In my one year as a vegetarian, I viewed many a documentary graphically detailing
the horrors of American slaughterhouses.
I will readily admit to shedding a tear or two at the poignancy of
wide-eyed calves being cruelly separated from their bound-for-slaughter
mothers, or dozens of chickens crammed into cages so tiny, that they were rendered
incapable of any kind of motion. My
altruism was handily thrown to the curb, however, when I experienced (and gave
into) the onslaught of random cravings for steak. My verve for animal rights has, so far, not
recovered enough to influence my dietary choices, but, I still feel the old
twinges of outrage when I read news regarding some predictably disgusting, cost-cutting
tactic on the part of the meat industry and its consumers.
The most recent rekindling of my righteous, vegetarian indignation occurred when
I read Charles Kuffner’s May 21st, 2011 blog addition to Off the Kuff, titled “Pink Slime.” In his post, Kuffner condemns the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s purchase of meat consisting mainly of connective
tissue, fatty scraps, and bone (although packaged as “ground beef”) for lunches
served in school cafeterias across the nation.
He supports his argument that this scrap meat, or “pink slime,” is not
fit for children by reporting that meat of such a low caliber is traditionally
utilized in dog food, and banned, for human consumption, in Great Britain. Kuffner also mentions that, while meat
lobbyists contend that “pink slime” is just plain-old “nutritious” beef, even
fast food chains that are notorious for use of questionable meat products are
phasing it out. Kuffner appears to be
aiming for a fairly general audience, as many individuals (regardless of
politics) can be easily repelled by the notion of feeding anyone (much less
children) pulverized meat scraps. But,
what’s the ultimate health and well-being of the nation’s youngsters to a savings of three
cents/per pound of random, mystery meat?
