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Firepit?

   

Sadly I've seen more then one First Nations person chowing down on uncooked ground beef by the handful. I don't know if it's a culture thing or what but I've seen it more then a few times in my life.

   

Yeah, it seemed like more of well-intentioned affe than anything. Not a huge Wildrose fan, but I'm not holdig this against her.

   

Danielle Smith does touch on a major problem in North America though, the incredible amount of waste. Perfectly good food is tossed daily and clothes are tossed regularily.
In fact, before the days of locking up one's dumpster(s) many dept stores used to destroy their out of season stock before tossing it. This is clothing that could easily go to homeless shelters and the like.
Food from restaurants can be a little sketchy though. Most won't donate excess food to shelters and soup kitchens out of the fear of a potential food poisoning lawsuit.

   

Food that's been identified as unsafe for human consumption should not be 'fed to the poor'. Period. If it's not fit for the grocery store, it must be destroyed. I don't buy Smith's excuse anymore than I bought McGuinty's "I work in real time" excuse when he called for a low Canadian dollar and then tried to correct himself.

   

And that's why I don't believe everything I've been told. There is nothing really wrong with the beef, just that no one is willing to take responsibility if some yahoo decides his e-coli burger needs to be blue-rare.

I worked on a kill floor for too long to be bamboozled. The first thing that is done with a carcass is it's skinned in a specific manner so that the pelt is rolled away from the meat, and the surface of the pelt is not allowed to touch the meat at any point. That's a transmission point.

After the carcass is skinned, it is quickly hit with a steam wand to kill any bacteria that may have come into contact with the meat. Otherwise, as the sides are broken down, every blade that touches it will push e-coli further and further into the meat.

I know that if you bleach the meat then rinse in hot water, you will kill any surface bacteria. If you cook the meat to 75C, you will also kill any bacteria. This isn't a big secret, it's basic food handling safety.

And farmers will tell you, feeding corn to a ruminant is the first mistake, and once we stop doing that, we'll tackle this problem big time.

   

   

I understand that e.coli tainted meat can be eaten safely if it's cooked properly. Just like flammable children's clothing can be used safely if you keep your kids away from open flame or a car with no brakes can be stopped safely using the emergency brake. But since there have been product safety regulations, it has always been held that the manufacturer - who is the product expert - is responsible for ensuring safety, not the consumer. I am not an expert chef nor an expert in food safety but XL is (at least supposed to be) an "expert" meat packer with the necessary knowledge and resources necessary to keep contamination out. Cooking a meal for your family isn't meant to be a life-and-death excersise where a simple mistake or common oversight can kill someone.

And you know what? I like my steaks rare and I enjoy Steak Tartare and Carpaccio. And I don't think that has to change just because XL and the like can't be bothered to live up to the standards anymore.

   

No, those are not good analogies. "A car with no brakes can be stopped safely if you put new brakes on it" would be more accurate.

   

Perhaps. But my point still stands.

   

Yes, your point is valid. Maybe it's the economist in me, but I still find this an incredible waste. When there's this quantity of a useable resource that can be perfectly and safely put to use, why wouldn't we? Distributing to the public may not be a smart option, but using it in a manner as suggested by Smith seems perfectly reasonable. It scarcely matters whether YOU'RE a chef, so long as we find SOMEONE who's able to properly prepare the food. It saddens me that a lot of people will go hungry who could have been safely nourished by this meat.

   

Our homeless aren't going hungry because we don't have enough meat or other food to give them. How are we going to feed the homeless once this meat runs out? Tell em to tighten their belts again? And it's not just the homeless, but many poor, even working poor, don't get adequate nutrition because their income doesn't stretch to cover rent as well as food.

Same with hunger worldwide. We produce more than enough food, we just don't distribute it well enough.

   

Pouring thousands of kilograms into the landfill isn't going to help either. There was an opportunity to do SOME good here; not as much good as we'd prefer, I'll grant you, but some good nonetheless.

   

Well, I see your point about waste. However if CFIA deems it unsafe for you or I to receive in any way, I don't see how we could write in an exception for the poor. Poor people are not lesser life forms nor do they serve as an alternative to landfills.

I see your point about finding 'someone' with expertise to cook the food, but in the end, wouldn't that just be trusting another company to do it's job properly, the same way XL was trusted to do its job? And what company (or insurer of a company) would accept that liability, knowing the meat is tainted?

   

Irradiate the shit out of it. Side benefit: the homeless become more visible at night.

   

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