bad meat

[Guest guest]

DawnWatch on Articles in The Nation

by Karen Dawn

 

The September 16 issue of The Nation (on newsstands now) has a cover story by

Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. The story is headed " Bad Meat. " Also

noted on the cover is a related story by Karen Olsson entitled " The Shame of

Meatpacking. "

 

Schlosser's story, covering pages 6 and 7, uses the July recall of " almost 19

million pounds of beef potentially contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 " as the

basis for a discussion of the power yielded by the beef industry at the expense

of public safety. He says,

 

" Anyone who eats meat these days should be deeply concerned about what our

meatpacking companies now have the freedom to sell. "

 

" With strong backing from the meatpacking industry, Supreme Beef sued the USDA,

eventually won the lawsuit and succeeded this past December in overturning the

USDA's salmonella limits. About 1.4 million Americans are sickened by salmonella

every year, and the CDC has linked a nasty, antibiotic-resistant strain of the

bug to ground beef. Nevertheless, it is now perfectly legal to sell ground beef

that is thoroughly contaminated with salmonella--and sell it with the USDA's

seal of approval. "

 

Schlosser tells us that, " It would be an understatement to say that the Bush

Administration has been friendly toward the big meatpackers. "

 

The public is also appalled and outraged when they learn about the treatment of

animals at slaughterhouses. Schlosser does not discuss that issue but he tells

us about interviews with workers in which conditions that affect the animals

(perhaps most of all) are mentioned :

 

" For years they have complained about excessive line speeds. The same factors

often responsible for injuries in a slaughterhouse can also lead to food safety

problems. When workers work too fast, they tend to make mistakes, harming

themselves or inadvertently contaminating the meat. "

 

That speed and those mistakes lead to horrendous animal cruelty - animals being

cut up or thrown into scalding water while still conscious. Karen Olsson touches

(barely) on that issue in her article, The Shame of Meatpacking (p. 11). She

tells us that, " Workers went public with a videotape showing cattle being

slaughtered alive, animal-rights groups were outraged and the state launched an

investigation. " Her focus, however, is on the high injury rate to workers and

the difficult working conditions. One feels compassion for the plant workers who

we learn have few choices and thus work at an extremely unpleasant job. They are

almost all migrants who do not speak English and who are thus unable to fight

effectively for better conditions. However, their sad lot is certainly better

than that of the nonhumans who visit the plants.

The articles open the door for letters about animal welfare violations and the

cruelty of slaughterhouses. Given that cruelty, and the wealth of information

available on the health benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets, many of us who

choose not to eat meat are surprised by its continued prominence in the American

diet. The bottom line in Schlosser's discussion of food safety is also

fundamental in any discussion of the prominence of meat in the average American

diet - the awesome power of the meat industry.

 

For those who would like to read more on that issue, The Physician's Committee

for Responsible Medicine has a nice web page explaining " The Politics of Food. "