Word just came out this week that Ontario’s Food Banks are being encouranged to reject Game Meats!
WHAT????
Food Banks Canada took a stance with their “strong recommendation” to food banks specifically in Ontario, to reject meat not raised in captivity or killed in a licensed slaughterhouse.
“Deer and moose are the most organic meat you can get, and is consumed by millions of hunters every year,” said president of the Ottawa Valley branch of Safari Club International, Len Dickinson, during an interview this week.
“It seems totally ridiculous that Ontario’s food banks would rather see people go hungry than allow them to eat properly processed wild game.”
The executive director of Food Banks Canada claims the recommendation to reject game meat goes back to an old 2001 Ontario provincial law.
Under the old 2001 regulation, meat cannot be sold or distributed unless the animal was slaughtered in a government-licensed facility and inspected prior to slaughter.
Food Banks Canada says there is no provision in the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act for game meat to be used for public for consumption unless they are the licensed owner of the meat.
Until this year, Food Banks Canada openly accepted game meats from across the country making this recent decision somewhat bewildering.
According to a National Post article, other provinces have no problem accepting wild game meats:
“The Saskatoon Wildlife Federation has held the “Hunt for Hunger” campaign encouraging hunters to hand over moose, elk and deer to charity. In the territories, some food distribution programs even deal exclusively in wild game. In March, the government of Nunavut launched the Country Food Distribution Program, a $1.7-million anti-poverty scheme to send caribou, seal and muskox to Arctic communities.
The Edmonton Food Bank accepts 2,000 to 3,500 kilograms of wild meat each year, according to executive director Marjorie Bencz. “We appreciate the support because it brings donors who normally wouldn’t be participating with us,” said Ms. Bencz.
In Cranbrook, B.C., this fall, to deal with growing herds of violent, urban deer, city officials have begun slaughtering them with bolt guns and handing them over to the local food bank. Every year, conservation officers in the Yukondistribute several thousand kilograms of road-killed meat to local communities.”
For the first time ever, the Safari Club International’s donation of venison was rejected by a food bank in Lanark. The meat was even process at a provincially licensed butcher shop.
Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this picture??
Out of the blue, Ontario‘s Food Banks are being forced to reject the most pure and organic meat available for human consumption? And the folks who need it the most are the ones who suffer?
Are they crazy??
I smell a rat here folks, and I’m not talking about a tasty and highly eatable muskrat, just a plain old disease-ridden sewer rat!
Outdoorsguy
P.S. Thanks to Research Assistant – Chessy, for the heads-up on this story.