U.S Department Of Agriculture Serves Our Children

The “pink slime” as it’s being called has caused quite the furor on the internet.

Parents and activists are alarmed to find out that this combination of meat by-products and ammonia hydroxide is being served to children in school lunches because the U.S Department of Agriculture continues to purchase it.

This “high risk product” has not passed food inspection findings, however, the U.S.D.A. commissioned a separate study to assess the safety of BPI’s “Lean Beef Trimmings” to make it appear safe.

Custer said he first encountered the product — which gained fame recently as “pink slime” in part due to the efforts of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — back in the late 1990s. Despite voicing his concerns to other officials at the food inspection service, however, the USDA ruled that Lean Beef Trimmings were safe. “The word in the office was that undersecretary JoAnn Smith pushed it through, and that was that,” Custer said.

Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Smith had deep ties with the beef industry, serving as president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the of the National Cattlemen’s Association.

“Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval,” Zirnstein said.

For Practical Purposes; Pizza a Vegetable?

Congress declare pizza a vegetable.

When it comes to school lunches, that is.

The rules, proposed last January, would have cut the amount of potatoes served and would have changed the way schools received credit for serving vegetables by continuing to count tomato paste on a slice of pizza only if more than a quarter-cup of it was used. The rules would have also halved the amount of sodium in school meals over the next 10 years.

But late Monday, lawmakers drafting a House and Senate compromise for the agriculture spending bill blocked the department from using money to carry out any of the proposed rules.

American children don’t have a fighting chance against diabetes and childhood obesity when over 40% of their daily calorie intake comes from school lunch.

More Than 60 Thousand Pounds of Ground Beef Recalled for E.Coli Contamination

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the National Beef Packing Co. has recalled 60,424 pounds of ground beef products after inspection at an Ohio processing plant revealed potentially dubious signs of contamination by e.coli 0157:H7 bacteria.

The beef was shipped to distributors nationwide for further processing and distribution.

Without more regulation of the food industry and especially factory farms, this will become a much more common occurrence.

Recalls are costly and contamination can often be deadly.

Unbridled by regulation the population continues to be subject to illness and death.

How much longer can we afford to consume without conscience?

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