70% of America's Beef is Treated with Ammonia

[drummer]

[h3rm35]

I feel better and learn more about why every day I don´t eat carcasses of any type.

[thokling]

Those who've chosen to be vegetarian or vegan, selecting only two of the four food groups, have their own concerns regarding where their vegetables come from. And you've lucked out, because those of us who enjoy the full range of food groups have twice the concern as to where our food comes from.

We've been indoctrinated over the course of decades into this process, and the toughest part is getting out of it. Finding the time to not only grow our own vegetables cleanly, safely and quickly, but having access to a process where our meats are as of high quality as possible, has been made all the more difficult with the rat races of our respected regions.

In Canada, we do have higher standards for our meats (and vegetables presumably, though I haven't conducted any personal research on this one yet). There's a reason why cooked Canadian pork can be a little pink in the middle, whereas Usanian pork has to be fully cooked. Just one example of "the difference quality makes."

The ultimate solution? Grow our own food, and only consume "free range" meat that's been slaughtered in a humane manner. I've been working toward knowing how to conduct the full process myself (or at least have the slaughtering done by someone who I can trust).

Edit: Now that I've done some research, here are some more links for those interested:

The original NY Times article:

Quote:Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned (excerpted)
By MICHAEL MOSS, Published: December 30, 2009

Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia.

The company, Beef Products Inc., had been looking to expand into the hamburger business with a product made from beef that included fatty trimmings the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil. The trimmings were particularly susceptible to contamination, but a study commissioned by the company showed that the ammonia process would kill E. coli as well as salmonella.

Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

(article continues...)

Quote:U.S. burger chains ditch ammonia-treated beef product (excerpted)
Angela Mulholland, CTVNews.ca Staff
Date: Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 11:01 PM ET

An ammonia-treated beef filled ingredient that disgusted celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is being dropped by a number of fast food outlets in the U.S. But Canada's largest fast food retailer, McDonald's Canada, says the ingredient were never used here.

McDonald's USA, Burger King and Taco Bell have all decided to no longer use beef trimmings processed by Beef Products Inc. which uses a mixture of ammonium hydroxide and water to create a beef filler product.

The ammonium hydroxide helps to kill bacteria in fatty beef trimmings – the meat that is trimmed off larger cuts of beef and that would otherwise go into pet food and other uses.

Oliver derided the product as "pink slime" and said on his ABC reality show "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" last spring that he was disgusted by ammoniated beef trimmings.

"Everything about this process, to me, is about no respect for food, or people, or children, and I'd want to know when I'm eating this stuff. And I'd want it clearly labeled."

With a consumer backlash growing, McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Beef have each decided to stop using BPI beef trimmings, though the former two say in statements issued to the Food Safety News website that their decisions were not a reaction to Oliver's show.

(article continues...)

The ingredients allowed in food by regulation definitely vary from one country to the next, though.

[nwo2012]

They are lying, "decided to no longer use" is just a BS statement to full sheeple. No legislation forcing them, means forget about it. Just like products labeled 'natural' is a gimmick. Anout 85%+ of the burger meat in US is produced by that same company so good luck with that.

[h3rm35]

yup, beyond that, USDA ¨grade A¨ ground beef is allowed to be about a third fillers... that means any ground up animal product the feel like throwing into the mix. McDonalds used to commonly use earthworms, and I´ve heard anecdotes about FDA inspecters witnessing rats being ground into it as well.

Add to that the fact that factory farming is most likely where antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria as well as some of the more nasty flu bugs and other viruses are coming from as well.

I´m not vegan, but I make conscious choices w/ my conscience where I get my animal products from and as long as I can afford it (during the winter, the rest of the year I pretty much eat home-grown or farm stand/market,) organic veggies. There is now ¨certified humane¨ labelling. About fucking time imo.

Chickens aren´t even classified as livestock in the US... They´re considered an agricultural product like potatoes or soy beans.

Remember this?


chickens have it the worst, but cows and hogs have it pretty bad too.

In the US, our obsession with beef is not just torturous, it´s flat-out stupid. Want to talk about ¨dependence on foreign oil¨ and ¨global warming¨ (heh) politicians? Drastic reductions in greenhouse gasses (the cow farts alone are a serious contributor,) and fossil fuel consumption can be had by simply creating humane conditions for cows, forcing higher costs for both the production and consumption of beef.

