My BEEF Came From 3 Different Countries!

I went to cook dinner this afternoon, and when I looked at my ground beef, I noticed it had a little oval sticker on it that said,

'Product of US, Canada, and Mexico'



I was a bit surprised. Now I take full credit for not paying attention to this when I bought my meat. And the fact I just grabbed based on price, in a hurried state after work at rush hour, plays into the conspiracy. Like many Americans right now, I have had my hours drastically cut, and when grocery shopping now, it is no longer about what I want to buy, but what I can afford this week.

Anyway, the first thing I thought was, wow, the three countries that make up the future NAU. Second thing I wondered was, is this a conspiracy?

It seems like it would make a food borne illness outbreak, or planned attack on our food, much easier to carry out when the processed ground beef is a product of no less than THREE countries!

So, I decided to see if the lable, which peeled open to reveal a recipe, held any clues as to exactly who was responsible for the beef I was fixing to fry up in my pan.



That is the left side of the peel. The only clue I gleaned from this was the website, which I will discuss later.

The other side held one more clue, but through the link from the left side, I would have eventually landed at this place anyway.



Hmmm, pretty vague. What is the courtesy bestowed upon me by the Beef Checkoff....the recipe, the safety tips, or my actual meat?

The other clue I gleaned was that this beef was distributed by the kroger Co, out of Cincinnati, OH. That is still pretty broad and vague, and no where on other labels does it identify where in Canada, or Mexico the foreign portions of beef came from!



I was a bit more convinced something may be up, simply because where my meat came from specifically has been left off of the labels. If something is distributed by a company, that means it could have come from anywhere. Naming three countries, and labeling the meat as a product of them, tells me nothing!

So off to www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com... I went, in search of discovering how the import their beef, and how the consumer can locate that information. On their homepage, they have at the bottom of the page a link to an About Us page(www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com...).

"About the Beef Checkoff Program

The Cattlemen's Beef Board comprises cattle producers and importers who direct the national Beef Checkoff Program, with oversight from USDA. National Cattlemen's Beef Association is a contractor of checkoff dollars used for beef promotion and research efforts on behalf of the Beef Board."

Nothing on that link remotely told me where in Mexico and Canada the meat came from, or why and how they use meat from other countries when we have American farmers who need the work!

I next decided to head over to the beef board's website, which led me to the discovery of a page about EXporting American beef.

www.beefboard.org...

I then found this website, which I thought should have answered my questions.

www.beeffrompasturetoplate.org...

But this is all I could find in regards to safety and production:

"Safety inspections/federal regulations
There are a number of interventions in place that decrease and attempt to eliminate potential food safety concerns at packing plants. Because this is the last stage before beef is packaged, plants use multiple interventions to ensure that products are safe.
USDA inspectors oversee the slaughter practices, food safety interventions and carcass grading that take place at packing plants. To grade carcasses, inspectors evaluate characteristics including marbling (distribution of internal flecks of fat, contributing to tenderness and taste) and the age of the animal."

So now I am a bit stumped, and am still wondering if this is just another way to weaken our safety net among large groups of citizens. Why should my meat come from three countries? Why are the boards and councils associated with my package of meat not mentioning the buying and use of foreign meat in our beef industry? Turns out, it is mentioned, I just had to keep looking.

I decided to take my question to google in this form:

use of foreign meat in beef

The search led me here,

www.ams.usda.gov... eftNav=CommodityAreas&page=LSInternationalPrograms&resultType=&acct=lsintl

...where in the sidebar, I noticed a link to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. I have seen CA discussed as a conspiracy itself, although before today, I have not read anything about it.

Continued in next post.

Continuing from my previous post, I found my way to another website, where I found the actual numbers for beef imports to the US.

www.ers.usda.gov...

"U.S.-Canada Beef and Cattle Trade

U.S. cattle imports from Canada:

* 2002: 1.686 million head
* 2003: 0.512 million head
* 2004: 135 head
* 2005: 0.559 million head
* 2006: 1.032 million head
* 2007: 1.405 million head

U.S. cattle imports from all sources:

* 2002: 2.503 million head
* 2003: 1.752 million head
* 2004: 1.371 million head
* 2005: 1.816 million head
* 2006: 2.289 million head
* 2007: 2.495 million head

Share of U.S. cattle imports from Canada:

* 2002: 67 percent
* 2003: 29 percent
* 2004:

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Hey, me too, first time ever, I found it so odd, I asked my husband what on earth is going on.

I noticed this yesterday ! I bought some beef strips , and it said product of Mexico.

Ama

reply to post by Stormdancer777

Oh, yeah? How interesting. Maybe this is something new. I am hoping some of our diverse members can shed light on this!

It just means that in any given particular package, its contents are going to be from one of those sources, not necessarily ALL of them, just ONE of them.

If it were from 3 seperate sources, it would not have the consistancy, ie it would appear different in color and cutting.


