A Case for Regulation: Pink Slime For School Lunch

Dear wolfman,

Please consider writing Obama, Michelle, regarding this story. Seeing as how this has been her featured "platform" as First Lady for the past 3 years (nutrition and children), I'm sure she would be interested in your forwarded article. It certainly flies in the face of her push for healthier school lunches.

Also, the fact that her husband, The President of the United States, works directly with and is the supervisor of the Secretary of Agriculture, I'm sure the dinner conversation at the White House would be quite lively after she asks "So honey, WTF is the deal with pink slime, just bought by your Department of Agriculture, going into school lunches?"

I am positive this will be more beneficial than anything posted here on Toledo Talk.

Sincerely,

Oldhometown

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In all seriousness regarding the meat.... eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww .......

How can you be arguing for more regulation when A GOVERNMENT AGENCY is calling the shots on this one. You should be calling for an end/complete overhaul to programs or departments that would allow this! You act like a cabal of businessmen and the Kotch brothers are shoving this stuff on the school lunch plates.

This is why agencies like the FDA and Dept of Ag jokes and nothing but turnstiles for board members of ConAgra and big farming companies.

Note to self: Do not let kids buy school lunches anymore.

Ewwwwwwww

Got news for you pink slime is in 70% of ALL ground beef. A local meat market advertises no tube grinds for their ground beef as the factory tube grinds are the worst. Link http://consumerist.com/2012/03/what-is-pink-slime-and-why-is-it-in-70-of-supermarket-ground-beef.html

Oldhometown sorry but your engaging in revisionist history. Read the following notice the date!

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned
By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: December 30, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
I think you'll find this happened during the previous administration. Fast food restaurants have stopped using the product with Obama.

We get our ground beef from a Fulton County farmer who sells at the Farmer's Market. I have been to his property and seen his cows ..., er ... his "beeves." I vote for quality of life and trustworthy preparation.

The spouse has begun to notice that restaurant meals involving ground beef don't taste like anything except salt and sauce. I know food service operations are buying the cheapest possible meatlike product -- probably pink slime.

We have purchased beef directly from local farmers too. Honestly, the price is often just as good or better as the supermarket, and at least you know where your meat is coming from.

Oldhometown sorry but your engaging in revisionist history. Read the following notice the date!

You are either dense or trolling for a pointless fight. Shit, even when we agree, you have to troll. Get a life.

What part was "revisionist"? This is the current First Lady's platform (just as every First Lady has had a platform, whether it is fighting illiteracy, discouraging illegal drugs, etc.). Her husband is the President, with a cabinet secretary titled Secretary of Agriculture. Whatever GWB or Clinton, or GHWB, or Reagan, or Truman, or James K. Polk did is completely irrelevant. Why? Because the article you linked to is happening now...and the First Lady, to her credit, is trying (not in ways I completely agree with, but trying) to get kids to eat healthier. Who could argue with that generic goal?

Just because it BEGAN under a previous administration does not mean that either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Obama is to blame, but as the decision making power NOW rests with Mr. Obama, it is incumbent upon him to direct the Secretary of Agriculture that, in light of the First Lady's activity regarding children and nutrition, perhaps the United States government shouldn't be feeding them bright pink chemicals for lunch.

Just a thought. Feel free to completely misunderstand this post too, considering that I agree with you (for once). Please use that as a point of contention.

Obama is not the cause of all the world's problem to think that is ignorant. One man can only do so much! The system is not broken, it's fixed!

I was wrong. You are dense AND a troll.

I'm trying to agree with you and point out that the current First Lady's appeal for better nutrition is being subverted by Mr. Obama's own Department of Agriculture--really dumb on the Dept. of Ag's part. And I point out that the First Lady, having brought the issue of childhood obesity and poor nutrition into the national spotlight and taken a strong stand for healthy alternatives, may want to ask her husband, the President, to intervene so that bright pink chemical meat goo isn't in the food chain of the children of the country.

For this you say I'm ignorant? For trying to agree this is a bad thing? Pointing out that Mr. Obama has the power to do what previous administrations did not--stop this--I'm ignorant?

If anyone on TT can decipher this guy, let me know...

Double plus good, this. Looks like meat, tastes like meat, but there's no meat in it.

If anyone on TT can decipher this guy, let me know...

Why are you asking? You had it right earlier. What, you don't remember?

You are either dense or trolling for a pointless fight.

Emphasis mine. Stop feeding the troll, stop rattling the cage door and for Heaven's sake put your chain someplace where he won't find it - because when he does, he pulls it until you start up and get busy mowing the lawn.

It would also help you if you disconnected a few of your buttons - like the big red one he keeps leaning on.

See?

"

Obama is not the cause of all the world's problem to think that is ignorant. One man can only do so much! The system is not broken, it's fixed!

! posted by wolfman on Mar 08, 2012 at 03:59:59 pm # + ' '
"

OH NO YOU DON'T!
Here's what Neolibs like you blamed Bush for:
high oil prices, low employment levels, high CO-2 levels, low wages, high ocean levels, more dirty water, less clean air, high death rates, low birth rates, not enough rain, too much rain, obamas'lack of performance, yada-yada-yada-yada.

1000X Bonus Points to Madjack for a most timely placement of the term "Double Plus Good."

