E-mail from change.org:

Dear MacResource 'Friendly' Political Ranters,

Pink slime is gross. It's connective tissues of cow and other beef trimmings, heavily treated with ammonia to kill pathogens like salmonella and E coli.

Experts say it's "a high risk product" that lacks nutritional benefit. Even fast food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell dropped it years ago.

But the USDA is about to buy 7 million tons of pink slime to put in school lunches.

Bettina Siegel, a lawyer and mother to two school-aged kids, started a petition to get the USDA to cancel its order ASAP, and it's gaining national attention.

If tens of thousands of people sign, the media and lawmakers will take notice and pressure the USDA to cancel the order.

Click here to sign Bettina's petition asking the USDA to keep pink slime out of school lunches.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Corinne and the Change.org team

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Here's more information from Bettina:

"Pink slime" is the term used for a mixture of fatty meat scrap and connective tissue (formerly used only for pet food and rendering) that is treated with ammonia hydroxide to remove pathogens like salmonella and E coli. These so-called "Lean Beef Trimmings," are produced by Beef Products, Inc.

Two former government microbiologists claim that, for political reasons, pink slime was approved for human consumption by USDA over serious safety concerns.

Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times in 2009 showed that "in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the USDA about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays."

Even apart from safety concerns, it is simply wrong to feed our children connective tissues and beef scraps that were, in the past, destined for use in pet food and rendering and were not considered fit for human consumption.

Due to public outcry, fast food giants like McDonald's and Taco Bell have stopped using pink slime in their food. But the federal government continues to allow its use in school food and has just authorized the purchase of ground beef which collectively contains an additional 7 million pounds of pink slime for consumption by our nation's children.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

I applaud the effort to use all of the cow.

All hail mechanically separated meat!

OK gross

"According to a recent "ABC World News" report from Jim Avila, 70% of ground beef sold in supermarkets contains the ammonia-treated sludge, which is the the product of a method for salvaging meat scraps from otherwise unusable parts of a carcass.

Avila was tipped off to the startling figure by a whistleblower at the USDA -- who says he has quit his job out of disgust with the product.

The level of usage is consistent with a 2009 report on pink slime by the New York Times. The paper wrote that "a majority" of ground beef in America contained the substance, which is manufactured by a company called Beef Products, Inc."

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

Well that explains why I can eat steak but get sick after eating ground beef (food allergy-intolerances).

Your lovely steak was likely also washed in ammonium hydroxide.
It's cheaper to wash it after all the processing than trying to keep the salmonella, e coli and pathogens out during the whole process.
The big meat processors are disgusting and there's now only a half a dozen or so of them.


lean beef trimmings - aren't our wordsmiths the greatest ?

Well, what do we expect to find in "free lunches" anyway?

This is one of those times when I glad I'm a vegetarian subsisting only on pesticide and herbicide laced food.

we buy our meat from a local university ag department. Great stuff and cheap. I can't imagine anybody would willingly eat meat sold in a supermarket.

You'd be better off not eating any meat at all.

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Fresh is even better.

Careful, Pops! You'll give some folks here a stroke!

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“There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow men. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.”

- Walter Reuther

A little ketchup and you'd never know.

Mmmmm Bambi's Mom.

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Comedy Central: Best news channel that isn't a news channel.

Fox News: Best comedy channel that isn't a comedy channel.

Quote
Grace62
OK gross

"According to a recent "ABC World News" report from Jim Avila, 70% of ground beef sold in supermarkets contains the ammonia-treated sludge, which is the the product of a method for salvaging meat scraps from otherwise unusable parts of a carcass.

Avila was tipped off to the startling figure by a whistleblower at the USDA -- who says he has quit his job out of disgust with the product.

The level of usage is consistent with a 2009 report on pink slime by the New York Times. The paper wrote that "a majority" of ground beef in America contained the substance, which is manufactured by a company called Beef Products, Inc."

[www.huffingtonpost.com]

You must have got the same e-mail-- the subject line was simply "Gross."

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

This has been all over a lot of the sites I read for the past month or so. I can't believe this stuff is in such wide distribution. Soon we''ll be seeing labeling similar to "non rGBH" to address this soylent green crap. Disgusting.

Ted King: LOL.

Thank Bill Clinton. He signed off on the bill that allowed irradiation of meat products, a move by the industry to allow a certain amount of feces and other contaminates in consumer products.