Cheers!!!!

It also depends on where you buy your meat products.

If you buy it from wally world, yes your going to get the variety of sources. If you buy it from a meat market, it will come from one source.

Fortunately I buy all my meat products from a meat market, not the grocery store. And the local meat market I purchase from gets all its beef from Wyoming raised stock.

Wyoming Beef...the best in the west! YUM!!


Cheers!!!!

Thank you for the reply RF. I bought this meat at Kroger. I doubt I could afford a butcher or meat market.

I also had the thought just now, from a conspiracy angel, is the fact that the three countries listed just coincidentally happen to be what some refer to as the future North American Union. Is this a subtle way of simply getting that out among the masses, so we get used to seeing the three countries mention together?

Well, I guess we are not the only ones to notice this.

From another forum, from 12/08, someone posted on the same topic! From the thread, I found a link:

www.svonline.net...

And from this link:

" • A covered commodity may bear a declaration that identifies the United States as the sole country of origin at retail only if it meets the definition of United States country of origin. Under the interim final rule, beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and goat must be derived from animals exclusively born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States; from animals born and raised in Alaska or Hawaii and transported for a period of not more than 60 days through Canada to the United States and slaughtered in the United States; or from animals present in the United States on or before July 15, 2008, and once present in the

United States, remained continuously in the United States. For perishable agricultural commodities, peanuts, ginseng, pecans, and macadamia nuts, products must be grown in the United States.

• If meat covered commodities derived from U.S. and mixed origin animals are commingled during a production day, the resulting product may carry the mixed origin claim (e.g., Product of U.S., Canada, and Mexico). Thus, it is not permissible to label meat derived from livestock of U.S. origin with a mixed origin label if solely U.S. origin meat was produced during the production day.

• Similar to packers and intermediary suppliers, retailers are permitted to market U.S. produced meat products under a mixed origin label (e.g., Product of U.S., Canada and Mexico) if they are commingled with meat of mixed origin. That is, if a retailer further processes meat at the store and the resulting package includes meat of both U.S. origin and mixed origin (e.g., Product of U.S., Canada and Mexico), the origin declaration can read Product of U.S., Canada and Mexico.

• The 2008 Farm Bill allows labeling of the state, region or locality of the U.S. where the perishable agricultural commodity (or nut) was produced to be sufficient to identify the U.S. as the country of origin. The regulation expands this provision to also allow state, regional, or locality labels for imported products. Examples of acceptable U.S. State labeling designations include: Pride of New York, Jersey Fresh, Vermont Seal of Quality, Massachusetts Grown, Ohio Proud, Kentucky Proud, and New Mexico Grown with Tradition.

• Under the August 1, 2008, interim final rule, a covered commodity that has been combined with at least one other covered commodity is considered a processed food item and is therefore exempt from country of origin labeling requirements.

• Restaurants and other food service establishments (cafeterias, lunchrooms). . . are specifically exempted as are covered commodities that are ingredients in a processed food item.

• AMS has defined a processed food item as a retail item derived from a covered commodity that has undergone specific processing resulting in a change in the character of the covered commodity, or that has been combined with at least one other covered commodity or other substantive food component (e.g., chocolate, breading, or tomato sauce). Specific processing that results in a change in the character of the covered commodity includes cooking . . . curing . . . smoking . . . and restructuring."

So according to this report, if I read it right, my meat indeed DID come from three countries!

On the other forum, the poster claims his butcher could tell where the meat came from if he would like. Maybe I will have to take a field trip back to the store and ask the butcher myself.

***

When I put, Product of US, Canada, and Mexico into the search engine, one of the first links was to the controversial Trilateral Cooperation Charter,

www.fda.gov...

which is a policy between the three countries.

When I then searched TCC, what came up but this link:

www4.dr-rath-foundation.org...

in which the author wonders:

"Could it be that the Trilateral Cooperation Charter is part of a plan to eradicate the borders separating the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to form a North American Union? And if so, would this be built upon the same non-democratic forms of governance and restricted freedoms that the European Union is increasingly subject to?

Significantly perhaps, in May 2005, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) published a white paper entitled "Building a North American Community," in which it espoused:

"The three governments should commit themselves to the long-term goal of dramatically diminishing the need for the current intensity of the governments' physical control of cross-border traffic, travel, and trade within North America. A long-term goal for a North American border action plan should be joint screening of travelers from third countries at their first point of entry into North America and the elimination of most controls over the temporary movement of these travelers within North America."

Now, as an avid CTist, of course what popped out to me was the CFR reference.

I feel dizzy!! All because I wondered about my beef, now I am wondering much much more! I have more research to do.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Oh, yeah? How interesting. Maybe this is something new. I am hoping some of our diverse members can shed light on this!

