Slimy news

What’s the difference between a media report and pink slime? One is perfectly fine to ingest, while the other can leave thousands of people without jobs and raise the price of beef for all.

Lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is 100% beef that has been processed, packaged and sold to millions — if not billions — of consumers for more than 20 years without a reported health problem.

Let’s repeat that for effect:  Lean finely textured beef (LFTB) IS 100% BEEF that has been processed, packaged and sold to millions — if not billions — of consumers for more than 20 years WITHOUT a reported health problem.

Essentially, LFTB is 100% lean and safe beef produced using a technological process created to use as much of a cow as possible. Waste not, want not, right?

But a few weeks back ABC-TV World News “exposed” LFTB as a “pink slime” ingredient used in school lunches and fast food and, heck, even in the meat sections of your local grocery stores.

The “pink slime” term came from former U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Gerald Zirnstein who was referring to the chemically treated scraps of meat trimmings going into ground beef. He never intended for the e-mail to go public. But it did in 2009 through a FOIA request by the New York Times. The term was mentioned in passing in a newspaper article.
 
That wasn’t good enough for the do-gooder journalists/activists at ABC who were eager to warn us of this terrible concoction foisted upon innocent school children through what must be a nefarious relationship between the government and greedy corporate agri interests.

Up until the ABC report, no physical or fiscal harm had come from the use of LFTB — although organic purists and activist vegans will certainly argue that any meat product from a corporation is a health risk.

It didn’t take long for the impact of thousands — if not millions — of consumers scared by the “pink slime” label to result in pink slips handed to thousands of beef industry workers.

On March 26, more than 700 BPI workers were laid off at BPI beef plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan. and Waterloo, Iowa. BPI was forced to suspend operations for 60 days and begin an attempt to re-educate the public about LFTB.

Let’s note again: Lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is 100% beef that has been processed, packaged and sold to millions — if not billions — of consumers for more than 20 years without a reported health problem.

BPI competitor, Pa.-based AFA Foods, announced April 2 it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing a lack of demand for ground beef induced by the LFTB controversy. AFA is partially owned by Magic Johnson, one of the new co-owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Springdale-based Tyson Foods, already facing losses in its beef segment, has struggled to respond to the unnecessary drama created by ABC. Cargill produces LFTB in three of its beef slaughter plants. Those workers will have to be reassigned or laid off as the company responds to a significant drop in demand for LFTB.

“It’s a shame there is so much misinformation about beef processing. We must go to work educating those far removed from the farm and processing industries. The product has been eaten for 20 years or more and there are no food safety concerns with respect to this product,” said Michael Martin, spokesman for Cargill Meat Solutions.

Martin said the industry will have to slaughter another 1.5 million more cattle to make up the loss because hamburger remains a staple for the American family.

One doesn’t have to be an economics professor to quickly realize that the cost will certainly increase for hamburgers and hot dogs and other beef-related staples of the American diet.

Let’s note again: Lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is 100% beef that has been processed, packaged and sold to millions — if not billions — of consumers for more than 20 years without a reported health problem.

Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, says the consumer can bet on much higher beef prices because of the unnecessary drama of the LFTB scare.

“This may well contribute to the demise of the dollar menu at your favorite fast food hamburger chain … whether they use LFTB or not,” Peel noted in a weekly newsletter.
 
Peel also noted: “LFTB is sort of the modern equivalent of your grandmother boiling the soup bones to make beef stock. She could not afford to waste beef then and neither can we today. We have the lowest relative food prices in the world and the reason we do is because we utilize processes like LFTB to capture the maximum value of food production.”

But with the media and the activist groups — mediactivists —who believe they are doing you a favor, labels are often more important than facts. Indeed, facts can make it difficult to produce an irrational, but politically favorable, response with the public.

“Consumers have spoken loud and clear that they don’t want to eat ‘pink slime’,” Elisabeth Holmes, staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, said in celebrating a proposed federal law that would require more labeling of LFTB products.

No, Miss Staff Attorney, the public has not spoken loud and clear on the issue of pink slime. The public responded to a fear campaign based on emotion rather than facts. ABC and the anti-meat activists shouted fire in a crowded theater although no puff of smoke or ember was present.

However, the public spoke loud and clear with their wallets for more than 20 years as they purchased billions of pounds of LFTB.

Again we note: Lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is 100% beef that has been processed, packaged and sold to millions — if not billions — of consumers for more than 20 years without a reported health problem.

There was one benefit to the ABC report: They proved once again that Loud is no match for Logic.