Otherwise, my question for Terry Branstad and these other agribusiness-paid RePIGS, WHERE's THE SCIENCE?

Yeah don't I know it. BPI laid off most of the folks in Waterloo. I'm in cedar falls. As usual, Terry's a bit late on an explanation and defense. So he only notices after people lost their jobs. Opportunist at work.... Would I eat it? Probably not. Tend to go for sausage. albeit there's always Potted Meat. DOn't look at the ingredients

But does give one the thought that maybe supporting Iowa farmers would be a better idea

Hey Repubs, keep your "trimmings" to yourself. You like it; YOU eat it!

...doesn't mean it is some kind of menace.

People around where I live eat scrapple. I never cared for it that much. But I'll eat chicken feet, tripe and organ meat that others won't touch.

Aside from it being "gross", what's the big deal?

It's animal tissue that's been compacted and treated with either ammonia or citric acid. Okay? Compared to eating flesh, muscle, fat, bone marrow and various organs of animals on a regular basis, what makes the marginal "ick" factor so high with this stuff?

Eating animals is pretty gross in the first place. I don't understand someone who likes to eat chicken but wouldn't think of chopping the head off one on their own. There is something about that which, to me, suggests a basic lack of personal integrity.

I don't eat so much meat in the first place, but when I do, I have no illusions about how it found its way to my plate.

What illnesses does this stuff cause which a meat eating diet doesn't already do?

Ideally, you buy ground beef made from one side of beef. To do this, of course, is much harder in today's world than in the past.

One little piece of metal with a crank becomes a "kitchen chore" and - boom - a "ground beef industry" is born.

But I look a this pink slime thing and compare it to, say, haggis or exotic varieties of sausage and kinda shrug.

How much animal tissue are we supposed to throw away? We used to compete with hyenas and wolves for fresh carrion.

Now, again and absolutely, eating meat on the scale we do is a public health, environmental and global economic mess. I don't question that at all. I do question why people think "gross" adds a substantial marginal risk of anything to that mess.

This vegetarian agrees.

I used to work for a sausage manufacturer. Everyday I had to walk past the giant chemical filled vat that soaked the foul smelling pig intestine. I've been near sewer systems that smelled better.

When you walk past the grinders, if you don't fall and break your neck by slipping on a chunk of dead cow, you'll see the cocktail of ground meat and chemicals that get stuffed in the pig intestine doesn't look that much different than pink slime. It's the same thing - fat, blood, chemicals, veins, and flesh.

"I don't understand someone who likes to eat chicken but wouldn't think of chopping the head off one on their own. There is something about that which, to me, suggests a basic lack of personal integrity."

I used to rationalize eating venison my brother gave me because, up until their death, deer have decent lives, unlike factory farmed animals. Now I know I couldn't kill one of them beautiful creatures unless their was nothing else around that I wanted to eat. However, if one of the little bastards jumps out in front of me when I'm driving and destroys my car, I still have an excellent stew recipe.

edit: fuck it. i can figure out how to indent an excerpt

I was on a volunteer construction project at a community center on the Navajo reservation in a high school group. The Navajo that were working with us threw a dinner for us, and that afternoon they brought out a lamb, slit it's throat, and hung it in a tree for dinner that night.

At dinner there were some in the group who were acting squeamish about having any of this great stew, and we're going to pass on it because the thought of it disgusted them, having first seen that cuddly animal.

I was never so embarrassed in my life, and I said as discreetly and forcefully as I could that I was not going to have our hosts insulted because suddenly they realized where all their meat had come from. These people had gone out of their way and offered us their best.

Now, you take something like Norwegian lutefisk. They take rotting fish and can it up with drain cleaner for months. I'd have to think twice before making a decision to eat that.

Anyway, I'll have some more strawberries that were hosed down with poison and picked out of the same dirt the migrant workers use as a toilet. Yummmmeeee!

not to mention things like chocolate covered crickets *shudder*

prove the "pink slime" causes any or atleast I havent read of anything recently that is based on sound scientific proof.
Edit: Of course if you have a link to said proof would you share it please as I would be interested in reading it though if there is said proof its odd that the FDA hasnt done anything about it.

Last I heard, ammonia is highly toxic.
Good luck ingesting that shit. Not my cup of tea.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbcdab/urea/amtox.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20227315

http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/ammonia_general.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia_poisoning

Yes ammonia can be deadly but those links dont address this pink slime specifically, if you want to campaign against it then do it with facts that it specifically that prove it does cause harm or has caused harm but so far there isnt any such thing though I wouldnt buy any hamburger that used it because it doesnt look appealing not because I have read that it causes harm.

