Beef its not whats for dinner

I know this article is about a month old but in case you haven't heard there was a HUGE recall of beef last month. The humane society did an undercover operation in a meat processing plant and documented the treatment of downed cows. Well the story was on CNN (some of you may have gotten an email from me about it). This just re-enforces why I am a vegetarian! Not only the horrible treatment of these animals but the unhealthy meat that people are eating. Anyway the article is below if you would like to read it.

The Biggest Beef Recall in U.S. History
Filed under: Meat and poultry, Food Safety
10:23 am - February 21, 2008

We now face the biggest beef recall in U.S. history--143 million pounds of beef produced by the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company's, recalled because of potential infection and contamination. That's over five times the amount of the second biggest meat recall in the U.S. (27.4 million pounds of poultry in 2002). Unfortunately, the government agencies in charge of our food safety weren't even the people to first bring this to our attention. It took a secret videotape made by the Humane Society during an undercover operation at a randomly selected meat processing facility (the graphic video can be viewed here). The tape shows cattle who were so sick they could not stand on their own being rolled to the slaughter by fork lift drivers. As The New York Times notes, the plant had five federal inspectors, including a veterinarian, who were evidently unaware of the treatment of these "downer" cattle. These inspectors had relied on Westland/Hallmark employees to notify them about "non-ambulatory" cattle following the pre-slaughter inspection, according to the USDA.
So one wonders about the USDA's statement that the Food Safety and Inspection Service believes this to be "an isolated incident of egregious violations to humane handling requirements and the prohibition of non-ambulatory disabled cattle from entering the food supply." The Humane Society says it witnessed consistent mishandling of downer cattle over the six-week period. Given that the plant was selected at random, it seems unlikely that the Humane Society would find itself at the only plant using such practices.
Most disturbingly, some 37 million pounds of this meat ended up in the U.S. school-lunch supply. While the USDA concludes that safeguards make it very unlikely the animals suffered from "mad cow," that may be scant assurance to concerned parents.
Furthermore, the Center for Science in the Public Interest notes that buyers aren't required to tell their customers if meat they sell is part of the recall. So far, Wegman's is the only retailer to alert customers who may have purchased the meat.
As distressing as this is, safer beef not raised in factory farm conditions is easy to find these days. See "Choosing Healthy Holiday Beef" for suppliers and a Smart Shopper's Card.
© The Green Guide, 2008