"US school districts refusing to order beef with ‘pink slime’" by Candice Choi | Associated Press, June 06, 2012
NEW YORK - The nation’s school districts are turning up their noses at “pink slime,’’ the beef product that caused a public uproar earlier this year.
So we are being told; I don't believe it.
The Department of Agriculture says the vast majority of states participating in its National School Lunch Program have opted to order ground beef that doesn’t contain the product known as lean finely textured beef. Only three states - Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota - chose to order beef that may contain the filler.
The product has been used for decades and federal regulators say it’s safe to eat.
Obama serving it at state dinners is he?
It nevertheless became the center of national attention
after the nickname “pink slime’’ was quoted in a New York Times article.
The filler is made of fatty bits of beef that are heated, then treated
with a puff of ammonia to kill bacteria.
I thought the burger tasted funny.
Beef Products Inc., the South Dakota company that makes the filler, said in an e-mailed statement that the repudiation is not reflective of the quality or safety of the beef it produces.
“Based upon the misrepresentations that have been pervasive in the media to this point, it comes as no surprise that the majority of states have currently elected to purchase ground beef that does not contain lean finely textured beef,’’ said Craig Letch, the company’s director of food safety and quality.
The company announced this month that it will shutter three of its four plants as a result of the controversy.
Yeah, you people that don't want to eat shit just cost someone their job!
In the meantime, it has set up a website, beefisbeef.com, to combat what it says are myths about the product....
Not like they would have a $elf-$erving motive or anything.
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"In August, Lynn health inspector Frank McNulty was called to Lynn English High School to investigate a foul odor. When he opened the cafeteria freezer, a puff of steam reeking of rotting meat gushed out. The freezer had shut down, but the condenser was still operating, drawing in hot summer air and cooking hundreds of pounds of meat for weeks."
You might want to think about brown-bagging it, kids.
Maybe the prisons will take the stuff.
Ready for desert, kids?
Burger King adds a bacon sundae
Maybe it's something the Chinese like.
Who's picking up the check?
"New farm bill would end direct payments" June 04, 2012
WASHINGTON — A program that puts billions of dollars in the pockets of farmers whether or not they plant a crop may disappear with hardly a protest from farm groups and the politicians who look out for their interests.
The Senate is expected to begin debate this week on a five-year farm and food aid bill that would save $9.3 billion by ending direct payments to farmers and replacing them with subsidized insurance programs for when the weather turns bad or prices go south.
The details are still to be worked out. But there is rare agreement that fixed annual subsidies of $5 billion a year for farmers are no longer feasible in this age of tight budgets and when farmers in general are enjoying record prosperity....
They are referring to Big Agribusine$$.
Getting a bill to the president’s desk will be a challenge....
I'm tired of the politicking.
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"Senate passes $1 trillion farm subsidy measure" by Ron Nixon | New York Times, June 22, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a sweeping farm bill Thursday that would cost nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years, financing dozens of price support and crop insurance programs for farmers and food assistance for low-income families.
The bill passed with bipartisan support, 64-35. It now goes to the
House, where it faces a much tougher road because conservative lawmakers
want to make deeper cuts in the food stamp program....
When there are more hungry Americans than ever.
So what corporations get the other $200 billion?
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I've lost my appetite, readers. Happens every time I read a Boston Globe.
