Reconsider the B.C. Meat Inspection Regulation
On the 30th of September, new meat inspection regulations will come into effect making it illegal for farmers to sell meat at the farm gate as they have always done.
Even if farmers wanted to comply, there are not enough approved facilities to accommodate them all. In addition, many farmers pride themselves on having their animals processed on the farm where they were born, not causing the stresses associated with transport and off farm slaughtering.
The reason given by the province is to increase food safety. Yet, when asked what data leads to the conclusion that farm gate sales are unsafe, the province is mute. There simply is NONE.
This is a step backward. In this age of climate change, other countries are trying to eliminate transport every way possible, not increase it by removing local sources of food. If new regulations are required, we should first be told of the problem so that communities can help develop solutions that work for us, not against us.
If, like the Green Party, you also have a vision of a safe local food economy and think customers should have the right to chose, please sign this petition and tell everyone you know to do the same now. We need to send it to the ministers before September 30!
On the 30th of September, new meat inspection regulations will come into effect making it illegal for farmers to sell meat at the farm gate as they have always done.
Even if farmers wanted to comply, there are not enough approved facilities to accommodate them all. In addition, many farmers pride themselves on having their animals processed on the farm where they were born, not causing the stresses associated with transport and off farm slaughtering.
The reason given by the province is to increase food safety. Yet, when asked what data leads to the conclusion that farm gate sales are unsafe, the province is mute. There simply is NONE.
This is a step backward. In this age of climate change, other countries are trying to eliminate transport every way possible, not increase it by removing local sources of food. If new regulations are required, we should first be told of the problem so that communities can help develop solutions that work for us, not against us.
If, like the Green Party, you also have a vision of a safe local food economy and think customers should have the right to chose, please sign this petition and tell everyone you know to do the same now. We need to send it to the ministers before September 30!
Whereas:
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There are no clear data indicating health risks associated with current farm gate sales in BC.
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There are proven cases of health risks associated with imported foods in BC.
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Epidemics such as Avian Flu, and SARS that experts project will occur as a result of intensive farming practices, are likely to interrupt imports at some point.
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This regulation will shut down many family farms as well as smaller food processors, resulting in:
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LACK OF FOOD SAFETY AND LOSS OF FOOD SELF-RELIANCE because it will be impossible for anyone in BC to buy safe, traceable, locally produced food in a quantity sufficient to provide food safety.
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THE DESTRUCTION OF BC's RURAL COMMUNITIES since it will push out of business the thousands of small family operations and businesses that they depend on, paving the way for high-risk factory farming that turn lively communities into deserted polluted areas.
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INCREASED CONTRIBUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE by transport required for all food items.
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INCREASED VULNERABILITY to disruptions in our food supply due to natural or man-made disturbances.
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UNNECESSARY STRESS AND CRUELTY to animals because of extra transport and crowded slaughtering conditions.
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UNEMPLOYMENT & POVERTY throughout BC by turning currently attractive tourism destinations into places to avoid due to smells, pollution and lack of community events and spirit, and by lack of access to local food for low income citizens.
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The people of BC want local regional solutions, developed to sustain family farms and to secure an ecologically sustainable and safe food supply.
We the undersigned therefore petition
- The Honorable George Abbott, B.C. provincial Health Minister
- The Honourable Gerry Ritz, federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister
to intervene and halt implementation of the %u201CMeat Inspection Regulations (B.C. Reg. 349/2004)%u201D, due to take effect on September 30th, 2007, until such time as the problems giving rise to such a regulation are clearly identified and documented, and also until such time as the solutions proposed have allowed for public input concerning affordable ways of maintaining local small-scale agriculture in BC.
We need sume one to stand up for the people, SO STAND UP!
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I would like to have proof that the government can gaurantee safety in the stockyards and slaughter houses first.
Hi, I can't believe politicians want to stop farm gate sales. It's the healthiest products a person can buy. I raise my own chickens and feed nothing but real grains, and greens, pure and natural. No melamine or GMO's here. Please let people be responsible for themselves. Don't force us to eat unhealthy food. Thank you Debbie
I agree that we need more local control over our food sources. This takes it away, not adds to it. Please stop!
This is just one more way to oust a necessity - the local farmer - in lieu of big business. Our local resources are increasingly important to our health and the health of our planet. The government should take pause and re-evaluate where they stand on the really important big issues, ie. the future of our species.
