Meat Industry News for April 12, 2007

LEGAL ISSUES
Meat Tampering Case in Court
WCBD, Charleston, SC
Wednesday, Apr 11, 2007
A federal judge has ruled there is enough evidence for the case to move forward against a Super K-Mart employee accused of putting rat poison into ground meat.

Karen Wyndham of Cottageville is charged with tampering with consumer products.

Wednesday, A FBI detective took the stand and said Wyndham admitted to putting rat poison into three packages of meat at the North Charleston Super K-mart, where she works in the dairy department. He also said she confessed to doing it as revenge after her supervisor asked her to do work in another section of the store.
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RETAIL REPORT
US Retail Meat: Grocers Gearing For Grilling Gala
KANSAS CITY (Dow Jones)--U.S. grocers are in various stages of gearing up for the grilling season, which is already well underway in southern regions of the country while more dependable weather conditions for backyard cookouts in the northern areas could still be a few weeks away.

It's a safe bet though that shoppers will be seeing more grilling cut features in the weeks to come as the stores make the transition from cool weather promotions to products that are more popular during the warmer months, market analysts said.
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FOOD PREP
Meat of the Month: Pork Butt
Just because it's a cheap slab of pig doesn't mean it ain't delicious.
By Ted Allen
Esquire magazine
April, 2007
Ask a man who knows his meat and he will tell you this: The cheap cuts are some of the best. Any jackass can blow 20 bones a pound on beef tenderloin -- silky, yes, but flavorless. You really want to pay top dollar for meat that requires bacon or butter sauce to taste like something?
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PRESS RELEASE
Biofuels Bubble Lowers U.S. Meat Production, Hits Plantings
Executive Intelligence Review
April 11, 2007 (EIRNS)
U.S.A. farm regions have been hit by shortages of seed, fertilizer, and pressure to liquidate livestock, and other disruptions, as the North American Spring planting season proceeds under the insanity of the corn ethanol bubble, and economic breakdown generally. Yesterday's release of the monthly "Supply and Demand Report" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is receiving attention for its projection that U.S. meat production will decline in 2007, for beef, pork and broilers, for a total drop of one billion pounds in combined output. Per person, this means a yearly drop of 1.7 lbs. of consumption—about 1 percent. The decline in meat output is associated in part with higher feed costs as corn prices rose from their below-production cost level of $2.00 a bushel (typical of recent years) up to $3.50-4.00 (a price seen in 1996 and in years past).
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SATIRE
Red meat: the oldest aphrodisiac
Brisbane Times
April 11, 2007
Is there anything more tedious than a vegan?

They're the dietary equivalent of conscientious objectors, who rail against war yet shelter under the protection it provides.

Vegans, especially the militant, preachy ones, tell us that eating meat is barbaric and unnecessary, yet they wouldn't have a brain complex enough to conceive of the term "barbarism" or be able to spell the word "unnecessary" if it wasn't for the increased brain size that meat provided our distant ancestors.

And don't even get me started on "white meat vegetarians", "aquatarians" or "whatever-the-frig-atarians" who get all misty eyed about chopping the head off Clarabell the cow, but are quite happy to scoff chicken nuggets or roast spatchcock or pan-fried barra because "it's not the same".
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PRESS RELEASE
CPC: Pork Industry Appeals to Canadian Government to Address Competitiveness Issues
CCNMatthews - April 12, 2007
The pork industry is appealing to the federal government to assist in addressing short- and long-term competitiveness issues, in light of staggering challenges currently besieging the pork and processing sectors.A letter submitted earlier this week to Chuck Strahl and other key federal ministers by the Canadian Pork Council (CPC), Canada Pork International (CPI), and the Canadian Meat Council (CMC), underscores the dire situation facing the export-dependent sector, which has taken a pounding from a strong Canadian dollar and a dramatic rise in production input costs, including feed."We need government collaboration now," says CPC President Clare Schlegel. "Our industry is not looking for a hand-out, but we do need to work with government to find real solutions, both now and in the future, to drastically improve our ability to compete globally with other pork-exporting countries."
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INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
China's Food Safety Woes Expand Overseas
Associated Press
A farmer picks rape blossoms at a farm on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, seen in this March 10, 2006 file photo. The wave of American pet deaths linked to contaminated food is bringing home a frightening new fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

Problems in China's food supply chain are legion and go right to the root: a farming sector dominated by tens of millions of tiny household farms, many an acre (two-fifths of a hectare) or smaller, making regulation difficult. Regulation is lax, corruption is rife and a go-go capitalism mentality prevails in a fast-changing society. A result is recurring food-safety scandals.

The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.In recent weeks, scores of cats and dogs in America have died of kidney failure blamed on eating pet food containing gluten from China that was tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants. While humans aren't believed at risk, the incident has sharpened concerns over China's food exports and the limited ability of U.S. inspectors to catch problem shipments.
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ENERGY
Ethanol fuels mixed feelings
Ranchers worry alternative gas driving up their feed prices
April 12, 2007
Durango Herald, Denver Bureau DENVER
Lawmakers working on the "New Energy Economy" heard protest Wednesday from one of Colorado's oldest economies - agriculture.

A national boom in ethanol has lifted the spirits of corn farmers, but ranchers and pork producers are hurting because they need corn to feed their animals.

"Corn is basically our only option," said Erin Daley with the Denver-based U.S. Meat Export Foundation. "We don't really have a substitute for corn."

Ethanol producers don't have a substitute at the moment, either. While the fuel can be made from a variety of crops, almost all American ethanol is made out of corn.
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