Here’s the latest update on our Change.org petition seeking to remove “pink slime” from school food:
Signature Count
We passed 200,000 sometime yesterday and are currently at 210,000. I feel like I’ve exhausted my vocabulary for expressing my amazement over this outpouring of support. Suffice it to say, when I posted this petition while racing around to pack my kids’ lunches last Tuesday, this was not quite the reaction I expected.
Media Coverage
Media coverage of the pink slime issue remains strong. Yesterday, our petition and the beef industry’s response was the top story on Yahoo. David Knowles of The Daily, the reporter who first broke the pink slime/school food story last Monday, also had an update which included our petition. I also appeared last night on Fox DC and Fox Houston. (If you view the former and wonder why I seem to be staring slack-jawed into space much of the time, please have pity on me; it was a remote interview where you can’t see the person talking to you, and it was extremely unnerving. Indeed, much of the last week could be characterized as “extremely unnerving!”)
Food Safety News was kind enough to reprint my refutation of the beef industry’s defenses of pink slime, and leading food safety lawyer Bill Marler also weighed in in his own post yesterday, supporting disclosure of pink slime on labels.
Beef Industry Response
The beef industry and those with ties to it continue to push the #pinkslimeisamyth hashtag on Twitter. One guy — don’t know who he is or who he represents — is a getting little nasty and personal so I told him I simply won’t engage in a dialogue. I guess it’s inevitable that this sort of thing might sometimes turn ugly.
A Question for Readers
Turning my beloved TLT blog over to “all slime, all the time” has been a little disconcerting. I’ve been wanting to share all sorts of other stuff with you these past few days, but fans of TLT’s Facebook page were not so keen on my shifting back to normal posts right now. And it does seem important to keep up the amazing momentum we’ve achieved.
So, if you have any thoughts on that, just let me know. I suppose my other posts can keep until this pink slime issue reaches a conclusion: ideally, of course, some meaningful action by USDA.
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Amateur Mommy says
I think it’s pretty telling that one of the ‘pro’ pink slime blog posts that I found on twitter has ranchers and farmers that are telling the author that she is on the wrong side of the argument. When you have folks that also raise livestock saying that this is a poor practice, people should really listen.
Deborah Neyens says
I emailed a cattle rancher friend of mine this morning to get his perspective on the issue. I’m very interested to hear what he has to say.
Jinni says
If life were television, then we’d have the pro slime folks seated ‘Fear Factor’ style around a table eating this stuff. Alas, life is not so interesting.
Ryan says
They’d be on fear factor around a table eating school lunches. Kids have eaten this for years (since the early 90s). I’m not dead, nor overweight. Blowing this way out of proportion and I’m not looking forward to the increased cost of alternatives in school lunches.
Can you pay for my kid’s school lunch?
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Somehow Los Angeles USD and other districts around the country are serving school meals on the same federal reimbursement as everyone else and not serving beef with pink slime.
Tammy Lawson says
I am a cafe manager for a very large high school in Georgia and everyone in North Gerogia can rest assured the “slime” has NEVER entered our system nor will it ever. We have personally asked ALL OUR USDA beef manufactors if they have used it and that is a big “NO”. The media is blowing this up and needs to find a real problem to address like GAS PRICES and how we can get the students to school on the buses and HIGH insurance prices for the cafe workers that have not had a raise in four years due to budget cuts in the government. Focus on that for a while or get ALL THE FACTS straight before you start attacking “lunchrooms” across America. WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME SO STOP USING THE WORDS IN ” ALL SCHOOLS”
Susan T. says
Tammy:
Your comment is interesting to me. You would think that Georgia would tout the fact that they don’t us “pink slime” in their school food. Instead, inquiring citizens are given the run-around. I wonder why that is. http://lisbethcarter.wordpress.com/tag/pink-slime/
Kelly says
I have really enjoyed your blog on pink slime. You did a great job saying what I was not able to express myself. I wanted to address the claim of pink slime being nutritionally equivalent. I don’t see how this is so. This claim must be based upon its initial form. In the end it is a gel like slurry. Mechanically changed, broken chains of protein which don’t even require chewing to break down. One of the nutritional benefits of protein is that it takes a while for the body to break it down providing a prolonged feeling of satiety than say, carbohydrates. In pink slime this work is essentially done for you so it only makes sense that our bodies would digest it faster leaving you hungry again sooner. If you are hungry more often you will naturally eat more in a day. And I believe this additional calorie consumption will lead to obesity if not countered with exercise.
