Slimed
Now, even though you all know I am a vegan (right?) …
This is not to discuss the merits or drawbacks of an omnivorous or herbivorous diet.
But what do we (in the royal sense) think of this?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/09/pink-slime-goes-back-to-school.html
Here is my take.
First of all, the name says something to me. Do we really want kids to eat something the beef industry calls ‘slime’?
Secondly, it is being added back to the school lunch programs due to budget cuts, so clearly, this stuff is inferior to the frozen burgers they get in bulk right now which are apparently too pricey. God only knows what is in those burgers, let alone this discounted product.
Thirdly, the fast food industry is infamous for ‘parts’, whatever that means.
Fourth, factory farms are, let’s say this delicately, not notorious for their hygiene, put it that way.
Fifth, what makes us so sure it is just meat in there, cow meat in particular and not some other, and that it is actually muscle meat. Isn’t there some likelihood that other animal products and parts find their way into this extruded mash? It is reported that they have to lace the mixture with ammonia – not too appetizing.
I had a friend in HS whose dad supervised a cookie factory that made Fig Newtons. He brought every other kind of product to school, but not those. The reason? He saw what “got into” the vats that make the fig filling. ‘Nuff said for me on that. I haven’t eaten one since.
The last time I saw beef that almost looked appealing was in Europe. When I went to Switzerland in HS, I had Bündnerfleisch, the air-dried beef that looks like a translucent version of Italian prosciutto – delicate, fresh, delicious. And, when I tried the roast beef in Holland, I couldn’t imagine ever eating another roast beef sandwich back home. The Dutch have the best cheese and meats I have ever seen. Really exceptional, from cows that live in the sunshine and graze on real grass. In Switzerland the cows literally climb the Alps in fresh air all day, you can reach out and touch them from the cogwheel trains that take you up to the summit. Happy, active cows yield creamy milk and tender flavorful meat. Meat that you can see is actually only muscle, and nothing dyed the way it is here in the supermarkets to make the ground beef look red, when it is actually gray. Yikes.
If we take the attitude that what we don’t know won’t hurt us, then manufacturers can add melamine to our children’s food, the way the Chinese slipped it into our dog food a few years ago.
If I were a meat eater, I would only get filet mignon or sirloin at WF, no matter what it cost — certified organic and humane, and I would make them cut it in front of me.
Anyway, something pink instead of red, pureed and extruded instead of sliced, should give one pause.
Just sayin’…
Images: Mother Jones and Wikimedia Commons
Beth Byrnes 
While I’m no vegan,I do agree that too much meat is bad (I advocate for minimum meat instead), due to the terrible conditions where they come from. And the human’s body have diffculty coping with the huge amount of proteins anyway.
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Yes, you and I can agree on both those things. Those are two of the reasons I stopped eating meat. But, this is a habit and many people think it is good for them. So, at least we can avoid eating meat by-products and that is really what my point is here. I don’t like animal flesh, but if I did I would want it to be fresh, organic, and whole. Not mystery meat. 🙂
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In high school, me and some theater friends were hanging around after school waiting for rehearsal to being when the Sysco meat truck pulled up to deliver the school’s food. As they were unloading the truck we saw stamped plainly on the side of the cartons “Grade D But Edible.” We did not consume school meat after that.
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OMG – I ate all that stuff in HS too. Thinking about it now makes me ill. And in the dorm – total garbage. Turkey tetrazzini or whatever and jello of all things, with a thumbprint bec the cafeteria workers would pick it up and plate it with their fingers. I could faint just remembering the swill and gruel we ate when we didn’t know any better. How can parents sit by and let their kids consume something stamped grade D?? I don’t think my parents ever gave it a minute’s consideration. They were oblivious and so was I.
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So were mine. We all ate what the TV told us to. Remember that Eddie Murphy joke about kids not trusting the hamburger his uncle cooked on the grill, because it didn’t come encased in styrofoam? I always remember that line “That ain’t no McDonald’s!”
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Seriously and frankly, it falls on deaf ears with my Dad if I even bring it up. My Mom is more receptive but still eats things on the sly (she doesn’t want me to know about it, I guess) that are just crap. Styrofoam – don’t even get me started. How I hate that stuff. It hurts my teeth, who knows what they make it from and what leaches into our bloodstream when hot foot (food, duh, but hilarious, I am going to leave the image of a hot foot in styrofoam right here – I love it) goes into it. Oh! And hot coffee – O M G!
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Aside from the fact that our systems don’t digest meat (it just rots in there), I can only imagine what’s in this slime. It looks like a cross between vienna sausages and playdough. Got this off a news site: “The ‘pink slime’ is made by gathering waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and spinning the trimmings using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria.” Gross. Having worked in schools for the last two years, they walk around touting healthy eating, yet serve this in the cafeterias. Oh the hypocrisy.
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Oh, thank you for that detailed description, Kim. I find it really appalling. The 100 hour transit of beef through our long and labyrinthine herbivore-style digestive tract at almost 100F has always seemed an obvious issue for me. When I went to Spain I saw the animals that they ‘cure’ in the sun there until they are so dessicated that they are safe to eat. For quite a while they are covered with maggots and other vermin. But meat is ‘digested’ in the dark in our narrow tract, and not in dry air but in humid, hot, airless conditions. That should be a signal to us. Beyond that, I know this is a matter of palate and I would never tell people to give up food they love for food they don’t love (except on the issue of the inhumane treatment of factory animals), that is a personal choice. What I object to is as you say, the deception. Foisting this garbage on minors so the meat industry can get rid of it by selling it for profit, spiking our children’s diets with it is a form of child abuse, in my opinion. I hope parents will rise up against it.
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