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Editorial: A cattle prod for USDA
Choose between promoting and protecting
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, February 23, 2008
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B6
The delayed recall of 143 million pounds of questionable meat from an Inland Empire packing plant has left consumers asking a familiar question:
Where's the beef?
They also should be asking another crucial question:
Where's the USDA?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture serves as a last line of defense in ensuring that meatpacking plants follow safe and humane procedures, and preventing tainted meat from ending in stores and school lunches.
Yet it wasn't USDA inspectors that uncovered the appalling treatment of animals at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. The abuses were revealed by an investigator for the Humane Society, who videotaped plant workers using electric shocks, hoses and forklifts to keep so-called "downer cows" on their feet before slaughter.
Under current rules, cows that are too sick to stand are supposed be treated and checked by a USDA inspector before any decision is made on their processing. USDA had five inspectors and one veterinarian assigned to the Hallmark plant, but they failed to prevent the abuses and processing of meat that has now been recalled.
Members of Congress are rushing to push legislation in response to the recall, but they need to consider the larger issues that surround food safety nationwide.
First of all, the USDA faces a fundamental conflict as an agency that both promotes meat products and also inspects them. That conflict is one reason the USDA refuses to identify the purchasers of recalled meat. State health officials have long complained that this federal policy makes it hard for them to protect lives. That's one reason California passed its own law – as yet untested – requiring meat processors to disclose the buyers of recalled meat.
Congress is considering a bill to create a single federal agency to oversee all food safety, instead of the mix of duties now shared by USDA and others. The modern-day "Jungle" revealed by the Hallmark plant suggests that the time is ripe for reform.
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