It’s a major blow to the Canadian beef industry as a major restaurant chain looks to the south for an upgrade.

As of this week, if you bite into a burger or steak at Earls, you are no longer taking in beef from Alberta, but 100 per cent certified humane beef sourced from the United States.

Photo Credit: Earls Restaurants.

Boasting that this change puts them as the first in business to make this promise, Earls justifies the choice with a shift to align with their ethics.

They also defend their reasoning for the switch because of the amount they need to meet their supply. With 66 locations, 59 in Canada and seven in the U.S., they say there wasn’t enough in Canada.

Photo Credit: Earls Restaurants.Earls chef's Ryan Stone, Scott Rolfson and Del Diseko with Earls meat buyer Dave Bursey at Creekstone Ranch.

“Steaks and hamburgers are among our biggest selling items and we have always used Canadian beef in Canada,” it says on their website. “As our commitment to Conscious Sourcing grew, we made the decision that Certified Humane beef was important to us and started sourcing in Canada.

“However, after months of trying, we were unable to source a federally inspected, Certified Humane producer that could consistently meet our large supply needs.”

They then travelled to ranches in the U.S. and met with animal scientist, Temple Grandin, who also visited their Vancouver test kitchen.

Photo Credit: Earls Restaurants.Dr. Temple Grandin with Earls meat buyer, Dave Bursey in the Vancouver Test Kitchen.

In the end, they decided to source beef from across the border.

“Certified Humane was more important to us than origin, so we chose a U.S. supplier for our beef,” their site reads.

Mo Jessa, president of Earls Restaurants, said the idea was originally a concept thought up for Calgary alone, before it expanded chain-wide.

“We took a step back and fully realized the positive impact we could make within our industry by not only having one restaurant follow these principles, but by having our entire company follow these principles,” said Jessa. “Earls can definitely affect change because of our decision to take on the initiative to do more with our ingredients, to find a cleaner source.

“The entire industry changes because of it…and not only does it match the expectations of our staff, it matches their values. It's a proud day for all of us.”

According to the chain’s site, they still use Canadian-produced pork in all of our restaurants and local free-run chicken, Certified Humane where possible, in all their locations. Their cage-free eggs are sourced from all over Canada and the U.S.