Bush, Vicente Fox, and Paul Martin met today in Waco, Texas. They talked about economic issues and immigration policy. But near the end of the New York Times coverage, I ran across this:
Prime Minister Martin alluded pointedly to Canadian resentment of American fears over mad cow disease north of the border, fears that he has said are unfounded.
“We look forward to the day in the future when, notwithstanding all of the lobbying, all the legal challenges, all of North America is open to our safe and high-quality beef,” he said.
NY Times: Free Subscription
Now, a few questions:
Are Americans really afraid of Canadian beef?
Do we even have any idea when the beef we’re eating might be Canadian?
Why shouldn’t we be worried about Mad Cow disease?
And are Canadians really resentful of American skepticism?
Is this sloppy reporting, or have I missed a source of serious international tension?
And you are good. I know it is hard to give up spinal marrows and brains (official snack of St. Louis, IIRC) but that’s where the prions “live”.
If you want hamburgers, pick out a cut of beef and have the butcher grind it for you. It will be safer, taste better (and if there is a sale on chuck (which there always is)) you’ll save money too. Here’s my recipie for the best burger meat:
1 beef shin
1 eye round
1 chuck
Fat from trimmings (usually free) to about 20% of total weight.
Have the butcher grind it twice and make burgers as you like them. Yum!
You just don’t know what’s in hotdogs, and you probablhy don’t want to.
Good news. Yves veggie hot dogs are incredible…. especially the spicy ones. Of course they come from Canada! Here, even Safeway carries Yves. Their ground “beef” is really good too — I make Sloppy Joes and chili from it. Yum…
is an amazing cook. So is his brother. I grub down with them whenever I get the chance.
The Outlaw Cook by John and Matt Thorne.
Something about brothers cooking together adds flavor, don’t know why.
Berkeley readers might have eaten my brother’s food at a number of restaurants where he was menu consultant.
And, for future reference, I can cook for hundreds if necessary. BooMan BBQ anyone?
Maybe my only real complaint about San Diego County is that there are no great barbecue places, unlike the Bay Area where there are many. I keep meaning to detour into Oakland or Emeryville when I’m up there to get some.
Damn, now I’m gonna be craving brisket all night.
At Xmas, I make tofu tortiere with Yves ‘ground beef’ – it’s delicious.
Can you give me the recipe? It sounds lovely. I’m sure people are skeptical about Yves fake ground beef, but they’ve really made it good — one night I made a regular hamburger with it, and it was excellent.
I’ve adapted this from my French Canadian neighbour’s recipe. It was her mother’s and her mother was a Trudeau, yes that Trudeau family.
Pie Crust:
1/4+ butter,
2 cups of flour
1/4+ ice water.
Filling:
2 packages of Yves’ ground round
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. thymbe
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 lg. potato, boiled, in 1/2 cup water,
conserve the potato water.
2 tbsp. olive oil
Saute the ‘ground round’ in the olive oil with the
herbs and spices. Boil the potato and mash it in its
own water. And the mash to the ‘ground round’ mixture
and cook gently for a few minutes. Cool.
For best flavour make the filling the day before.
Optional: chopped onion, saute first before adding
the other ingredients.
Every year my brother writes for the recipe (the one
with real meat) and I want to say “it’s the same as
last year” but it’s his Xmas tradition.
whoops,
That should be ‘thyme’
You knew that.
that at the same time the Canadians are pressing the US on Canadian beef, the US is leaning on the Japanese on US beef.
Beef and food safety in general are sources of international tension.
The whole BSE thing makes me sick. Feeding herbivores to herbivores. Ugh!
As an aside, the best beef in the world is from Argentina and Japanese Kobe beef is legendary and priced to match. Kobe beef is fed beer! Once I even heard that they get a daily beer massage but I’m not sure that’s true.
The Kobe heifers get to drink beer and get rub downs with sake, gin or massage oil.
I checked some information and it seems that the story of the beer or sake rubdown is a bit of a confusion. The cattle are fed mash from beer and sake production as part of the fattening process. They are massaged to improve marbleing. The “beef industry” sources I checked don’t mention the rubdowns with sake or gin, only with oil.
Great Link
BTW, If you want to appear all hip and stuff, it is Tajima Beef. Tajima being the former name of Hyogo Prefecture, of which Kobe is the capital.