Yes maybe we should say where we bought it and where we are located,

Illinois,

Shop and save

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
I also had the thought just now, from a conspiracy angel, is the fact that the three countries listed just coincidentally happen to be what some refer to as the future North American Union. Is this a subtle way of simply getting that out among the masses, so we get used to seeing the three countries mention together?

Interesting thought!! It could be. But I think that even if the markets were to open up like that, which they kind of are already, that there will still be the expected standards and quality assurances set down by the government. All of the products that do come in from Mexico and Canada have to pass inspection before they are distributed to the wholesalers.

I would just keep a close eye on the product quality, the look and texture of it, look for consistancy throughout. If you see half looks normal and the other half looks pale or different cut style, then yes that contains two completely different sources of product. Definately put that one back and find another!


Cheers!!!!

Perhaps the fact that you live in the US, and Canada and Mexico are pretty much the only countries of note within a thousand miles has more to do with it than a future NWO?

Would you be less suspicious if it came from the US, Paraguay, and India instead?

I know exactly where my beef comes from. It comes from the local farmer. I quit buying store meat a long time ago. If you can afford to put up the money in one lump and have a freezer, it's the best way to go.

www.kroger.com...

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)
Consumer Information

Q. Why is the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) on all of the fresh beef, pork, ground beef chicken, veal and lamb packages? It has never been on them before.

A. We are required by the new Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law to tell all our customers where the animals were born [origin] that our meat comes from.

Q. What is Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL)?

A. Law requiring supermarkets to communicate the Country-of-Origin of the majority of the meat, seafood, fruits and vegetables we sell.

Q. Is there a change in the fresh beef and pork products in the meat case?

A. No. The fresh meat in our cases: self-service and service meat continue to be the same high-quality products they have always been.

Q. Why haven’t you notified your customers about this before? Were you trying to keep it from us?

A. No. Where and how animals are raised and processed affect the eating-quality, wholesomeness and food safety of the steaks, roasts, chops, ribs, stew beef and ground meat. Birth location has little, if any, affect on the quality and safety of the beef and pork we sell.

Q. Do you have fresh meat from animals born in the USA?

A. Yes. All products are labeled with the Country of Origin. Some will state “Product of U.S.A.”
May we help you select dinner from our Private Selection natural beef and pork product offerings?

For more information on the Country of Origin Labeling please visit the USDA website

USDA

Country of Origin Labeling

On May 13, 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, more commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill, became law. One of its many provisions requires country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. On January 27, 2004, Public Law 108-199 delayed implementation of mandatory COOL for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2006. On November 10, 2005, Public Law 109-97 delayed implementation of mandatory COOL for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2008. As described in the legislation, program implementation is the responsibility of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The recently enacted Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) expands the list of covered commodities to include chicken, goat meat, ginseng, pecans and macadamia nuts.

Regulations



January 12, 2009 - USDA Issues Final Rule on Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling



Final Rule – Effective March 16, 2009



Interim Final Rule - Effective until March 15, 2009









Cool Listserv



Subscribe to Listserv



National Animal Identification System Link
NATIONAL ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION

Contact Us



Martin E. O’Connor, Chief
USDA-AMS-LS-SAT
Room 2607-S, Stop 0254
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20250-0254
(202) 720 - 4486
[email protected]
[email protected]

Don't eat that stuff, yuck. Beef causes cancer and mad human disease, it's loaded with cancer cells and prions. Even more so when it is ground and composed from gawd knows how many sick and mad cows. And .. 25% FAT? Barf! If you must eat flesh and blood and fat, eat only the flesh and blood and fat from one cow at a time. Best for your health though if you give up the vampire thang all together. Being a vamp is not worth dying from cancer or Alzheimers.

How do you think the cow(s) felt about it?

reply to post by greeneyedleo


Hey thank you for the information! I dont know why I did not think of going to the Kroger website myself. From the questions, I am not the only wondering about this label and where my meat comes from!

This part is a bit disturbing, Kroger just expects me to take their word for this:

"Q. Why haven’t you notified your customers about this before? Were you trying to keep it from us?

A. No. Where and how animals are raised and processed affect the eating-quality, wholesomeness and food safety of the steaks, roasts, chops, ribs, stew beef and ground meat. Birth location has little, if any, affect on the quality and safety of the beef and pork we sell."


[edit on 22-1-2009 by hotbakedtater]

Would it matter if it came from 3 seperate places? Mexicans taste the same as americans and canadians

reply to post by rizla

If I had to place an emotion on the cow, and assign feeling, I would have to say grateful. The cow felt grateful he/she could provide nourishment to me and my sister.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

Hey thank you for the information! I dont know why I did not think of going to the Kroger website myself. From the questions, I am not the only wondering about this label and where my meat comes from!

Eh. Well if anything, you can contact them directly and maybe they can help you if you have further questions.

I try my hardest to buy local - but obviously that is not possible for everyone or every product.

And mmmmmmmmmmm yummmmm meat is good