Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws - NYTimes.com

[Guest guest]

Here are some quotes from a riveting article on the perils of beef from

the NY Times:

 

"Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a

stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day,

and she finished her classes. Then her diarrhea

turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures

knocked her unconscious. The convulsions

grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma

for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The

affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed. Ms.

Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused

by E. coli,"

 

"In the simplest terms, she ran out of luck in a food-safety game of

chance whose rules and risks are not widely known."

 

"Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years

alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist

down."

 

"Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test

their ingredients for the pathogen."

 

"Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way

of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to

grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli,"

 

“Ground beef is not a completely safe product,” said Dr. Jeffrey

Bender, a food safety expert

 

"For Ms. Smith, the road ahead is challenging. She is living at her

mother’s home in Cold Spring, Minn. She spends a lot of her time in physical

therapy,

which is being paid for by Cargill in anticipation of a legal claim,

according to Mr. Marler. Her kidneys are at high risk of failure. She

is struggling to regain some basic life skills and deal with the anger

that sometimes envelops her. Despite her determination, doctors say,

she will most likely never walk again."

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html

 

 

 

Eco-Eating

www.brook.com/veg