It certainly seems there is a shortage in some of these meat processing plants for good workers and federal inspectors!
Some of this stuff is a few years old-indeed this does not speak very well for these concerns checking out and policing their quality control standards mandated by the feds, and the subsequent horrific treatment to animals. There are a number of current findings that Congress already has, and that laws have been made in this area since the FDA was first started in at the start of the last century, i.e., after the Rough Rider, then President Theodore Roosevelt, discovered that a few guys fell into the meat spread vat that he was so fond of .... and never removed, rubber boots and all! <Belch>

Beef Recall Largest in U.S. History
2-Year Recall of 143 Million Pounds of Beef -- Most Already Eaten
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MDFeb. 18, 2008 -- It's the largest beef recall in U.S. history: 143 million pounds of beef "voluntarily" recalled by Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company of Chino, Calif.

The beef, produced from February 2006 until the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended operations at the meat plant on Feb. 2, 2008, may be contaminated because of "inhumane" practices at the plant, including the processing of cattle too ill to walk.

Because no actual contamination has yet been found in any of the food products, the USDA is issuing a "Class II" recall, which it defines as "a health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product."

According to the Humane Society of the United States, which produced a vivid documentary depicting illicit practices at Hallmark/Westland, the company has delivered beef to more than 100,000 schools and child care facilities in 36 states through federally assisted school lunch programs.

"I am dismayed at the inhumane handling of cattle that has resulted in the violation of food safety regulations at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company," USDA secretary Ed Schafer said in a news release.

Much of the recalled beef in the two-year recall may already have been eaten. However, many of the products were frozen.

Specific package labels for the various recalled items -- which include both raw and processed meat and beef parts -- can be viewed at the USDA web site.
View Article Sources
SOURCES:
News releases, United States Department of Agriculture, Feb. 17.
USDA web site.
United States Humane Society web site.

must be from china

Nope, this screw-up was born in the USA.
saved a few thousand a month by torturing the downer cattle in to the processing building, and ended up POSSIBLY tainting/conaminating 150 million pounds, and MAYBE spreading mad cow and ecoli to millions.
The company was wrong, with the USDA not far behind due to a failure to monitor properly the food stream.
every asset of this company should be siezed, sold, and the proceeds held in trust to pay for ANY future problems in the MILLIONS of school children feed this crap.
EVEN if no problem arises, processors should be warned it is their duty to EXCEED the USDA standards in the real world not just on paper alone.
We bitch alot about the lax regulations in China, but here we have the laws and the technology to do better, and yet time after time we fail.

Not China - but Chino, CA.

And yes - these are the same asshats that abused those poor cattle. I mean, it's one thing to be raised for food, humanely treated, and euthanized when it's their time. But to keep them in poor conditions, then horrifically abuse them when they're sick or injured (likely as a result of those poor conditions)... purely reprehensible. I hope there's a special place in Hell for those maggots. I also hope they get the same treatment they dished out to those poor animals while they rot in jail.

Yeah, sure, they're just cattle - little 1-pound packages of ground beef to most. But they're still God's creatures, no matter what the outcome or purpose for their existance. Even the Bible says that certain animals are to be used for sustinence. However, I'm sure there's nothing in there that condones the poor treatment of any creature by our hand.

This kind of thing really pisses me off about our society and where we're gotten to in terms of 'civilization,' which is ironic even using that term in the same breath as the topic of this thread. Stories like this, of people with their puppy/kitten farms (or any other profiteer breeders), and other sickos that you hear about torturing and killing animals for no good reason.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: People suck. And this yet another perfect example of that very thing.

Damn it, this pissed me off. Sorry for the rant - I just hate hearing about this crap. OK - I need to quit now... I'm shaking I'm so mad.

My only thing is this: Who the bloody hell has hamburger from TWO YEARS AGO hanging around that they haven't eaten yet? If you do, that stuff is so freezer burned it's inedible anyway.

Im with you!!

Where there any chop sticks present with the meat?

So i had In and Out yesterday.... the buy their beef from them people........

Hmmm .... do you think that people will continue to eat beef the way they have in the past? Especially, the cripple, and sick beef that had to be hit with a forklift to prod them over to the meat grinders-there are a lot of good honest workers in the meat industry-then, there are the butt-holes losers, and inspectors that have sight problems.

If the puplic is pressed enough with this story, and a bit of awareness shines through the clouds, certainly many may switch their diets with less protein, and more green stuff which translates into, perhaps less clogged arteries, and therefore heart attacks, and strokes-not a bad alternative for at least the children.

The only other good thing that may happen is these slime-balls resposible for the mistreatment of animals, and the possible contamination of the food chain, spend some time in the slam for animal cruelty-as currently proposed by the feds. Then again, could be a forklift blade will ram them in the butt, and into the meat grinder too, bon appetite!

I agree with you, Eric, 100%.

I just hate when the gov't/society/humanity turns their collective backs on God's creatures.

Mahatma Gandhi said it best: "You can always tell how civilized a nation is by how they treat those they think are inferior to them; women, children and animals."

Thus far, Canada and the U.S. has an incredibly piss poor record.

Like Eric said also, people suck and tune out when they don't think it affects them.

Well news flash folks, it affects all of us equally Just because we don't actively "participate" doesn't make us any less culpable.

"For EVIL to exist and flourish, all it takes is for good people to do nothing."

And that, my friends, is the Honest to God's truth. Each and everyone of us knows it in our hearts.

<This is not directed at the folks here specifically but to North American society in general, just so you know.>

I'm a dedicated meat eater, but that is fucked up.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. ^^^^^^^^ bull has hit the nail on the head.

I'm a dedicated meat eater, but that is fucked up. bull
_________________________________________________

No, your not out of it, but it would be cool to get beef to eat from a meat distributor that is some what with it. The point, is not to encourage the brutal treatment of the animals, nor their suffering before, and during the process. If animals are killed, make it clean, with out the brutality involved. BTW, most are unaware that beef can now be massed produced in a factory with out the need of killing an animal-cellular regeneration is not science fiction, but it is a capital intensive method, rather than currently, labor intensive ... it is cheaper now to have people in the meat packing houses, and grow cattle, than in a protein regeneration vat at a factory! Suspect that in the future protein regeneration will be a common practice.

I sure hope so. I don't like the practises of these outfits at all. Hopefully, I won't "pop" a blood vessel thinking about what a bunch of jerks these folks are. (Not in all cases but enough times that it should be a concern for us all.)

Umm, Can you say Soylent Green?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

hello neighbor, won't you be my dinner?

Bwahahahaha. Good one, bud.

Below is the same source used to note Soylent Green, a favorite film of mine, that deals with the needs of the people, and population control the hard way... in this instance, a truly symbiotic relationship. Below, is the idea of ending animal suffering and cruelty, along with the control of sickness that is associated with the consumption of contaminated animals, the production of protein that does not clog arteries, and importantly would be lower in cost eventually. Although, Soylent Green is a movie, if my neighbor were on the menu, would prefer him to be baked with potatoes, peas, carrots, garlic, along with a little salt and pepper-clothing and shoes ok, rather than the chips found in Soylent Green-bon appetite!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat