Manning Beef, LLC - Where's The Beef?

by Dick Mac

There is another food recall.

The Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a recall notice for the recall of bee tainted with E.coli.

One of the thing "conservatives" have promised us over the past three decades is that removal of burdensome regulation will lead to a healthier market, more and better-paying jobs, better products, higher profits, and satori. Well, OK, not the last bit about satori, but they have promised all the rest.

It took a little time for us to get this de-regulation thing going full-steam, but Bill Clinton and George W Bush did a remarkable amount of de-regulation in a very slick way: did not close any of the regulatory agencies, they followed Reagan's method and simply staffed them with the CEOs of the industries that are being regulated by those agencies. At the same time, Congress has slowly, but steadily, passed laws that take the teeth out of most agency rules enforcement.

E.coli is discussed at wikipedia.org:

E. coli and related bacteria constitute about 0.1% of gut flora, and fecal-oral transmission is the major route through which pathogenic strains of the bacterium cause disease. Cells are able to survive outside the body for a limited amount of time, which makes them ideal indicator organisms to test environmental samples for fecal contamination. The bacterium can also be grown easily and inexpensively in a laboratory setting, and has been intensively investigated for over 60 years. E. coli is the most widely studied prokaryotic model organism, and an important species in the fields of biotechnology and microbiology, where it has served as the host organism for the majority of work with recombinant DNA.
See, Escherichia coli

What this says, generally, is that E.coli is most commonly spread when poo gets in your food.

Food recalls are on the rise.

The USDA is not staffed to inspect the number of factories in its purview.

So, there is poo in your beef. And there will be more poo in your food as time goes on.

The current recall is from Manning Beef, LLC, of Pico Rivera, California. About 80,000 pounds of poo-beef has been distributed.

This is a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall, meaining there is a chance that eating the poo-beef will cause serious illness or death

The USDA defines it:

Class I Recall: This is a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.

WASHINGTON, Sep 30, 2011 - Manning Beef, LLC, a Pico Rivera, Calif. establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 80,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The following products are subject to recall:

• Combo bins of BroPack Inc Beef Manufacturing Trimmings "65/35, 50/50 or 85/15" produced on Sept. 23, 2011.
• Combo bins of Paso Prime Beef Manufacturing Trimmings "65/35, 50/50 or 85/15" produced on Sept. 23, 2011.
• 30 and 60 lb. boxes of primal cuts, subprimal cuts and boxed beef produced on Sept. 23, 2011.

See more at: California Firm Recalls Beef Products Due To Possible E. Coli O157:H7 Contamination

Fortunately, at this time, nobody has been reported sick or dead from the tainted beef.

Where's The Beef?

Remember that ad with the little old lady demanding to know "Where's the beef?" I remember it as being funny, but I don't recall the product being advertised. And I don't really care what product was being advertised, either.

I do know where the beef ISN'T, and that is in South Korea. That nation, one of our staunchest allies, has had a ban on the import of American beef for many years, because they do not believe we can guarantee the safety of our beef.

They are correct, of course.

The conservatives who have taken over our nation and run the country into the ground, insist that our beef is safe. Of course they do!

Conservatives from Ronald Reagan to Hillary Clinton have been deregulating American industry for over twenty-five years, with the help of liberals like Ted Kennedy.

Federal oversight has been gutted, every federal agency has been decimated. Inspectors and auditors have been fired, their positions eliminated through attrition. Federal agencies are run by C-level executives from the industries they are supposed to police. Nobody in the United States can be assured that any product from baby toys to filet mignon to puppy chow is safe, anymore. And the rest of the world knows this and they don't want any part of our garbage products.

Even the South Koreans, who if asked would invent a way to wipe our asses if it meant more off-shoring of jobs from the United States to the exurbs of Seoul.

So, the current pro-America regime in South Korea has been bullied into lifting the ban on American beef. They've been told that if they don't buy our beef they will lose their preferred trading partner status. This means that China will get all the jobs making our flat screen televisions, Blu-Ray disc players, vacuum cleaners, and learning how to wipe our asses.

Beef is a huge part of the Korean diet, and the citizens want no part of American beef. So they have taken to the streets and created a crisis within the ruling party.

Associated Press is reporting that 80,000 Koreans marched in Seoul, which means that about 1,000,000 are probably marching in Seoul. BBC is reporting only that many thousands are protesting. Both outlets report that over 20,000 riot police are deployed, which means there must be a lot more than 80,000 protesters, because the ratio of police:demonstrators is never 1:4, it is usually more like 1:100 or more.

You see, we regulate information the same way we regulate beef, banking, energy, and telecommunications: only to the degree it serves the ends of the conservative agenda that is eating away America's soul, savings, and spirit.

I say: Good for the Koreans! Don't eat crappy beef, if you don't want to!

But, if you could open a few more factories to lower the price of flat-screen TVs and get to work figuring out how to wipe my ass cheaper than I can do it myself, I would be most appreciative!