Thanks for posting that information, FH. The whole story of ABC's attack on a fine beef product and a wonderful company producing it, is a sad affirmation that we cattle producers haven't learned our lesson about those 'circular firing squads' and seem to perpetuate assaults on the 'other branches' of cattle production, particularly the packers and processors, and sometimes the retailers.
We need to recognize that all of us from the genetics guru's to the burger flippers all up and down the chain of production which includes the cow/calf producer are in this together. Some of us are more dependent than others on our particular niche for our living, and others may only be peripherally involved. But we ALL have 'skin in the game' and to denigrate any part of the chain of beef production harms us all. And all that rhetoric from sniping comments to verbal near assignation against those 'corporates' who handle our product on a large scale is damaging at the best and the fact that the instigators seem determined for it to seriously, maybe even fatally damage those businesses is very damaging to all of us in every phase of cattle and beef production.
This is irrelevant except to demonstrate the egregiousness of the attack on BPI, the corporation producing LFTB: Tho it has been characterized as one of those 'evil' corporations, BPI was started by a hard working family who overcame challenges in their lives and came up with the methods used after a history of inventing better equipment to help previous employers, eventually building businesses of their own, finally the BPI company. This was NOT some giant group of people with money they didn't know what to do with dreaming up some product to fool people into buying.
It WAS an effort to stop wasting perfectly good beef which was too expensive to trim in the conventional ways as it was in small pieces and in difficult to access places on the carcass. It is ALL good muscle meat, and not some of the ugly things some people claim.
The televised 'demonstration' I saw from a TV show claimed to be demonstrating how LFTB was made. It was a fraud from the start because he used ground CHICKEN! Not beef. After crudely stirring it around in some sort of tub or bucket, he poured some household ammonia over it and stirred some more. Of course the mixing process is actually done in pristine conditions, with modern equipment and the material used to eliminate any possible e coli is in the form of a gas. That same gas is used on a huge number of food products and has been done for many years. That product is probably more safe and more wholesome than most other beef. My guess is that it has been tested in every way and for every thing reasonably possible to determine the safety of that product! The goals of utilizing good meat which was being wasted, and to produce a much leaner product than from most carcasses is what consumers have been demanding. The leadership of that company deserved praise and rewards, instead, too many of us watched that circus with glee at that 'big corporate outfit' being virtually destroyed!
mrj