XL Foods to Re-Open - Company's Spokespeople Say, "They Meet or Exceed All Canadian Regulations"

Research has shown that a feedlot diet can increase the amount of E. coli bacteria present in an animal’s digestive tract.

XL Foods in Alberta undoubtedly does meet all existing Canadian food safety regulations. But unspoken are questions like: Who makes those regulations? For who's benefit are they made? Is the food industry the only industry who's regulations are made the same way or is all this just a peek under the carpet at part of the dirt hidden there by the partnership between industry, politicians and bankers?

Looking back, Canadians remember the uproars during the listeria outbreak and the 'Mad Cow' disease fiasco. They remember how the government regulators, the media and industry spokespeople whirled dervish like until the headlines disappeared. How all the authorities promised all would be well if we just thought 'happy thoughts' and trusted them. Well safety regulations for all industries in Canada, and for all the capitalist/democratic world, are made in shady backrooms by politicians who know where the grease that lubricates their ride comes from, by industry insiders who's sole concern is profit and by financiers who's sole concern is collecting the interest on the loans that produce their profits. Profit and interest are the real four letter words.

Profit uber-alles, that's capitalism. Serving the interests of the profiteers, that's the politicians. Choosing which politicians serve which profiteers, that's democracy. It doesn't matter a hoot whether you vote Republican-US or Conservative-CDN, Democrat-US or Liberal-CDN in national-provincial-state elections.The only thing that changes when a someone different is elected is which profiteer get to grease the gears. The NDP in Canada is slightly different in that their gears are greased by the union movement so there is a slight chance some small changes could occur if/when they win, but even then the bankers and the profiteers just refuse to play ball a threaten huge job losses to the NDP base if regulations change enough to hurt them. .

Individuals still have the right to make individual choices, and they are. Local and grass-fed beef is surging in popularity amid E. coli scare and many consumers are staying away from beef altogether which of course makes the equally well regulated poultry industry smile.

It's hard to believe that industrial scale meat factories that slaughter over 4,000 manure and mud encrusted-antibiotic laced-force fed-E coli contaminated-feedlot cramped cows a day, that's 3,000 steaks a minute, can ever really be safe. But what do i know, i'm just an old hippie who hasn't eaten meat in over 35 years, so...

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” - Henry David Thoreau