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AMI Trys to Gut Packers and Stockyards Act

Tex

Well-known member
AMI Tells Department of Justice Existing Antitrust and Competition Statutes Are Effective and Applicable for All Industries



American Meat Institute

Thursday, January 7, 2010



In comments submitted today to the Department of Justice (DOJ), The American Meat Institute (AMI) said that existing anti-trust and competition statutes are equally applicable and effective for the meat industry and all industries, and that efforts to regulate the meat industry in a unique way are ill-conceived and should not be implemented.



AMI filed its comments in response to an August 27, 2009, Federal Register notice detailing DOJ and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to hold public workshops in a series of cities in 2010 to respond to concerns expressed by some agricultural producers about “changes in the agricultural marketplace, including increasing processor concentration in some commodities.”



According to AMI’s comments, the meat and poultry industry is one of the most intensely regulated industries in the economy, with arguably only the nuclear energy industry subject to as much daily scrutiny. Regulation and oversight have increased in the last two decades in response to new food safety issues, such as E. coli O157:H7 in beef and Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products.



“One could argue forcefully that the growing scientific knowledge base that leads to evolving food safety policies, and hence a much safer food supply, has also contributed to a more concentrated meat industry,” said Mark D. Dopp, senior vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel. Dopp detailed in the comments that during the last two decades and in response to regulatory policies such as the 1994 declaration that E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef is an adulterant or the 1996 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point/Pathogen Reduction Final Rule, a number of small and mid-sized family owned meat and poultry companies have taken action to protect themselves by cashing out or merging with other larger, more diversified companies.



Supplemental comments from antitrust expert Stephen Calkins, professor of law at Wayne State University and former General Counsel to the Federal Trade Commission, explained that antitrust laws such as the Sherman Act are considered the “Magna Carta” of free enterprise and are written in such a way that they may be applied by courts with consideration to evolving economic understanding and particular facts.



In its comments, AMI also stressed the importance of engaging persons with specific, substantive expertise at each of the planned public meetings. AMI recommended that the nominated panelists be divided into four categories: packers/processors; legal/antitrust attorneys; finance/banking; and economists and academicians.



To read the complete comments, click here: http://www.meatami.com/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/56320



To read AMI’s Press Release, click here: http://www.meatami.com/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/56322



meatami.com
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
They never quit,always tryin to get more for less,nuthin wrong with a little capitalism,except the cattleman aint got much more to give.
good luck
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Haymaker Quote ! They never quit,always tryin to get more for less


(NaturalNews) If you're in the beef business, what do you do with all the extra cow parts and trimmings that have traditionally been sold off for use in pet food? You scrape them together into a pink mass, inject them with a chemical to kill the e.coli, and sell them to fast food restaurants to make into hamburgers.

That's what's been happening all across the USA with beef sold to McDonald's, Burger King, school lunches and other fast food restaurants, according to a New York Times article. The beef is injected with ammonia, a chemical commonly used in glass cleaning and window cleaning products.

This is all fine with the USDA, which endorses the procedure as a way to make the hamburger beef "safe" enough to eat. Ammonia kills e.coli, you see, and the USDA doesn't seem to be concerned with the fact that people are eating ammonia in their hamburgers.

This ammonia-injected beef comes from a company called Beef Products, Inc. As NYT reports last week, the federal school lunch program used a whopping 5.5 million pounds of ammonia-injected beef trimmings from this company in 2008. This company reportedly developed the idea of using ammonia to sterilize beef scraps before selling it for human consumption.

Aside from the fact that there's ammonia in the hamburger meat, there's another problem with this company's products: The ammonia doesn't always kill the pathogens. Both e.coli and salmonella have been found contaminating the cow-derived products sold by this company.

This came as a shock to the USDA, which had actually exempted the company's products from pathogen testing and product recalls. Why was it exempted? Because the ammonia injection process was deemed so effective that the meat products were thought to be safe beyond any question.



What else is in there?
As the NYT reports, "The company says its processed beef, a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips, is used in a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide. But it has remained little known outside industry and government circles. Federal officials agreed to the company's request that the ammonia be classified as a 'processing agent' and not an ingredient that would be listed on labels."


Fascinating. So you can inject a beef product with a chemical found in glass cleaning products and simply call it a "processing agent" -- with the full permission and approval of the USDA, no less! Does anyone doubt any longer how deeply embedded the USDA is with the beef industry?

Apparently, this practice of injecting fast food beef with ammonia has been a well-kept secret for years. I never knew this was going on, and this news appears to be new information to virtually everyone. The real shocker is that "a majority" of fast food restaurants use this ammonia-injected cow-derived product in their hamburger meat. It sort of makes you wonder: What else is in there that we don't know about?

"School lunch officials and other customers complained about the taste and smell of the beef," says the NYT. No wonder. It's been pumped full of chemicals.

There are already a thousand reasons not to eat fast food. Make this reason number 1,001. Ammonia. It's not supposed to be there.

You can get the same effect by opening a can of dog food made with beef byproducts, spraying it with ammonia, and swallowing it. That is essentially what you're eating when you order a fast food burger.
 

Tex

Well-known member
Yep, this self regulation really works. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:




Some people in the meat industry need to be in jail, not making food. It is too bad the USDA has been so compromised for so long.


Tex
 

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