When you buy a hamburger, whether you like it or not, it came from an animal. That meat was a life. Every hamburger was once a fuzzy, cute calf, which had to be reared, slaughtered, and delivered to your car window.
Recently there have been uproars over the "contamination" of ground beef with an additive, whether you wish to call it Pink Slime or BLBT (boneless beef trimmings) depends on your perspective. This is not breaking news. The use of this additive has been well known since at least 2002. This is simply the first time it has been vilified.
I have not been surprised by the public outrage over the issue, just annoyed by it.
When people chow down on their hamburger and meatloaf, they tend to forget about that fuzzy calf. If the beef you purchase is costing as little as two dollars a pound, then what kind of quality could you possibly be expecting. That beef was a life.
The market demands cheap meat and that's what they're getting. Many consumers want to pass the blame to the government and fast food industries. Before this additive, fast food companies kept your burgers cheap through the use of modified soy protein. When the public protested the filler, they simply replaced it with BLBT. A pledge to move away from the BLBT dependance just means that another additive will be developed. There have also been several attempts to improve school lunches, but the slight tax increases which would incur was too much for Americans.
American's spend less of their income on food than most of the world, and that percentage is consistently decreasing. According to the USDA, Americans spend an average of 8.9% of their income on food while other developed countries spend as much as 30%. The old adage is right, you get what you pay for.
Eating quality meat requires time and money. Because the demand is low, you have to hunt it down. Once a month my husband and I drive an hour away to a farm to purchase our meat, poultry, and dairy. It is expensive and time consuming, we just eat less meat. Besides small family farms, Whole Foods has good options as well, but often even at Whole Foods it can be difficult to find local meat.
The market's perceived value of beef is too low, recognizing what your meat is and where it comes from is the only way to begin to understand how much it should cost. The use of Pink Slime has been dropped by several large fast food conglomerates already, however, this means nothing. As long as the market continues to demand cheap meat, industries will find a way to manufacture it.
The following sites can help you locate a farm near you:
Eat WildLocal Harvest
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Comments (61)
I'm fairly sure your "expensive" meat that you traveled miles away to purchase was also a fuzzy calf at one point. I could understand pointing out the cute, cuddliness of baby cows if you're advocating no one, including yourself, should eat them, ever. However, the only thing you've managed to convey to me with this post is that you pay more to eat what once was a fuzzy calf than I do, and that for some reason you think I should feel ashamed of this (yet you haven't pointed out why, exactly).
I thought this would be about the pink slime in the ice machines the health department is always ranting about. Interesting article, of course I would add that everything we eat was once living but it's a moot point.
@Grtt@xanga - I thought I was clear about advocating the need to eat quality meats from animals which have been treated properly. If everyone was willing to pay a little more for their food than additives wouldn't be such a necessity. You can't expect quality at $2 a pound.
Interesting post. It seems to me that the outrage - or at least, my outrage - over pink slime is that no labeling is required to disclose the additives. When I buy something marked "100% ground beef" I'm not expecting that a significant percentage of it can be made from tissues that have been treated with chemicals, etc. I'm expecting chunks of beef that have simply been ground up.
Just don't eat meat. You'll be healthier and you won't have to kill any cute fuzzy cows. Problem solved.
@Grtt@xanga - Good point.
@ShimmerBodyCream@xanga - Resorting to veganism isn't something the majority of people are willing to do. Educating people is a more viable method to achieve a humane and ethical food system.
@Sohla - There is nothing humane about slaughtering animals, if you really cared about that "fuzzy baby calf" you wouldn't be slaughtering it, period. Advocating eating red meat is incredibly unhealthy.
You shouldn't be making excuses for unhealthy and environmentally destructive habits. There is absolutely NOTHING ethical supporting consuming red meat. There is nothing ethical about what you are doing.
Perhaps you could have found a better picture instead of just putting a calf head on a (what appears to be) a cat's body. I live on a farm and unless this is some sort of dwarf that is definately NOT a photo of a calf. Short legs, fuzzy tail? Come on, anyone with eyes can tell you made that one.
However, I do agree with eating locally grown/raised foods. You are helping your own local economy and those that you see everyday. These are real people who are providing a service to you. I know how I treat my animals and that they have lived a good life before they come to my table. Grass-fed beef, of course. Free-range chicken and turkey, always. Meat is not an everyday staple anymore, but quality is always welcome and much tastier and as a farmer that is what I strive for.
I'm a vegetarian, and I personally do not use phrases like cute and fuzzy when describing animal protein. The reality is, people eat meat. What's important is how we treat and respect livestock. That means knowing where it came from and buying from a local farmer.
I refuse to ever tell anyone what they should and shouldn't eat. It's just about making smarter choices regarding that which we prefer to eat.
I read the other day that the industry is working on lab created meat and is close to asking for approval to sell it. That would end the fuzzy calf issue. Would you eat that? I would have to learn a lot more about it before I did. 90 mile drive for me to go to Whole Foods, so I seldom shop there but do stop in when I'm going there for dr appts. I am worried about the pink slime being fed to growing children. Oh wait, they eat hot dogs all the time. IMO pink slime is the same by-product just in a different form. Where I buy hamburger is a Kroger and they say they don't use it. Who knows.
@thirtythousanddays@xanga - I would not eat it. Since when has "lab created" meant healthier? For me, it makes sense that the closer to nature it is, the healthier it is. The farther away from nature it is, the more likely it is to have health consequences. Because we were not made in labs. We were made in nature.
@chickensrule4ever@xanga - Yeah where are the hooves? Good point, I wouldn't have noticed. Imma city gal.
Cute cow-cat. Doesn't really help make a statement.
@LightBlue21@xanga - I just found it entertaining, lighten the mood.
where the hell can you buy ground beef for $2 a pound???? i'm getting ripped off! ours is about $4-$5 i think.
i'm also eating a cute fuzzy cow tonight for dinner.
@Sohla - Well, it wasn't clear to me.
Was the last paragraph of this changed? Seems there's either a paragraph missing or the last paragraph was edited. I know there was another "just think of the fuzzy calves!" in there.
@AmberRaffile@xanga - The important thing is to stop eating livestock.
The pink slime has been treated with ammonia to kill bacteria (though this has repeatedly proven ineffective) and contains zero nutrition. Talking about this being "the first time it was ever vilified" is a non-issue. The fact is, this is simply not fit for human consumption. It has not been used in fast food for four years; the fast food industry voluntarily stopped using it.
The people who will end up eating this by and large do not have the resources to drive out to a different county and buy their own cow to slaughter it themselves. This stuff is going into school lunches, which are provided to children whose parents don't have the money to feed them. They can't even afford fast food. Of course people are bothered by this.
Lol.. you realized that's a cow's head superimposed onto a picture of a cat, right? Anyway, when I have my own land I would love to raise my own meat. I'd like to know that the animals I'm eating were given happy & healthy lives as a thank you for providing me with sustenance.
"Pink slime is not the problem."
Did you SEE Ghostbusters 2?!?!?!?
I agree with you, though; so long as our demand for cheap meat is so high and we are unwilling to pay higher prices for better quality meat, we're just going to have to settle for what we pay for.
Great links. Good message though perhaps it could have been spelled out more clearly. Humane meat is a foreign concept to many people.
Great post!!
I'm a vegetarian now. Watched a slaughter house video from PETA. Can't un-see that shit. No desire whatsoever to eat meat anymore.
At Whole Foods you can buy a chunk of meat and have them ground it for you. No additives!