010388 NY City Council Speaker Blasts Probe of Meat Biz

New York Daily News - City Council Speaker Peter Vallone demanded yesterday that federal investigators be more open with New Yorkers about their findings in their crackdown on the city's meat industry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating widespread corruption in the area's meat-inspection program that may have led to safety violations being overlooked.

The probe has led to the closure of three wholesale meat markets. But USDA officials have refused to disclose how many more may have been shut in the last two days.

"I would always, always go for disclosure," Vallone said. "If you don't have disclosure people will think it's worse than it really is."

Vallone said a lot more has to be done to ensure that the city's meat products are safe.

Meanwhile, butchers and meat store operators said yesterday that the closure of three meat markets in Manhattan's meat-packing district - as well as the furor over mad-cow and foot-and-mouth diseases - have not yet affected prices or supply, but some worry it might.

"We try to keep prices low," said the manager of the Big Apple Meat Market on 41st St. and Ninth Ave., who identified himself as Pat. "We'll see what happens as it progresses but we're hoping it doesn't progress beyond this."

As for consumers, it was mostly business as usual.

"I think they'll talk all precautions to make sure nothing happens here," said Rosaline Bellesleur of the upper West Side.

But another woman, who declined to give her name, seemed more fatalistic. "We don't know what to eat anymore," she said. "Fish has mercury. Chicken has antibiotics and growth hormones in their feed. Now this. Soon, we're going to destroy ourselves."

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