Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack has an idea.
Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack has a problem with hungry hogs. Houston has a problem with hungry people.
If Radack gets his way, hundreds of pounds of pork soon could be hitting the needy’s tables.
Radack plans to allow a few select bowhunters to begin targeting the thousands of feral pigs that live in George Bush Park and hopes to donate the meat to food banks, churches, homeless shelters or even needy individuals.
“If you could harness this, it could feed so many people it’s unbelievable,” Radack said.
[…]
Off-duty county employees have been allowed to trap hogs at the park for more than a decade, and they typically remove about 300 to 400 every year, [Precinct 3 special activities coordinator Mike] McMahan said. The trappers are responsible for removing the hogs and have been allowed to keep the meat.
But those efforts barely have made a dent in a population that swells so quickly that 50 sows could replace all the hogs that were harvested with just one litter each.
[…]
Most of the park’s hogs weigh between 50 and 150 pounds, McMahan said. That translates to about 40 to 120 pounds of steaks, roasts, ribs and ham per animal, said Midway Food Market owner Herman Meyer, who processes 700 to 800 wild hogs a year at an average cost of about $60.
Houston Food Bank spokeswoman Betsy Ballard said the organization would be delighted to receive that much meat. But food safety laws could make such a donation difficult. Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman Doug McBride said food banks could not accept the meat unless the hogs were taken live to a processor with an on-site state or federal food safety inspector.
Hunters for the Hungry, a statewide wild game donation program, does not accept feral hogs because it is too difficult to find a processor who adheres to all the state rules, program coordinator Anitra Hendricks said.
“There’s just not any easy way or profitable way to get a group together to do this,” said Barbara Anderson, state director of the Texas Food Bank Network.
Radack said he will find a way to make the donations work if he has to line individuals up to pick up hogs they will butcher themselves.
“If people catch fish out of sewage-infested waters like Buffalo Bayou and eat them, and people eat out of garbage cans because they are hungry, it seems reasonable to me that there is a way to take lean meat of a feral hog out of the woods and put it on people’s tables so they can have a meal,” he said. “There should be a way to do that and I’m determined to find it.”
Sounds like perhaps a change to state law might be needed to make this practical. If so, Friday was the regular filing deadline for new bills, though one can still be submitted if it gets supermajority approval. Be that as it may, I admire Commissioner Radack’s spirit here, and I hope he succeeds in his quest.
“If people catch fish out of sewage-infested waters like Buffalo Bayou and eat them, and people eat out of garbage cans because they are hungry, it seems reasonable to me that there is a way to take lean meat of a feral hog out of the woods and put it on people’s tables so they can have a meal,” he said. “There should be a way to do that and I’m determined to find it.”
I can believe he said this but I cannot believe anyone would suggest that health laws be relaxed just so someone can “have a meal.”
No one should be eating fish from Buffalo Bayou or eating “leftovers” from the dumpster or eating meat that may not be safe. Bad enough that some do. Worse to encourage it.
“Houston Food Bank spokeswoman Betsy Ballard said the organization would be delighted to receive that much meat. But food safety laws could make such a donation difficult.”
As would distribution since most food pantries have no means to keep the meat – most only offer meat that is frozen and do so only when they can afford to buy it or someone actually donates it. Which points out two misconceptions about food banks and food pantries.
Food pantries are not mini-grocery stores where people are just not charged for their groceries. With the exception of the occasional frozen chicken or roll of hamburger, the only “meat” is canned. There is no milk or eggs. Occasionally there is processed cheese and produce that doesn’t require refrigeration. They do not have walk-in coolers to store anything. Including all the meat from feral hogs.
Food banks also do not donate the food to food pantries. The food pantries pay a “fee per pound” which in some cases makes the food available, particularly the canned goods, for only half the retail price. So they are in many cases paying a wholesale price. So why not just pay a food wholesaler? They might even get better quality if they “bought direct.” Instead they are forced to buy from the food banks.
Many people do not know this. Most who do no longer donate to the food bank and donate directly to the food pantries. Often they ask the food pantry what they need and go buy it for them and deliver it. Which the food banks, by the way, don’t. They are offended by the bags of groceries at the grocery store which they used to think were donated which in fact are “resold” and if there is nothing wrong with it then the food banks should disclose this. Which some do. But only because so many became offended.
Of course nothing could offend anyone more than a public official making the comment that Steve Radack did.
Of course he’s a Republican so anything that saves the taxpayers money works for him. And of course in this case if enough people drop dead from tainted meat it saves even more money for the taxpayers. Just less poor people for everyone to deal with whom no one wants to deal with anyway.
Next week perhaps when the media is not around he will suggest the solution to homelessness in Harris County is to have some feral hog barbeques for the homeless.
Reading this I am not sure who offends me more. Steve Radack or Houston Food Bank and Texas Food Bank Network.