This is yet another example of the government bowing to pressure from the big food and pharmacy corporations. Let me decide who I buy my meat from. Killing all the small farmers and making us reliant on profit-driven corporations is not a good way to build a strong future for our country. We should be supporting self sufficiency and growing our own food.
this is over-reguation of the worst kind and even the sort of thing that contributes to crime as people lose all sense of responsibility for their own actions and lives
These regulations seem to harm rather than help. I am originally from a small town where we could purchase meats from the local farms and we've never been sick from eating it. In fact I feel way safer knowing exactly who is raising my meat and being able to see how it is raised and slaughtered than having no idea because all the animals have to be sent off to one place where they will get mixed up and you won't know where it came from and how it was raised. Also this causes more stress to the animals if they have to be transported and how will we know that they have been treated humanely when they are being sent to a plant where all that is important is the profit. These plants do not know these animals and haven't raised them. They do not have the connection with the animal that the farmer does and may not treat them as well as the farmer would. This is also going to contribute more to global warming as we will now have animals trucked all over the place. I want to see the hard facts about how unsafe farm meat sales are and how much more safer these meat plants will be. Also who will be paying for the transport of these animals. It is hard enough to be a farmer these days never mind if you have to start paying to transport your animals and also pay to have someone else slaughter them when the farmer used to do all this themselves.
This is over-legislation at its worst and attacks self-sustainability at a time when we should be encouraging it. The differences between commercial and non commercial operations should be strictly defined to encourage both personal food production and safe commercial enterprise.
I am sickened by the government's failure to properly punish criminals when the laws are already in place.Time after time we {society} have to hear that the parole board let a dangerous offender out even though every one stood up and said NO!...and shortly after have another shattered woman or worse...child.Everywhere the government steps there is red tape and lack of knowledge,yet in to many cases does the innocent party pay the price due to the complexity to solve the real problem at hand! In my opinion of the bc govn.taxing us to go green and then choking the local farmers is hypocrisy.Yes there must be some standard of hygiene to have a safe product,but lately the sirloin steaks that I have had were tougher than a chopstick...and don't swing the lead,as a kid on a special sunday the sirloin steaks were tender that a knife was not needed.YA the t-bones now are aged a whopping 8 days,.To many people are making to much money and cheating the public out of quality standards and the govn. just stands by,you dirty communists.
The people of this country need to work together to support the local farmers. I think if people would buy from our local farmers even if it is once in awhile since alot of people can't afford the prices of grassfed meat, it would put a damper on the commercial aspect of farming.
This legislation has already done significant damage to small-scale producers throughout BC, and effectively serves the interests of unethical, unsustainable, industrial meat producers. As an advocate for small-scale, sustainable and just food systems, I find this move a significant regression in dealing with a host of economic and ecological issues.
Local Producers eat their own products and care about their customers. There is no doubt that the food we get it fresher and more cared for than what the commercial producers provide and it's safety is more important. I say again that we have the right to buy from where we please and are capable of taking responsibility for our decisions. I feel our Government meeds to spend it's time concentrating more on Crime Control. Fair Labour Laws, Environmental Issues, Drug Dealers/growers who prey on children and get them hooked. GMO food of which there is no idea how much harm may result over time, and what about all the pectacides going into our land and the sprays on fruit(which will not come off when washed) Ned I go on,I think not, You know what I mean.
I have always bought local meat and never ever had any problems of any kind. The treatment of the animals at the farm is far superior to a huge abatoir operation. It is counter intuitive to think a large operation will be safer health wise than a small farm. This new regulation is killing the family farm and consequently killing food security in our province. Your government has just put in a green plan to address co2 emmissions and you now expect the farmers to transport their animals at great expense hundreds of kilometers to have them butchered. This is maddness!! Please recind this regulation now.
We are local farmers who are having difficulty finding a slaughter house close enough to take our pigs. We think the BC government should provide more flexible regulations for small farmers who raise just a few animal for personal use and for sale to neighbours.
As a free person living in this incredible country "Canada" I always want the freedom to choose. Canada must be a leader in standing firm for all citizens independence for freedom to choose a healthier manner of food production and food consumption. Small farm food production is safer and healthier, this is a fact!
Please do not take away our right to choose where to buy our food!
I have bought meat directly from a local 4th generation ranch with integrity. Their animals are not fed hormones to promote growth. No greed there. It's already been proven that just because animals are slaughtered in gov't. run places, there's no guarantee of integrity. In fact there are many horrific stories of what really goes on. Therefore, I cannot support a change in the way you propose to do business. You are also putting local ranchers out of business and therefore are contruibuting to more job losses, more poverty, and more food production losses. None of these will help Canada, or B.C. What a shame!!
