Food safety, children’s safety and public health are topics too important to be left to a committee chosen and led by a Conservative sinecure holder and former star candidate. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). Nevertheless, that’s precisely how Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange propose to
Continue readingTag: e. coli
Left Over: Greed is Driving a Steak Through My Heart…..
Canadians ‘need to know’ about mechanically tenderized meat – in CBC online October 26,2012 Warning!!! Vegetarians, this posting contains suggestive references to meat…. Once again, greed trumps safety… Since I grew up as an omnivore, I make no apologies for the fact that I love meat, a good, thick
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Despite plans to reopen next week, ripples from XL Foods closing may spread
Everything from ranches to feedlots to auction operations not quite like this one could be affected by a financial disaster at Nilsson Brothers Inc., the owner of XL Foods in Brooks. With reports yesterday the XL Foods meatpacking plant in Brooks is likely to reopen in a week, media attention
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Tweetergate? Meatergate? For heaven’s sake, stop her before she Tweets again!
Alberta’s Wildrose Opposition Leader Danielle Smith Tweeting “let them eat steaks” over the worldwide web. Injudicious Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The offending Tweet; the real Ms. Smith. Alberta Opposition Leader Memo to Self: Whatever was I thinking? Whoever does Wildrose Party Leader Danielle “Marie Antoinette”
Continue readingAlberta Diary: E. coli crisis illuminates need for full corporate accountability for private food-processing companies
Transparency: It’s not just about windshields any more. Below: In real life, Canadian Food Inspection Agency meat inspectors at the XL Foods packing plant in Brooks may not appear exactly as illustrated. As the E. coli crisis at XL Foods in southeastern Alberta clearly illustrates, food safety is too important
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: When is an Agriculture minister ^NOT an Agriculture minister?
Silence is golden. A proverbial saying… With respect to the Harper government, specifically the Agriculture minister and the XL Foods recall, saying nothing is preferable to speaking. For those of you keeping track… It has been 1 week and 1 day since Gerry Ritz, the Minister of Agriculture, updated Canadians
Continue reading350 or bust: 28 Hours Without Hydro: Thoughts On Thanks And Tainted Meat
Here in Canada it’s Thanksgiving Monday, when we Canucks consume turkey (or tofurkey, depending on preference), mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie a month earlier than our southern neighbours, although they also have a long weekend, thanks to Columbus Day. It’s a good thing the featured meat of this Canadian holiday
Continue readingAlberta Diary: XL Foods, Tories and a frightened, politicized inspection agency offer a textbook case of brand destruction
“If it ain’t Alberta, it ain’t beef!” Not any more, though, thanks to the efforts of Alberta politicians, companies and the federal food inspection agency. From left to right above: Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry “Cold Cuts” Ritz, Alberta Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson and Alberta Premier Alison Redford. Actual politicians may
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chopped Liver, Everyone?
Comedians like Don Rickles, whenever he felt slighted, would turn to host Johnny Carson and ask, “What am I, chopped liver?” I couldn’t help but think of that line when I read this story in today’s Star, which reveals the following: [The Canadian Food Inspection Agency] stopped allowing XL Foods
Continue readingRandom Ranting Raving and Ratings: The Food Safety Shell Game
The Conservatives are treating Canada’s food safety budget like a game of three-card monte but here is the straight goods on what is budgeted. So fasten your seatbelts and keep your eye on the the cards.
The Conservatives recite repeatedly that …
Continue readingRandom Ranting Raving and Ratings: The Food Safety Shell Game
The Conservatives are treating Canada’s food safety budget like a game of three-card monte but here is the straight goods on what is budgeted. So fasten your seatbelts and keep your eye on the the cards. The Conservatives recite repeatedly that the federal government has increased the food… ..
Continue readingRandom Ranting Raving and Ratings: The Food Safety Shell Game
The Conservatives are treating Canada’s food safety budget like a game of three-card monte but here is the straight goods on what is budgeted. So fasten your seatbelts and keep your eye on the the cards. The Conservatives recite repeatedly that the federal government has increased the food… ..
Continue readingFive of Five: The Eat More Alberta Beef Campaign
Alberta’s Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson makes a pouty face while stocking up on Alberta Beef in a Camrose store. Good thing there was a Sun Media photographer right there to capture the moment for the front page. What serendipity! You can’…
Continue readingFive of Five: The Eat More Alberta Beef Campaign
Alberta’s Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson makes a pouty face while stocking up on Alberta Beef in a Camrose store. Good thing there was a Sun Media photographer right there to capture the moment for the front page. What serendipity! You can’t pay for that kind of luck. http://www.camrosecanadian.com/2012/09/29/ag-minister-olson-still-buying-beef
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not To State The Obvious But ….
Canada’s food safety regime failed us So goes the title of The Star’s editorial this morning as it raises some very pressing questions about how over three weeks elapsed between the discovery of E.coli in the XL Foods’ Lakeside Packers plant in Alberta and the meat recall that will likely
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: I’ll Have a Veggie Burger, Please
In light of the widespread dissemination of tainted beef by XL Foods, one has to ask the role changes made by the Harper regime in Canada’s food inspection process played. According to a Globe report, The list of stores and products affected by the recall is now so long that
Continue readingAlberta Diary: If it’s Alberta, it ain’t goin’ across the border: time to connect the dots on XL Foods
“If it ain’t Alberta, it ain’t beef!” Alberta Beef Producers’ advertising models may not be exactly as illustrated. Below: I [HEART] [ALBERTA MAP] [BEETS]; Alberta Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson and Premier Alison Redford. Do you remember that brilliant advertising campaign, “If it ain’t Alberta, it ain’t beef”? Well, nowadays –
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Harper does it again: Undermining Canadian business and industry (this time on beef)
If you want to undermine Canadian beef at home and abroad in one fell swoop you only need to take away the long-standing trust people have held for the safety of our food industries. A fundamental trust that has been rebuilt from BSE in particular. And that undermining has been
Continue readingbastard.logic: Dueling Ledes (Compare & Contrast)
TorStar, March 20th: Schools, hospitals and popular burger restaurants such as Hero’s and Lick’s are part of a suddenly massive beef recall over fears of E. coli contamination. The G&M, today: Veterinarians and other inspectors responsible for food recalls and ensuring the safety of Canadian meat are among the hundreds
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