not saying every member feels that way but that has been my experience.
Remember they are a “Society” like the cancer society,why do they have so much authority given to them or at least the appearance of it,just a thought.
Back to the packing house,in that day USDA literally “SWARMED” all over that place and little got by them,funny I don’t recall any meat ever being recalled or making anyone sick, I guess they were doing their job then unlike now.
Anyhow maybe some good can come out of all this , lets hope.
“Live free or die tryin”
Comment LEE — February 19, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
How are naturally raised/fed cattle processed? Are they given a humane slaughter?
Comment lyndeelou — February 19, 2008 @ 1:41 pm
Lyndeelou, I hope so. We raise Certified Naturally Grown pigs, chickens, sheep and ducks. I feel it is my responsibility to make sure they go to a good slaughter house that takes them to their end with a minimum of stress. To that end I avoid one slaughter house and favor two others.
I have watched the workers, and owner, at the small USDA inspected slaughter plants where we take our pigs. The owner does an excellent job and so do the workers almost all the time and most especially if the owner or inspector are there.
This is a very important issue beyond the simple ethics of humane slaughter - happy, calm, unstressed animals don’t release adrenaline and other things into their blood that toughen the meat. How the slaughter is done matters greatly to achieve the best quality.
A lot has been written on this topic by a researcher named Temple Grandin. Her web site is here. Everyone should read what she has to say if they care about the meat they eat.
Comment walterj — February 19, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
HSUS and FDA are corrupt and working together. This video is fuit of the poison tree illicitly obtained and should never have had public release. It’s like screaming “FIRE” in a crowded theatre. This recall covers meat back to the year 2006 which has long been consumed. How convenient corrupt HSUS out to eradicate all work, meat and companion animals used timing to ensure all meat involved in the recall had been consumed prior to any recall having been made. Don’t think of it as accidental timing. It was as deliberate as timing can get. Nor was it incidental HSUS filed in federal court about cruelty to poultry in the same week. My bet? Corrupt HSUS wants paid by our fed tax bucks to put “humane observers” in every slaughter facility and to knock down the doors of homes where private slaughter is done. Neither of those will make meat a whit safer. Buy local or raise and butcher your own. One of the very worst parts of the collusion between FDA and HSUS is that FDA does not want the public focusing on the fact of drug companies efforts to avoid animal safety testing for product development. Instead with testing bypassed humans are being used as guinea pigs while inflammatory videos are released to mislead and propagandize the public.
Comment Jack — February 19, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
for all you guys calling this a “film by the Humane society”…this is actually not your average every day humane society. It is the HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES. This is an organization similar to PETA. the media folks do this also!
And……..what is the job that USDA inspectors do? Nothing! absolutely nothing!…all they do is LOOK at the meat and say it is ok. Who can tell by looking what disease or contamination a piece of meat has?
Comment Linda Marshall — February 20, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
I didn’t get the details, but I heard a report on NPR this morning (2/20/08, probably morning edition) that a congress woman on the committee that controls the USDA’s budget is pushing to have the inspection service seperated from the USDA. The logic the discussed was the conflict of interest between the promotion arm of the USDA vs the food safety arm.
Sorry I don’t have more details on this, I was driving while listening to the report and have not been able to find it on the NPR site yet. Hopefully someone else heard it too and cna offer more details.
Comment Afella in VT — February 20, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
I just posted the article and link over on my blog.
The lady, Rep. DeLauro, CT, is not for NAIS either. I think we ought to give her a call and thank her for being wise.
This is a great line from the article:
“Food safety ought to be of a high enough priority in this nation that we have a single agency that deals with it and not an agency that is responsible for promoting a product, selling a product and then as an afterthought dealing with how our food supply is safe,” DeLauro said. [emphasis mine]
Comment Henwhisperer — February 20, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
Unfortunately it’s common behavior in slaughterhouses.
The visual inspection by the USDA isn’t going to reveal anything anyway unless the animal is loaded with tumors. The common problems are detected on a microscopic level. Maybe the inspectors have super human vision???
Nothing more than a feel good dog and pony show.
Comment Sue F — February 21, 2008 @ 4:18 am
With all these monstrous recalls in the last 12 months, there’s something I don’t see people talk about…the enormous waste of LIFE brought on by the shoddy work at the processors. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of live head of cattle had to die in order to produce 143 MILLION pounds of processed beef?
[238,333 cattle. -WJ]
And now all of them are just WASTED.
