by PAT CURRIE
Loblaw Companies Limited, the largest grocery organization in Canada, has launched a major thrust to boost sales of Ontario corn-fed beef through 150 Loblaw and Loblaw-affiliated supermarkets in Ontario.
"This is excellent news for the beef community," Jim Clark, executive-director of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association said Tuesday in advance of today’s kickoff.
"I see a lot of opportunities to build a sustainable future" for beef producers, including farm families that weathered the storm of the mad-cow epidemic that ravaged the Canadian beef industry starting in 2003, Clark said.
So far, 240 of the province’s beef producers are on board under the Ontario Corn-Fed Beef Program. Loblaw has committed to including "up to 500" producers and processors as the program gathers steam, said Rodney Koning, the company’s vice-president of meat and seafood procurement.
Koning said the 150 stores involved in the program will mean processing 2,500 to 3,000 head of cattle per week. He said the Ontario corn-fed beef program may be replicated in other locally grown food products.
The Loblaw empire includes many regional chains across Canada but the Loblaw corporate and franchised retail stores most directly affected are under the Zehrs Markets, valu-mart, Your Independent Grocer and BloorStreet Market grocery stores banners.
Ontario Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell, more than a dozen beef-farm families and Loblaw representatives were slated to gather at Tremblett's valu-mart, 1500 Bayview Avenue in Toronto today (Wednesday) to launch the program.
Loblaw launched the campaign after research conducted by the Ontario government showed that 63 per cent of consumers said supporting Ontario farmers was a reason for buying Ontario-produced or -processed foods. BF
Comments
Why not promote grass-fed cattle?
Excellent question - after all, grass is what cattle have evolved to eat, and it keeps them healthy while corn is not natural to their diet (or, really, to humans). It's also free, while corn costs in both money and land to grow it on, not to mention water, fossil fuels, etc. I really don't see how this is a sustainable model of food production.
Grass is free? When was the last time you saw a steer grazing on a highway corridor or public park?
Someone owns the ground where the grass grows. Grass is not free.
Ever taste a goose that was raised in a urban park? Ugh! Urban grass!
Corn fed geese is at least edible.
Grass is not free, it is a crop as well it needs to be managed, fertilized replanted, and land cost to the producer be it rented land our owned are the same, so grass is not free!
Have you ever tried to fatten catlle in the middle of February pretty hard to supply finshed animals year round on grass in this country
If you want to know the evils of corn fed beef, watch this six part video series on YouTube called King Corn.
Corn feed beef has been the norm for US cattle for a long time now..and a reason why the US has such an obesity problem.
Now we are going to bring that to Ontario. Great.
what is up with the return to corn-fed beef??!
"Evils"? - stop eating then. Even better, get off YouTube. Or more so, talk to Jim Clark - I would rather eat this beef from Ontario than from outside of the province or worse, the country. And frankly, the obesity problems are a societal problem built upon populations removing themselves from local economies, local living, local food. Look at where we all are today - we commute more (train included), we drive more, we spend more time sitting on our asses, we have turned eating into fast food energy geared at stuffing it in quicker, in larger bites, than ever before and you believe it is about corn fed beef?
Thanks for playing urbanite. You made my weekend.
I notice a big quality difference between fresh meat at Loblaws compared to Walmart.
I have switched to Loblaws because of that and the produce.
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