Page 54 - Fall2011
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All Thumbs Book Reviews
Making Supper Safe: food. That beef commingled meat from animals
One Man’s Quest to Learn the Truth from three U.S. states and one South American
about Food Safety country. It also contained a cost-saving—to
By Ben Hewitt Cargill, of course—beef by-product of rendered,
Rodale Books 2011 centrifuged and ammoniated carcass remnants
identified as “fine lean textured beef.” Cargill
Ben Hewitt sets out to examine the public produced millions of pounds of this processed
health disasters caused by our industrialized, beef product weekly from just two facilities
centralized food and agriculture behemoth as and sold it as “American Chef’s Selection Beef
it lurches and stumbles in its death throes. This Patties.” Nine hundred and forty people were
ugly, violent phase shows no signs of ending sickened by this contaminated meat, including
quickly, and the monster crushes and maims one woman left permanently paralyzed.
randomly as it falls to its knees again and again. FDA and USDA, whose purported jobs are
Alas, after each catastrophe, others strain to prop to protect the public from mass poisoning, fall
it upright once more, to continue its merciless down on the job—at least as far as policing of
and deadly stumble for another day and another the monolithic food industry is concerned—from
Although we dollar. the perspective of a naïve and trusting public.
My evil-giant characterization of the prob-
Processing facilities are inspected by FDA on
may have lem of food safety, straight out of a modern-day average once in seven years, and even in the case
become tale from the brothers Grimm, is close to what of outright documented contamination, FDA can
almost inured Hewitt comes to himself in the course of his only issue toothless “suggestions for correction.”
survey of the most recent food contamination Meanwhile, the wheels of the industry never stop;
to regular disasters in this country. How and why do these company heads never stand trial for poisoning
news of food disasters continue? A toxic mix of near total or killing people. The industry may pay hefty
recalls and consolidation of agribusiness, an out-of-sight fines for violations, but this financial liability
food processing mega-industry, and government has already been factored into its operating ex-
poisonings, regulatory agencies largely in collusion with both penses, and anyway the consumer pays for it in
the scale of has left the unaware U.S. citizen—the hapless, the final product cost. FDA staff members are
the numbers clueless consumer—vulnerable to injury and frequently recycled employees and advisers from
even death.
the very same food and biotech industries the
involved Although we may have become almost agency is supposed to oversee. They insure that
remains inured to regular news of food recalls and the infamous “revolving door” between industry
mind- poisonings, the scale of the numbers involved and government oversight is well oiled for this
remains mind-boggling: millions of pounds corrupt fraternity of “business as usual.”
boggling: of meat or billions of eggs, for example. Most State and federal regulatory agencies come
millions of Americans are completely ignorant of the ways truly alive with military zeal only when they
pounds of these products arrive on supermarket shelves, learn of citizens who have decided to circumvent
and to the fact that in most cases there are only this rotten system by forging direct relation-
meat or two or three gigantic processing plants that ships with small farmers to provide them with
billions of supply—or potentially poison—the entire na- wholesome food. In numerous examples, all well
eggs, for tion. Hewitt uses the 2007 incident of Cargill’s known to Wise Traditions readers, Hewitt docu-
bacteria-contaminated ground beef to illustrate ments the appalling thuggery these agencies and
example. how dimly we understand what is really in our their henchmen wage against small farmers and
54 Wise Traditions FALL 2011 FALL 2011 Wise Traditions
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