Comments on: Spin, silence, and beef boosterism as company and politicians react to XL Foods beef E.coli.

By: Alberta MLAs return to Edmonton next week for the first real sitting of 2012. | daveberta.ca - Alberta politics

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:20:08 +0000

[...] confusion around what exactly happened at the XL Foods meat packing plant in Brooks, the slow reaction of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to the E.coli outbreak, and the late [...]

By: Spaceskydiving, beef and beloved newspapers | Edmonton Blog Watch | The Unknown Studio

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:10:12 +0000

[...] Dave Cournoyer looked into the food safety and communications tragedy that is the XL Foods recall. [...]

By: May Day

May Day — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 01:37:48 +0000

The fingers should point directly towards the owners and management of this plant, not the Ministers’ of Agriculture or the vets or the inspectors.

By: Susan Wright

Susan Wright — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 01:04:43 +0000

Skeptical Scott makes a valid point. The CFIA website says that for the last 12 months it has assigned 40 inspectors and 6 veterinarians to work full time at the XL Food plant and that they work in 2 shifts to “ensure full coverage whenever the plant is operating”. One has to wonder about their competence given their failure to spot the egregious breaches of their own regulations.

By: Skeptical Scott

Skeptical Scott — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 21:32:56 +0000

Hi — what everyone seems to be missing is that the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) has 37 inspectors housed full-time at the Excel plant.

By: Gary E Ranger

Gary E Ranger — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:45:42 +0000

I blame the CFIA Federal government agency & the minister in charge who seems to think he has no responsibility in the E coli mishap. Leaking roofs,pluged drainage,sanitary & washing racilities???in a private enterprise that is responsible for shipping product all over the country,The CFIA has looked at the plant once or twice since the outbreak???There should be inspectors in that plant 24/7 until you could eat off the floor in the cutting room.i think that the minister in charge(joke)should get sombody to explain his responsibilities to him

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:23:24 +0000

Thanks for the article. As much as we can lay blame on the politics behind a food scare like this, I agree with Darren. The real problem lies with us. I recently wrote about events like this massive beef recall, questioning what it will take for people to start realizing the benefits of smaller scale, less centralized, more local production. Even at the best of times we are afraid of our food. Why have we let it come to this? What will it take to get people to pony up a couple extra dollars for healthier, better tasting food?

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:44:54 +0000

Where I live, there is a small butcher shop that is doing just fine with all the regulations. Their prices are slightly higher than the grocery chains and that, to me, is a far greater contributing factor to the centralization of meat processing than regulations. If any of you here buy your meat at Safeway or Costco or any of the major chains you’re likely part of the problem, or at least contributing to the demise of the small butcher shops. You people want to reverse the decentralization of the meat processing industry? That’s relatively easy, seek out and support retail outlets that don’t use centralized meat processing services. You may have to drive a bit and pay a higher prices than you would at Costco but the more people who support the smaller operations, the more viable that sector becomes. Simple stuff, really.

By: bartinsky

bartinsky — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:12:52 +0000

It was over regulation that caused the smaller butcher shops to close, that we can pin on successive governments, federal and provincial. But the regulations were brought in because of governments succumbing to the whiners about “there ought to be a law”, and their chances to build another small kingdom of unionized drones to keep the union dues flowing. If the CFIA inspectors would stick to the sanitation of the equipment, and stay away of areas their input is not needed things like this would be fewer, but to blame this on the premier or a minister because of crass difference of “party affiliation” only shows the shallowness of the blamer. Grow up people, turn off the “You’re all gonna die” media, fools like the Herald and Journal, WRP lapdogs like the current talk show hosts, and realize your chances of getting hit going to work this morning are far greater than catching E coli from beef. What about the 52 people in Calgary that caught it from lettuce, or the 32 people that got hep A from a cook in the Shell cafeteria, or the thousands that are currently sickened from steroid injections? Where is the outrage and screaming on the talk shows about that, oh no reserve ones anger for the Conservatives. You people are like the idiots that think Bush blew up the towers, it wasn’t Redfords fault. And who cares about the last 4 generations David, the first generation paid for the land through hard work and long term thinking, try that instead of useful idiotism.

By: David Eggen

David Eggen — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:15:19 +0000

I come from at LEAST 5 generations of cattle producers in my family, some of whom are still going strong, and I am sick at heart at how all this good work is compromised by big packing plants and poor government. The province has a responsibility to everyone to ensure the quality of our food. If they try to pass it off to the Feds and to XL and Cargill we are all at risk.

By: daveberta

daveberta — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:28:17 +0000

@ David Eggen – Thanks for the comment, David. I missed your original comments and appreciate you posting the link here. Keep up the good work.
- Dave

By: daveberta

daveberta — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:27:04 +0000

@ William Munsey – Thanks for the comment, Will. Those are great points, especially about the more than 2,000 employees at the XL plant that these health concerns are also directly effecting.