Re: What you don't know, or either you just ignore.

On Feb 25, 6:38 am, "JC" <dontbot...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The comment is mine.

Hallmark Gives Industry A California Nightmare
Feb 22, 2008 1:08 PM, Joe Roybal

The tentacles of the largest beef recall in history -- 143,383,823 lbs. --
have reached all across the country. If the surreptitious video of exhausted
and disabled dairy cattle being tortured to take their last few steps to the
kill box of the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. in Chino, CA weren't
disturbing enough, local papers around the country were brimming with
coverage on school districts that utilized product from the offending firm
in their cafeterias.

Reportedly school cafeterias in 36 states received product from
Hallmark/Westland, which is USDA's second-largest supplier of meat to the
federal school lunch program.

Most of the voluntarily recalled meat is thought to have already been
consumed, and there have been no reported illnesses. Rather, federal meat
inspection services were pulled because the firm "did not consistently
contact the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) public health veterinarian
in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory after passing
ante-mortem inspection, which is not compliant with FSIS regulations," USDA
says.

The company actually consists of two operations. Hallmark Meat Packing did
the processing, and Westland Meat Co. marketed the product. Together, the
firms were cited as a supplier of the year by the National School Lunch
Program in 2005.

The LA Times reports the 200-employee operation sold beef to USDA's school
lunch program and fast-food restaurants, including In-N-Out Burger and Jack
in the Box. Last year, the federal government purchased nearly $39 million
of ground beef from Westland/Hallmark out of total annual sales of roughly
$100 million.

At press time, media reported two workers -- one 49 years old and the other
32 years old -- had been charged in the incident. Of course, management was
out in front, at first claiming the images were fake, and later crying
ignorance of the conditions.

In a statement posted on the company's website, president Steve Mendell
said: "Words cannot accurately express how shocked and horrified I was at
the depictions contained on the video that was taken by an individual who
worked at our facility from October 3 through November 14, 2007."

It made me think of what animal-handling guru Temple Grandin told me a few
years ago when we worked together on an article on the audits she was
conducting of animal-handling practices in the nation's packing plants. She
said the number-one factor governing the quality of animal handling in such
facilities was the attitude of management. If management is engaged and
forceful, these types of incidents don't happen.

"This issue is totally management. This had nothing to do with facilities
and all to do with management. For one thing an employee doesn't just go get
a forklift. This treatment is some of the worst I've seen in my 35 years in
this industry," she says.

"What's frustrating is that all the good plants out there are getting
painted by the Hallmark brush. The Humane Society of the U.S., which
released this video, wants to make it seem like this treatment dominates the
industry but it doesn't," she says.

Grandin says the watershed year in animal handling in packing plants
occurred in 1999 when the McDonald's and Wendy's chains instituted their
animal-handling audits of product suppliers.

"I saw more change in animal handling in that year than in the entire 25
years prior to that. Under-performing plants were taken off the approved
supplier list and that got their attention. McDonald's moved an industry."
But even prior to that watershed time, there were some very good examples of
animal handling and treatment and it all came back to the management of
those operations, she adds. (For more detail on animal-handling quality in
packing operations, visit grandin.com and click on "surveys" from the main
menu).

She says the industry must clean up problem plants because such undercover
videos are not going away. "You can't stop these cameras; they're the size
of a sugar tube. But I've seen a lot of undercover videos, and that
(Hallmark) one is one of the worst. If management was engaged, you wouldn't
have that stuff happen."

USDA isn't without blame in the incident, she says. For one thing, there's a
problem with inconsistent inspection -- one inspector might be strict and
another lax. In addition, a lot of federal regulations are very vague and
subject to interpretation. "But dragging conscious downers is strictly
forbidden, and the law certainly isn't ambiguous on that case. It is clearly
not allowed," she says.

*******Comment: The USDA simply turns its head. I've heard inspectors say
they couldn't care less how they get to the kill floor as long as they stand
up on at least one leg when they cross the entryway.

Grandin says that overall the livestock industry has done a poor job of
communicating with the public on the job it does. "We need to put a narrated
video tour of a packing plant on the web. People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA) has anti-meat footage available on its website and we
present no counter argument.

"I've spent 35 years working with these plants. The Tyson and Cargill plants
are very good but the suits in the corporate office are too bunker mentality
to communicate with the public on the good job they do. They're ruled by
panic and fear," she says.

The fallout over the incident is tough to gauge at this point, but it has
all the earmarks of a watershed incident -- egregious cruelty toward
animals, and dirty conditions that can stir wonder about the quality of the
overall meat supply. Plus, the reach extends right into our kids'
cafeterias.

Politicians are lining up for their turn in front of the news lens. Sen. Tom
Harkin (D-IA) recently asked: "How much longer will we continue to test our
luck with weak enforcement of federal safety regulations?" And, Rep. Rosa L.
DeLauro (D-CT), chairwoman of the House Agriculture, Food and Drug
Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, is leading a Democratic
lawmakers' call for an independent government investigation into the safety
of meat in the National School Lunch Program.

With the Humane Society of the U.S. -- the outfit that planted the worker
and released the video -- claiming to have moles in a handful of other
operations as well, brace yourselves for more potentially bad news about
"factory farming."

That is, unless the industry gets serious about proving that Hallmark is
indeed an isolated incident.

From an old post on April 2007:

"Food problems connected to GOP cuts

"While the Republicans love selling themselves to their core
supporters as the team who have made important cuts in the federal
government, here is yet another example of the end result and what it
means in the real world. We already know what they've done to US vets
and with this most recent outbreak of food illness related to the
American kids staple peanut butter, it has become painfully obvious
that GOP cuts continue to risk the lives of millions of Americans.

The federal agency that's been front and center in warning the public
about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting
just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago.

The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of
high-profile food recalls. . ."
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/food-problems-connected-to-go...

"Pet Food Recall Expanding, More Brands

WASHINGTON - The recall of wet and dry pet foods contaminated with a
chemical found in plastics and pesticides expanded Saturday to include
a new brand even as investigators were puzzled why the substance would
kill dogs and cats.
Nestle Purina PetCare Co. said it was recalling all sizes and
varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific
date codes. Purina said a limited amount of the food contained a
contaminated wheat gluten from China.

The same U.S. supplier also provided wheat gluten, a protein source,
to a Canadian company, Menu Foods, which this month recalled 60
million containers of wet dog and cat food it produces for sale under
nearly 100 brand labels. . ."
http://www.wxyz.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=3bf8440f-78b4-4...

"Former FDA Chief Illegally Held Stocks

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A19

Lester M. Crawford, who resigned mysteriously last fall just two
months after being confirmed as commissioner of the Food and Drug
Administration, will plead guilty today to charges that he hid his
ownership of stock in food and drug companies that his agency
regulated, his lawyer said.

The Justice Department charged Crawford yesterday with two
misdemeanors for withholding the financial information, which included
his ownership of shares in food and drink manufacturers Pepsico Inc.
and Sysco Corp. and the drug company Embrex Inc. . .The agency [FDA],
which regulates almost one-quarter of the U.S. economy, has had a
confirmed commissioner for less than two years since the Bush
administration came into office.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR200...
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