It was after I read Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001),a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser , that I went "cold turkey" on ground beef. This was based on one particular segment where Schlosser went into gorey details on how corporate meat packing assembly lines - because of their machinery - always ended up with assorted amounts of expelled cow feces (from the lacerated bowels) spilling into the meat itself. This sort of sloppiness is also why, now, you take your life in your hands if you consume raw ground beef (as I used to do in the 50s in Milwaukee) because of the presence of harmful bacteria, such as E. coli O157:H7 (ch. 9, What's In The Meat?) Once you read that chapter you never look at ground beef the same again, nor do you have the same appreciation for Mickey D or other burgers (which in any case, we now know have about 1/4 unnamed fillers).
Why could I eat raw ground beef in the fifties with no ill effects? Because at that time there were no mass production plants such as one beholds today. Independent butchers like my grandfather (who also owned a corner grocery) did their own meat processing and they also obtained the meat from select farms where the slaughter procedures were rigidly followed so parts were cleanly separated. (Unlike the mass production assembly plants where no cross contamination can be assured if the bowels are suddenly plucked from the carcass by automated robots!
Now, it seems I am going to be going cold turkey with SPAM, though it's consistently been one of my favorite (albeit occasional) dishes, especially when nothing else is in the fridge! Grill a slice of it up, slap on some tomatoes and raw onions, and you have a "Spam-burger". But...no more! Amazing what a MOTHER JONES magazine expose ('Cut and Kill', July-August, p. 27) can do!
Well, my stomach began turning when I reached the second page of the piece, reading the following, which delved into "one of the worst spots on the line" - called the "brain machine" which was the last stop on the conveyor:
"Every hour more than 1,300 severed pork heads go sliding along the belt. Workers slice off the ears, clip the snouts, chisel the cheek meat. They then scoop out the eyes, the tongue, and scrape the palate meat from the rooves of mouths. (Because, famously all parts of a pig are edible - 'everything but the squeal, wisdom goes').
An adjacent worker then carves out the back of each head before letting the denuded skull slide down the conveyor and through an opening to a plexiglass shield. On the other side, the metal nozzle of a 90 lbs. per square inch compressed air hose is inserted into the skull and the pigs' brains are blasted into a pink slurry. One head every 3 seconds.
A high pressure burst, a fine rosy mist, and the slosh of brains slips through a drain into a cartch bucket (Some workers say the goo looks like Pepto-Bismol, others describe it like a lumpy, strawberry milk shake). When the ten pound barrel is filled another worker must retrive the brains for shipping to asia where they are used as a thickener for stir fry."
Well, remind me never to try any "stir fries" if I go to Asia anytime soon!
At this juncture, with the vivid processing images still in one's mind, the piece goes on to describe all the worker infirmities and health conditions that have cropped up, especially since a "speed up" of the line. (Automatic knives evidently appeared throughout the plant and reduced workers to a single motion.) The worker complaint which receives the most attention appears to be a "spinal inflammation" - resulting in swelling of associated nerves and outward symptoms that included: "numbness, tingling in extremities, chronic fatigue and searing skin pain".
Maybe this is a good time to become a Vegetarian, as my doctor has been recommending!
Errrrr....let's not go that far! I can't see myself settling in for a SuperBowl game with fried lentils, black beans, quinoa, tofu and steel-cut oatmeal with flaxseed oil (the last 3 recommended by Dr. Oz, who let's recall, recently had a polyp detected during a colonoscopy - despite all his uppity eating ways). No, for me there must be brats, chicken wings and maybe some pizza. (Though maybe one of these years I will give veggie pizza a try!)
But one thing for sure: There will be no more Spam around the house!
Why could I eat raw ground beef in the fifties with no ill effects? Because at that time there were no mass production plants such as one beholds today. Independent butchers like my grandfather (who also owned a corner grocery) did their own meat processing and they also obtained the meat from select farms where the slaughter procedures were rigidly followed so parts were cleanly separated. (Unlike the mass production assembly plants where no cross contamination can be assured if the bowels are suddenly plucked from the carcass by automated robots!
Now, it seems I am going to be going cold turkey with SPAM, though it's consistently been one of my favorite (albeit occasional) dishes, especially when nothing else is in the fridge! Grill a slice of it up, slap on some tomatoes and raw onions, and you have a "Spam-burger". But...no more! Amazing what a MOTHER JONES magazine expose ('Cut and Kill', July-August, p. 27) can do!
Well, my stomach began turning when I reached the second page of the piece, reading the following, which delved into "one of the worst spots on the line" - called the "brain machine" which was the last stop on the conveyor:
"Every hour more than 1,300 severed pork heads go sliding along the belt. Workers slice off the ears, clip the snouts, chisel the cheek meat. They then scoop out the eyes, the tongue, and scrape the palate meat from the rooves of mouths. (Because, famously all parts of a pig are edible - 'everything but the squeal, wisdom goes').
An adjacent worker then carves out the back of each head before letting the denuded skull slide down the conveyor and through an opening to a plexiglass shield. On the other side, the metal nozzle of a 90 lbs. per square inch compressed air hose is inserted into the skull and the pigs' brains are blasted into a pink slurry. One head every 3 seconds.
A high pressure burst, a fine rosy mist, and the slosh of brains slips through a drain into a cartch bucket (Some workers say the goo looks like Pepto-Bismol, others describe it like a lumpy, strawberry milk shake). When the ten pound barrel is filled another worker must retrive the brains for shipping to asia where they are used as a thickener for stir fry."
Well, remind me never to try any "stir fries" if I go to Asia anytime soon!
At this juncture, with the vivid processing images still in one's mind, the piece goes on to describe all the worker infirmities and health conditions that have cropped up, especially since a "speed up" of the line. (Automatic knives evidently appeared throughout the plant and reduced workers to a single motion.) The worker complaint which receives the most attention appears to be a "spinal inflammation" - resulting in swelling of associated nerves and outward symptoms that included: "numbness, tingling in extremities, chronic fatigue and searing skin pain".
Maybe this is a good time to become a Vegetarian, as my doctor has been recommending!
Errrrr....let's not go that far! I can't see myself settling in for a SuperBowl game with fried lentils, black beans, quinoa, tofu and steel-cut oatmeal with flaxseed oil (the last 3 recommended by Dr. Oz, who let's recall, recently had a polyp detected during a colonoscopy - despite all his uppity eating ways). No, for me there must be brats, chicken wings and maybe some pizza. (Though maybe one of these years I will give veggie pizza a try!)
But one thing for sure: There will be no more Spam around the house!
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