Good luck with your love affair with a slimy amalgam/composite
of animal eyeballs, entrails, assholes, etc. drenched with ammonia.

Hope it works out well for you. taa-taa.

...who wonder about your fact-free emotional appeal.

You might try going into the religion business, where anyone who questions fact-free emotional appeals is consigned to a horrible afterlife.

If the known stated facts are not sufficient for some to make their decision,
I see no reason to do your research for you.

I could care less whether you eat that crap or not.

I am not going to be buying meat with it in it I already said because to me its personally unappealing but on a side its not a big deal for me either since I was trying to cut down on red meats anyway.
As for your research, let me know when it actually includes something pertinent to the pink slime directly because I honestly would be interested in such information if it ever comes to light.

If you question the received wisdom, you are a shill and have a "love affair" with this stuff about which no information relative to eating animal parts generally is going to be explained.

It's gross and it is "stuff from the floor" as opposed to, say, potatoes which are "dug out of the dirt" or eggs which are "squeezed out of chicken genitals".

Oh well, off to the Vietnamese restaurant for some beef tripe pho.

You can call it "ammonia drenched" but that doesn't make it so. Your own body produces ammonia when proteins are broken down in your intestines. Checking your blood ammonia level is one way to find out if your body is working the way it is supposed to.

If you eat meat, any meat, you are getting ammonia, because you can't digest meat without your own body making it. OMG it's "toxic"! How about some numbers? You know, actual facts.

So making a public display of your ignorance of biochemistry really doesn't inspire confidence in your position.

And you can call people who want a reason for hysteria "shills", but that doesn't make it so, either.

People have eaten parts of animals you find repugnant for eons. Intestines - whoop de doo - better stay away from pepper pot soup or any other dish made from tripe. Maybe tripe doesn't show up in whatever you buy from your local convenience store, but it's a standard item in any traditional butcher shop or market catering to anything but white-bread US suburban sensibilities.

There are a lot of good reasons for not eating animal tissue. Period. But if one is eating animal tissue in the first place, this second grade "eww that's gross" mentality is not a rational basis for making informed decisions about anything.

These governors of those 5 states probably have big money backers that make $$ off of using ammonia washed dirty beef parts in some way.

So yeah, they'd want it to continue.

I say this - force the USDA to label meat that contains pink slime. And will let consumers vote with their wallets or not. The meat industry would shortly have its answer as to whether consumers are for or against this idea of additives in their ground meat.

But you know they won't do that...because they suspect the outcome won't be favorable for the pink slime purveyors.

> I say this - force the USDA to label meat that contains pink slime.
> And will let consumers vote with their wallets or not. The meat industry
> would shortly have its answer as to whether consumers are for or
> against this idea of additives in their ground meat.
>
> But you know they won't do that...because they suspect the outcome
> won't be favorable for the pink slime purveyors.

Exactly right.

Now reconsider that the USDA gave in to the meat industry and prosecuted
a small producer who dared to inform the consumer that their beef
was BSE-free ...

The meat industry - the ones who maintain ammonia-soaked faeces covered
skull scrapings are good for you - realised how dangerous that would be to
their profits and acted (via their tame agency) to protect the only thing that is
important to them (clue: it doesn't involve anyone's health).

Don't eat beef in the USA unless it's imported from somewhere that they
actually TEST and LABEL it correctly (*).

This "pink slime" issue will soon pass over and get dropped into the memory-hole
along with all of the other profit-damaging reports so that the good old consumer
can carry on eating shit for the sake of the 0.1%.



(*) = Or, of course, where you know & trust the actual farmer yourself.

A disgusting scenario not unlike the slime they sell.

As for people not buying it, it might have a temporary effect but unless the stuff is proven to actually be toxic I think it will continue to be used much like MSG is still being used today or Aspartame for another example.

another Santorum thread.

My bad.

maybe it's good for you but I plan on keeping it out of my and my families meals

still reading this I can't help but think of a Stephen King story called Grey Matter, in this case we could call it Pink Stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Matter_%28short_story%29

ps I struck up a conversation with the meat guy at a local chain grocery store and after he complained about the Super Walmart opening next door and I assured him I do not buy 'WalMeat' I brought up pink slime he said that it was not in the fresh ground stuff but was very likely in the tube or chub stuff which is why it has such a long shelf life

And with spring in the air, this story is pretty well timed.

A certain male demographic don't know what groceries generally cost, but they know what a box of pre-formed frozen burger patties cost last year.

Those things are made for picking up a box of those, a bag of rolls, and a case of beer.

