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https://newfoodeconomy.org/bpi-pink-slime-ground-beef-usda-reclassifed/
Beef Products Inc. (BPI), the South Dakota-based meat processing company at the center of 2012’s “pink slime” controversy, just won a long-sought semantic victory. For years, the company has argued that its signature product is safe, wholesome, and not unlike everyday burger meat. Now, BPI has enlisted a powerful ally in its effort to recoup its image and reclassify its product: the federal government.
After a months-long evaluation, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) determined in December that BPI’s signature product—the offering famously called “pink slime” in an ABC News exposé that got the network in a lot of trouble—can be labeled “ground beef.” Legally speaking, it’s now no different from ordinary hamburger, and could even be sold directly to the public.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 15 2019, @03:26PM (26 children)
These stories lead me to conclude we should grow our own food. A decade ago I listened to a summer series lecture on Governor's Island by a professor from Brooklyn College who ran a thriving aquaculture setup [nytimes.com] in the basement of his building. It didn't take up much room, and it was so successful he almost couldn't give the fish away.
It seems like anybody who has a basement can do the same thing, and then you'd know exactly where the fish has been and what they've been exposed to.
Some people also connect the fish to a hydroponics setup [wikipedia.org] to grow greens. The water from the fish is full of nutrients that the plants use, and after they've filtered it it goes back to the fish.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday February 15 2019, @03:42PM (3 children)
Growing our own food is better. Free Range Soylent Green is better than the kind grown in "for profit" prisons.
(obviously I have little faith in the future of humanity coexisting with global mega corporations are people too)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:34AM (2 children)
So, you plan to eat your own kids?
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:02AM
Grow your own / Eat your own.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:14PM
Kids: not just for unlimited free agricultural labor anymore!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday February 15 2019, @03:42PM (1 child)
If I eat 2 pounds of raw Agaricus bisporus every day, will I die [soylentnews.org] (because of it)?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 15 2019, @03:53PM
Holy cow that's a lot of mushrooms.
I think the idea is that you filter the water before it enters your aquaculture/aquaponics setup. If toxins don't enter the water, then toxins can't build up in the fish, or you.
I think that's what you're getting at...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday February 15 2019, @03:48PM (12 children)
The next best thing is to get to know some farmers and buy from them. For example, when my buddies down the road are selling me chicken, it's easy for me to see how that chicken was raised, and I can probably observe them doing the processing if I want to.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @03:53PM (3 children)
Even better, you get to know your neighbours and you scale your production so you can sell cheaper to them than they can produce. And at that point, maybe pre-process the product a little, because they want it already ground and things. .. Maybe somewhat increase efficiency and reduce waste ... make sure people don't get sick from disease .... oh wait....
Fuck back to square 1.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @07:37PM (1 child)
Get to know my neighbors? As an asocial recluse, I'd rather eat the pink slime.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @11:19PM
Sorry, but I am an invegan (involuntarily vegan). Hopefully I will not drive a vehicle into a herd to express my frustration.
(Score: 2) by RedIsNotGreen on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:00AM
You touch upon an important trend, one that it's good to be mindful for when acquiring things that should be of high quality, such as food:
It's easy to make one, or ten, or even a thousand of high-quality somethings, but when you start making ten-thousand, or a million, the quality is almost certain to drop.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 15 2019, @03:58PM (7 children)
Through my eco-activism I have come to know people who raise their own chickens. Occasionally they give me eggs. Sometimes they look weird on the outside but they are so rich and creamy there is no comparison to factory-farmed eggs you get in the grocery store. Kind of the same thing with people who raise their own milk-producing livestock. The cream on the top of a fresh pint of milk is so rich it's better than a bar of Belgian chocolate.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 15 2019, @04:36PM (2 children)
Goat milk. The poorest goat milk is equal to the best of cow's milk, in terms of nutrients. You've got to get used to it, the flavor is quite different.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday February 15 2019, @04:42PM
I wanted to find the goat cheese pizza scene from The Great Outdoors but didn't see it. So have an Ole 96er [youtube.com] instead.
(Score: 2) by TheReaperD on Saturday February 16 2019, @08:05AM
Drinking goat milk is equivalent to getting punched in the face and I have about an equal desire to repeat both experiences.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @04:55PM (2 children)
This. Fresh eggs and fresh milk made me reject veganism.
I had a glass of store skim "recently." How do people drink that?!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 15 2019, @06:14PM (1 child)
Skim milk / 2% milk is 99% or 98% water, respectively. It certainly tastes like it. For some reason, I can also drink a little whole milk without issues, but a little skim or 2% usually gives me an upset stomach.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:07AM
2% or skim milk is basically sugar water. You remove the good fat and leave protein and mostly (~2/3) sugar.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @07:42PM
I raise my own chickens and the yolks are orange. And I do it not because of eco-anything, but because it's fun and I want to. If your purpose of having chickens or goats or whatever is because "eco", then don't do it. You have wrong motivation. Better just to buy bio freerange stuff instead. Better for you and for the animals.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 15 2019, @09:24PM (4 children)
I know it sounds nasty because of the word "slime" but pink slime is ounce for ounce the most nutritious substance in a beef processing plant by a long shot. There's nothing nefarious about it, it's just what leaks out of cut muscle and fat cells over a lot of meat processing. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't want them adding it back to ground beef, I'm just saying you should know what you're talking about and use this information and your intellect rather than your gag reflex at the term "slime" to decide.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Friday February 15 2019, @11:23PM (1 child)
It's not the slime, Buzzard, it's the disinfectants, the ammonia, the sodium hypochlorite, and so on, that makes it disgusting. And what would we expect from a carrion-feeder, other than a defense of carrion? Let me guess, as a buzzard, you have no gag reflex, at all?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @01:56AM
No, I just know plenty of west Texas cattle folks and know the truth of the matter. Cleaning substances are not left on anything that meat will be touching except in barely detectable trace amounts that are utterly harmless. They do that much for anything even cattle feed is being made in.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 15 2019, @11:28PM (1 child)
It's not the "slime" part that gets me, it's the ammonia.
I'm not a meat-slaughtering expert so perhaps I could be enlightened, but if there's any reason why that shit needs to be treated with a harsh chemical after the slaughter to kill bacteria while your other cuts of meat don't, then sorry, I'm a pussy and will avoid it when I can. I can tolerate a burger patty dropped on a somewhat recently-mopped floor and then served to me at the place it's being cooked (yes, they do this, and they do it a lot) but pink slime brings to mind ball-scratching illegal immigrants with typhoid snow-shoveling the rancid trimmings that have sat at room-temperature on a 2000 square-foot floor for 8-12 hours into being processed as pink slime.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:01AM
That's gas not liquid. It takes care of any bacteria that may have snuck in over hours of machine use while not mixing with the product in any noticeable quantities. And ammonia levels below your ability to notice (it's not by any means a subtle chemical) are also not harmful.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:37PM (1 child)
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @04:53AM
awww heartwarming!