Los Angeles | Reuters –– A McDonald’s Corp. shareholder group is renewing its call for the fast-food chain to stop buying any meat from animals raised with antibiotics vital to fighting human infections. The move from the Congregation of Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas, comes amid growing concern from public health experts that the overuse […] Read more
McDonald’s investor wants it to cut antibiotics in all meats
Regulatory wrangling ups the threat of PEDv in Canada
Livestock trailers coming from the U.S. could spread the virus across Western Canada, say pork officials
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washing hog transports in the U.S. before they return to Canada sounds good in theory — but it may actually increase the threat of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus here. “We are extremely concerned about this because essentially we’re going to be sending trailers to be firehose washed at some point in the U.S. where they […] Read more
Canada preparing shorter list of tariff targets in COOL fight
Winnipeg | Reuters — Canada is whittling down its list of U.S. products that it may hit with steep tariffs in retaliation against contentious meat-labeling laws, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said on Tuesday. The Canadian government is likely to target beef, pork, California wines, mattresses, cherries and office furniture, possibly along with other goods, from […] Read more
West Coast port impasse beefs up U.S. meat stockpile
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. meat exporters caught in the middle of the West Coast port labour standoff diverted millions of pounds of chilled pork and beef into cold storage facilities over the last few weeks, creating an oversupply of meat, analysts said. Redirected protein shipments come as frozen inventories are starting to build ahead […] Read more
France says Russia to lift ban on live pigs, some pork products
Paris | Reuters –– Russia’s veterinary services has agreed to lift a ban on French live pigs, offal and fat imposed a year ago after an outbreak of African swine fever in the east of the European Union, the French farm ministry said. Russia imposed the ban on EU pork products early in 2014 following […] Read more
Chipotle’s pork plight could hurt Q1 results
Reuters –– Chipotle Mexican Grill’s decision to suspend purchases from a pork producer that ran afoul of its animal welfare requirements could bolster its reputation with diners but threatens sales and profits this quarter, an analyst said Wednesday. The burrito chain’s move caused a supply shortfall that is hitting about one-third of its roughly 1,800 […] Read more
A dark cloud with a silver lining for hog producers in 2014
Five to Remember: The threat of PEDv hung over the sector all year, but the virus was kept at bay and strong prices helped heal years of hurt
Reading Time: 3 minutes Back in April, Murray Markert spoke for the entire Alberta pork sector when asked to sum up the mood of producers. “Relief” was the Vulcan farmer’s single-word answer. And that’s a good way to sum up the entire year. Despite a close call in October, the sector was poised to end the year the way […] Read more
China arrests over 110 people for selling contaminated pork
Shanghai | Reuters — China has arrested more than 110 people suspected of selling pork from pigs that died from disease, and confiscated more than 1,000 tonnes of contaminated pork in its latest crackdown on food safety violations. The ministry of public security said Sunday the people were part of a network made up of […] Read more
Digital meat-grading scanner making its way to the processing floor
The device developed at U of A uses near infrared and visible light to detect fat and meat colour
Reading Time: < 1 minute Grading is an important step for processors, and the industry has traditionally used human graders to measure qualities such as marbling, as well as fat colour and texture. But processors are now moving towards electronic grading tools and technology. Technologies such as the Computer Vision System’s BeefCam module have achieved up to 64 per cent […] Read more
Strong hog sector facing uncertain 2015
CNS Canada — Western Canadian hog farmers are facing an uncertain future from a marketing perspective heading into 2015, with a number of factors on both the supply and demand sides of the equation that could swing prices one way or the other. “After a very profitable 2014… we’re at pivot point,” said Tyler Fulton, […] Read more
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