This is the slaughterhouse where an undercover Humane Society video shows sick and weakened animals being prodded with forklifts, sprayed with high pressure water and cruelly mistreated in other ways.
Initially company president Steve Mendell insisted the downer cows had been mistreated but said they had not been processed with the healthy cows. Turns out he was wrong and admitted this week that those downer cows were not humanely euthanized after all.
This is the recall that came all the way from California to the local schools where some of it was served to local students before being pulled off the shelves.
Don't be surprised if more stories of inhumane treatment of animals and contamination of the food supply surface. It should not be a surprise. Last summer spinach from large-scale commercial farms in California sickened dozens and killed several people.
For many, the impetus to eat local food comes from a desire to support local farmers and local food producers. For others, the desire to eat locally is part of reducing ones' carbon footprint and avoiding eating food shipped across the country via fossil fuels.
Ultimately, it seems, as the food supply becomes more dangerous and there is less accountability in a system designed to protect consumers, the desire to eat food produced locally will likely be a health choice people make to avoid exposing themselves to illness, disease and contamination.
What began as a political statement or an environmental position or a land-use concept may, in the end, become a simple health decision to seek the cleanest nourishment available.
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