where’s the beef? (ou est le boeuf?)
Posted by Meg
2007 has been a less than stellar year as far as food safety is concerned. Seemingly every week we’ve faced yet another recall: beef, chicken, pork. An article in the New York Times this morning talks about what Tyson is doing to change their beef processing. They’re changing the way they steam, vacuum, and treat a carcass. But Dean Danilson, the man in charge of food safety at Tyson, hits on something interesting in one line of the article. He says, “Keeping the dust down [at cattle ranches], knocking some of the caked-on mud and things off, any little bit helps.”
The way I see it, there are two distinct parts to the meat process: the part where the animal is alive, and the part where the animal is dead. Why put all the burden on the meat processors? Why not share the burden of food safety with ranchers? Mass ranching is a brutal and disgusting process. If we make it a little cleaner, a little more humane, a little less crowded, maybe we’ll have fewer problems with extremely dirty, damaged carcasses coming to the meat processors. Same goes for chickens and pork.
Maybe I’m beating the PETA drum a little too hard, but I think it could make a difference. Many consumers are responding well to cage free eggs, and the commercials about “happy cows” for California cheese were somewhat successful. Why not expand into meat production? Furthermore, a less crowded method of farming will leave a smaller ecological footprint. Green is in, and hey, not getting food poisoning is always a winner. Let’s go with it.