STOP FOOD IRRADIATION PROJECT ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION Updated November 15, 2002 Stop Food Irradiation Project HOME The Meat Industry Today: Factory Farming, Inspection and Industrial Animal Slaughter News October 10, 2002: USDA to require E. coli O157:H7 testing and removal or reduction in meat plants. OCA note: "removal or reduction" includes many technologies, but irradiation, which is an "end of the pipeline" technology, makes the other technologies unnecessary. September 26, 2002: The watchdog General Accounting Office issues report: U.S. meat slaughter and processing plants are not following their own sanitation plans. (That's a major reason meat is so frequently contaminated with Salmonella and E. coli). September 12, 2002: USDA temporarily reinstates government inspection for troubled ConAgra meat-processing plant, source of beef contaminated with E. coli, and second largest recall in U.S. history. September 12, 2002: The meat-packing industry is more oligopolistic than the gasoline industry. A decision from Tyson will decimate hog farming in Arkansas. August 13, 2002: Personal essay from a family beef producer. August 13, 2002: USDA's new procedures for slaughter and packing plants that fail Salmonella tests: repeated written warnings without a return of government inspection. These procedures won't work. We are convinced that USDA is trying to push producers into a corner where their only option is to use irradiation. July 29, 2002: Illinois legislation would forbid photographing or videotaping animals on factory farms without their 'owner's' consent. January 31, 2002: USDA's HIMP project of poultry inspection is producing more Salmonella contamination and more carcass defects. January 22, 2002: Meat, Food Packing Workers at IBP/Tyson in Pasco, Wash., Rallied for Safe Conditions. About 500 of the plant's 1,400 employees completed a survey between April and December 2001. According to the union, the survey showed: -- Nearly all those who responded believed production speed contributed to accidents and injuries in their work area. -- About three-fourths said understaffing contributed to accidents and injuries. --More than two-thirds said they witnessed unsanitary conditions and nearly a third said they witnessed inhumane procedures, such as dismembering animals while they still were conscious. Gov. Gary Locke ordered a state investigation into similar allegations in 2000 after a video aired on Seattle television that seemed to show animals were being treated inhumanely. From the Tri-City Herald. October 3, 2001: The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has launched a new notification system that will provide electronic status reports on testing samples taken from meat, poultry, and egg product establishments. The Laboratory Electronic Application for Results Notification system will allow FSIS field personnel, agency staff, establishments, and state officials to electronically monitor information on species identification, food chemistry, microbiological samples, and completed Salmonella/HACCP sets. After a pilot test in several FSIS districts, the program is now online across the country. The system tracks a sample as it is received, analyzed, and the results are reported. The reports state whether a microbiological test- such as Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products or E.coli O157:H7 in raw ground beef products- initially indicates the presence of a pathogen. When confirmation testing on a potential or presumptive positive is complete, a report with the final analysis is posted. Editor's note: Although well-intentioned, this program shows the weakness of the FSIS HACCP system when used without adequate government inspection: by the time the results are confirmed, the contaminated project has already been shipped. September 20, 2001: US piglets now are routinely given irradiated animal blood parts in their food. August 1, 2001: Poultry workers routinely denied wages. June 22, 2001: Unwholesome chicken alert: USDA expands HIMP inspection system nationwide. They claim human health hazards have decreased, but that's because they changed the rules about what is a hazard. June 3, 2001: Join the Halt Hog Factories campaign. Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser on his visits to slaughterhouses. June 23, 2000: Report: Cattle cut up while alive. February 2001: Inhumane slaughter continues in the U.S.; many slaughterhouses not complying with regulations. February 27, 2001: Working conditions in American slaughterhouses today: illegal immigrants, unsafe environments, worker injuries and contaminated meat/poultry. January 18, 2001: A federal judge rules that the USDA's HIMP inspection system is ok. HIMP allows company (not government) inspectors to inspect meat and poultry throughout the slaughter process as long as one government inspector is at the end of the line. Look ahead a year: many companies will use this system (which is faster and thus more profitable), produce dirtier meat, and have to use irradiation. This decision is the regulatory "open sesame" to universal use of irradiation throughout the meat and poultry industry. Only logistical considerations are holding it back. November 24, 2000: Another incremental step intended to make irradiation 'necessary': USDA turns over responsibility for inspection of ready-to-eat meat products to the manufacturers. Expect this result: increased risk of listeriosis, and manufacturers 'demand' for irradiation. November 6, 2000: Deregulation continues: USDA to prohibit government inspectors from inspecting ready-to-eat meat products if the company has its own testing program November 6, 2000: FSIS administrator Tom Billy to leave post next year, will devote more time to role as chairman of Codex Alimentarius. [Why this is important: the man in charge of crippling the meat-inspectors' union and overseeing the deregulation of the meat industry is in charge of the international body that