now the question, how does 143 MILLION POUNDS of possibly contaminated meat go unoticed?

[spanone]

a question for the bu$h* administration...

so if this meat was contaminated, the people would already be dead now.....


USDA: Most recalled beef has probably been eaten

(CNN) -- Federal officials are trying to track down the 143 million pounds of beef recalled Sunday, but they say that most of it has probably been eaten.

Keith Williams, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman, said investigators have found no cases of illness related to the recalled meat.

The beef recall came after inspectors said they found "clear violations" of USDA regulations at a California slaughterhouse that has been accused of mistreating cows.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/18/beef.recall/index.html

[OhioChick]

1. "how does 143 MILLION POUNDS of possibly contaminated meat go unoticed?"

$$$$

[spanone]

2. damn, it's a money thingy again!

i sooo slow

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Yep. The rich don't WANT pesky regulations and profit-eating health procedures.

And use money to get it.

Mmm, what was that book again, about last century Chicago's meat processing industry? Tip of my tongue, but it's not coming out....and haven't we come further than that?

[Dora]

10. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair. Tthere's more than meatpacking in it....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle The wikipedia entry doesn't quite do it justice.


I reread it a few years ago, and I was struck by how true to today's issues it still is. It deals with issues facing immigrants, unethical lending practices, the problems of consumerism, unsafe working conditions, unhealthy food manufacturing, homelessness, poverty....

It's a trip. Most used bookstores have a copy or four on the shelf, and it's a good, fast, heartbreaking read.

[Indenturedebtor]

11. The Jungle

Good read... led to the creation of the FDA I believe. Before that we were nastier than China is today. Incidentally they're struggling with getting a good regulatory body going to police their now private industries. We're actively trying to do away with ours.

This is just lovely... just lovely. The people who let this happen should be put in jail and fed nothing but contaminated meat for 20 years. Disgusting.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. I don't remember the context, but I once saw a crate of meat going to a prison

and it was labelled "Grade H: Still edible", or something very similar.

:scared:

[AndyTiedye]

13. You Think "The Rich" are All Vegetarians?

I don't think equity in the beef industry is all that widely held. Unfortunately, those who do hold it are in bed with the "mad cowboys".

Most Americans, rich or poor, do eat meat, and would prefer not to be sickened by it.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Perhaps the rich do not eat from the same sources of meat that the rest of us do?

I know that in pre-liberation Czechoslovakia, the rich had their own farms and farmers, and ate only the choice food.

This may not be a wholesale plot against us, but when "Presidents" make appearances at MacDonald's, it always smacks of mockery to me.

Edit for spelling.

[villager]

3. "found no cases?" Yes, but doesn't Mad Cow take 10-30 years to show up?

n/t

[AngryAmish]

5. This meat is probably not contaminated

Last week video was leaked of workers at this slaughterhouse mistreating cattle. THese were "downer" cattle that could not walk by themselves and we tossed around with a forklift, then slaughtered and put out for human consumption.

Since the mad cow scare it is illegal to put downer cattle in the human food supply. So the meat was recalled for this technical violation not because people were getting sick. (And while this is a technical violation, it is an important one so I have no problem with the recall.)

[OhioChick]

6. I Saw Video of That This AM

And Found it to be Quite Disturbing, to Say the Least.

[JCMach1]

9. Yes, this was a Whistleblower case apparently-- the video was leaked

of the downer cattle being inhumanely treated... really rough and horrible stuff...

[flvegan]

17. HSUS undercover investigation got the video.

[housewolf]

7. Why would anyone keep meat for 2 years???

I just don't get it - the article said the meat was for fast food companies and schools... 143 million pounds of 2 year old frozen meat????

Man, if I ate at fast food places or schools, that would concern me A LOT!!!

Just sayin'...

[Gman]

8. easy answer

The bush "administration"'s FDA. It's all about corporate money.

No-brainer.

[Horse with no Name]

12. You might ask yourself another thought-provoking question

Why is the flu vaccine not working in 40% of the cases with fever, vomiting and diarrhea?
Is it REALLY the flu?
:think:

[niyad]

16. since this has been going on since 2006--who knows how many people have died?

[uppityperson]

18. Prions take a long time to work. That is why people aren't dead yet.

If it were a simple thing of e-coli, yes cases would probably have showed up. Prion problems, creutzfeldt-jakob disease can take many yrs to show up. The problem with "downer" cattle is they have have prions causing neurological damage. Butcher and eat them and you get the prions from them.

This is wiki, true, but a place to start http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt-Jakob_disease

[yewberry]

19. It's gone unnoticed

because it may not be contaminated with an agent like e. coli that develops quickly. It may be contaminated with something that takes decades to manifest, or it may not be contaminated at all.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

20. The recall is "retro-active"

They found the practices going on, and evidence to indicate that they had been going on for two years. The USDA does not allow an animal to be slaughtered if it lacks the strength to stand on its own (which might be indicative of disease). It's just one of the benchmarks that they use.

As the (sickening) video indicates, animals in this particular slaughterhouse were being carried via forklift, and this practice had been going on for some time. The benchmark does not positively indicate that the animal was diseased, just that it might be. My guess is on this case, because there were so many of them handled in this fashion, there was probably some other cause (mostly likely maltreatment) that resulted in the animals' being unable to walk.

It's likely the the main purpose of this recall is to put this slaughterhouse out of business. And that's a good thing.

Note: please don't accuse me of plagiarizing Martha Stewart.

[demigoddess]

21. It wasn't just now noticed, it was just now outed

Those cows that were mistreated in the film looked to me like they might have had that mad cow disease and they should not have been slaughtered for food.

[spanone]

22. here's more

'Raymond said cattle that had passed pre-slaughter inspections but then lost the ability to walk were slaughtered without being re-examined for chronic illness by an inspector, a practice he said violated federal regulations and had been going on for at least two years.'