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Here is how you make the substance known to the industry as Lean Finely Textured Beef, and to everyone else as Pink Slime.
Dump fatty bits and gristle into a vat. Heat it up and centrifuge it to spin out most of the fat. That takes care of the "lean" part of the name, and probably the "finely textured" part too, since the process seems designed to convert anything into goo.
Since most of this stuff was from near the skin of the carcass and, therefore, prone to be infected with bacteria, you now season to taste with ammonia. Then you compress it into blocks.
This stuff is mixed back into the hamburger you, or your local School Lunch Program, buys. Don't look for it to be listed on the label, though. The FDA has decided this stuff is beef, so the seller doesn't have to list it as a separate ingredient. If you're like me, you've been eating it for years and never knew it, until you discovered the fact recently, and were revolted.
Now steps in Iowa Governor Terry Branstead -- Republican, of course-- to call for an investigation of all this. Not an investigation of how the FDA could rule that reprocessed, ammonia-treated garbage could be called "beef," oh no. Rather he wants the head of whoever inconvenienced the Honest Businessmen by pointing out that they, the Honest Businessmen, were selling reprocessed garbage as meat.
He is a good honest politician, is Mr. Branstead. I'm sure the $150,000 he got from the company that makes this stuff had nothing to do with his stand on the issue. And it is so refreshing to see one of the leaders of our Democracy who has his priorities so well in order.
Dump fatty bits and gristle into a vat. Heat it up and centrifuge it to spin out most of the fat. That takes care of the "lean" part of the name, and probably the "finely textured" part too, since the process seems designed to convert anything into goo.
Since most of this stuff was from near the skin of the carcass and, therefore, prone to be infected with bacteria, you now season to taste with ammonia. Then you compress it into blocks.
This stuff is mixed back into the hamburger you, or your local School Lunch Program, buys. Don't look for it to be listed on the label, though. The FDA has decided this stuff is beef, so the seller doesn't have to list it as a separate ingredient. If you're like me, you've been eating it for years and never knew it, until you discovered the fact recently, and were revolted.
Now steps in Iowa Governor Terry Branstead -- Republican, of course-- to call for an investigation of all this. Not an investigation of how the FDA could rule that reprocessed, ammonia-treated garbage could be called "beef," oh no. Rather he wants the head of whoever inconvenienced the Honest Businessmen by pointing out that they, the Honest Businessmen, were selling reprocessed garbage as meat.
He is a good honest politician, is Mr. Branstead. I'm sure the $150,000 he got from the company that makes this stuff had nothing to do with his stand on the issue. And it is so refreshing to see one of the leaders of our Democracy who has his priorities so well in order.