I listened to the live press conference … something about “we care about Canada’s cows.” Wish I could remember exactly, but it was just about that dumb — I laughed out loud.
I believe there were only two cows found to have the disease and they were imported from the USA. The USA is not strict about inspecting its beef.
Your questions:
-No, Americans are not afraid of any beef.
-Unless the beef is labeled at the consumer end, you would not know.
-You should be worried about the spread of Mad Cow disease and urge your government to inspect beef more carefully.
-Canadians that I know do not resent American skepticism because they are skeptical themselves about this issue. They believe it to be US Beef industry protectionism more than US fear of Mad Cow Disease.
I don’t know about the rest of Canadians but I’m resentful of the beef thing because it is pure protectionism. America saw a semi-plausible reason to close the border and help out their beef industry and took it, while their beef industry is not in any way safer than Canada’s. They’re exactly the same. It’s analogous to the Bush magic trick where 9/11 gives the smoke screen to going into Iraq. It’s also reminiscent of the ridiculous argument against reimportation of Canadian drugs because of safety concerns. Add to that the lingering issue of softwood lumber and you can see how Canadians have some bitterness about American trade practices.
Well, if the article had said that the U.S. is still banning Canadian beef imports, (which I believe is still true) then the actual context would have been clear.
Beef consumption has rebounded from a few years ago due to the popularity of Atkins-style low carb diets.
Most people still trust the (semi)-regulated food system to protect them.
If people could see the actual process of turning a live cow into hamburger, as it is done on the industrial scale in this country, most would swear off of commercially produced beef.
Then, add the union-busting, “fungible worker” tactics of the industry, and you have the modern equivalent of 19th century mining. Dangerous, low-paying work for the desperate and mostly immigrant populations.
Pasture-finished meats, owned by independent small proprietors, processed at a reasonable pace and scale, are a different story as to health, enviro, and social impacts.
Sorry, didn’t mean to rant on. Tyson is the second-largest property tax payer in my county. I don’t think we are ahead because of it. Particularly if you live downwind.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5270201.html
Canada and the US have a number of issues about trade, beef is one, soft lumber is another and fishing rights is probably the third biggest.
As for beef, and meat in general, I quit eating it years ago. It was a personal choice and I realize most people reading this site (or in general) still prefer to consume animal flesh.
I’m also not a big fan of “fake” meat products, seeing as how most of it is full of chemicals and other oddities.
The other commenter is right, if you SAW the process by which an animal is converted into meat, you would lose all desire to consume it immediately.
I am a firm believer that people should eat what they want to, just be informed and aware of what it is and where it comes from.
Folks, I’ll say this just because you’re all good people. DO NOT EAT FAST FOOD!
Pax
Folks, I’ll say this just because you’re all good people. DO NOT EAT FAST FOOD!
Not to pile on about this, because I still enjoy In-N-Out burgers myself, but here’s an, um, unappetizing news item from today:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/24/FINGER.TMP
– Maria Alicia Gaura and Dave Murphy, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, March 24, 2005
An unlucky diner bit into a segment of a human finger while digging into a bowl of chili at a Wendy’s restaurant in San Jose, Santa Clara County health officials confirmed Wednesday.
The diner, who visited the restaurant Tuesday night, spit out the well-cooked digit, notified restaurant workers and became sick to her stomach, health officials said.
The origin of the finger remains a mystery.
Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Martin Fenstersheib said he was called at home by San Jose police who went to Wendy’s and immediately dispatched health inspectors to the restaurant. He said he ordered officers to transport the body part, wrapped in damp gauze, to the medical examiner’s office.
The restaurant, at 1405 Monterey Road, was shut for a couple of hours while the batch of chili and stocks of chili ingredients were impounded. The restaurant was allowed to reopen and to cook another batch of chili using newly purchased ingredients.
Wendy’s officials said they are eager to find out how their food became contaminated.
“The entire investigation is with the county health department,” said Steve Jay, Wendy’s marketing director for Santa Clara County. “We’re fully cooperating.”
Jay said the chili came from a master distributor but declined to name the firm. He added that Wendy’s has been doing business in the area for more than 25 years and never had a serious problem before.
Fenstersheib said he spoke to the anxious woman several times by phone and had the queasy experience of confirming to her that the object was indisputably human. The woman asked officials not to name or even describe her.
Have you heard of the Slow Food trend started in Italy?
Google it.