regulates trade rules for food.] He may return as undersecretary of agriculture for food safety, a political appointment. October 16, 2000: Supreme Beef files for bankruptcy: the test case that shows that USDA's HACCP system can't be legally proven to work, and therefore (surprise!) USDA is forced into a corner where irradiation is the only solution to bacteria in meat... September 26, 2000: Very interesting survey of meat/poultry inspectors (look for "The Jungle") says new HACCP-based inspection system is not working. September 26, 2000: USDA unable to prevent antitrust practices in cattle and hog farming, says GAO study. September 11, 2000: On the front lines, from a member of the meat/poultry inspectors union: How their employer, the Food Safety & Inspection Service, is trying to take inspection away from public servants and give it to the industry. July 24, 2000: USDA will stop stamping imported meat carcasses with USDA grades. U.S. ranchers asked for the change; they say the USDA stamp serves as a form of advertising not meant for foreign meats. USDA hurries to change the meat labels to help a few thousand ranchers, but refuses to listen to tens of millions of consumers who demand clear and prominent labels on irradiated foods! July 24, 2000: USDA misleads public about pilot meat inspection program, say Public Citizen and the Government Accountability Project. This program intends "to turn the inspection of meat and poultry over to the industry for self-inspection. The public has to be informed of the truth about the dismantling of our (government) food inspection system." Read the coalition's letter to USDA Undersecretary Thomas Billy. July 21, 2000: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows irradiation of fresh shell eggs (chicken ova), effective today. For the FDA ruling, see the Federal Register. Submit written objections by August 21, 2000. July 16, 2000: Two hard-hitting news articles "Meat from diseased animals approved for consumers" and "Meat with scabs, pus and tumors is OK, USDA says." July 3, 2000: FSIS eliminates requirements for Partial Quality Control programs in favor of HACCP programs; large poultry slaughterers and meat/poultry processing plants to be affected. July 2, 2000: USDA Office of Inspector General harshly criticizes the USDA food inspection service. July 2, 2000: In setback for meat/poultry industry, appeals court says USDA inspectors must do hands-on examinations of carcasses and can't turn over the job to employees of processing plants. June 20, 2000: USDA asks Texas slaughterhouse Supreme Beef, which failed four microbial tests for Salmonella, to voluntarily shut down. Supreme Beef supplies 30% of the ground beef to public schools. Supreme Beef refused, claims tests are unfair. Having backed itself into a corner by requiring industry-friendly but inadequate tests for contamination, and company inspectors instead of government inspectors--the USDA is now unable to prove that the system works. But getting rid of government inspection was always the industry plan. June 2, 2000: The U.S. Department of Agriculture deliberately covered up evidence of diseased chicken being approved for consumers, and tried to retaliate against the meat inspectors who complained, says a public-interest coalition. May 26, 2000: Federal judge says HACCP microbial tests are not accurate gauges of whether or not a plant is clean. USDA cannot shut down a plant that fails the tests. USDA must now find some better method of assuring cleanliness--either rebuild the inspection force, or require irradiation. May 13, 2000: The USDA has "given away the shop" to the meat industry, says head of meat inspectors union. "In the 1950s we condemned carcasses with fecal contamination, in the 1970s it was cut off, in the 1980s it was washed off and in the 1990s it is eaten." March 26, 2000: Meat industry deregulation continues under Tyson Foods protegé Bill Clinton: USDA to cut 150 meat inspectors at processing plants. Now one visit per shift is required; USDA wants to reduce that to random visits.  Reports and Resources Government Accountability Project Helps meat inspectors GRACE Factory Farm Project July 16, 2002: Watchdog Government Accounting Office report is sharply critical of government's new food inspection system. September 24, 2001: Getting corporations out of agriculture: Learn how South Dakota and Nebraska amended their constitutions. September 19, 2001: Tour de Stench: Take a tour of Kentucky chicken factory farms. July 8, 2001: Hogging It: Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock" a report from the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists, describes the growing public health problem caused by antibiotic resistance. Take action. May 11, 2001: The true story of corporate hog farms, a report from Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy with horrifying pictures. April 15, 2001: Feature article on slaughterhouses: Modern meat: A brutal harvest. May 13, 2000: A tour of how animals are made into food... Cattle feed now contains things like manure and dead cats The politics of meat production: Summary of Safety Last: The Politics of E. Coli and Other Foodborne Killers, a 1998 report by the highly respected journalists at the Center for Public Integrity. They say, "Congress has consistently ignored the growing threat to the public health posed by the slaughter and meatpacking industry, the producers who raise the animals, and the distributors, wholesalers, and retailers who sell the products to the public....Over the past decade, the food industry...has managed to kill every bill that has promised meaningful improvement.” Download or order the complete report. Books Read the blockbuster book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry by Gail Eisnitz.  Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001) also exposes the meat industry. Animal Factories (1990) by Jim Mason and Peter Singer is a layperson's guide to how most meat is produced in the U.S.