Foundation for Accountability in Regulatory Enforcement (FARE)John Munsell ran a USDA-inspected meat plant for 34 years, which had been in the family for 59 years. Raised in Miles City, Montana and educated at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT, John returned to the family business subsequent to employment at Continental Oil and Target Stores. Having sold the business in 2005, John subsequently opened a deli/bakery at a local retail grocery store, and is currently employed by Miles Community College as a Biofuels/Renewable Energy Coordinator. Married, with two daughters and six grandchildren, John's passionate focus has been to reveal institutionalized shortcomings in USDA's deregulated meat inspection program, and to protect the rights of small plants to remain in business in the absence of unethical government enforcement actions.
Editor's Note: This is the third installment in a series written by John Munsell of Miles City, MT, who explains how the small meat plant his family owned for 59 years ran afoul of USDA's meat inspection program. The events he writes about began a decade ago, but remain relevant today.On June 30, 2002, after my grinder had been shut...
Editor's Note: This is the second installment in a series written by John Munsell of Miles City, MT, who explains how the small meat plant his family owned for 59 years ran afoul of USDA's meat inspection program. The events he writes about began a decade ago, but remain relevant today.Prior to discussing negotiations in the following months between FSIS...
Editor's Note: This is the first part in a series written by John Munsell of Miles City, MT, who explains how the small meat plant his family owned for 59 years ran afoul of USDA's meat inspection program. The events he writes about began a decade ago, but remain relevant today.They say that confession is good for the soul. I've been involved...
Dan Flynn's "Inspected by USDA" in Food Safety News last month was a particularly thought-provoking editorial, to which I have some responses.USDA's two legal losses stemming from its actions at Supreme Beef (SB) in late 1999 should have exposed a fatal flaw in USDA-Style HACCP, causing the agency to revise its allegedly "science based" meat inspection system.USDA withdrew inspectors from...
"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." -- Mark TwainIf only Mark Twain were alive today, he would have a field day commenting on what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers to be "scientific". Subsequent to the Jack In The Box E. coli outbreak in 1993,...
Two additional E. coli O157:H7 recalls were experienced the final week of October 2009, both emanating from consumer outbreaks. Recall # 057-2009 was announced on October 26, from South Shore Meats in Brockton, Massachusetts, involving 1,039 lbs of fresh ground beef. Recall # 059-2009 was announced but five days later, in which 545,699 lbs of fresh ground beef was recalled...
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