[Actually, most of them have already been eaten, digested and pooped out by people. The recall is largely symbolic. They will recover only a tiny amount of the meat. -WJ]
That’s not considering the tens of millions of pounds of burger from Topps that was just recalled last fall and many others. I worked in a meat shop and slaughter house for several years, and when the Topps recall happened, I figured up an estimate of how many steers would have been needed for that much burger - it was over 400,00 animals! All died for nothing. How much precious ENERGY was wasted on breeding, birthing, raising, feeding, hauling, and processing those animals that is now just WASTED?
[Don’t worry - It gets worse. Often when manufacturers, and that is what they are, recall meat they bringing it back and turn it into canned food like canned chili, canned soup, etc and feed it right back to the public. Sometimes those will get recalled as well. But don’t worry, it doesn’t go to waste, they can mix it with melamine and such and then repackage it as dog food for the pet industry. If that gets recalled, they feed it to hogs and chickens at factory farms. Don’t worry, eventually you’ll get your chance to eat that recalled food… -WJ]
How much LABOR by the producers, truckers, auctioneers, etc. is down the drain and unproductive now? There are a lot more things to consider with these processors being so out of control and contaminating such huge volumes of meat than just the people getting sick part…these processors/packers are COSTING us in a lot of ways.
[It is a tregedy and one that is created by Big Ag. You would not get this sort of thing if we had more small butcher shops and slaughter houses instead of the huge ones. Industrialization is ’supposed’ to bring economies of scale, save us cost, make things more efficient. Sadly it loses our humanity among other things. Big recalls are normal. -WJ]
Comment Anita — February 22, 2008 @ 2:11 am
A nurse friend of mine who raises organic turkeys in Florida told me about dealing with patients with the Jacobs Crutchfield; human form of mad cow…she said the hospital incinerates the needles, tools and clothing because they cannot be cleaned or disinfected…her take on USDA not wanting to test for BSE is that the USDA does not want the consumer to know how many cows are really infected with BSE and testing them would show the real numbers.
Comment SUSAN — February 23, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
After the Alabama cow, the USDA made an estimate of 7 in the entire US. Either it is complete fancy or possible. It was my understanding that there were no indigenous cases of CJD in the US. Is it true that all CJD sufferers here lived for some time in the UK? I don’t even have time to delve into that.
BTW, we should all be trying to focus on deregulating farm to consumer commerce thereby ensuring real food security.
Comment Doreen — February 23, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
I’ve often wondered how many Alzheimer patients actually have Mad Cow. It always sounded to me like the two diseases have a lot of symptoms in common.
An acquaintance of mine spends a lot of time snowmobiling in Canada and brought himself back some steaks the other day. Custom cut sirloins for $2.80 a pound. The steaks here at the local supermarket are 7.99 for the same cut. This was a small local butcher shop. No idea where the beef actually came from though. I just wonder at the price difference with the two countries currency’s on par.
Comment Sue F — February 24, 2008 @ 3:59 am
DNT news has an article where Sen Harkin claims that NAIS would solve this problem because they could trace it back to the feedlot they came from. Reality check-there have been only 3 cows in the US with BSE. One from the Northwest that came from Canada . Two old cows, one from Texas and one from Alabama which had an A-typical form of the disease which has occurred only 7 times worldwide and is not of a genome type infectious to humans. However more cases are showing up all the time in Canada. Despite a coalition of groups working to halt these imports the USDA continues to keep the border open. Even the WTO health committee could not understand why. Downer cows may have been perfectly healthy when they left home, however stress brought on by deprivation of food and water can have adverse effects. The USDA has refused to enforce transit and holding reg despite producer complaints.
Comment Paul-Martin:Griepentrog — March 2, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
paul- martin,howdy.where would i find the article on sen harkin and nais that you talked about in your comment #22 march 2 08 ?.mr harkin, i thought, maybe was leaning our way.
Comment nick — March 2, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
Many people are in the process of writing Senator Harkins. very unbelievable that he implied NAIS would have helped in the Hallmark recall. Digital Angel stated the same. go to there site and read under bulletins. A few people wrote letters to them also.
Comment Gisela — March 3, 2008 @ 12:33 am
This is the link to the article, nick.
Comment Henwhisperer — March 3, 2008 @ 8:43 am
http://dtnag.com should get you there nick. It’s an ag news service. The irony is that Harkin and others are playing on the ignorance of the average consumer in that when cattle leave a farm the owner fills out a slip with his address so the company buying them knows where to send the check. Cattle for slaughter have a sticker attached to their back that can be traced from the slaughter plant to the farm. Once the animal is slaughtered there is limited traceability which just covers the slaughter plants butt. R-Calf is working to get these plants to do these trace-backs you can find more on their website.FYI 30 years involvement in a wide arena of food production and direct marketing has afforded me a lot of experience but my computer skill are at an elementary level, I apologize for this.
