Gotta love Noem, there ain’t a lobbyist she won’t let influence her;
The letter does not detail what specific information FSIS needs to address, but says that LFTB-maker Beef Products Inc.’s “award winning trade record” and food safety record have gone unnoticed by critics “leading the campaign of misinformation.”
Thirty members, including Steve King (R-IA), Tom Latham (R-IA) Joe Barton (R-TX), Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and Kristi Noem (R-SD), signed the letter, which can be viewed via the American Meat Institute website here.
This is an interesting TIMELINE of Pink Slime. I loved how the stuff got it’s name;
USDA microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein tours a BPI plant as part of an investigation into recent contamination. He coins the term “pink slime” in an email to colleagues, adding, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”
Well, if that is the case, we better change the labels of most of the food on our grocery store shelves.
I don’t understand why cattle producers are for this stuff. They have stated that they will need to raise more cattle resulting in higher prices. You would think that higher prices would be good for them. Although not so much for the consumer.
More cattle will lead to lower prices, higher supply=less demand.
Cattle farmers and ranchers may not support Pink Slime, but the big meat packers love it. Anyway they can scrum another nickel out of a cow is something they’d love. We can thank Con-Agra, Cargill, and a few others for this gift of Pink Slime. Disgusting.
As I’ve said on other blogs, I worked two years in an industrial meat packing plant. The stuff/parts they put into some food products is disgusting. Buy a freezer and put meat in it from a local producer you know, butchered by the local butcher. You can be exacting in what you want in each package – How much fat in the hamburger, how many steaks per package, what parts you do not want in your hamburger, how big each roast ought to be, etc. It’s really the best way to go. You can trust your food that way.
BTW, talking about beef marketing. Take my word for it as a lifelong farm girl: the Black Angus racket is simply a marketing gimick. It doesn’t matter if it’s Black Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Gelbvieh, Shorthorn, Limousine, etc. If they are fed similarly, they will taste about the same. Feed lot or pasture, the color of their hide does not affect the taste of their muscles.
D. E. — Having worked in a meat packing plant, were you a vegetarian or vegan for a while?
Bishop is right. Find a local producer. Ironically I knew a local family owned restaurant in SF that was cutting their own beef bought from a local producer. They were never advertising it, but would constantly get compliments on the cuts.
I want to see Noem publicly eat this garbage and feed this crap to her family. If she is going to sign her name to a letter like this I want her to put her money where her mouth is (uh oh, bad pun). Same with Terry Branstad of Iowa. That guy is also a piece of work. I’ve always considered myself conservative but with politicians like that I refuse to be called a Republican.
For being in the middle of a large agricultural area I find it really hard to obtain healthy foods around here. When the Farmers Market is going we have access to lots of great produce. Otherwise the selection at HyVee seems like it comes from the discard pile of other grocers, when they even have it. There are no “wholesome” restaurants around here. The local co-op is tiny.
I heard a statistic that South Dakota consumes the lowest amount of vegetables per capita in the US (see http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5935a1.htm). Nobody walks anywhere because it is not possible to do so – if you DO walk someplace in Sioux Falls it’s because you are homeless or lost your drivers license. If you bike, same deal. Folks this is not good for us, this is really bad! We need to change!
I don’t see why the beef producers are behind this. This would be like a car manufacturer defending a design flaw in their car and having politicians start a campaign like “Cars Should Go Forward! Why should you always be concerned about making them stop?” Shouldn’t they want their products to be the finest out there once they hit the grocery stores and not some cheapened adulterated garbage like pink slime? It seems to me that better products generally yield higher prices and eventually that goes back to the producer (*if* they do it right – not a guarantee but its a start).
Yeah, would love to see all these legislators have a cook out with 100% pink slime, that would be funny.
Yeah, they should be required to serve Pink Slime in the legislative dining room.
To answer a question – No, I have always been omnivorous. However, when I lived in SD I always knew where my meat was coming from.
For the past 5 years, I’ve lived in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro, and I don’t know where most of my food comes from. That makes me a bit nervous. Also, the Great Recession wiped out everything I had, so I’m too poor to afford good safe food. That is a major problem for lots of Americans.
In the meantime, I do have space for a garden, and grow lots of heirloom vegetables in the summer. Lettuce ought to be ready soon!! Whooo-hoooo!
Oh…. I would love to buy from a local producer!!!! My little freezer from 1964 died last fall, but I would buy a new one!!! (YES, 1964) There is just me and I have been eating chicken until I nearly have grown feathers. Even with that, I have alot of misgivings because I grew up on a farm…most of the time chickens and have worked for a BIG egg company.
The garden will be in shortly, but I would love some safe meat.
Word from the alleged “Lincoln” day dinner is that Crusty is loosing a lot of support from her own camp due to the SOPA/CISPA con she’s giving about reading our emails keeps us all safe.. Basically this legislation would keep your links deleted which may ordinarily lead a spectrum of criticism or protests.
Muqhtar they don’t grow food around here, they predominately grow feed for factory farming.
For those within driving distance, the Delmont locker has good meat. And their sausage, etc is a dollar less a pound than if you get it at hyvee.
90% of the food sold in Ecuador is 100% organic.
Ruf – Don’t the Brazilians make most of their ethanol from sugar cane to?
I found it interesting how quickly and effectively they changed the meme to: “‘finely textured beef’ is harmless”
…when the fact that it won’t hurt you was never what the controversy is about – which is that what used to be ammonia-treated waste-product only fit for dog food was now being used in our ground beef –
is disgusting.
Dogs shouldn’t even eat that shit.