It is time we start thinking outside of the box when it comes to food security and safety issues. This proposed regulation is an "old-ways" band-aid solution that does not fully take into consideration big picture issues around food security. While I appreciate government concern about protecting the quality of meat entering the marketplace and possibly attempting to save tax payer dollars, I believe this regulation has the potential to seriously harm small farmers and local meat markets. And in the long run may be more detrimental to our access to quality food. More thought and consideration needs to be put into the best solution to address this issue.
Please stop your proposed meat packing regulations. Instead, you need to find better regulations that treat animals and farmers and consumers in the most kind manner possible -- giving them choice and dignity -- not hauling them off to some warehouse for the convenience of the inspector. Consumers AND farmers need to have more choices, not less, and the consumer has a right to choose. A farmer who raises an animal is most likely to treat it with respect -- not at a huge slaughter house, which is one of the less humane places on earth. Meat changes when the animal is stressed and fearful -- not everything is a matter of bacteria!!! We are quite able to deal with bacteria, but it is the fear and mistreatment of animals that is the worst. Please do NOT do one more thing against the small farmer in favour of big scale, often inhumane agri business!
It give me peace of mind to know the farmer who raises the meat I feed my family. Please do not take away my ability to choose what I eat. I try my best to make choices that will reduce my impact on the environment and when possible buy local. I think the new system will waste valuable resources. Please reconsider. Sincerely, Madeline Hargrave
Trying to take control of food production and distribution...this is only beginning! United we stand...divided we fall!
Increasing bureaucratic pressure is being brought onto politicians by the big agri-business interests which want to secure complete control of all aspects of agriculture, from owning the land, to farming the land, to harvesting the product, to processing the product, to marketing the product. This leaves absolutely NO ROOM FOR THE LITTLE GUY. Every little guy has to become an employee of the big business in order to stay alive, and he loses his ability to enjoy the freedoms that private enterprise should provide. This closing of the little independent slaughterhouses does not protect the health of the public. It can hardly be suggested that the grossly unhealthy and unsanitary conditions in feed lots benefit anybody!! And anyone who actually visits a killing floor can attest to the unhealthy and unclean practices that prevail there. This move to close small slaughterhouses is a seriously flawed bureacratic manoevre that has been manipulated by all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.
The farm and the family farm are the backbone of our whole country, so please let us farm and be a support to our country. This includes butchering our own animals if we so opt and sell our own milk and eat our own eggs etc.
I'm appalled by these changes. I now cannot buy farm fresh eggs or a side of beef. We are allowing the lobbies of large agribussiness companies to put little guys out of business. This is not about food safety. In putting the little guy out of business we are risking a future food security. Its a terrible move. Heidi Scott
I don't even eat meat, but am distressed by the negative impact this legislation will have, and is already having, on the humane treatment of farm animals, the viability of small, diversified farms, and the critical supply of manure to small organic farms.
Our family is on Vancouver Island and there are not enough processing places here to serve the population. This means meat, such as your backyard pig, must be sent off island in order to process. This is cost prohibitive and I already know small producers (people who raise a few rabbits or chickens), who have shut down production. This includes my 14 year old niece who raises rabbits for 4H and who was selling a few meat rabbits to raise money for her hobby, my friend who has a small place in teh country who raises 4 organic pigs each winter, our friend who showcases heritage goats and sells some for meat, etc. My dad no longer hunts, but this would include all the hunters who get one deer a season for the family, make sausage or jerky at home, etc. The answer to having a few unsafe places is not to ban the whole industry but to add a couple inspectors and do a little rotating inspection, add some health education on safety practicies and maybe a 2nd level of "home" or small farm processing license. It is much more important to educate the public on the dangers of e.coli and such (I know as I just finished a graduate course on agricultural safety). You are killing a tradition and a huge piece of our culture as well as adding to greenhouse gas emissions.
Me and my family depend on local meat, and love shopping directly on farm. Please reconsider!
We need to keep food processing as local as possible. Find a way to inspect local farms and certify them. Don't make them take the livestock elsewhere. This is a more sustainable solution. Or heck, just require them to post a notice - but let consumers have this choice for a more sustainable, humane option.
There needs to be a recognition of what people want here. We want more control over what we eat and where it comes from not less. The more steps meat has to go through before it gets to my table the more room for error and mistep. Why do we mistrust the farmers abilty to handle meat the way their predessesors have for generations and generations. Are we so arrogant that we believe our new system is better or more efficient? Simple is good. Efficiency and sustainability is the only practical option here.
