This is not an usual “feel good” Meat Inspection story. It’s intent here is to present some seldom addressed realities of the job; as I have come to know it over the past 4 decades. Starting out naïve, I believed that the Federal Government would only put forth worthwhile, common sense Meat Inspection programs. After… Read More »
It’s usually difficult to get people to feel sorry for Government workers, but there exist at least one arena in which those employees can suffer more abuse than private sector employees. That area is the Government controlled treatment of their employers. If Government employees have a grievance, fellow Government agencies policing said complaints will most… Read More »
The short answer is that I’m addicted to high eating quality beef and I’m guessing that consumer price inflation will get even worse before it eventually begins getting better. Folks who regularly read my blog posts know that I often advocate buying retail market grade, bargain priced meat to perform value-added home processing with; to… Read More »
The USDA Meat Graders collectively voted-in a Union in 1970. At that time there was a much higher number of Meat Graders (around 750) than exist today (only about 160 today) because back then there were still a lot of small beef harvest plants scattered around the U.S. Market beef (young fed cattle) industry consolidation… Read More »
During this current time of high food prices I was happy to see pork shoulder butts once again offered at 99 cents per pound. Our freezer was still well stocked with 3 types of Goetta, pulled pork, precooked breakfast sausage patties and precooked Polish sausage; so I had to find something else good to make… Read More »