Fast Food Nation What's in the Meat (ch9)

Précis: In Pueblo Colorado an outbreak of E. coli erupted causing much illness. By the time it was figured out that the source was hamburger beef 25 million pounds had already been sold. Centralization of food production (more specifically meat) has been the fault of widespread food borne illnesses. After World War 2 hamburgers became a popular dish, more often eaten by children for their ease of chewing, when an outbreak would occur they would be the one to pay the consequences. The E. coli comes from tainted meat, and the tainted meat comes from cattle living in their own shit literally. E. Coli can be found in 1 in every 100 cattle and even more common during the summer, and when McDonald's can use meat from up to hundreds of them in a single burger the odds don't look too good. Awareness came to public eye when the book Jungle was published by Upton Sinclair, legislation was passed after inspections and safety precautions were put in place. But now with so few inspections these safety regulations are severely lacking. After the severe outbreak of E. coli caused by the restaurant chain Jack in the Box, David M. Theno a food scientist pushed Jack in the Box for better safety regulations and eventually it spread to outside the chain. Even so, when there have been E. coli outbreaks companies would usually have to be pressured by the USDA to recall the beef and would usually recall much less than appropriate especially when the companies could get away with it. When Clinton was pressured for reform in the meatpacking industry a watered down version of his bill came into act where they would use chemicals to destroy most bacteria meaningless E. Coli. With fast food corporations pushing for safer food, much of the unsafe food arrives in school cafeterias. Even so, ridding food of bacteria falls a lot on the people who prepare it, and in many scenarios fast food teenage employees do grotesque things to the food served.

Gems: " The meatpacking industry is also working hard on get rid of the word 'irradiation' much preferring the phrase 'cold pasteurization'" (218)

"3 million pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994" (202)

"He became ill on  a Tuesday night, the night before his mothers birthday, and was dead by sunday afternoon" (200)

"Eve suffered terrible pain, had three heart attacks, and had died in her mother's arms" (199)

Thoughts and Questions: I question our democratic system when a corporation can have so much influence over legislation. If these corporations are influencing senators and house members to vote or not vote for something that is against the interest of the people, how then are they at all represented? Especially in the E. coli scenario where it is literally killing people.