Solyent pink

USDA is buying 7 million pounds of it-came-from-cattle-but-it’s-not-meat for school lunches.

“Custer said he first encountered the product — which gained fame recently as ‘pink slime’ in part due to the efforts of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — back in the late 1990s. Despite voicing his concerns to other officials at the food inspection service, however, the USDA ruled that Lean Beef Trimmings were safe. ‘The word in the office was that undersecretary JoAnn Smith pushed it through, and that was that,’ Custer said.

“Appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Smith had deep ties with the beef industry, serving as president of both the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and the of the National Cattlemen’s Association.

…

“Neither BPI, nor Smith, who now serves on the board of directors at Tyson Foods, responded to The Daily’s request for comment on this story.”

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/05/030512-news-pink-slime-1-3/

Now, before you go jumping up and down, chortling “Bush did it! Bush did it!” just remember whose Agriculture Department is buying the stuff now. Or, as Clayton Kramer says: “For all Michelle Obama's concern with healthy eating for the children, it does not seem to extend to shutting off the money going to a Tyson Foods division.”

http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/2012/03/your-children-may-never-eat-school.html