Sysco porks the sustainable food movement
Did you enjoy that pork from White Marble Farms? Bet you felt pleased with yourself that you located some pretty damn tasty sustainable other white meat, didn't you? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the only thing you found was the latest attempt by the industrial food complex to hijack the sustainable food movement. Don't look so surprised! In a world where Organic Rice Krispies exist, this should hardly come as a shock.
White Marble Farms is nothing more than a brand name from Sysco, the largest foodservice distributor in North America. The actual pork is sourced from Cargill Meat Solutions, the number two meat processor in the United States. Cargill says it gets its pork from small, local farms in the Midwest, but will not provide anyone with information to independently verify this claim. Market space competitor Niman Ranch also sources from local farms, but is happy to provide customers with a list of those facilities.
According to a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle by The Ethicurean co-founder Bonnie Azab Powell, the lives and slaughter of Sysco/Cargill's "sustainable" pigs aren't markedly different from their less ethically marketed brethren. They're shuttered inside concrete pens, fed offal and have their tails hacked off to prevent other pigs in close quarters from chewing them, a far cry from the humane practices of true sustainable, ethical producers.
Oh, and there's also that bit about the pigs growing up in Iowa. If your sustainable and ethical food has to be trucked in more than 200 miles (purists would say 100 miles or less), that label becomes even less meaningful.
Azab Powell did some more digging into the Sysco and Cargill alliance including a blog post from the chef at a San Diego restaurant, which also managed to gather some astroturf from a Sysco employee.
My Groups
-
The Vox Meetup Group Updated: Yesterday
-
San Francisco Eats Updated: 4 days ago
-
San Francisco Municpal Railway Updated: Sep 22, 2009
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Comments
With White Marble Farms, Sysco said its main supplier was Cargill. When bloggers and journalists went to Cargill, they were told that the meat for White Marble Farms comes from small, independent farmers. When asked for names of these operators, Cargill said "sorry, no." The trail ends in Cargill's PR department, who would like the world to take it at its word that the pork comes from where they say it comes from.
Now let's take a look at Niman Ranch. I'll concede that the name is slightly misleading, people think that there's a huge ranch somewhere, not aware that the name is a branding effort for a proto-coop operation. However, bloggers and reporters who have contacted Niman Ranch about sourcing are always provided with references to their independent supplier farms. The product can be traced directly to its origins, for better or worse.
In matters of transparency and openness, Niman Ranch wins -- they can back up their claims with solid proof; who buys product wholesale is irrelevant. Though I do love the bacon they sell via Trader Joe's, my personal preference are for animal products that are processed from more local and direct-selling farms here in the Bay Area.
Thanks again for commenting in my journal, and have a great day!~