DailyDirt: Sketchy Meats For Sale
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
A lot of vegetarians were likely inspired by The Jungle (the novel about the meat packing industry), but a lot has changed in the field of meat since the early 1900s. However, transparency about how animals are treated before they’re served onto dinner plates could perhaps use a little more work. Here are just a few recent stories that are starting to gross out some meat-eating Americans.
- Gerald Zimstein coined the term “pink slime” and the substance has been in the news because of its “yuck” factor. But pink slime isn’t particularly unhealthy — or at least it hasn’t been proven so (yet?). [url]
- Tuna scrape is almost like hamburger meat, and its use in sushi could become another kind of pink slime issue. So be careful with those spicy tuna rolls… [url]
- The use of antibiotics in food production might be getting out of hand, but fortunately, we can reduce antibiotics in the meat industry by using vaccines and other techniques. The concern is that we’re slowly creating a world of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. [url]
- The enzyme transglutaminase is also known as “meat glue” — and creating frankenstein steaks from cheap cuts of meat. While transglutaminase is generally safe and naturally occurring, the danger of using it comes from gluing together pieces of meat that may have bacteria contamination — and when the glued-together meat is merely seared on the outside, the rare inside isn’t properly cooked (and not sterile like the inner part of a single piece of meat). [url]
- To discover more food-related links, check out what’s floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]
By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.
Filed Under: antibiotics, food, hamburgers, meat, meat glue, pink slime, sushi, the jungle, transglutaminase, tuna scrape
Comments on “DailyDirt: Sketchy Meats For Sale”
pink slime by itself
Meat industry advocates should volunteer to eat pure pink slime! Yum! That would show theyre serious that it isnt harmful. Eating their own dogfood as it were….
Although the merits of any of these products might be debatable, the fact remains that the consumer has a right to be aware of what they are purchasing.
If the majority of people were ever to see how things like hot dogs and sausages were made, there would probably be a public outcry against those as well.
I Never Understood The ?Morality? Behind Vegetarianism
Is all life sacred, or is it just animal life?
When I was in the army and had to eat c-rations, and later MRE’s, I wished the CEO’s of those companies that produced that crap, were required to eat their own product for at least one week. Pehaps we could get a law passed… oh, right.
Interesting factoid
The company that produces the “meat glue” (Ajinomoto) is the same company that invented MSG over a hundred years ago!
Interesting factoid
Considering that we have taste buds (umami) specifically evolved to taste MSG, I don?t think it was ?invented? just a hundred years ago…
Interesting factoid
Wikipedia says “Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5?-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP).”
The receptors don’t only detect MSG, they detect glutamate. MSG is just the way they do industrial production of glutamic acid.
I Never Understood The ?Morality? Behind Vegetarianism
Vegetables are murder!
Although most vegans & vegetarians I know (I am not one, but I know more than a few) are so for moral reasons, for most of them the argument isn’t that animal life is more sacred than vegetable life. It’s that the methods we use to raise meat are tantamount to animal torture or abuse and they want no part of that.
Another Interesting factoid
The company that invented and still produces aspirin (Bayer) is the same company that produced the Zyklon B gas used to kill Jews in the holocaust, aided Mengele in his experiments, and was the only company that ran its own concentration camp!
It's that the methods we use to raise meat are tantamount to animal torture or abuse and they want no part of that.
And yet studies have shown that plants also respond in a distressed fashion when injured, and are capable of signalling that to each other.
So their argument against ?torture or abuse? would simply be ?torture or abuse that is obvious to us?.
It's that the methods we use to raise meat are tantamount to animal torture or abuse and they want no part of that.
This is true, however that’s a far cry from demonstrating that plants have any kind of awareness or sensation of suffering in the sense that we think of it. There is good biological basis for believing that they do not, although that likewise is difficult to prove.
Leave Meat Glue alone
If you have ever eaten a hamburger then you can take your bacteria coating the outside hippy horsesh!t dialogue and shove it up your candy @ss.
And as for sticking together multiple pieces of meat to make one cut of meat? See commentary above about hamburger and go fvck yourself.
Have a nice day!