The Rural Voice, 2003-07, Page 27people in the face if something went
wrong and people got sick?" she
wondered.
But if food safety is the issue, the
problem of inexperienced meat
inspectors should be getting more
attentionthan the physical condition
of many plants, says Metheral.
He describes himself as a self-
taught butcher but says when
he started, all the meat
inspectors — who were at the time
full-time government employees —
could help out. "When we started all
of the inspectors could help you if
you were doing something wrong,"
he told the Stratford meeting. "They
could step in and show you how to
do it. Now the inspectors are good
people but they don't have enough
experience. They're more interested
in the operating temperature of the
freezer (than what's going on on the
killing floor)."
The problem, says Brian Burdick,
a contract inspector from the
Peterborough area, is the high
turnover of staff because of the way
they are treated. Last year there was a
32 per cent turnover rate among the
130 contract meat inspectors.
Contract workers (there are only
10 government -employed inspectors
left where once there were 142) get
paid $20 an hour, which is $5 less
than government inspectors were
paid prior to the down -scaling of the
system. What's more, the inspectors
are paid only for hours actually
worked. If an inspector has to drive
an hour there and an hour back to
work in a small plant for only two
hours, he only gets paid for the two
hours. There's no compensation for
the mileage. If a contract worker has
to work on a holiday, a plant owner
will be charged time and a half but
the contract worker gets nothing
extra for working the holiday.
If contract staff take extra
training, they receive only $77 a day,
just over half what they'd have
earned if they had worked all day on
the inspection line. There's also no
financial reward for upgrading your
skills. No matter how much
experience you have, Burdick says,
you get the same money as the first
day on the job.
Burdick admitted he too has
applied for another job. "I love my
job so why am I looking elsewhere?
There's no security.
"We want to see the majority of
inspections done by full-time people
who have a career and don't see this
as a stepping stone," Burdick said of
an organized effort by contract
inspectors to change the system. "I'd
like to challenge Helen Johns to
come to the table and help us to
develop a better meat inspection
system for Ontario."
Metheral admits he has benefitted,
in a short-term way, from the
turnover, having hired a former meat
inspector as a butcher in his plant,
but still he's concerned with the
inexperience of the meat inspectors.
The owners of small plants
generally do two or three jobs and
they can use the help of inspectors to
help train staff about how to do their
jobs correctly.
Instead, he says, many of the
inspectors have no experience with
livestock and may not even know a
sick animal. "I could take some
inspectors through a barn and they
wouldn't know sick animals if I
didn't show them," he worried. He's
had animals come in for slaughter
that he felt shouldn't go for human
consumption but the inspector
passed. He'd have liked to have
pulled the animal out of the line but
"I'm not supposed to overrule the
inspector."
Metheral feels provincial
inspectors should spend more time
training with federal inspectors or
veterinarians to be truly effective.
"We need training courses in
colleges on meat cutting and kill
floor work," he added.
Nobody at OMAF headquarters in
Guelph wants to hear constructive
criticism, Metheral said. Yet the
reputation of provincially -inspected
meat declines, with major chains like
Sobeys refusing to buy meat that
isn't federally inspected.
Provincial officials have promised
plant owners who upgraded that
they'd be able to sell to even the
largest customers but it hasn't
happened, Metheral says. As for
upgrading to federal levels, even
though his plant is only 10 years old
and close to meeting federal
requirements, it would cost $200,000
to go the rest of the way.
Most plants will never meet
HACCP (Hazard Awareness Critical
Control Points) standards, he says.
Though the media likes to point
out horror stories, Burdick says there
is a great deal of integrity among the
people who run small abattoirs.
"Abattoir operators are great people
to work with," he said. Many could
safely operate their plants without
inspectors at all but good inspection
is needed for those that don't make
the grade. "We're there to protect the
public."
The inspector's job is to look at
the animals both while they're alive
and after they're slaughtered, he said.
They want to spot sick animals
before slaughter and after slaughter
they're to catch everything from
tuberculosis to BSE to e. coli.
"We're a dedicated group of
individuals," he says of his
colleagues.
Many were present at the meeting
to testify to the cost of not having
small independent abattoirs to
provide alternatives to the main
stream meat production system.
Robert Passmore is a certified
organic producer from the St. Marys
area who markets meat directly to
consumers and selected restaurants.
In 20 years he estimated he has
marketed 1400 sides of beef by the
piece, quarter or side to "people who
know us."
"Our existence is dependent on
the services provided by small local
abattoirs," he said. "If the small local
abattoir is regulated out of business,
we're out of business. With sensible
regulations small abattoirs can
survive and provide safe food for
consumers."
David Pullen of McCully's Hill
Farm raises Angus beef, pork,
Iamb and chicken which is
sold through an on-farm market just
outside of St. Marys. It's part of a
family farm plan he and his wife
Darlene adopted seven years ago as
an alternative to joining the constant
round of expansion most farmers are
on, he said.
Though the farm is famous for its
maple syrup and has a large market
garden, meat makes up 30-40 per
cent of annual sales, he says.
Customers enjoy buying their meat
directly from the farmer who raised
the animals, he says, but without
small abattoirs, his meat business is
facing a dead end, unable to offer
farm -raised meats because the main
stream system can't keep his product
separate.
JULY 2003 23
411