In addition to the typical reasons vegetarians cite for their decision not to eat meat, the fact that meat is so poorly regulated is beginning to get more attention. I literally cringed when I saw this:
At least 68,000 pounds of
E. coli-tainted beef linked to an 18.6 million-pound recall by ConAgra
Beef Co. may turn up on dinner tables as ready-to-eat canned chili,
meat spaghetti sauce, beef ravioli or some other meal. Or, it might end
up as pet food. Or fertilizer. And no one has to tell you it’s there.
A spokesman for the Greeley-based beef company said Thursday
that meat returned as a result of the nation’s second-largest recall in
history will be cooked and turned into food for people or pets, or
nonfood products. Or both.
just saw Food, Inc., which I believe is the most important movie of the year. Why? Because no other movie covers a basic need of all human beings in such a comprehensive and compelling way. This was the movie form of what I’d refer to as “the food bible” (with the old and new testaments of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan). Neither book alone gives you the full picture of the food system and its many problems, but together they do a darn good job giving someone who may have never considered where food comes from a basic idea of what’s ACTUALLY going on.
What’s in a name? U.S. pork producers are finding that the name of the virus spreading from Mexico is affecting their business, prompting U.S. officials to argue for changing the name from swine flu.
The article continues:
And there is growing sentiment in the farm sector to call it the North American virus — although disease expert Anthony Fauci told a Senate hearing the “swine flu” designation reflected scientific naming protocol.
For U.S. pork producers the swine flu name has hurt, forcing government officials into the position of stressing that American pork is safe to eat and that other countries should not ban imports.
Pork, soybean and corn prices have fallen in the last two days, “and if this continues, obviously you have significant potential, which is why it’s important to get this right,” Vilsack said.
Several political dynamics are running immediately beneath the surface of news coverage of the swine flu outbreak. First and foremost, the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services Secretary is being held up by GOP Senators because she is – GASP – pro-choice. More importantly, a growing chorus of bloggers and Mexican media outlets are pointing to an American-based company, Smithfield, as 50% owner of the Mexican farm where the swine flu is believed to have originated.
Sebelius Confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary
This story will receive significant attention today as the Senate prepares to vote sometime in the afternoon or evening. Joe Sudbay has the text of the unanimous consent agreement, which indicates that we could see a vote by 6pm today. Sudbay’s critique of the GOP obstructionism on this is a thing of beauty. SEIU has a petition running and I’m assuming that won’t be all we’ll hear from them on this. Greg Sargent has a bit of a back and forth between spokespeople for Senators Reid and McConnell, and his conclusion hits the mark: “The filibuster over an abortion controversy is still throwing a hurdle in the way of this nomination, despite the flu epidemic.”
Responding to what some health officials feared could be the leading edge of a global pandemic emerging from Mexico, American health officials declared a public health emergency on Sunday as 20 cases of swine flu were confirmed in this country, including eight in New York City.
Top global flu experts struggled to predict how dangerous the new A (H1N1) swine flu strain would be as it became clear that they had too little information about Mexico’s outbreak — in particular how many cases had occurred in what is thought to be a month before the outbreak was detected, and whether the virus was mutating to be more lethal, or less.
Is Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork packer and hog producer, linked to the outbreak? Smithfield operates massive hog-raising operations Perote, Mexico, in the state of Vera Cruz, where the outbreak originated. The operations, grouped under a Smithfield subsidiary called Granjas Carrol, raise 950,000 hogs per year, according to the company Web site—a level nearly equal to Smithfield’s total U.S. hog production.
