The farmers are using all kinds of growth hormones, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and GMO that are considered unsafe for human consumption in Canada, Mexico and the EU.

Sure, but they’re not in the US where they are and where their market is.

US food standards were a fucking joke before this administration that fired everyone enforcing anything.

No, they weren’t. They were not comparable to other similarly developed nations and had a lot of room for improvement, but they weren’t a joke. Not having any standards, which is where America is heading, would be a joke.

For particularly weak food standards you’d want to look at Kenya or Nigeria.

You cant even drink the tap water in some places.

You are correct, though that’s regulated by the Environmental Protection (the irony of using this word in the name!) Agency and is unrelated to food regulation.

This isn’t to negate your point at all, because I get your meaning. But these days, the butcher is a skilled person who makes final cuts of meat. Often in grocery stores.

The people who slaughter the animals do the initial skinning and halving or quartering of animals. Often they will also make the initial rough (large) cuts that get stamped for inspection approval and then vacuum sealed to be delivered to kitchens or butchers. The people at this step are called meat packers and it’s almost always where problems lie. Almost across the board the employees at these places are underpaid, overworked, and it’s where the meat has the greatest chance at contamination.

I assume your using butchers to refer to the same businesses I’m calling processors; the commercial plants that slaughter livestock and then process it for distribution to retailers.