Thursday, November 10, 2011

"Pass the pink slime and meat glue"...


You’re not going to believe what you’ve been eating the last few years (thanks meat industry lobbyists!) when you eat a McDonald’s burger (or the hamburger patties in kids’ school lunches) or buy conventional ground meat at your supermarket.

http://www.disabled-world.com/fitness/nutrition/pink-slime.php

"It’s “the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer — fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. (Beef Products, Inc. or BPI) sends the scraps through a series of machines, grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens. With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use this "pink slime" as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of this processed beef last year alone. And since the USDA considers it a "process", ammonia (which is poisonous) doesn't have to be listed on the packaging as a separate ingredient!"

Also, check out this 5 minute video on of all things: "meat glue". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6caa___wxA

Comment from a reader: "Our society has become so profit driven, that money has become more important than the citizens. This only proves that lobbyists have their strong hold on law makers. But at what cost? It may make the beef farmers a little more profit. However, the health risks and costs that will mount up from people getting sick or even die just doesn't seem to be worth it, even from an economical stand point.
I bet the people that passed this don't feed their families this kind of product. Seems that only the less fortunate, and poor will get stuck eating this kind of garbage."

From someone else: "The industrialization of food production, specifically the way animals are raised, slaughtered and processed, and the resulting consequences, is really the central issue. The humane treatment of the animals is at best an afterthought, as is the welfare of all the humans who consume these products. The driving force is profit for corporations, who care about nothing else except the bottom line.
Why are we always shocked when the food produced is tainted, or lethal?
It's just a natural result of abusing nature, being oblivious to animal rights, and placing profit above everything else."