Beef // Current TV

We’re Eating What? The Drugstore in U.S. Meat.

- Food consumers seldom hear about the drugs oestradiol-17, zeranol, trenbolone... more

joeeddy
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6 months ago
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1 comment

Ted Koppel BEEFS WITH Bill O’Reilly and launches war on ‘partisan ranting’

Veteran newsman Ted Koppel appeared as a special contributor to NBC’s... more

Hassan
added this
8 months ago
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19 comments

Company to Take ABC News to Court Over ‘Pink Slime’ Label

Is it defamatory to label “lean, finely textured beef” product “pink slime”? That’s what the lawyers for Beef Products Incorporated argue in their complaint against ABC News. The South Dakota-based meat giant, which was recently forced to suspend operations at its Amarillo plant, is seeking $1.2 billion in damages from the news organization.

In its 263-page complaint, the meat processor claims that ABC News launched a “month-long vicious, concerted disinformation campaign” against their product on March 7.

“It was a prolonged attack by one of the most powerful news organizations in the world,” the complaint states, perhaps dramatically. “Through a series of factual misstatements, repeated continuously during the campaign, Defendants knowingly misled the public into believing that LFTB was not beef at all, but rather was an unhealthy ‘pink slime’ ‘hidden’ in ground beef as part of an ‘economic fraud’ masterminded by BPI.”

ABC reporters and anchors used the phrase “pink slime” to refer to the meat product some 135 times, according to the complaint. “There is not a more offensive way of describing a food product than to call it ‘slime,’ which is a noxious, repulsive, and filthy fluid not safe for human consumption,” the complaint states.

(It is worth noting that the meat product now known as “lean finely textured beef” has had some other unappealing official names over the years, including “partially defatted chopped beef” and “fat reduced beef.”)

The company maintains its product is a “a safe, nutritious beef that has lowered the cost of lean ground beef sold to consumers for nearly 20 years.” As a result of unfavorable news coverage, BPI saw its sales of this beef product drop from five million pounds per week to two million, forcing the company to shutter three of its four processing facilities and laid off 700 of its 1,300 employees, the filing claims.

“The lawsuit is without merit,” Jeffrey Schneider, Senior Vice President of ABC News, said Thursday. “We will contest it vigorously.”

Full Story: http://www.tmdailypost.com/article/business/company-take-abc-news-court-over-pink-slime-labelIs it defamatory to label “lean, finely textured beef” product “pink... more

Radical_Centrist
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8 months ago
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As beef cattle become behemoths, who are animal scientists serving?

Cameras rolled one day last fall as Ty E. Lawrence led journalists into a room-sized meat locker on the campus of West Texas A&M University, where bloody sides of beef, still covered with a slick layer of ivory-colored fat, hung from steel hooks. Dressed in a white lab coat, a hard hat on his head, Lawrence pointed to the carcass of a Holstein that had been fed a new drug called Zilmax. He noted its larger size compared with the nearby body of a steer never given the drug.

"This is thicker, and it's plumper," said Lawrence, an associate professor of animal science, pointing at the beast's rib-eye. "This animal right here," he said, waving his hand at the pharmaceutically enhanced meat, "doesn't look like a Holstein anymore."

Convincing ranchers that Zilmax will transform their cattle into bovine Schwarzeneggers has been part of Lawrence's work ever since the drug was introduced by Intervet, a subsidiary of Merck, the global pharmaceutical company. The tour he led of the carcasses in his lab was just one of many events where he has helped Intervet sell Zilmax. He's given speeches to ranchers and written an article for a beef-industry magazine to promote the drug. He's repeatedly let Intervet include his comments in news releases, including one in which he said the drug could "revolutionize the beef production system."

Lawrence is hardly alone. Scores of animal scientists employed by public universities have helped pharmaceutical companies persuade farmers and ranchers to use antibiotics, hormones, and drugs like Zilmax to make their cattle grow bigger ever faster. With the use of these products, the average weight of a fattened steer sold to a packing plant is now roughly 1,300 pounds—up from 1,000 pounds in 1975.

