• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

BPI sues ABC

S

strawking

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
125
Location
Hemingford, NE
Beef Products Inc. Is suing ABC news along with Diane Sawyer for their defamation of pink slime. They are going for 1.2 billion if I heard right, and I hope they nail them. I think the media needs a good gut check for all the crap they say. They say it will be a tough case but they have support of the governors of Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Texas.
 
I put on my flame proof panties to say this. "Pink slime" was handed to the news media on a platter. When the process was developed, there should have been news releases heralding it as an advancement in food science. It was "green", getting X percent more usable beef from every carcass. There should have been special products made from it, labeled low fat, low cholesterol and all the other tags that are so favorable to today's consumers. But did they do any of that? No. They quietly snuck it into ground beef, without changing the labeling, downgrading the texture and flavor of the ground beef. Then act all surprised when it blows up in their face? Really?
 
So they snuck beef into beef and its their own fault because they didn't label it BEEF? It's just lean beef, no difference in taste and treated for bacteria the exact same way they treat chocolate. The unemployment rate is all they talk about with this election and that slanderous name they threw out there put over 700 people out of work.
 
And do you think if they labeled everything that they used beef or beef by products in that city people would buy them? They also extract pork and chicken meat the same way but abc just for got to mention that.
 
MO_cows said:
I put on my flame proof panties to say this. "Pink slime" was handed to the news media on a platter. When the process was developed, there should have been news releases heralding it as an advancement in food science. It was "green", getting X percent more usable beef from every carcass. There should have been special products made from it, labeled low fat, low cholesterol and all the other tags that are so favorable to today's consumers. But did they do any of that? No. They quietly snuck it into ground beef, without changing the labeling, downgrading the texture and flavor of the ground beef. Then act all surprised when it blows up in their face? Really?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, which is worth a whole lot of nothing, this has been the problem with most of the "new" advancements in ag. We don't promote them to the general public. If they would have gotten the Greenies and HSUS behind them, by saying they were going to produce more pounds of beef, from less killed cattle, it would have gone a whole bunch better.

No, its not BPI fault for producing the "pink slime" but they opened their door to a complete bunch of no nothing people, then sprung on them the process they were using. The interviewers were probably "grossed out" from the kill floor, and then when this "new" process is presented, they took it and ran.
We need to be promoting our products everyday, in a positive light. While I might see roping a calf and doctoring it as a daily part of life, Joe Public sees someone abusing both the calf and the horse. We are the speakers in agriculture, whether we want to be or not.
 
But its not a NEW product they have been doing this for several years. And it is labeled, not as pink slime of course, but as mechanically separated beef. Look at a hungry man meal, it says right on the label mechanically separated beef pork and chicken. I do agree the public needs to be more informed about ag and the products we are producing. But when the media puts a name like pink slime on a beef product it really hurts our industry. Now a million pounds of beef a day get turned into fertilizer instead of a more valuable edible product. And with the ever growing population that critics say we soon won't be able to feed.
 
LazyWP said:
MO_cows said:
I put on my flame proof panties to say this. "Pink slime" was handed to the news media on a platter. When the process was developed, there should have been news releases heralding it as an advancement in food science. It was "green", getting X percent more usable beef from every carcass. There should have been special products made from it, labeled low fat, low cholesterol and all the other tags that are so favorable to today's consumers. But did they do any of that? No. They quietly snuck it into ground beef, without changing the labeling, downgrading the texture and flavor of the ground beef. Then act all surprised when it blows up in their face? Really?
Click to expand...

In my opinion, which is worth a whole lot of nothing, this has been the problem with most of the "new" advancements in ag. We don't promote them to the general public. If they would have gotten the Greenies and HSUS behind them, by saying they were going to produce more pounds of beef, from less killed cattle, it would have gone a whole bunch better.

No, its not BPI fault for producing the "pink slime" but they opened their door to a complete bunch of no nothing people, then sprung on them the process they were using. The interviewers were probably "grossed out" from the kill floor, and then when this "new" process is presented, they took it and ran.
We need to be promoting our products everyday, in a positive light. While I might see roping a calf and doctoring it as a daily part of life, Joe Public sees someone abusing both the calf and the horse. We are the speakers in agriculture, whether we want to be or not.
Click to expand...

I agree with both of you...The consumers shouldn't have had to learn what was in the food they were buying thru a documentary newscast... A little openness, transparency, and advertisement in the marketing could have made this sound like "a great new technological development"- rather than how it came out as "a sleazy back room hush hush throwing everything into the burger slipshod make more money for the packers scam".....
 
I agree this was as much a "beef industry" failure as anything. They can play victim now but they should have seen this coming.
 
I wonder about that! The 'new' product was not 'made' of anything different. Some parts of the process may have been a little different, but as an earlier comment stated, other meat products were similarly made.

The ammonia gas is used to protect LOTS of food products from bacteria.

The difference in this case clearly is an unhappy employee of BPI and another from USDA. There just may be others with 'axes to grind' involved.

