I have a bad taste in my mouth and it's not just from the meat. The CEO of the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto has fallen on his sword and taken the blame for the outbreak. However, have enough - or any - questions been asked regarding the condition of livestock before it meets its demise so that it can grace the lunch pails for students and workers everywhere? When animals are not happily grazing, what conditions do they live in? When they go to the animal killing fields, what conditions grace their final journey? When they are slaughtered, same thing. To ask farmers and breeders to account for a reasonable standard of hygiene is often seen as kicking the sacred cow in the rump. We had a field day blaming the operators at the Walkerton, Ontario water filtration plant when there was an outbreak resulting in several deaths with many more probably to come. Rightly so. However, what investgations were carried out concerning the waste from nearby farms - waste which could easily find its way into the water supply? Let's have a real investigation.
2 comments:
Precisely.
Standards have gone downhill. We need better rules and regulations or we can expect more of this.
I am not one to vilify big business as it has helped make this continent the greatest civilization in the history of the world. I am also not one who likes to criticize farmers who contribute so much, while leading modest lives themselves.
This Maple Leaf thing, however, is utterly shocking. SAFETY must outstrip PRODUCTION levels and PROFIT as a priority, or we become just as bad as China. The profits will come if the industry standards are, themselves, high enough and if they are MET consistently.
It is with great sadness that I say this company should be thrown to the wolves who will devour it as meat, but they have brought it on themselves. If an individual person is culpable in the failure to meet safety/cleanliness standards, then s/he should spend many years in prison pondering his/her negligence and the consequences it had for others.
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