Thursday, November 11, 2010
Schlosser Chapter 9
In chapter 9 of Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, Schlosser exposes and discusses the very dangerous flaws in the meatpacking industry. I found it extremely disturbing that when a large supply of meat was discovered to have been tainted with E. coli, the consumers were still unaware of the harmful bacteria that was lurking in their foods. Though action was taken, it was the steps and manner in which it was done that had proven to be poor and ultimately ineffective. On page 194 of Schlosser's Fast Food Nation he clearly states, " Roughly 35 million pounds of ground beef.. was voluntarily recalled. By the time it was announced, about 25 million pounds of the ground beef had already been eaten". With such an obscene number like 25 million pounds of contaminated beef having already been eaten, one can only guess how many people were sickened by the very slow and unsuccessful recall that followed. Mothers unknowingly feeding their children infected hamburgers, fast food restaurants spewing hamburger after hamburger along with other beef products, it's disgusting. Being a fast food fanatic myself, I would be furious to know that there is a great possibility that I have eaten, or will eat tainted meat. There are people getting violently ill because of this very thing, and I blame the health officials who are doing such an inadequate job when they should be putting their consumers first.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey Amanda!!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, even though me are responsibles of research, what at the end of the day is our food, officials in the matter should take action and try to find a solution for the diseases' growth. And also is shcking how even before a company can recall its product people have already consumed that inmense quantity of meat!!!! I honestly believe that the source of the problem is the crazy amount of food people are consuming...... But as I said already, officials should be doing their jobs.
The most disturbing part of the quote for me wasnt how much of the meat was contaminated, it was how much red meat Americans eat in a month's time. It just goes to show how important it is to properly care for the meat because of how many people can be affected by the contamination.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you agree :)! I don't know why the people in charge of what we consume and our general welfare when it comes to food, why they would wait until AFTER consumers began to get sick to test the meat for bacteria?? It makes no sense and I believe if they would have examined the beef before hand, this entire thing could have been prevented. This should be a lesson for the health officials, but somehow I can tell that it is going to take many more outbreaks for producers and officials to change the way they operate.
ReplyDeleteMT, if this was facebook I would 'Like' your comment lol. But on a more serious note, that very thing is what bothered me the most. I couldn't believe such a large amount of contaminated meat was put out there. I know all the producers are concerned about is mass production and profit, but how is it that our health officials sit back and let this happen as if it weren't their problem?? After years and years of contaminated food outbreaks, you think there would be a law to keep incidents like this from happening, endangering the lives of so many people.
ReplyDelete