Comment Paul-Martin:Griepentrog — March 3, 2008 @ 11:29 am
This news item is floating around and is of interest to us. “USDA shuts down congressional audit” by Ben Evans, posted Feb. 28, 2008. GAO was doing some investigating…..and was stopped. So read it at; http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics/v-print/story/290264.html Why I find this interesting is because of the letter to Senator Harkin around Oct. 23, 2007 from R-calf requesting the moratorium on premises registration and an investigation….of Nais. So, just wonder what kind of a problem Congress would run into with USDA, if they agreed to do the audit, etc.
Comment The Phantom — March 3, 2008 @ 12:35 pm
I saw this on Brownfield,I couldnt access the other site without subscibing.
Anyhow I sent Harkins office an email yesterday pointing out the goofy reasoning in that statement that he made told him how bad an idea it was to violate the rights of the many to cover the rearends of the few corporate CAFO types
and made sure he understood that compliance is out of the question,wont happen.
I also sent this out to my contacts in the Real ID fight as well as several others,keep tellin folks whats going on
obviously the USDA has something to hide,notice in that piece mentioned by Phantom where they state that GAO has no authority in criminal investigations or some such nonsense,and then USDA wants to tell us it has enforcement authority,ya right I wonder what they are afraid of hmmm?
This is just another example of the arrogance of our civil servents,folks need to cntinue to bombard him with letters calls and emails,but dont stop there get ahold of you own fed reps and tell them to oppose Harkin in his collusion with monsanto and friends!
And keep smiling we are making headway,they are now threatening to bypass the process,means we are hurting them,keep up the pressure,thanks!
“Live free or die tryin”
Comment LEE — March 3, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
More spin:
Assistant state vet says animal tracking would prevent recall problems
Monday, March 3, 2008, 9:08 AM
By Matt Kelley
One livestock expert says the recent recall of more than 240,000 pounds of ground beef, the nation’s largest-ever such recall, could have been prevented or greatly minimized through better cattle tracking methods. Dr. Randy Wheeler, an assistant state veterinarian at the Iowa Department of Agriculture, says programs to follow a cow’s progress from the barn to the slaughterhouse are already in place, but they’re voluntary.
Wheeler says, “It would definitely help us to go and trace those animals back to the premises and that’s one of the reasons for the National Animal Identification System and for Premise I.D., is to make a streamlined, modern response process.” He says about half of Iowa’s livestock producers have signed on to the program versus about one-third of producers nationwide. Abbreviated as NAIS (rhymes with face), Wheeler says the program is three-pronged.
“It is in effect and it is designed to improve the identification of livestock and to help locate premises at risk and to streamline the disease investigation process in the event of animal disease or health crisis,” he says. The beef industry is worth two-and-a-half billion dollars a year to Iowa and Wheeler says the future financial viability of Iowa’s cattle industry hinges on improved disease response.
The U.S.D.A. issued the recall on February 17th after an undercover video was released that showed workers at a California slaughterhouse shoving sick or injured cows with forklifts to get them to stand.
Wheeler says 25-million live animals were imported to Iowa last year from all over the country, adding, a cattle disease outbreak in the state would be devastating. Wheeler says, “It would effect many people, not only producers but consumers, should a disease outbreak occur. It could be a lot of consequences and hardships, so NAIS is there to help control the spread, quickly trace and minimize losses and help lessen the extent of hardships in that case.”
During a disease investigation, animal health officials need to locate cattle involved in the outbreak and others that might’ve been exposed. The larger the percentage of animals with official identification, Wheeler says, the easier it is to trace a disease to its source and stop its spread.
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The vet, Randy Wheeler is the Johne’s Program Coordinator for The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Here is his contact info:
Randy L. Wheeler
phone: 515-281-0866
fax: 515-281-4282
Randy.Wheeler@idals.state.ia.us
I propose that we call everyone of these yahoos every time they misspeak. I know I’m going to give him a call tomorrow.
Sharon
Comment Henwhisperer — March 3, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
walter,did you receive the fax?
[I got it but I can’t read it very well. It looks like a newspaper article but didn’t fax well. Is there an online version? Could you type in the first and last sentence and I’ll then google to find it? -WJ]
Comment nick — March 3, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
link GAO Chief Resigns…
Comment Gisela — March 3, 2008 @ 11:50 pm
walter,sorry it has taken me this long to get back to you.i have misplaced it.the good news is sharon has a readable copy,i did ask her to get it to you so as you might post it,i willo check with her.your friend,nick
[We’re almost there. Details to come when it is completed. Thanks for asking! -WJ]
Comment nick — March 6, 2008 @ 6:18 am