Saturday, February 02, 2008

Public School Beef recall

This is just too gross:
Cafeterias in Seattle elementary schools will serve waffles and scrambled eggs on Tuesday instead of waffles and sausage. For lunch Thursday, mu shu chicken will replace mu shu beef.

To be safe, school officials won't serve any beef until they learn more about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's investigation into allegations that a large supplier of beef to the national school-lunch program used meat from "downer" cows — those that cannot stand or walk.

...

The concern arose after the release of a video that shows slaughterhouse workers at Hallmark Meat Packing using forklifts to prod or move animals. Westland Meat, which grinds meat, gets meat from Hallmark.

The video, produced by the Humane Society of the United States, raised concerns about animal cruelty and whether meat from "downer" cows is being used in school lunches.

No health problems from Westland meat have been reported. But nonambulatory cows may have a higher risk of being infected with mad-cow disease, E. coli and salmonella, according to the Humane Society.

2 comments:

*Dani* said...

Wow,

That is about disgusting. I don't recall if you're veg or not? I see things like this all the time that justify my wanting to stay veg though. I heard they're going to start cloning cows and selling the meat (I'm not sure how that's more cost effective?)

-Dani

Jen-Jen said...

I'm not veg now, although I was for many many years. I found that my blood sugar just wasn't stable enough eating grains and beans as my protein sources. If I find a way that I think I could do it again, I might try it, although my soon will not eat beans except sometimes a tiny amount of sprouted beans.

I do try to buy only free range meats and eggs, and avoid dairy because it makes me ill. Wheat and soy also cause me problems, as does corn, but I do try to eat a ton of vegetables and beans to minimize my consumption of animal products.

I definitely won't buy cheap beef, and this just adds to my reasons. I don't like the way it smells, anyway -- I'm sure they use old worn out dairy cows for it and the meat smells like urine to me.