An Organic Rancher’s Comments on Pink Slime

25 Apr, 2012

Guest post by Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit

Grass fed beefInterview with Rod Morrison of Rocky Mountain Organic Meats

Rod Morrison is pres­i­dent of Rocky Mountain Organic Meats, a Wyoming com­pany that pro­duces 100% Certified Organic, pas­ture raised and fin­ished meats. As a sus­tain­able farmer who under­stands the real­i­ties of meat pro­duc­tion, he has an opin­ion or two about the recent uproar over pink slime. 

MS: What do you make of the whole pink slime debacle?

RM: There is just so much going on in meat pro­duc­tion that dis­gusts me. The con­sumer has no idea what is tak­ing place. So we’ve seen no real change and that’s the way the indus­trial food com­plex wants it. The entire sys­tem of meat pro­duc­tion has us all between a rock and a hard place. CAFOs [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations] have no sim­ple solu­tion. It’s all about effi­ciency and it should be about sustainability.

MS: How can indus­try claim that pink slime is 100% beef?

RM: Because USDA allows any part of the ani­mal to be con­sid­ered “beef,” includ­ing the moo. In con­trast, “meat” must be mus­cle. That’s why hot dogs can claim to con­tain beef but not meat. Pink slime is not 100% meat. It’s mostly con­nec­tive tis­sue. When they say “beef is beef” that just means it can be any­thing that comes from cattle.

MS: What about the qual­ity; is this prod­uct nutri­tious, as indus­try claims?

RM: Pink slime is nat­u­rally more gray than pink, because it’s full of con­nec­tive tis­sue, which is a lower qual­ity pro­tein; it’s not really meat. So while they are kick­ing up the pro­tein con­tent when they sep­a­rate the fat, it’s not com­ing from mus­cle, it’s com­ing from con­nec­tive tissue.

Protein is pro­tein, it’s just where it comes from and lack of com­mu­ni­cat­ing that to the con­sumer. It’s like con­ven­tional processed beef prod­ucts; hot dogs, lun­cheon meats, frozen din­ners, etc. They are all made with beef parts and if they were placed in a clear wrap­per at the gro­cery store, they would not sell. But they grind it, spin it and wash it with ammo­nia and mold it into a shape we buy and eat it.

RM: Yes, if cost and effi­ciency is your only con­cern; this is the best cap­i­tal­ist, free mar­ket way.

MS: Meatingplace.com reports a sharp increase in imported lean beef from Australia. Why don’t we just make lean beef here?

RM: Because we don’t use our agri­cul­tural land mass for rais­ing live­stock. We use our land for rais­ing grains, which we then feed to drug-addicted ani­mals inside CAFOs. We are using every imag­in­able chem­i­cal and petroleum- based fer­til­iz­ers avail­able, deplet­ing our soils of all organic material.

MS: Why do you think the meat indus­try is fight­ing back so hard?

RM: The main rea­son is money and effi­ciency. Without the abil­ity to mar­ket pink slime the whole pro­cess­ing line becomes inef­fi­cient, cost­ing even more time and money. They want the con­sumer to live inside a fan­tasy, like the Wizard of Oz. “Don’t pay atten­tion to man behind the cur­tain,” the wiz­ard said. Food in America is mar­keted like it comes from a real farm, but it’s a fan­tasy farm. This is why the indus­try is pro­mot­ing “Ag gag” laws; they don’t want you to know what’s really going on.

MS: Will prices go up on ground beef with­out pink slime?

RM: Yes. Sounds to me like the price increase will be rather small but industry’s prof­its will be hit hard. People should under­stand that it will not be long before a ham­burger is the price of a lob­ster tail. What America is doing to put meat in everybody’s pot is not sus­tain­able, healthy, or envi­ron­men­tally sound.

MS: As a meat pro­ducer, is it OK with you if peo­ple at less meat?

RM: Yes. If we believe in free mar­ket cap­i­tal­ism, some will be able to afford it and some won’t. Demand for cheap food is not sus­tain­able. Efficiency is not sus­tain­abil­ity.

MS: What is the solu­tion to the cur­rent system?

RM: We need to put ani­mals back on sus­tain­able farms. We need a regional organic food sup­ply [not just local]; sus­tain­abil­ity needs to be the pri­or­ity, not effi­ciency. Consumers need to be the change agents by vot­ing with their forks. If this cur­rent food sys­tem con­tin­ues, America is headed for the edge of the abyss. We’ve exceeded the planet’s capac­ity. We are fight­ing with Mother Nature, and she never loses.

Michele is a pub­lic health lawyer who has been research­ing and writ­ing about the food indus­try and food pol­i­tics since 1996. Visit her site at www.EatDrinkPolitics.com/

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube 

 

GD Star Rating
load­ing...
GD Star Rating
load­ing...
An Organic Rancher's Comments on Pink Slime, 9.5 out of 10 based on 10 ratings

About the author

Related Posts

  • http://twitter.com/SingleGreenMom Single Green Mom

    won­der­ful arti­cle! Thank you for this

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
  • tall­monkey­grass

    The best arti­cle I’ve seen on pink slime.  Finally, from some­one who KNOWS the busi­ness,  he proves the dif­fer­ence in “beef is beef” and actual mus­cle meat.  A must read for all Americans.

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
  • trav­is­de­rochie

    This is a nice arti­cle.  However, it appears to me to be opin­ion.  I am not try­ing to argue that Ron doesn’t know how to raise cows.  Obviously he does.  I also don’t think he is a butcher.   I don’t think all of Americans would agree that beef prices should be higher.  For many of the strug­gling Americans, they can sim­ply not afford to pay more for there food.  Most are already strapped to a bud­get that already does not add up.  Any sug­ges­tions on how they could fix that?  I don’t think adding more cost is the answer.

    GD Star Rating
    loading...
    GD Star Rating
    loading...
QR Code Business Card