Community Chat

[Ziali]

Workers at the Rancho Feeding Corp. were up to something pretty stomach-churning while inspectors were on their lunch break, according to a federal indictment: They slaughtered cows with eye cancer, hid the heads in gut bins, and placed the heads of healthy cows next to the carcasses. The co-owners and two employees of the northern California slaughterhouse have been indicted on charges of conspiring to distribute adulterated, misbranded, and uninspected meat, as well as mail fraud for selling some of the beef through the post, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The indictment also alleges that slaughterhouse workers were ordered to carve out the "USDA Condemned" stamps from cows condemned by inspectors and process them anyway. The disturbing allegations first surfaced earlier this year, soon after 8.7 million pounds of potentially "unsound" beef and veal products linked to the plant were recalled, affecting companies including Nestle, Walmart, and Kroger. The defendants named in the rare federal indictment face up to 20 years if found guilty. "There are very few criminal prosecutions generally in food cases, and there are very few and far between in meat cases," a food safety attorney tells KQED. "They're facing some severe jail time and some severe fines."

http://www.newser.com/story/192659/feds-slaughterhouse-swapped-heads-to-fool-inspectors.html

[pattypeep]

Aww, jeez ! What next ?

[croemer]

We were in the cattle business for years. That has been going on since way back. I went with my husband to the sale lot and got more education then I would ever want to know...think hotdogs.

[Puzzle Piece]

Thanks for the info. NOW THIS IS REAL NEWS.

[Lucky Charm]

I can only imagine the horrors the poor animals had to live through.

Meat....bleck.

[Free2be]

What they did with the sick cows has caused a huge amount of loss and damage to so many small producers -- it's a travesty. The facility was purchased, renamed, all previous managers and administrators were not hired back. Now the drought has put raising and processing in jeopardy.

The worry is that small scale (individual farms) will not survive. Giant processors will take over. Everyone suffers.

There were no reported illnesses due to the meat processed back in January.

[bikerbabe]

It really is appalling what we (as a country) have allowed to happen to our food industry. Aside from the obvious disturbing and unforgivable animal cruelty, what is it doing to our long term health?

I am increasingly moving to organic only produce and eggs through a CSA (community supported agriculture) delivered to my door and grass fed beef.

[qvcaddition]

rI live in this town, but do not eat meat or chicken anymore. Haven,t for awhile. Even our vegetables are not safe anymore. If field workers don,t get potty breaks. This will get spoofed, but that is my opinion of why we are getting disease from the fields.

[Ziali]

On 8/19/2014 qvcaddition said: I live in this town, but do not eat meat or chicken anymore. Haven,t for awhile. Even out verges are not safe anymore. If field workers don,t get potatoes breaks. This will get spoofed, but that is my opinion of why we are getting disease from the fields.

I don't understand your post...English please.

[qvcaddition]

Had to edit, potty breaks, English enough?