Now I know, lots of people will defend the consumption of meat with their last breath, (fittingly enough,) and I personally don´t have anything against the practice of the actual consumption, as long as the production doesn´t contribute to our overall detriment ecologically and as a species. That´s far from the case, though. Agribusiness is contributing in a massive way to planetary chaos and destruction both through their practices and their consumption of vital resources. Next to cars, they are the leading consumer of fossil fuels. The next on the list is chemical companies, and most of their production goes into pharmacuetical ingredients (which are used in massive numbers in livestock,) and agaricultural products for massive agribusiness multinationals. I´m not even going to go into depth about the massive amounts of water they consume while destroying the water supplies for everyone else through their various toxic and nitrogen saturated run-off because it would take to long and you´re all smart enough to figure it out on your own. In truth, If, world-wide, we reduced the demand for GMO, mass-produced, nutritionally devoid crap that´s unnecessarily protein heavy, we could seriously affect the power structure that exists. It´s true now more than ever - you are what you eat... If you´re eating part of the problem, you ARE part of the problem. don´t kid yourself. If you ignore the toxicity and the death you consume, you create it.

rant over.

[B4Time]

Quote:Pink Slime For School Lunch: Government Buying 7 Million Pounds Of Ammonia-Treated Meat For Meals

Pink slime -- that ammonia-treated meat in a bright Pepto-bismol shade -- may have been rejected by fast food joints like McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King, but is being brought in by the tons for the nation's school lunch program.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 million pounds of the "slime" for school lunches, The Daily reports. Officially termed "Lean Beef Trimmings," the product is a ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. It's then blended into traditional meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties.

"We originally called it soylent pink," microbiologist Carl Custer, who worked at the Food Safety Inspection Service for 35 years, told The Daily. "We looked at the product and we objected to it because it used connective tissues instead of muscle. It was simply not nutritionally equivalent [to ground beef]. My main objection was that it was not meat."

Custer and microbiologist Gerald Zernstein concluded in a study that the trimmings are a "high risk product," but Zernstein tells The Daily that "scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval" under President George H.W. Bush's administration. The USDA asserts that its ground beef purchases "meet the highest standard for food safety."

Controversy surrounding "pink slime" stems from various safety concerns, particularly dangers associated with ammonium hydroxide, which can both be harmful to eat and has potential to turn into ammonium nitrate -- a common component in homemade bombs, according to MSNBC. It's also used in household cleaners and fertilizers.

In 2009, The New York Times reported that despite the added ammonia, tests of Lean Beef Trimmings of schools across the country revealed dozens of instances of E. coli and salmonella pathogens.

Between 2005 and 2009, E. coli was found three times and salmonella 48 times, according to the Times, including two contaminated batches of 27,000 pounds of meat.

A public outcry against the "slime" is led perhaps most prominently by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver,
who had also successfully waged war against flavored milk in Los Angeles schools and continues a crusade for healthier school lunches.

News of the USDA's plan to bring 7 million pounds of "pink slime" to school cafeterias nationwide comes just weeks after the government announced new guidelines to ensure students are given healthier options for school meals. The new standards call for more whole grains and produce as well as less sodium and fat in school meals. While the measures mark a step forward from previous years, they still compromise amid push-back from Congress to keep pizza and french fries on the menu -- counting both the tomato paste on pizza and the potatoes that make fries as vegetables.

Still, some schools -- like several in California -- have taken the matter into their own hands, and have found ways to profit from those efforts. Umpteen school districts have taken part in a decade-long initiative, supported by a philanthropic organization, that provides schools with equipments and chefs who teach cafeteria workers to cook from scratch and produce fresh meals.

A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that more than a third of high school students were eating vegetables less than once a day -- "considerably below" recommended levels of intake for a healthy lifestyle that supports weight management and could reduce risks for chronic diseases and some cancers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05...22325.html

[FastTadpole]

Cow, Chicken, Caribou, Seal..

Animal fat and proteins are a dense source of nutrition.

No need to torture them though.

I'd advocate mixed farming, not the monoculture crops, the factory farms and the concentration camp assembly lines for live stock.

Just some basic respect for animals and ecology in general.

The vegan lifestyle, although admirable, in the face of all this injustice with live 'stock' on the front lines is a respectable position but not optimal for human health.

I'm convinced a optimal health is a result of a few critical factors.

* Humans are omnivorous and are built to process animal fats and proteins to use as building blocks for a healthy body
* Processed foods are mostly garbage
* Irradiated foods and food grown in poor soil are nutritionally inferior
* Herbicides and Pesticides are poisons, let managed ecology and stewardship work with the environment not against it with brute force
* GMOs should be limited to dominant gene sterile crops, but only in controlled environments with long term clinical study.
* Selective breeding can be a boon or bust, tread carefully down that path. Same rules that apply to GMOs.
* Animal hormone manipulation presents far too many intangible risks that overrule any perceived benefit, at least at this point in our grasp on chemo-biological science
* A Happy cow is a healthy cow. Treat animals with respect. Kill them with dignity. Give them a life (free range mixed farming) with some honour.
* Subsidized GM corn and soy feed are not good for animals cut the subsidy
* Get your nutrition from a variety of sources, animals included
* Get some excercise
* Be social and true to yourself
* Don't allow stress to creep in
* Breathe

I know there is more to it but that's what I got right now. I may be wrong. I may be right. I may be CrAZY.