WHERE'S THE BEEF/

WHERE’S THE BEEF
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GOOD MORNING FLINT!
BY Terry Bankert 3/14/08
http://attorneybankert.com/
You are invited to join me at Face Book http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry_Bankert/645845362 ___________________________
Full article at http://goodmorningflint.blogspot.com/
Summary at Flint Talk with discussion
http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=26085#26085
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WE HAVE TO TRUST OUR FOOD CHAIN

Steve Mendell poured millions of dollars into stainless-steel paneling and state-of-the art cleaning systems to upgrade the decades-old meatpacking plant he has run since the late 1990s. But while Mr. Mendell focused his attention on the inside of the five-acre plant, he and other top executives at Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. spent little time monitoring the facility's outdoor cattle pens, plant employees say.[w]

WHAT EFFECT HAS BUDGET HAD ON THE REDUCTION OF MEAT INSPECTORS

The president of a slaughterhouse at the heart of the largest-ever meat recall denied under oath on Wednesday, but then grudgingly admitted, that his company had apparently introduced sick cows into the hamburger supply. [n]

How can that happen? Is there need for more regulation? He then tried to minimize the significance. [n]

Steven Mendell routinely left his million dollar Corona del Mar home at dawn – only to return late in the evening from a long day overseeing one of California's most prestigious meat packing plants.[c]

Was it new bush policy that allowed this to happen?[trb]

At the end of February, the Humane Society brought a lawsuit against the Agriculture Department over a change in its inspection rules. The group says the change made last year could make it easier for sick and injured cows to enter the food supply.[v]

THIS GUYS PLANTS HAVE KILLED BEFORE In 1993,

Mr. Mendell's company and other meat suppliers came under scrutiny when four children died and 600 other people were sickened by burgers sold by fast-food chain Jack in the Box Inc. Although the exact source of the E. coli bacteria found in the beef was never determined, Westland was among companies that settled legal claims totaling $58.5 million.[w]

THEY WERE ONLY A LITTLE SICK

The executive, Steve Mendell, of Hallmark/Westland Meat Company of Chino, Calif., said, “I was shocked. I was horrified. I was sickened,” by video that showed employees kicking or using electric prods on “downer” cattle that were too sick to walk, jabbing one in the eye with a baton and using forklifts to push animals around.[n]

WE TRUSTED HIS COMPANY

Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. was considered so safe that federal authorities used millions of pounds of its beef to feed children under the National School Lunch Program, including students in Orange County. Meat from the Chino plant also landed in sirloin patties sold at Costcoand burgers and tacos served at In-N-Out Burger and Taco Bell, both headquartered in Irvine.[c]

APPROPRIATE USE OF FORCE

The video was taken by an undercover agent from the Humane Society of the United States. One tape showed a worker using a garden hose to try to squirt water up the nose of a downed cow, a technique that Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who conducted the hearing, referred to as waterboarding. [n]

POLICY TO KEEP COWS HAPPY NOT MAD

The workers kicked them and shot water at their faces. They also used electric shocks and forklift trucks to force the animals to their feet. The Agriculture Department bans downer cattle from entering the food supply. The ban is part of measures to protect against the human version of mad cow disease.[v]

I WAS NOT THERE BUT I KNOW IT DID NOT HAPPEN

Testifying before the Oversight and Investigations Committee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Mendell, who appeared only after being subpoenaed, assured lawmakers that despite his lack of knowledge about conditions at the plant, sick animals were not slaughtered for food so no safety issue existed.[n]

Mendell, 55, has been in the beef business for at least 18 years.[o]

Much of that time he acted as a meat broker, buying carcasses or slabs of beef from slaughterhouses. His company, Westland Meat Co., processed the beef and sold it to other meat suppliers. One slaughterhouse Mendell patronized in the 1990s was Chino-based Hallmark Meat Co., owned by Donald Hallmark. [o]

OOPS! ... IT DID

But Mr. Mendell retracted the statement when shown a second video at which a “downer” cow was shocked and abused by workers trying to move it to the “kill box,” and then finally shot with a bolt gun and dragged by a chain to the processing area.[n]

HE WAS RESPONSIBLE

When Mr. Mendell told the committee he was unaware of the abuses, Mr. Stupak asked him, “What’s your curiosity, as president and C.E.O. of the company you’re responsible for?”[n]

Mr. Mendell replied that after he had seen the first video, he concluded, “it was a regulatory violation, for sure, it was inhumane treatment, for sure,” but that he did not believe it was a food safety issue until he saw the second video on Wednesday. [n]

BUT, HE IS A GOOD OLD BOY...GOT MONEY TOO!

