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The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 required that all states either allow federal meat inspection, or raise their standards to that of the federal government’s within two years.

In 1971, the Government Accounting Office re-examined this USDA inspection program by dropping in on sixty-eight poultry plants, which then accounted for 19 percent of all US poultry processing.

The GAO found “unacceptable” sanitation in “most of them.” Unacceptable meaning dirty equipment, lack of pest control. Not to mention dirty floors, walls, and overhead structures. Poultry was found contaminated with fecal matter, bile, and feathers. That alone is enough reason for me to be vegan.
In 1993, thirty of these poultry plants were temporarily shut down by the USDA because of the astronomical amounts of fecal contamination.

Why is this? Let’s examine:

It takes a clinical laboratory at least twenty-four hours to determine what is causing an infection in a human being; however, a meat inspector is expected to determine if meat is free from infection in as little as two seconds.

In a typical poultry plant, about five lay inspectors examine approximately 48,000 birds daily. These birds pass by on a conveyor belt at the rate of one-hundred per minute, which gives the inspectors only a few seconds per bird. So he can look at it. Maybe smell it. If he’s lucky (or unlucky) he can touch it. All of this in the midst of dangerous, noisy machinery.

So what happens if the inspector happens to see an infected part? The diseased part is cut out, and the rest ends up in your grocer’s freezer.

In addition, spoiled meat is dealt with “economically”. One grocery chain veteran described how meat was managed in the business.

If a ham stays in a display case for an extended period, it begins to develop flecks of mold on its surface. When this happens, the ham is washed in a sink full of hot water. In some cases, the ham is left in the water until it is cool. It is then re-wrapped and placed back in the display for sale. If it continues to not sell, it is ground up with hot spices and barbecue powder and sold as “deluxe ham loaf.”

If poultry doesn’t sell, it is cut into pieces and sold at inflated prices as “tender bits” or “choice chicken.” Sometimes these pieces are advertised with something like, “Packed fresh in store daily!” This is truth if you realize that the packaging is fresh… not the meat.

Hearings before a Senate investigating committee revealed that a famous brand meat packer on the West Coast regularly sold meat on a commission basis. If a retailer couldn’t sell the meat (for reasons like “moldy”, “sour”, discolored”, and “slimy”), it could be returned to the packer who would repack and recirculate the meat. For example, the packer would accept a return for spare ribs that were slimy and discolored. Then, they would “rejuvenate” them by curing or smoking, and give them a regal sounding name like “Windsor Loins.” They would then be sold to ghetto stores for more than the price of fresh pork chops anywhere else. Vandenberg Air Force Base was one of the prime markets for this meat.

Consumer Reports once did a study on the quality of hamburgers available to the average consumer. The test supplies included 126 samples of ready-ground hamburger. The following is the result:

“Food technologists generally agree that putrefecation has set in when the bacteria count reaches 10 million bacteria per gram of hamburger. By that measure, about 20 percent of the samples we analyzed had begun to spoil. One obviously putrefied sample tested at 180 million bacteria per gram.”

Coliform bacteria is an indication of fecal contamination. Because of this, most states have a very low limits for it; sometimes as low as 10 coliform per gram. The same Consumer Reports study reported that about 21 percent of their samples contained 100-1,000 per gram, and a whopping 52 percent contained 1,000 or more per gram.

The verdict: You can’t stop meat from being infected with bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It’s simply the nature of meat. It spoils. Period. Some people want to blame the USDA and its inspectors. But can you really blame them? I don’t think so. Their’s is an impossible task. On the flipside, you also can’t assume that meat is wholesome just because it’s been inspected.

The solution: don’t eat it! Be vegan!

Don’t forget to check out our vegan recipes on the recipes page!

Until next time,

For all you Boca Burger fans out there, Johnny Rocket’s has stepped it up a little for their vegan and vegetarian customers. It’s called the Streamliner, and it consists of a Boca Burger on a bun with grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mustard.

This is what they have to say about it’s ingredients:

” At Johnny Rockets we strive to meet the needs of all of our guests. The Boca Burger patty that we use in our Streamliner is their Original V35 and is manufactured as a vegan product. Our spec hamburger buns should not contain any dairy nor other animal-derived ingredients. Our American fries also should not contain ingredients which are of animal origin and are always cooked in 100% vegetable oil. Beef tallow, or flavorings derived from animal sources, are never intentionally added during the manufacturing or cooking process. However you should be aware that, due to the proximity of the manufacturing equipment to sources of animal protein or oil from animal sources there is the slight, though extremely unlikely, possibility that traces of these unwanted products may be accidentally transferred to our American fries during their production. For this reason, and this reason only, we feel compelled to list beef tallow as a possible (however extremely unlikely) ingredient.

“Please be aware that we designate a special area of the grill on which to cook only the Boca Burger and we do everything in our power to keep the area free from other materials. We also have special color-coded turners and tongs which help to keep cross-contamination to a minimum. However due to the limited space and tight kitchen layout at Johnny Rockets we cannot guarantee that there will not be unintentional contact with some small amount of material from an item which is of animal in nature.”

If you’re interested in trying this vegan burger, you can get one free with the purchase of another sandwich, side, and drink! So get a coupon at Vegcooking.com, and take a non-vegan friend!

I personally don’t eat pickles or mustard, but it didn’t hurt the burger. Delicious!

“If men today were simple in their habits, living in harmony with nature’s laws, there would be an abundant supply for all the neds of the human family. There would be fewer imaginary wants, and more opportunity to work in God’s ways.”

Ellen G. White
August 12, 1897
Signs of the Times
“Feeding the Five Thousand”

Half of the world suffers from malnutrition.

America has enjoyed a sufficient supply of grain crop, even enough to export to other countries… until a few years ago. Population began outgrowing crop supply.

President Bush’s Science Advisory Committee is quoted as saying that, “The world’s food problem is not a future threat. It is here and now.”

So what can we do? What are our options? Well, we could all eat a little less; however, this is not realistic, considering that half the world doesn’t have enough food to begin with.

Another option is changing what we eat. One fourth of an acre (or less) is all that is needed to feed a person for a year if he lives on a vegetarian (or better yet, vegan) diet. On the contrary, three acres or more are needed if a person relies on animal protein for food.

Consider this: A cow must consume one hundred calories to produce 10 calories in meat. It takes 21 pounds of protein fed cattle to get one pound of protein in return. Pigs and chickens have a slightly better output, but not enough to make mention of.

Here’s another perspective: Eighteen million tons of protein are lost in this “feed-to-meat” transaction every year in the U.S. alone. Had this wasted protein been fed directly to the worlds starving people, it would have met 90% of the world’s protein deficiency.

Just something to chew on.