OldTimer...
Reason is its a fact--Canadian beef has the Canadian label removed, relabeled with the USDA inspected stamp, and is passed off and sold as US beef to make it marketable....And you can't prove any different....
Two items on that:
1) It is being done both ways. In Canada the same sort of thing is being done. Imported meat is put in "Product of Canada" boxes. In both countries it is illegal. If, as you say, it is getting a USDA stamp, that's a step up, criminally speaking, to a Federal crime in your country. Any evidence of such forgery you have should be reported to your local FBI office.
Actually it is/would be a crime on every product except meat...The Big Packers/retailers use a loophole in the law/ and a loose USDA rule that allows them use of the USDA inspected stamp to help perpetrate the fraud...The practice is a violation of almost every states labeling act- but since it involves interstate commerce and is permitted by the federal government can not be prosecuted under state law...The feds have even fought Montana's ability to put their M-COOL law in effect this fall...
2) One CAN prove different!! We are just as supportive of our producers as US consumers. One of my local supermarkets had meat labelled with little maple leaves and "Cut from AAA or AA Canadian beef". (That's our way of saying Choice and Select I think.) I called the meat manager on it. Told him I had picked up four or five packages and frozen them and was sending them for DNA testing to determine the true source of the meat. He called his head office, they called me. They called the distributor, who also called me. They get their meat from three places - they didn't say which, but there is only Cargill, Lakeside (Tyson), and XL Foods (no relation to Excel). They asked me to hold off while they got letters from their suppliers. Two refused and the third would only say "...from livestock slaughtered in a federally inspected facility in Canada." That's 'cause their plant is all culls - mystically grading high!
Three days after I started this, the labels were gone.
What I am saying is:
Put your effort where your mouth is. If you think meat is being relabelled to hide it's source, step up to the plate and challenge the people doing it. Don't bench at other producers.
We have- Montana passed an M-COOL law which goes into effect next month- if the Big multinationals don't find a way to kill it....
There's another way of looking at this, you know. One could say, the US meat industry is riding the coattails of Canadian producers who are able to provide the quality consumers want at a lower price than their American counterparts. Are you greedy or just inefficient?
Neither- Just Honest...I don't believe in lying and defrauding people... It really hurts to see when the Big Beef mafia has turned honest ranchers and cattlemen into coconspirators in this fraud by their supporting it... The image of the western rancher- cattleman, who's handshake was as solid as gold for a contract-- an image that we spent decades building to gain the trust of consumers - is now being badly tarnished so the Big Beef mafia/Packers can maintain the ability to import cheap beef from anywhere in the world and profit off it by deceiving these same loyal consumers.....
Big Banks, Big Oil, Big Food and the WTO - the real 'Axis of Evil'