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from the cant-make-profit-so-no-one-gets-benefit dept.
Papas Fritas writes:
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Costco will dump almost one million jars of peanut butter into a New Mexico landfill and bulldoze over them after retailer Costco refused to take shipment of the peanut butter and declined requests to let it be donated to food banks or repackaged or sold to brokers who provide food to institutions like prisons. The peanut butter comes from a bankrupt peanut-processing plant that was at the heart of a salmonella outbreak in 2012 and although "all parties agreed there's nothing wrong with the peanut butter from a health and safety issue," court records show that on a 19 March conference call Costco said "it would not agree to any disposition ... other than destruction."
Despite the peanut butter being safe, Curry County landfill employee Tim Stacy says that no one will be able to consume the peanut butter once it's dumped because it was immediately rolled over with a bulldozer, destroying the supply. Stacy added more trash will then be dumped on top of the pile. Sonya Warwick, spokeswoman for New Mexico's largest food bank, declined to comment directly on the situation, but she noted that rescued food accounted for 74% of what Roadrunner Food Bank distributed across New Mexico last year. "Access to rescued food allows us to provide a more well-rounded and balanced meal to New Mexicans experiencing hunger." No word yet on where anyone was going to find a million jars of jelly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GeminiDomino on Monday March 31 2014, @08:49PM
Except I don't see any indication that anyone else stepped forward to take a million jars of possibly tainted peanut butter off their hands. The linked story just seems to be about a food bank getting butthurt that they didn't get it.
I'm not satisfied with the information out there on the whole issue (or non-issue, as the case may be), but Costco has one fact on its side: you don't fuck around with salmonella...
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday March 31 2014, @09:13PM
I have a veterinary question, does salmonella matter if you're force feeding livestock antibiotics anyway? Or rephrased is it possible to get food poisoning if you're on antibiotics that would cure food poisoning were you to be exposed? So if it was medically impossible to give (non-organic) pigs salmonella, then there wouldn't even be any moral, ethical, or economic dangers of Fing around with salmonella. We certainly pump livestock full of weird hormones and antibiotics for any other random reason, so a million jars of food seems quite reasonable in comparison. Its interesting to think about.
(Score: 2) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday April 01 2014, @01:35AM
Not really all that interesting, since there still hasn't been any evidence that any pig farmers offered to take it in the first place. It's all speculation mental wankery. Sure, there are geeks all over the world who could figure out what to do with 750k lbs of toxic peanut butter, from feeding pigs to patching holes in the space station or whatever. Doesn't matter, since no one asked.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday April 01 2014, @12:28PM
"It's all speculation mental wankery."
I like that line, it made me laugh. I know the mods have discussed selecting a new name and motto instead of the tired "soylent" schtick and you may be the first to articulate this sites new motto. Not entirely kidding either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 01 2014, @05:32PM
I'd leave out the first part. It doesn't flow, and "speculative" wouldn't improve it much.
Just "Mental Wankery" is pretty good.