I may hijack it from time to time on Toledo Talk but will try to add a subtle "mj" after my post to give you serious mad props!

Oh come on now with the 1984 Newspeak, the Bush Administration brought us warrantless wiretapping and all the other 1984-ish Big Brother, including the "we have always been at war with" crap. The only problem you have is that there's a black guy running the show who sits on the other side of the aisle and somehow that's pants-shitting terrifying for you. Own up to how you supported your guy and your side building up Big Brother, and admit that it was a bad move on their part and your part for not screaming loudly about the GOP supporting big intrusive government and especially for how you ridiculed everyone that had a problem with it as being an America-hating liberal.

Obama doesn't have the power with a do nothing congress. Lobbyists have the power but they're on the wrong side of this issue.

Wrong again Wolfie, the head of the Dept of Agriculture is a direct report to the President. Obama has direct power to intercede and make changes here. The FDA, Dept of Ag, Dept of Ed are nothing but revolving door payoffs to big business, and it's why they need to be eliminated. They are bloated, noneffective agencies that serve only their corporate masters. Do a check on the heads of the FDA and see they are all board members of Big Farm and Big Pharm. But you know then you couldn't blame Republicans for everything if you looked at the facts of a broken pay to play system jimmied by both parties. But then you wouldn't be able to bow to your Micheal Moore shrine at night.

While I'm not a fan of this current Congress, Barry could piss on your back and you would tell him it's raining.

Thanks Danneskjold. I am now a happy man.

Obama doesn't have the power...

The hell he doesn't. As DBW8906 pointed out, The Anointed One has the authority to direct his own cabinet. Whether he has the spine is a different matter.

On another front, The Anointed One came up with the "We can't wait" slogan which Himself and His Holy Sycophants chant at every opportunity. Seems like this executive order business works pretty well, once Himself decides to employ it.

Obama Skirts Deadlock With Executive Orders Favoring Allies

Stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, Obama has used his executive power in recent months to issue a battery of presidential directives aimed at goals of Democratic-leaning interest groups and voters in battleground states.

He's doing an end run around an uncooperative Congress, which is going to piss them off. Way to go Obama.

If Obama wanted to eradicate pink slime, he could. He doesn't care about pink slime. He cares about being re-elected.

The Anointed One is whistling past the graveyard right now. The next election is His to lose - all Himself must do is rein in that ego and keep Michelle from doing anything dumb. And make sure Biden does his part: breathing through his nose.

You mean you want Obama to order one of his "Czars" to do something unilaterally without the advice and consent of Congress? (Well, that's what it'd get played up as by the right-wing, anyhow.)

Reagan, Bush the First, and Chimpy McFlightsuit did that for 20 years with their "trickle-down" economics, and you and yours lapped it up. Now please stop talking about your golden-shower fantasies.

And again where was George Bush?

"In early 2003, officials in Georgia returned nearly 7,000 pounds to Beef Products after cooks who were making meatloaf for state prisoners detected a “very strong odor of ammonia” in 60-pound blocks of the trimmings, state records show."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

“Pink slime,” which is officially called “Lean Beef Trimmings,” is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food."
http://underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com/

This shouldn't be a partisan politics matter. We don't need more regulation to fix this. All we need is to require manufacturers to list the chemicals used in processing on the nutrition facts labels that already exist. But that will never happen because those manufacturers pay big money to both parties.

Our congresspeople are too busy taking money and paying out favors to their donors to make sure they get re-elected instead of worrying about what the children of America are eating. It crosses all party lines. See for yourself. This list includes the '08, '10, and '12 election cycles, and is only ONE of dozens of food related interest groups.

http://maplight.org/us-congress/contributions?s=1&office_party=Senate%2CHouse%2CDemocrat%2CRepublican%2CIndependent&election=2008%2C2010%2C2012&business_sector=Agribusiness&business_industry=Food%20Processing%20%26%20Sales&business_id=G2300&source=All

UK banned it because they're seriously worried about getting Mad Cow/vCJD from nerve tissue that gets into "pink slime" from this process.

Mind you, if you want to get down to root causes for using this stuff, it's all trying to cut costs... and cow prices went up because of drought in Texas, on top of the fact that corn prices are way up because the ADM/Big Ag lobby pushed to use corn to make ethanol (instead of using other resources to make methanol, which is better fuel and also requires less modification to be burned in a gasoline engine). So then the corn we and the cows and pigs would eat goes into ethanol production and jacks up food prices, and the increased corn price causes farmers to plant more corn and less soybeans and wheat, so those prices go up, and then since they're not rotating crops, the corn yields drop due to pests and disease, which push prices up more.

Then if you wanted to get rid of pink slime yet keep prices down, you'd end up subbing in some sort of vegetable protein filler (texturized vegetable protein or TVP), except that has gone up in price as well (lower supply and higher demand).

It's a big inflationary circle jerk, and it's not being helped by the fact that they trade these futures and derivatives of ag products just like oil/gas speculation too.

Joanne Smith the former Under Secretary of Agriculture under George Bush approved it. Joanne Smith was apparently rewarded by the manufacturers of this crap, Beef Products, Inc. who then hired her and she made nearly $1.2 million there after departing her Agriculture post. Revolving door? You be the judge.