Saturday, April 17, 2010
If you are not a vegan yet
You may well be after reading this report on the USDA Inspector General's report on the meat processing industry.
Next time you're at an eatery whose sourcing practices you don't trust, avoid the veal. Skip the burger, too. Those are the immediate takeaways from this stomach-turning report (PDF) from the USDA's Office of the Inspector General. The long-term takeaways are more profound--and disturbing.Profit before quality, everytime.
The report focuses on the USDA's system for keeping hazardous chemical residues--"veterinary drugs, pesticides, and heavy metals"-- out of the meat supply. You know, meat--the stuff that Americans eat more than a half a pound of per day, on average.
How is the agency doing at this critical task? From reading the report, I'd describe its system as sieve-like--but that would be unfair to sieves. After all, those kitchen implements do at least catch most of the solid bits suspended in a liquid. The USDA routinely lets chemical residues flow right into the nation's meat supply--without catching a damned thing.
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