Ok! Here's my take on the
#earls beef issue.
Earl's Restaurants LTD wants to use 'Certified Humane' beef. Great! Good for them! It's what consumers want. They want to know their meat is treated in a humane way while it was alive and slaughtered in a Humane way, with no antibiotics or hormones.
While Alberta beef is definitely some of the best beef in the world. Alberta cannot provide a supply of 2 million pounds of beef per year due to a lack of paperwork. That's it! It's a lack of having the piece of paper and following along with bookkeeping, record keeping, and the logistical parts that are required with it. It's one of the cheaper certifications one can get. Alberta beef is raised in compliance with most, if not all of the regulations. Yet, not certified. So if the Alberta Cattle Producers want to make a change go through the process of getting certified! Then you can be a supplier of 'Certified Humane' beef. Here's the 53 pages of regulations that cover everything from records to feed to space to everything. So all you cattle producers that want to supply Earl's and any other company that will be switching over to 'Certified Humane' GET CERTIFIED! It's going to happen. You can't get on the train without the ticket!
This isn't going away. It's in fact getting bigger. It's gaining momentum if you will. This is the way the world is turning! People don't want their meat to come from a feed lot where the animals are crammed into a tight space with a bunch of other animals, knee deep in mud and feces, getting rounds of antibiotics as 'preventative' (I have been there I have witnessed it with my own eyes. Don't tell me it doesn't happen). People want to know their food had a good life out on 'the Open Range', fresh air sunshine, grass, doing their animal things, being treated with respect and kindness.
Here's my advice: find your local farmer who raises animals in a way that's in line with how you want your meat to be treated. Raise your own animals. Source from reputable farmers. Go to the slaughter house or butcher shop and see how your meat is going to be handled and processed. Stop shopping at Walmart, Costco and other big name retailers who's meat comes from anywhere and you don't know how it's handled.
As a consumer your biggest boycott can be just by knowing who your farmer is and how your food is handled. Wouldn't it be AMAZING if EVERYTHING everyone ate in Alberta came from ALBERTA? We don't boycott the fact our lettuce comes from Mexico, our peppers from California or Argentina, our garlic comes from China. So get on that boycott train! Actually support Alberta with YOUR money!
Join a CSA, find a small Market Garden, Grow your OWN. Just do something that will actually benefit your province! Stop jumping on the stupid train of boycotts because some company you didn't actually know used an Alberta supplier and switched because that's what consumers want and you still buy your meat from the cheap bin or because it's on sale and it very well could have come from Mars. Use your head and shop with it!
DO IT!
