By: Leslie Ballentine, Farming and Food Commentator
“Pink slime” a pejorative term for boneless lean beef trimmings has been getting a lot of attention from, food advocates and US policy makers in recent weeks. Called “lean finely textured beef within the industry,” the ground beef filler is reportedly not used in fabricating meat in Canada. Never-the-less, the hoopla is spilling over our border and is another example of how a name can affect the industry.
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Posted by FFC on April 2nd, 2012 :: Filed under
animal by-products,
Consumers,
Food,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
Consumers,
food,
food safety,
meat,
Media
By Leslie Ballentine, Farm and Food commentator
In December a plan for an outright ban on ritual slaughter methods in the Netherlands failed to pass the Dutch Senate. The bill and the issues surrounding it garnered world-wide attention by Jewish and Islamic communities, the meat processing and retail sectors, and animal activists. Government diplomats also became involved.
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Posted by FFC on February 13th, 2012 :: Filed under
Activism,
animal handling,
Food,
Meat/slaughter plants,
RegulationsTags ::
activists,
animal welfare,
food,
meat,
regulation
By: Leslie Ballentine, Farm and Food Commentator
There is a common saying among vegetarians that “If slaughterhouses had glass walls everyone would be a vegetarian”. Having been to all types of meat plants I disagree. And so did one of North America’s largest processing companies.
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Posted by FFC on November 21st, 2011 :: Filed under
animal handling,
Beef cattle,
Consumers,
Education and public awareness,
Meat/slaughter plants,
Media,
VegetarianTags ::
animal welfare,
animals,
Consumers,
food safety,
meat,
Media,
Vegetarian
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Finding good employees can be a challenge for many businesses. But according to The Fiscal Times, “dirty jobs” are the most difficult to fill. Included in their list, of “10 Dirty jobs that no one wants” are working on dairy farms and other ag-related operations. The jobs are ones that The Fiscal Times describes as “high-stress, uncomfortable, dangerous, or just plain icky, that regardless of the recession, you have to be pretty desperate to sign up for.”
The U.S. on-line newspaper goes so far to describe their arbitrary list as “hideous” jobs. A label most dairy farmers, and many others included on the list, would strongly contest.
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Posted by FFC on September 5th, 2011 :: Filed under
Dairy cattle,
Farm life,
Farm Safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
agriculture,
dairy cattle,
Farmers
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Recalls happen either because a company finds a problem on its own or is informed of a problem by someone else, after the product has gone out the door. For farmers and food companies, prevention is the ticket to avoiding these events as well as the financial and public relations fallout associated with an outbreak of food-borne illness. To avoid food recalls means starting at the farm.
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Posted by FFC on June 20th, 2011 :: Filed under
Canada,
Consumers,
eggs,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
Consumers,
diet,
food safety,
meat
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
Some 10 million viewers got a unique opportunity to see inside a large US meat plant this week when The Oprah Show aired a guided tour of one of the world’s largest meat packing plants. The tour and the Cargill company staff helped to de-mystify a process that is largely mis-understood and maligned. I have been to many slaughter plants over my agriculture career, but here is a report on the experiences of one first- time visitor at another Cargill meat plant. The author is a nutritionist and not from a farm. Cargill operates plants in Canada as well as the U.S….
I just got back from west Texas where I toured a big industrial beef processing plant and I am still in shock by what I witnessed there. But I am not shocked in the way you might expect based on the negative portrayals of the beef industry that seem so rampant in the media. Rather, I am stunned by how humanely the animals were treated and by the detailed attention given to food safety at every stage of the process.
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Posted by FFC on February 2nd, 2011 :: Filed under
animal handling,
Beef cattle,
Consumers,
Food safety,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
animal welfare,
beef,
cattle,
food,
food safety,
misconceptions
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2021.06.06
The use of battery-powered electric prods to get hogs moving is a controversial animal welfare issue.
The prod is poked into the back or rump of the pig and with a push of a button, a flash of electric current jumps between two contacts. It’s enough to elicit a loud squeal in some pigs.
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Posted by FFC on July 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under
Meat/slaughter plants,
Pork,
TransportationTags ::
animal welfare,
economics,
labeling,
meat,
Ontario,
pigs,
Pork
Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator,2008.06.06
It’s Friday, May 9. I didn’t need my alarm clock this morning. I was wide awake by 4 a.m.
I admit that I was a little apprehensive. This is Piggy’s last day. This morning, he’s being shipped from the Littlejohns’ farm in the hamlet of Glen Morris to Great Lakes Specialty Meats, a small packing plant in Mitchell, about half an hour north of London.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Farm life,
Meat/slaughter plants,
Pork,
TransportationTags ::
Farmers,
meat,
pigs,
Pork,
slaughter,
Transportation
08Dec19 By SHANNON RUCKMAN, The Prairie Star editor
BILLINGS, Mont. - With close to 10 million horses in the nation, Montana horse owners and enthusiasts are concerned about the welfare of the equine industry if legislation is passed banning the transport of horses to slaughter facilities.
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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under
Horses,
Meat/slaughter plants,
Regulations,
TransportationTags ::
Horses,
regulation,
Transportation
For Immediate Release:
December 15, 2020
Memphis, Tenn. — In light of the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to allow advertising on the bins used at airport checkpoints in order to pay for security equipment upgrades, PETA has dispatched a letter to Larry D. Cox, president and CEO of Memphis International Airport (MEM).
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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under
Activism,
Meat/slaughter plantsTags ::
activists,
animal welfare,
PETA
