Smith Gets Rough Ride For Beef Comments

[ASRG]

Danielle Smith wondered out loud if it was possible to "feed the hungry" with the meat being hauled to the Brooks landfill. Immediately she was attacked as some kind of evil Nazi type creature trying to poison the poor down trodden types!
But wait a minute, this isn't the recalled meat, this is the meat that was processed out of the cooler last week....that the CFIA had certified as ecoli free! In other words, perfectly good product.
And after all didn't Redford, Veryln Olsen, and Gerry Ritz all say that Alberta beef was perfectly safe if you cooked it? In fact Redford fed her kid beef every day last week...it's okay for the Premier's kid but God forbid we let some old boy down at the soup kitchen eat it?
Smith made a blunder. She should realize one should never talk common sense when the goofy left wing media is waiting to pounce!

[littledoggie]

What a horrendous waste of perfectly good food. The general public has lost the ability to handle real food properly. There are no home economists to turn to for advice - do they even teach kids proper food handling in school anymore? One of the first things I learned in a university food science course was to use a seperate cutting board for meat. And proper cooking and handling. Danielle Smith speaks perfect sense.

[grassfarmer]

I don't think its anything to do with the media being
left wing. In these "food safety" crisis there seems to
be a standard way things play out - Government
ministers stress food is safe - leading to photo ops of
them eating some (or their kids eating some) whether
the food subsequently proves to be safe or not. Any
and all food involved in a recall like this is unsaleable
whether it is safe or not. If it's unsaleable its
politically incorrect that it is OK to give it to the
hungry of the world. Goofy screwed up logic maybe
but that's the way it is in media eyes and public
perception. Danielle was naive for suggesting this.

[kato]

I suspect that JBS wants to start with a clean slate. They don't want any doubt attached to anything they process. As wasteful as it is, in this world this is likely the only way they can keep customers. In the long run it will likely be better for all of us.

[Kathy]

How is this unsaleable meat???

At least, it could be processed into dog/cat food; at best, as it has alreaded tested negative for ecoli and will be processed in a clean ecoli free plant - why on Earth could it not be sold?

We have hit a new angle on that slippery-slope of "food safety". Now, when meat tests negative for ecoli (and in the form of an unprocessed carcass) it is unfit for human consumption.

You do realize that these 5000 carcases are the equivalent of 25 farm families like my own, who raise 200 head. Why not just come to the farm and shoot my calves and put them in a pit and bury them - the science is no better. It is illogical!

Again, why are these ecoli negative carcasses unsaleable??? A political decision - not a scientific one; unbelievalbe, when the science in THIS case is so basic (unlike the mess we have with BSE)...

The media has been nailing Daniel Smith on this, without providing to the public all the information. People interviewed for TV/radio were led to believe that she wanted to feed "the hungry" ecoli tainted beef. This is absolutely not the case! But, it has provided a few sound bites to the NDP and Conservatives, when it should be the CFIA who must answer the question "why is this beef unsaleable"... Why was XL Beef not given the option of selling these carcasses, at the very least, to a pet food manufacturer. Some financial value from this beef is far better than none. The penalty of NO VALUE is then passed on down the line, ending at the cow/calf producer.... We pay the penalty for this non-crime.

It makes me even more aware of how the public feels about my efforts to provide them with a healthy product. In their minds, because the CFIA has botched this whole thing, all beef is considered "tainted"...If there is no confidence in the meat inspection done with these carcasses (already hanging in the plant), then there can be none (no confidence) in the inspection process going forward.

Our society will let AHS shoot them and their kids up with genetically modified live viruses (vaccines) but doesn't want to eat (even for free) perfectly safe beef - they'd rather throw it in the dump. Tell me we are not a mentally challenged society!

[ASRG]

You sure hit the nail on the head Cathy!
Incompetent clowns at the CFIA covering up their screw up!
No problem feeding kids GMO corn and soy products....but by God we sure don't want them eating beef that has tested safe!
Vaccinate the poor little buggers with all kinds of GMO infected vaccines that likely will kill them somewhere down the road, but nope....no hamburger!
What the hell is wrong with this society?

[grassfarmer]

"How is this unsaleable meat???"

Due to public perception it would be a marketing
nightmare.
As my friend Bob Church likes to say:
"In this era of 30-second media clips perceptions are
real - facts are negotiable."