politically-charged food rant

Okay, so generally I use this space for talking about food in the sense of recipes, ingredients, meals, etc. But I feel like there's an important food-related issue out there that I need to address. So this is going to be a bit of departure.

I'm not sure how many of you keep up with news relating to food and the food industry, but I kind of have to as part of my job. Every day I spend at least an hour reading between four and ten food industry news letters. These cover everything from new products, store openings, hirings and promotions of industry execs, government news (i.e. the Farm Bill, FDA regs, etc.) and pretty much any news that would be of interest to the food retail industry. Over the last week, one story has stood out both for its incredibly disheartening content and for its ever-growing magnitude.

Last week the USDA ordered a recall of 37 million pounds of beef distributed by Hallmark Meat Packing (a partner of Westland Meat). The meat was recalled because it came from "non-ambulatory" cows. Federal regulations require that animals that cannot walk off the truck to slaughter be separated from the rest and a veterinarian must euthanize them and then they should be tested. This is because the inability to walk is a symptom of BSE (also known as mad cow disease). Apparently employees at Hallmark were using forklifts, high pressure hoses, electric shocks, and chains to push, roll, prod, and drag these animals to slaughter.

This week the recall was expanded to include 143 million pounds of beef - the largest recall in US history. Federal authorities have said that most of the meat was probably already eaten - by schoolchildren. Westland was a major supplier to the federal school lunch program. The government says that there is little to no risk of adverse health effects from the beef in question, since most of it has already been consumed. Not that such statements make anyone feel any better. In fact, it definitely raises an important question.

Why did we learn about these violations - which are now believed to go back as far as two years - from a video (warning, this video is extremely graphic and disturbing) made by an undercover investigator and supplied to the Humane Society of the United States???

Slaughter facilities are supposed to be regularly inspected by the federal government. Which means that this was either not happening or the inspectors were turning a blind eye to these incredibly horrific violations of ethical animal treatment and federal law. There have been enough recall issues in the last year to give FDA, USDA, and our entire food safety and defense system a pretty visible black eye. However, this is among the worst because it highlights a blatant failure of federal oversight.

What's more, it's not as though things will be getting better. Despite bipartisan pressure, the Bush administration has only approved "modest" increases in the budget for food safety - most of which will be consumed by pay raises for department employees and nearly half of which won't even be available to the agencies until July. While it may not seem as much of a banner issue as Iraq, the economy, or universal health coverage, I hope that candidates will start devoting more time to detailing a plan for protecting our food and attempting to create a system that will instill some sort of trust and confidence in the food supply.

While I'm not a vegetarian, I don't eat a lot of meat and I generally try to stick with organic (although that term in and of itself is laden with controversy). However, a great number of people don't stick to the guidelines I do and I feel that, while there are a number of problems the slaughter industry, consumers should at least be able to feel confident that their food is safe - regardless of their individual ethical choices.

Hopefully the government gets on the same page and becomes truly invested in creating a food supply that Americans can feel good about.