Hallmark described Mendell as a good Christian and avid golfer who worked at least 12 hours a day. "He's a very hard worker. He's a nice man," said Hallmark.[o]

BIG MAC OR WHOPPER?

Mr. Stupak asked if one could conclude from the video that the cow dragged into the killing area had gone into the food supply. [n]

“That would be logical, sir,” Mr. Mendell replied.[n]

WEB VIDEO TELLS ALL

Mr. Mendell said he had asked for a copy of the second video but had been refused. The president of the Humane Society, Wayne Pacelle, said however, that the video had been on the group’s Web site since Feb. 19.[n]

The undercover video, shot by the Humane Society of the United States, led to the record recall of 143 million pounds of beef produced by the slaughterhouse.[c]

NOT CERTIFIED, JUST CERTIFIABLE

The undercover investigator for the Humane Society did not appear but Mr. Mendell found a way to make his identity public, seeking to contradict the investigator’s accusation that when he was hired at the plant, he had not received the required training in humane handling. Mr. Mendell volunteered that he had with him a form signed by the agent acknowledging such training. (Whether the training actually occurred was not established.)[n]

ONLY KIDS AND ELDERLY

Of the 143 million pounds of beef that were recalled, about 50 million pounds went to school lunch programs or federal programs for the poor or elderly, Mr. Stupak said. But the recall covered all the meat produced for two years, Mr. Mendell said, so most of it had already been eaten.[n]

Ding Ding Ding

The biggest threat from “downer” cattle is mad cow disease. The chairman of the full committee, Representative John Dingell, also of Michigan, said the incubation period for the human form could be 20 years.[n]

THE BEATING ARE JUST A TENDERIZER

A “downer” animal can still be slaughtered if a government veterinarian has determined the cow was fit for human consumption, but Mr. Mendell acknowledged that no veterinarian was visible on the tape. [n]

MAD COW OR JUST A LITTLE PISSED

After the testimony, Mr. Mendell’s lawyer Asa Hutchinson, a former member of Congress from Arkansas and former under secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said that Mr. Mendell still did not have all the facts about the events shown in the videotapes. Mr. Mendell made the point that parts of the animal most likely to carry the defective protein that causes mad cow were routinely removed. [n]

I WILL STAND BY MY COW

“I think there is less than a minute chance of that product being contaminated,” he said. He also produced audits from outside companies showing that the plant complied with rules on humane treatment of animals, evidence that some committee members said shook their confidence that Mr. Mendell understood the operations of his company.[n]

3 KIDS KILLED 1993

The committee is considering several remedies, including food irradiation. That would reduce the risk of contamination by e. coli, the bacterium that killed three children in a 1993 outbreak linked to the Jack in the Box restaurant chain. (Westland/Hallmark was one of the slaughterhouses closed down in that outbreak.) But it would not affect the mad cow risk.[n]

NEEDED: INSPECTORS GOT IT

Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, has proposed improving the ability to track meat back to the slaughterhouse as well as giving the agriculture department the authority to issue recalls. That could make it easier, she said, to catch tainted meat before it was consumed, “or preferably, to deter conduct like this.” [n]

JUST DON’T ASK

A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, Amanda Eamich, refused any substantive comment, saying that the case was still under investigation.[n]

When food recalls are announced, they often include the names of some of the stores that were supplied with the products. But under a new state law, California has published an online list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of places affected by the beef recall. These include markets, restaurants, hotels and school systems. [c]

ITS CRIMINAL

Paul Shapiro, who oversees the Humane Society's factory farming campaign, said the abuse was a criminal act that warranted an investigation by local prosecutors, not the USDA. When asked if Mendell was present on the plant floor when the downer cows were tortured, Shapiro said: "No."[o] Then added: "The abuse was happening out in the open and wasn't a secret."[o]

Regardless of what happens next for Mendell, the damage to the packing house that still bears Hallmark's name is already done. "He had a beautiful business," Hallmark said. "But, it's lost now. Years of hard work, shot."[o]

Posted here by Terry Bankert ...GOOD LUCK 3/14/08

http://attorneybankert.com/
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—WHERE DID THIS STUFF COME FROM
[n] The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/business/13meat.html?ref=us

[c] CBS News http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/3bd3c759-www.kgan.com.shtml

[v] The VOA News http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-03-10-voa6.cfm

[trb] Comments of Terry Bankert and CAP headlines http://attorneybankert.com/

[o] OCC http://www.ocregister.com/money/mendell-hallmark-meat-1996857-plant-cows

[w] The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120520382464126297.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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