Momma Bear says
Ryan, go ahead and walk off the edge of the cliff with the rest of the “sheeple” herd! I don’t care if it’s been around for 100 years…that doesn’t mean that it’s good for you, and it doesn’t mean that because you’re not dead that it hasn’t done damage to you. It could cause unknown genetic changes that we don’t know about, maybe not…WE DON’T KNOW! That’s the WHOLE POINT! Any time they work so hard to hide something usually means that they have SOMETHING to hide. And really, if you’re okay with eating that…well truth be told you could re-eat what you have eaten, processed, and pooped…except yeah, there’s all those pesky little e.coli and who knows what else…but let’s treat it with some ammonia hydroxide, clean it up a bit and you’ll be good with that right? ‘Cause really there is almost no difference, if any difference at all between the two. ‘Course I’m sure you’ll come up with some reason as to why we wouldn’t want to do that! I sure as heck wouldn’t! I don’t want my DOG EATING THAT MESS! LET ALONE MY CHILDREN!!! It’s just common sense!!! Why would you allow your children to eat something that had to be “cleaned up” because it was DISEASED! Com’on! That’s “Common Sense 101”! I am just shocked that you think that people are blowing this out of proportion. Oh, and if it came down to it and meant that my kids wouldn’t have to eat this trash …then YES! I’d be THRILLED to pay your children’s lunch!
Ryan says
Do yourself a favor and go read up on what else ammonium hydroxide is used for. What do you think we do with all this hand sanitizer. EVERYTHING IS DISEASED AND GERMS ARE EVERYWHERE OMG!!!!!! Who said they were trying to hide it? Someone noticed in ’74 and said oh it’s okay then. NOW it’s an issue and why? Have there been any documented cases of children with ill effects due to chemically treated processed foods (other than obesity because that’s our own fault for letting gluttony and sloth get to us)?
Guess what lady… CHEMICALS ARE USED ALL OVER THE PLACE FOR EVERYTHING THAT YOU USE TODAY – AND EVERYTHING THAT YOU EAT HAS HAD SOME KIND OF CHEMICAL USED IN IT TO PRESERVE, STERILIZE, OR TREAT IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM… from acids to ammonia (it’s in your body!!!! As a pH balance…it really is!).
Also along the lines of eating poop – http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/17/japanese-scientists-create-meat-from-poop/
It may well come down to the fact that we will become so unsustainable that we will have to eat our own excrement to survive.
EdT. says
Ryan – back in the 1940s, people thought it was perfectly OK to detonate nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. Fortunately for us, it became an issue later on.
And, as far as that report from FOXNews goes, I guess it gives a whole new meaning to the words “the crap we put in our mouths”.
~EdT.
EdT. says
Oh, and ammonia hydroxide is a common component of household cleaners. I also keep Drano in my cleaning supply arsenal – but I have no desire to see it in my hamburger, thanks.
~EdT.
Ryan says
Cleaning… you said it. I just reiterated what it does. It CLEANS and DISINFECTS. Ammonium hydroxide is in your body too.
EdT. says
Yes, it is. It is actually a waste product, and (as urea) is a major component of urine.
I’m not interested in eating hamburgers that have been washed in pee, either. YMMV.
~EdT.
Ryan says
Since I can’t respond to EdT I’ll respond to myself hopefully you see this:
Ammonia is in the human body it’s changed to urea BUT it is also essential to the human body for building proteins and other complex molecules.
THE MORE YOU KNOW!
Tammy says
So happy to see all the national attention to this issue! Thanks Bettina. As a regular TLT reader I think you are doing an amazing job keeping this in the forefront and will be happy reading whatever you feel is relevant to post! You always have greats thoughtful posts!
LunchLadyMom says
As with every story there are 2 sides. Yes USDA approved it’s use for the National School Lunch Program. But parents need to be informed about the practices of their own district. Just because it is use in “some” beef products doesn’t mean it is in everything. I am parent and a professional in school food service. Our county uses very little beef product to begin with.
I could go off on this for a while, I just wish the public was not so quick to jump on the media’s band wagon.
I would hope that educated, rational people would make decisions and base their actions on factual information that they have obtained and have an understanding of, instead of letting the media have that control.
Media can have too much power sometimes, remember they are not always an impartial voice of the world, they are usually telling it from one side’s prospective, with that side’s opinions and views (right or wrong).
jennyjens says
great comment!!
Ryan says
I love you lunch lady mom.
EdT. says
“I would hope that educated, rational people would make decisions and base their actions on factual information that they have obtained and have an understanding of…”
Information, obtained from whom… the company that makes the stuff? The USDA, who is more a cheerleader for, than a regulator of, agri-business? Interests that are so devoted to transparency that they have decided that it is none of our business whether a specific serving of meat contains this stuff or not?
