May 10th, 2005 - Fast Food Nation and buying meat
Eric and I have both read Fast Food Nation
Mr Schlosser carefully details how food is processed in the US, particularly meat but also potatoes (French Fries) and a few other products. What impressed me was the change from small, local producers to mass farms and production facilities. One might think that cleanliness, for instance, would be easier to attain in a large, controlled environment. At least in the facilities he toured and heard about, definitely not.
Interestingly, fast food restaurants are probably a healthier, food-borne illness-wise, place to buy meat compared to the grocery store or public school cafeterias. Why? As soon as there’s an incident of illness, the companies immediately (well, eventually when the word gets out and they can’t contain it) insist of higher standards from their processors. The USDA, which provides and buys the meat for schools, does no such thing. At least at the time of the writing, they could and did buy some of the worst meat available. (The problem with the USDA is that they are responsible for promoting our nation’s food supplies and at the same time restricting and inspecting them. And guess who has the money–not the USDA or small farms! Our food turns out the worse for wear because of this.)
So Saturday morning we finally made it out to Cattleana Ranch to buy grass-fed, pasture raised beef (and a couple free range chickens). We’re having a pot roast tonight! My first pasture beef since I was a kid…..