Audio By Carbonatix
Governor Rick Perry publicly endorsed “lean, finely textured beef” today. Governors from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and the Lt. Gov. Matt Michels, standing in for South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who is in China, jointly issued the statement intending to clarify public perception of “pink slime.”
Pink-slime producer Beef Products Inc. operates facilities in each of those states, and recently halted operations at three of its plants in response to free-falling demand for the product caused by a media backlash.
Its product is 95 percent lean, according to the release (other BPI officials have listed the product at 97 and 98 percent lean) and is a “nutritious, safe, quality and affordable beef product eaten by Americans for 20 years.”
Governor Perry’s release echos other statements issued by BPI and goes on to threaten that consumers will end up bearing the costs associated with removing BPI’s product, which is used as a filler in beef manufacturing processes, as the price of ground beef rises.
But Americans have been consuming less meat year after year since 2007, calling into question Perry’s assertion that ranchers will have to work to raise as many as 1.5 million more head of cattle to replace the processed beef should it be completely removed from our food supply.
“Science supports keeping the lean beef product on grocery store shelves,” Perry said. But food advocates contend that the product harbors pathogens such as E.coli and salmonella, represents the over-industrialization of the national food supply and has no place in the American diet.