And few in our national media would look very hard for facts when they could trash both a "big, evil factory" and a product (BEEF) many activists love to hate, along with someone perceived to be 'rich' from selling food that could be construed as somehow 'unhealthy'.

Then, there is the problem that many ag producers have in common: that it isn't proper to brag about what we do, or our successes. It really is hard to tell our story without seeming to be bragging, isn't it???

mrj
 
They didn't have to put 700 workers out of work. Why can't they still use pink slime in bologna, sausages and luncheon meats? That is where it belongs. Do I have to think of everything? or am I missing something?
 
Using Lean Finely Textured Beef in the fatty bologna products would be a travesty!

It was designed to be used to cut the fat in hamburger without cutting the nutrient content, possibly even increasing nutrition; and making it safer from e coli bacteria at the same time. Taste tests have proven it to be good tasting, too.

mrj
 
A travesty? Why? Its like floor sweepings, it would fit right into bologna.

Good tasting? No. It explains the weiner like consistancy of those fair bought mystery meat burgers I had bought in the past and refused to buy again for fear of having to throw out another.

I would think that the reason they don't use it in luncheon meats is because its too expensive to produce to not call it fresh ground beef.

Sure it may be "beef" but so is tongue, lips, cheeks, diaphragms, hearts and other creepy parts. FTB is a yuckky thing because people think of piles of entrails sitting in a big bin for who knows how long having whatever protein sucked out of it, mushed into gross looking blobs, blown with gas to reduce its putridness, then mixed in with perfectly good fresh ground beef. Consumers consider that adulteration, no matter how much beef is in FTB and how 'clean' it is.
It belongs in processed meats where people expect it to be... Why is that so hard to understand? :???:
 
We had a good product that folks like and yet we continue to find new ways to mess with it for a little more income. There is nothing wrong with fertilyzer where this product is well suited. This is why I don't eat hungry man dinners or any processed meat if it is at all avoidable. It might be all beef and legal but it sure isn't for me and it seems many other consumers. Leave the questionable practices to the chicken and pork industries instead of using them as an excuse to adulterate our product. This is why I raise my own beef and chicken.
 
Well said, per. Our "industry" should take the high road and try to produce a pleasing, palatable product, not be so concerned about fighting tooth and nail to try to do things that on a base level is a turnoff to 95% of the population including farmers and ranchers.
 
Guys, it is sure fun and even dearly held conviction to beliee that our good, hand raised, locally processed beef is far better than anything 'industry' or far away or co-mingled large scale feeding and processing can come up with.

However, the distribution to enough people to buy our 'local' production can't be cost effctive, can it???

Re. the LFTB facts have been truly skewed into outright false claims by some here.

It is ONLY used with the fatter hamburger to make it more appealing to more people.

LFTB is NOTHING BUT BEEF.

LFTB was NEVER "floor sweepings".

Your "fair bought mystery meat burgers" more likely contained soy or other extenders.

There are NO tongue, lips, cheeks, diaphragms, hearts, or ANYING but MUSCLE meat trimmed and the fat extracted in LFTB.

If you read the Ag news at the bottome of the home page for ranchersnet, titled "STUDY SHOWS LEAN BEEF IMPROVES BURGER Q", you would know all this, but maybe it is more fun to 'share' your beliefs without being troubled with facts?????

It is people in the business of raising beef making these false claims who do the REAL damage to our beef sales, IMO!

mrj
 
Well mrj I like facts and figures and sound science but for me this is about marketing. My customers are grossed out by extruded meat as are a great many which leads me to wish our industry would leave some of this to the chicken and pork folks and offer an unadulterated product. Hiding from peoples reaction is ignoring your customer. Our responsablility to the industry and customer is the same. Be honest. It honestly grosses me out. It is not imoral or illegal and you can flog it all you want but to suggest the industry would be better off if producers didn't talk about it is absurd.
 
Well said mrj. None of us ever said it was better not spoken of. But why do you think it now grosses people out? Maybe because the name pink slime was slandered all over the tv, and because of all the other bull crap they said. We all need to inform consumers more about beef. But do you think city slickers would be grossed out if they knew fat and connective tissue was used to make gum and jello and many other products. LTB is a good thing for our industry and it adds value to our product, ten times more than turning it into fertilizer.
 
per said:
Well mrj I like facts and figures and sound science but for me this is about marketing. My customers are grossed out by extruded meat as are a great many which leads me to wish our industry would leave some of this to the chicken and pork folks and offer an unadulterated product. Hiding from peoples reaction is ignoring your customer. Our responsablility to the industry and customer is the same. Be honest. It honestly grosses me out. It is not imoral or illegal and you can flog it all you want but to suggest the industry would be better off if producers didn't talk about it is absurd.
Click to expand...

Worth repeating!

Beef is supposed to be the cadillac of meat, not a mechanically separated salvage product. I bought some LFTB in a chub pack of burger when we were "between beef" at home and it was awful. I didn't expect it to taste as good as the home raised beef but the texture was mushy and unpleasant, too. Their taste panels had no taste if they think it doesn't downgrade the eating experience for ground beef. Use the product in processed foods like slim jims and such, leave the fresh beef alone.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top