I think not.
~EdT.
Ryan says
We trust the FDA to approve all kinds of things we eat. As well we trust the USDA to approve all kinds of agriculture goods we consume. So everything they do since they’ve been bought and paid for by the industry is in the industry’s best interests. DO NOT EAT AGRICULTURAL GOODS GROWN IN THE USA!!!! DON’T BUY ANYTHING THAT’S FDA APPROVED. BUY FROM CHINA – THEY’RE BETTER!
EdT. says
Decaf, Ryan. Next time, make yours a decaf.
If you wish to eat ground/chopped beef that has been “extended” with BLBT, then be my guest. I do not so wish, that is my choice. I also do not believe it is in our best interests to feed this stuff to our children. As of this moment in time, at least 225,586 people agree with me.
~EdT.
Momma Bear says
Ryan, I’m so sorry for you. I guess if it’s government mandated/approved we can all just line up and say, “Yes Sir, No Sir, Yes Ma’am No Ma’am”, to anything and everything that they through at us. Here’s the thing Ryan, I DON’T trust the FDA, not one little sliver of the first piece of food, drink, or drug that comes down the pike. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s probably safer to assume that if they’re talking they’re lying. Now truthfully, I’m sure that they do tell the truth on occasion, but I really don’t have time to sit a sift through the multiple thousands of pages of documents to find a small simple grain of truth. I don’t take ANYTHING that ANYONE says as truth until I look at the information for myself. That info has to come from more than just one media outlet, or one website, or just one source. I’m sure that you’re 100% correct in saying that ALL those things are in my body. That might help explain the illness that I’ve had for the last 12 years that’s left me disabled and on massive amounts of oxygen and OH, did I mention that after 12 years, I still don’t have a diagnosis? They get A’s for efforts, God knows, they’ve tested me for almost everything. I don’t travel so it not that either. But just because we’ve ALWAYS done something, or well, we’ve never had a problem with it before doesn’t mean that it’s okay to keep doing “it”. We HAVE to start looking at what we’re doing to ourselves or there WON’T be anything TO SUSTAIN! AND OF COURSE I’d rather eat something from the US than I would from China! Heck, I won’t even let my dog eat dog food that has ingredients that have origins from anywhere other than the US. That includes Purina, Pedigree, or any other name brand food that you find in stores. And no, I don’t pay out the nose for it. And he eats a small dried kibble, for anyone thinking that he’s a pampered pooch eating Pâté or something. I don’t WANT chemicals in my body. I don’t WANT chemicals in my children’s body. I WILL do EVERYTHING in my power to NOT let it happen. Just because this is the way it’s been done doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t DO BETTER! Rudy, truthfully, I’m not even interested in trading tits for tats with you or anyone else. My energy is far better utilized doing other things. But it is truly beyond my ability or desire to wrap my brain around the concept that ANYONE is willing to knowingly feed their child something that truthfully shouldn’t be feed to ANYTHING EXCEPT THE TRASH CAN!!!
Ryan says
As I Just responded to EdT I’ll respond to you – it’s essential in your body to build proteins and complex molecules… since you don’t want chemicals in your body you should just stop existing because chemical reactions are what makes everything happen, along with physics.
Momma Bear says
Ryan, I don’t need a biology lecture from you. I could probably run circles around you in discussing the Kreb’s Cycle and the like. As a nurse I had to take LOTS of Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, & Oh YEAH! NUTRITION…I’ll take ALL the chemicals that are intended to be in my body in the natural way that they are intended to be, the way God created them to be, whether they’re there naturally, or are then created naturally by my body! You KNOW EXACTLY what I mean when I say I don’t want chemicals in my body! Why don’t you GROW UP and STOP BEING A BOOB! Talking to you is like trying to talk to a 12 year old that knows he doesn’t have a case, but just says stuff because he just wants to argue, or the 12 year old that doesn’t know what he’s talking about but really wants to be right or thinks he’s right but has reached the depth of his knowledge, so he just starts making stuff up! I don’t think you realize how poorly it reflects on your argument.
There is NO nutritional value in this stuff. It is literally meant to just be a filler. A filler that started out as something nasty and disgusting. If I’m so hard up for food that I have to eat that, even in small portions mixed in to my regular food, thanks, but I’ll just skip a couple of meals instead! I guess you wouldn’t have a problem eating roadkill either. Not only do I have a problem eating that, but again, I don’t want my kids eating it, and I wouldn’t want my dog eating it. I just want good healthy beef the way God intended it, not the way man has disguised it…