Earls President says beef move was “dumb”
Posted Aug 10, 2016 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The president of the Earls Restaurant chain is apologizing to Canadian beef ranchers for the company’s ill-conceived move to buy beef outside of Canada.
Mo Jessa called the company’s strategy last spring to only buy beef raised in the United States as “dumb” while speaking at an industry conference in Calgary.
Jessa said the company now knows that it deeply offended the Canadian cattle industry when it announced it would buy products from an American supplier that had a “certified humane” designation.
The move prompted outrage and threats of a boycott and was eventually reversed.
Canadian Beef Industry Congress Co-Chairman Rob Smith was glad to hear the apology.
“What he hears from his people is that local means community,” Smith said. “I think that that’s giving our producers from coast to coast that are here a lot of good insight as they figure out where their production practices are going, where they’re finding their efficiencies [and] how they market their products,”
In June, Earls signed supplier deals with Canadian ranchers who raise cattle without antibiotics, steroids or added hormones and who are regularly audited for animal welfare.
Alberta Beef Producers Chair Bob Lowe said he hopes the controversy will result in more cooperation on beef industry promotion between Canadian producers and the restaurant industry.
