Sun, 09 Mar 2008

Just How Safe Is Our Meat?

Two pages detailing how shoddy the inspection system really is, how understaffed the USDA is, and how we're all at risk of every disease with a food borne vector because of it. Then comes the final paragraph:

Not to be entirely eclipsed by policy issues is the question of proper farming practice. In December, researchers at Kansas State University found that cattle fed with distiller's grain, an ethanol byproduct, are more likely to carry the strain of E. coli that causes illness in humans. With ethanol demand booming, plants have turned to distiller's grain as a cheap feed source. But like other farming practices designed to more quickly fatten cattle, it may also be contributing to more risky meat as cattle become more prone to illness.

I suppose I should be content that they noticed the real cause of the current "crisis" at all. But somehow, I'm not.

The picture is mixed, but calls for better inspection grow louder.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

/Agriculture | 1 writeback | permanent link

On 3/10/2008 11:39:11
thorolf wrote

comment...

 
Notes: If you put a <mailto:> link in the URL field your address will not be mangled: this could be a bad idea as your email address could be easily harvested by bots designed for SPAM. The comments field should now format correctly for line feeds and carriage returns: when you hit the 'Enter' or 'Return' keys in your comment it should break to a new line. The text should wrap cleanly. Please let me know if it doesn't. No HTML tags will pass through - entering links seems to be the main cause of comment SPAM. Also, please be sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser before attempting to post a writeback. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this really helps cut down on the amount of comment SPAM I have to deal with.
 
 Name:
 URL:(optional)
 Title: (optional)
 Comments:  
Save my Name and URL/Email for next time