02/28/08 Beef Recall February 2008

By this time you have probably heard of the largest beef recall in U.S. history. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with some thoughts on the incident. One hundred forty three million pounds of beef were recalled from Westland/Hallmark Meat Company based in Chino, California. The recall was ordered by the USDA after it was discovered the company was not following proper rules regarding non-ambulatory cattle being processed for human consumption. As a producer a situation like this upsets me. I'm upset that a processor had to push the rules to a point that a federal agency had to step in and order a recall and I regret the incident results in negative publicity for our industry. As a producer I understand the concept of running a business as efficiently as possible, but there is a point where right is right and wrong is wrong. When and if that point is crossed then the offending business should be disciplined or shut down depending on the severity or frequency of the offense. The trouble is not only one business is affected; the whole beef industry receives a black eye. A black eye that is not deserved if you look at the billions of pounds of safe, healthy beef that has been supplied to consumers for generations. But, like so many times very little reporting is given to great amounts of good while great amounts of reporting are given to very little amounts of negative issues. As for my feelings in this recall I stand behind the USDA decision. The beef industry only needs the safest beef supplied to our consumers. I'm Jeff Keane.