Welcome to The Meat Press, our meat blog!
Posted: August 1, 2011
Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario / The Meat Press
Hello eaters! 
Welcome to the first press of the Meat Press, a blog that will show what’s happening with meat in Ontario, from legislation to implementation in abattoirs and meat processing plants across the province.
Whether you’re a vegetarian, pescetarian, omnivore or carnivore, I invite you to pull up your chair and listen in on stories from farmers and legislators alike. Meat matters affect us all; whether it’s on your plate or fertilizing your spinach. Who feeds you, how and why are not easy questions to answer when it comes to cows and pigs. It got trickier in 2005 when The Meat Regulation 31/05 was introduced under the Food Safety and Quality Act (2001) to respond to a changing food safety environment. This regulation changed what it meant for meat processors to be compliant with laws related to the handling of meat – from slaughter to the point of sale.
Together we’ll navigate the murky waters of meat regulation through the use of stories. And like any good meat press (meat tenderizer to some) in your kitchen drawer of miscellanea, I will do my part to make the fleshy legislative bits easier to chew and I’ll leave the digesting up to you.
If you’ve got fodder to share, bring it all to the table! This will be an open forum for discussion and learning about the impacts meat regulations have across the province. We’ll feature one perspective at a time and keep the conversation threaded below. Every voice and barnyard onomatopoeia is welcome. I’m learning as we go, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble keeping up. Email me when you think I’ve missed something or to share stories and perspectives that should be featured.
With the same candour I’m asking you to participate in this blog, I’ll share my own biases. I’m an omnivore eating on the assumption that raising livestock is a timeless occupation and an integral part of healthy agricultural systems. I like to buy my meat from farmers and butchers, but would never turn down a friend’s barbecue. I helped to kill my first rooster last summer for a special feast (and to sort out some barnyard politics), but I let my partner wield the knife while I held the bird.
On my father’s side, I come from a French-Canadian family who marks every holiday with Grand-Maman’s tourtiere, a meal-time staple made from minced pork. So what better place to start than with meat pie? Check back in a few days to learn why meat and pie couldn’t bake at The Forsyth Farm under Meat Regulation 31/05.
And welcome to the blog… I hope you’ll stick around in the mud with me for a while!
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Hayley Lapalme is a guest blogger with Sustain Ontario and works with Ontario’s health care sector to help them buy more local, sustainable food. You can reach her at hayley.lapalme[@]gmail.com.