An Organic Rancher’s Comments on Pink Slime

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 Simon

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/