Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

Ground Beef Recall a Serious Downer for Montana Schools

By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 3-04-08

On January 30th the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover and extremely graphic video that shows meat packers of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company kicking sick cows. These animals, referred to as “downers” by the meat industry because they fall down with illness or fatigue, were prodded and pushed with forklifts in order to get them on their feet and pass the USDA inspection. The cows passed the inspection and promptly collapsed.  Rather than tell the on-site regulators of the animals’ changed condition (as required by law), the Westland/Hallmark employees went ahead slaughtered them.

Such actions are clearly inhumane but the processing of downer cows has also been linked to mad cow disease, making such treatment an issue of human health.

With the release of the year old video, the USDA put a hold on all meat sold through the company, meaning that those with the meat should simply hold onto it rather than cook and eat it. 18 days later, the USDA made the largest meat recall in United States history: 143 million pounds of ground meat.

But what is perhaps more onerous is that the USDA apparently proceeded with the recall out of embarrassment rather than risk. As reported in the New York Times, officials claimed little health risk from the meat and acknowledged that most of it had already been eaten. But the downer cow video went viral over the internet, spreading through YouTube and other online video sharing sites, causing wide public concern about the department that is supposed to monitor such abuse and limit it in order to keep E. coli at bay.

Much of the resulting concern over this recall, which is four times larger than any other food recall in the United States, is that of the 143 million pounds recalled this time, over 37 million pounds went into meat used for school lunches.

According to Tara Jensen, Communications Director with Montana’s Office of Public Instruction, 246 Montana schools were affected by the recall. Although the Daily Inter Lake reported that no students have presented any symptoms of illness, it seems that a few schools had already served the meat before the recall.

The Food Service Director of Evergreen School acknowledged that the meat was used before the recall as did cook Lind Boutilier of Marion School who was told about the hold on the meat the day after she had served it all.

Since the notification of the recall, schools have sent some contaminated meat to the landfill, but larger quantities will need to be incinerated. As the wasted pounds add up, many school employees, parents and students are questioning more than what’s for lunch. They are questioning the very safety of our current food system.

For Robin Vogler, the Somers Middle School Food-Service Director, the recall is, “more reason than ever to pursue local food.” Normally, Vogler places her school food orders with the USDA’s Food Distribution Program, which has a mission to, “strengthen the nutrition safety net through commodity distribution and other nutrition assistance to low-income families, emergency feeding programs, Indian Reservations, and the elderly.” (Ironically, just below this mission statement is a News Briefing on the latest meat recall.) The program distributes commodity foods like flour and meat for free or at a reduced cost to schools and federally funded programs, and most schools rely on this program to provide enough food for students at extraordinarily low cost.

Vogler is only alloted $1.75 to spend on each plate of food and orders food accordingly. And while she says that the USDA’s commodity program provides the quantity of food needed at the right price and often allows lower-income districts to have food at all, “this recall has shown what I have been suspicious of over the years; that we aren’t getting the best quality.”

Subsequently, Vogler wants to, “know where food was raised, and that it was slaughtered humanely rather than waiting in a warehouse or prepared in a substandard environment that Westland has proven. All things considered, I want to buy from someone I know rather than a mega-plant that doesn’t have me in mind. Any meat raised in those conditions can’t translate into good health.”

Since the recall, local food producers near the Flathead Lake school have been in contact with Vogler. Even so, she believes that actually getting local food onto students’ plates will be difficult. With so little money it will be hard to pay farmers and ranchers for their produce and crops. In turn, she will need to build community support for local purchasing rather than using the subsidized commodity program.

Tara Jensen, from the Office of Public Instruction (OPI), also lists various complications, including the distribution and cost. But she also states that small schools benefit by purchasing large quantities with other school programs and that those cost breaks might be lost when purchasing locally. Finding processed food locally is also an issue.

Even so, OPI assists schools with local food purchases by providing guidance about food safety requirements and procurement rules.  The Office of Public Instruction also runs the OPI Cooperative Purchase Program, which includes products from Wheat Montana flour and Montana honey and are working to form a Farm to School Advisory Committee that will implement a Farm to School component in school programs. OPI has also initiated a Montana Made Products Fundraising Campaign to increase school fundraising efforts to purchase Montana made products, and started a Local Foods Posters Project that features Montana made foods.

These efforts support the development of farm to school programs, but Vogler faces another important hurdle. “The issue is that building this local buying system is a full-time job outside of my full-time job.” Without taking a breath she continues, “But it is something that I will do on my own time; I will get this thing launched.”

While Montana Schools grapple with the issue of where to source food, the Washington Post reported on Friday that Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer went before Congress and told them that he would not ban “downer” cows from entering the food supply or even support making stricter penalties for violations. Instead, the Secretary plans to increase random inspections of slaughterhouses and unannounced audits of two dozen plants that process school lunch meat. However, he would not ban all downer cows from the food supply or install 24 hour surveillance cameras in processing plants.

Shafer told Congress, “The penalties are strong and swift, as we have shown,” and argued that Westland would not be able to survive the financial repercussions of the USDA’s rules, a consequence that supports the effectiveness of the current rules.  “They broke the rules. That does not mean the rules are wrong. I believe the rules are adequate.”

Even so, Westland/Hallmark skirted the rules despite the presence of five inspectors, and this prompted The Humane Society to file suit against the USDA last week. It is their stance that no cows should be treated this way, and that downer cows should never enter the food supply. As Wayne Pacelle, the group’s president, told the Senate panel, “How many other crises, recalls and public scares can we tolerate before we adopt an unambiguous policy of combating mad cow in the food supply?”

With every recall, it is a question that more eaters, nutritionists, parents and students are bound to want answered.

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