It's been a profitable venture for the drug companies, as well as for the professors and their universities. Agriculture schools increasingly depend on the industry for research grants, a sizable portion of which cover overhead and administrative costs. And many professors now add to their personal bank accounts by working for the companies as consultants and speakers. More than two-thirds of animal scientists reported in a 2005 survey that they had received money from industry in the previous five years.

Yet unlike a growing number of medical schools around the country, where administrators have recently tightened rules to better police their faculty's ties to pharmaceutical companies, the schools of agriculture have largely rejected critics' concerns about industry cash. Administrators have set few limits on how much corporate money agricultural professors can accept. Faculty work with industry is governed by confidentiality rules that veil it from public view.

In certain ways, the close relationship between animal scientists and pharmaceutical companies has never served the public well. Few animal scientists have been interested in looking at what harm the livestock drugs may be causing to the cattle, the environment, or the people eating the meat. They've left most of that work to scientists outside of agriculture, consumer groups, and others who take interest.

But with the introduction of Zilmax, the situation may have reached a tipping point. Critics say some academic animal scientists have become so closely tied to the drug companies that they may be working more in the companies' interests than in those of farmers and ranchers—the very groups that land-grant universities were created to serve.

More at the linkCameras rolled one day last fall as Ty E. Lawrence led journalists into a room-sized... more

JanforGore
added this
1 year ago
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44 comments

Pink Slime

Seeing as it's the weekend I can move away from San Francisco and talk about a... more

baghdadbythebay
added this
1 year ago
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0 comments

Congratulations! you’re eating the world’s first human(e) hamburger!

No dead cows, just real, sustainable beef, made with nothing but yummy stem cells and... more

littlemissdebbie
added this
1 year ago
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3 comments

"Why Voters Tune Out Democrats"

"... in smaller, more probing focus groups, voters show they are fairly cynical... more

COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
added this
1 year ago
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1 comment

Lefty O’Doul’s

Francis “Lefty” O’Doul was born here in San Francisco. He is... more

baghdadbythebay
added this
1 year ago
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0 comments

Fe Yon Ti Krache : TOP SANZA-V

Fe Yon Ti Krache : TOP SANZA-V : Freestyle

BLADDHA
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1 year ago
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0 comments

To Meat Or Not To Meat

Laura Silverman: I've spent quite a lot of time ruminating over the notion of... more

localflavortv
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Law suit claims Taco Bell Beef has only 35 percent meat

In a lawsuit filed on behalf of Amanda Obney, a resident of California, and the... more

Alstom
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

EAT ME ; TEXAS

Wheres the BEEF !?! Nostalgia: When Bevo was barbecue, and other trials of... more

remanns
added this
2 years ago
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6 comments

Funny Brawling Cat Fight Scene When Animals Attack Part 2

Sope films his pet cats Onyx and ATL get into a fighting brawl with each other and... more

indieheat
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Funny Brawling Cat Fight Scene When Animals Attack Part 1

Sope films his pet cats Onyx and ATL get into a fighting brawl with each other and... more

indieheat
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Lebron James and Reporter Beef in the streets!!!

Lebron James was spotted out in Hollyweird and when ask to speak about inner city... more

Hassan
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Anti-Animal Abuse - They Don't Care About Us

A short tribute video I made after seeing the amazingly shocking documentary... more

Christopher_Brown
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Another Reason to Consider Going Vegan | One Million Pounds of Ground Cow Recalled

August 9th, 2010 02:47 PM ET 1 million pounds of ground beef recalled Consumers... more

EthicalVegan
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

'Cloned Beef' On Store Shelves Causes Stir In Britain

Britain is in the middle of a new media storm over the safety of beef — but this... more

unimatrix0
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Beef from U.S. Cloned Cow Embryos Enters U.K. Food Chain

Read the story at the link...

mygoditsfullofdoom
added this
2 years ago
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0 comments

Quarantine lifted on B.C. farms

Quarantine was lifted from two B.C. farms after an investigation by the Canadian Food... more

randyshore
added this
2 years ago
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