Holy Unsafe Meat, Batman!

The amazing coincidence is that I was on the phone with my parents just this morning talking about the fact that we only eat organic ground beef in our house.

143 Million Pounds of Ground Beef Recalled

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle.

Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats..."

And the reason? Yup, they were the subject of that video...

"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.

"Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall," Schafer said in a statement.

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts."

As I mentioned in my previous "fur" post, I am the first person to wave the anti-corporate farming banner for this reason and many more. Check out the video that started this uproar:

*WARNING - VERY DISTURBING*



I spent most of my summers in Iowa until I left for college. All of my relatives in Iowa raised cattle, hogs, sheep and/or chickens. I saw the animals spend their days grazing in the field and their nights in a big barn with a large, attached pen.

I can honestly say I NEVER saw any cattle that were sick or mistreated.

The horrific events in this video would NEVER have happened to any of their animals for many reasons. The simplest of which was that they kept part of the meat for family consumption after the animals were slaughtered at market.

Do you think they would raise unhealthy animals and then consume the meat?
This is the "price we have paid" so to speak for sacrificing family farms in our quest for cheap meat. Corporate farms crowd and mistreat their animals which causes sickness and injury. That requires them to dose the animals with all kinds of antibiotics and other drugs to at least maintain the appearance of health.

As I stated earlier, the best way I know to help support what few family farms that are out there is to buy organic meat. I believe that if enough folks start to reject coporate domination, we could start to bring some of those family farms back.