143 MILLION POUNDS OF BEEF RECALLED

Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled 143 million... yes, million, pounds of beef from a southern California slaughterhouse.

The Chino-based facility is at the center of a case involving abusive behavior against livestock. It is against the law to slaughter sick livestock for consumption. So the workers of this plant were caught on tape doing all sorts of foul things to cattle so sick that they. The goal was to get them to stand up... then the could be slaughtered and be in your local grocery store before you could say "BSE."

Because this beef was not adequately tested it was all designated unfit for human consumption. This is the largest recall of beef in U.S. history. And while I am glad that this case was brought to light due to some good and fortunate investigative reporting, the fact that this country tests less than 5% of the beef introduced into the food system leaves me less than confident that we are not just scratching the surface here.

Then again, I stopped eating beef just over seven years ago.

USDA Recalls Beef