Anyone who actually makes a hamburger out of actual ground meat ground by a meat department, and not packed in an opaque wrapper with a "sell by" date in Obama's second term, is reasonably protected from this horror.

I don't like them because of that

They aren't a good value, but this thread inspired me to go out and get some quality ground beef, some onions and serranos, chop 'em up and mix in some garam masala powder and fresh coarse ground black pepper and fire up the grill.

It's marginally easier to toss some frozen chips on there, and they hang together reasonably well, but you're right, it comes at a cost.

rocktivity

Meat is damn expensive, even crap ground beef. If we were eating the slime before (and didn't really know or care) I'd be willing to eat much cheaper pink slime.

but I don't want it SNEAKED INTO my food, just so mega-food-Corps can make
a few pennies more per pound of ground meat.

And people didn't buy it and the cost crashed.

<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


<a href="" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

What does "I just hope it brings down the cost of pink slime" mean to you?

If the cost goes down, pink slime for the win! I'm not too good for it. The whole industry is factory farming for the most part anyway!

The top photo is a much-loved photo of chicken paste used to make formed chicken products like chicken nuggets, chicken patties etc.

The bottom photo is lean, finely textured beef.

I don't know, guys...I'm thinking that as long as some poor beast gave his or her all to feed us, we have the responsibility to eat the whole thing.

oh and thanks for catching the photo that was some other horrible crap
my country's "food industry" wants me to pay good money to eat.

But anyone who thinks these lobster and fillet mingon eating politions will add this to their diet is a damn fool.

As if they are raised in some sort of environment which appeals to the American suburban Lysol mentality.

And clams, don't even mention clams. You know what that gritty stuff is in there, yes?

that consumers have the choice to buy or not to buy.

He'd eat road kill if he was getting campaign funds from Road Kill, Inc.

The meat packing industry and the Dept. of Ag. put it in our ground beef without a label. They even label it ground beef sometimes. How are we to know this so called filler or inexpensive ground beef is ammonia washed scraps off the floor? I thought the filler was bread or cracker crumbs. They fed it to our kids in school without telling us. It was all quietly hidden, without informing the consumer or the parents what it was and how it was made. Right, no one knew what they were eating but they certainly DID care.

If they thought there would be NO backlash about stuffing ammonia washed scraps off the floor into our ground beef and feeding it to our kids, why didn't they tell us upfront? Why didn't they label it? Why didn't they tell the parents of the children who were eating it? They knew most people would be repulsed by it if they made it widely known how it was made. So, they hid it, mislabeled it and pretended it was all good.

Yes, there are other processed foods that are pretty repulsive. Canned soups and sauces that use meat can use recalled meats. Hot dogs contain any number of gross and disgusting pieces of the animal. Cheap sausage can include some unappetizing pieces of the animal. But most of us who cared found ways around buying it. (By the way, I make my own scrapple and it is merely corn meal and sausage with some spices.)

Now, that it has become common knowledge they claim no one cared and oh by the way, you and your children have been eating it all along and all of you have NOT Died Yet. So, it's perfectly fine. No different from sausage.

So label it, identify it and sell it. You know free markets and all those lies. Those who just love it can buy all they want. Those of us who find it repulsive can avoid it. And stop feeding it to our kids as if it's plain old ground beef. Just stop lying or hiding disgusting crap to make a buck and scamming consumers with the help of a corrupted federal agency.

and the owners make the best sausage in the state. What you don't know is in your food won't kill you. Then, again, it might.

They are
#1 They knew people wouldnt buy it if they had to list the use of it or that it turns into ammonium hydroxide after its used.
#2 It could be they are considering it not to be an ingredient kinda like they dont list what gloves the meat packers wore nor what brand of knife was used and other stuff because those arent inside the meat itself in the end they're just used in preparation.


But ya I agree with what you said at the end, label it and let the people know.

It says 100% beef doesn't it?

Doesn't bother me too much, we have been eating it for years. We just didn't know it.

Have you ever been in a slaughterhouse? Have you ever raised cattle for beef, still do? Do you know the parts of a cow?

I have seen cows slaughtered, I have lived on a farm and raised cattle for meat, and I know most of the parts of beef. I don't buy much beef because I raise my own, and I know how much waste there is when a cow is butchered, commercial butchers don't throw away all of the stuff custom butchers do.

Have you ever read the label on potted meat? Eaten meatballs, soup, lasagna, or any other dish with ground meat in a restaurant?

If you think pink slime is bad for you, don't ever buy ground chicken or turkey, that would probably give you a heart attack.

I repeat, you have been eating it for years, didn't bother you until you knew about it. Don't let it bother you, it's harmless and 100% beef.