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Monday, March 26, 2012

Small Victories

Small victories have been gained in the war against fake food and over processed unhealthy food in that the USDA will now give schools the choice to have meat without pink slime. Pink slime is a meat byproduct of part of the animal that are less desirable, and usually more at risk to harbor bacteria and other nasties. They are ground into an ultra fine paste and treated with ammonia and other sorts of toxic chemicals and dyed into pink slime and frozen into blocks and shipped and used as a meat filler to stretch and lower the cost of meat. These products have most notably been used in chicken nuggets and beef,pork, and chicken patties, also bulk ground beef.
The Internet has been the bane of large companies who hide what our "food" actually contain, and how it is made. Last year an infamous picture circulated around cyberspace of a large fast food chain's manufacturing process of pink slime, and caused such an uproar that people could not believe that they themselves had been eating the snake like pink sludge coming out of a machine for years and that to keep it safe from food nasties it was cleansed with the same materials they use to clean their windows with.
That company, due to the overwhelming outcry, decided to not use pink slime anymore. We as consumers changed how a multinational billion dollar company makes its products armed only with our voices and the decisions we decide to make every time we purchase products.
This month the USDA responded with a choice for public schools to have product with the slime or not, I am assuming without will cost less or schools will have to contribute more of their own funds to stipend the better choice of the two. Also 3 major food chains have decided not to purchase products that contain the pink slime, and I really do applaud these stores, like Albertson's, and Safeway. My dollars will be headed their way, in thanks. I hope you will voice your choice for better more real foods by speaking out to your child's school, by writing your representatives regarding new legislature and bills regarding our farm regulations, organics, NON-GMO food labeling, FDA stringency and research, USDA regulatory stringency, and most of all because it speaks volumes more to deaf ears, in where your hard earned dollars are going. Make your voice be heard and flex your power of choice. Buy foods that are healthy and safe, support causes that make the purchasing of the food more available and more affordable. Support transparency in food labeling, and read the labels when they are presented. Cook for family, grow a garden, support local farmers, buy seasonal organic food, support companies trying to make a difference, and know how and what you can do to make a difference. Our generation is the first generation not expected to outlive our parents due to the status of our health. We eat worse, take more medicine, and suffer from more maladies from lack of caring for ourselves and our children. We are what we eat, and we can change, we can heal, we can thrive.
KEEP IT REAL, KEEP IT FRESH, KEEP IT SUSTAINABLE!

1 comment:

  1. Ask me how you can help or how to prepare a real meal! Ask away!
    Chef Dave

    ReplyDelete