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March Miscellany

A hodgepodge of some other tidbits I've been meaning to share over the last week:

In the ongoing story of the Westland/Hallmark Slaughterhouse debacle and ensuing beef recall, Westland/Hallmark president Steve Mendell testified before a congressional panel last week, contradicting his earlier written statements by admitting that it's possible downer cows from the plant entered the food chain. (Washington Post: Slaughterhouse Owner Backs Off Claims, New York Times: Meat Packer Admits Slaughter of Sick Cows)

Chinook (a.k.a. king) salmon have literally disappeared from Bay Area waters, meaning the regional fishery there will most likely remain closed through this year's season. The causes are unclear, and though populations farther north may still be fished this summer, don't expect your Alaskan king salmon to come cheap. (New York Times: Chinook Salmon Vanish Without a Trace)

The Times has led me to find a CSA with a pick-up location mere blocks from my apartment. YAY. Sunday's Dining & Wine section featured a piece about the folks behind Hearty Roots farm in Tivoli, NY. (New York Times: Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat)

And finally, yesterday I came upon the website of the Green Edge Collaborative, which is dedicated to discussing "how our consumption choices affect our social, environmental and economic worlds – in our local neighborhoods as well as the global community." I'm excited about this discovery and hope to attend the potluck on the 30th, since home composting is at the top of this spring's to-do list. Report to come!

Massive Beef Recall Stemming from Hallmark Slaughterhouse Video

Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Company, otherwise known as the proprietors of the slaughterhouse whose disgusting abuse of cows was captured on video by a Humane Society worker, have issued a recall for 143 million pounds of beef. It's biggest recall of beef in history and includes meat that entered the marketplace as far back as two years ago. That last bit indicates that this recall is as much a PR gesture as it is out of genuine concern for the public health, since most of that beef has already been consumed and Westland/Hallmark insists the rest of it actually poses little threat to the health of those who eat it.

The New York Times ran an editorial about the recall today, emphasizing that it points to a much greater problem with our food inspection program. (Here I felt a little wave of validation for my mini-rant about the same issue in comment #61 about cloned meat.) And how:

The [Humane Society video] surfaced after a year of increasing concerns about the safety of the meat supply amid a sharp increase in the number of recalls tied to a particularly deadly form of the E. coli pathogen. There were 21 recalls of beef related to the potentially deadly strain of E. coli last year, compared with eight in 2006 and five in 2005.

At the moment, the Westland/Hallmark web site consists solely of a sort of splash page, with a letter dated February 3, 2008 to the public from its president. I realize it's beside the point, but oh my gosh! Did no one proofread this business? Anyway, he concludes his letter with these words:

I proudly assure our customers that we comply with all USDA requirements, including the requirement that only ambulatory livestock may enter the harvest facility to be processed for human food. I am confident that we have met this high regulatory standard.

Curious.

The Ethicurean: 143 million pounds of beef recalled — but not to worry 
New York Times: The Biggest Beef Recall Ever (editorial)

Abuse of Cows at Slaughterhouse, New Disease Associated with Pig Slaughter

Via The Ethicurean: The Humane Society has posted video on their website of abuse of downed dairy cows at a slaughterhouse in California. Please be aware that the footage below is very graphic.

The footage was shot by a worker at the slaughterhouse and shows downed cows ― cows that are unable to stand on their own due to poor health and injury ― being abused with high-pressure hoses and forklifts, and being dragged by their legs with bulldozers. Though the video was produced by the Humane Society itself, I think it's pretty safe to say that this material is objectively appalling. (For more, see Cheap Meat, narrated by the HSUS worker who went undercover to film this footage.)

Also regarding slaughterhouses, the Washington Post ran an article today about a disease thought to be associated with slaughtering pigs at Quality Pork Processors in Minnesota.

Washington Post: Inhaling Pig Brains May Be Cause of New Illness

USDA Weighs In On Cloned Meat

I was momentarily hopeful to see the headline in Wednesday's Washington Post, "USDA Recommends That Food From Clones Stay Off the Market." Then I started reading, and it turns out that recommendation is only temporary:

Bruce I. Knight, the USDA's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, requested an ongoing "voluntary moratorium" to buy time for "an acceptance process" that Knight said consumers in the United States and abroad will need, "given the emotional nature of this issue."

Thanks, USDA. That's awful sweet.

More disturbing, though, is the fact that meat from the offspring of cloned animals has apparently been on the market for quite some time, despite a request from the FDA not to enter these animals into the food chain. No particular surprise that it wasn't made public, I suppose, since many proponents of cloned meat don't even want to label the stuff that will legitimately enter the marketplace.

I remain highly skeptical that meat and milk from cloned animals pose no more a health threat than those from non-cloned animals, but that issue aside, it disturbs me to no end when consumers are not given the choice to know what they are buying and eating. Sure, farms that don't raise cloned animals could theoretically go the route of producers of non-GMO foods and label their meat and dairy "non-cloned," but why on earth should that burden befall the people that are not doing it?

Well on that note, it's the end of the work day. I think I will not stay at my office any longer.

Déjà Moo

Good morning, world.

And what a wonderful day it is, because today! Today it's officially safe to eat meat from cloned animals in the United States.

The European Union's Food Safety Agency made its announcement to this effect this past Friday, with the Food and Drug Administration expected to follow suit shortly thereafter. Well, the Washington Post has obtained a copy of the FDA's report, which has not yet been officially released, and it indeed draws the conclusion that meat from cloned pigs, cows, and goats is no less safe to eat than meat from their non-cloned counterparts. That is all they are at liberty to conclude, however:

"Moral, religious and ethical concerns . . . have been raised," the agency notes in a document accompanying the report. But the risk assessment is "strictly a science-based evaluation," it reports, because the agency is not authorized by law to consider those issues.

Like Bonnie over at the Ethicurean, I'm kind of horrified that these conclusions were drawn after mere months of study. The FDA research is based on an inconsistent pool of animals, and because it is so difficult to determine what will actually predict the safety of food from cloned animals, the FDA is just going with what's (only kind of) worked so far:

...agency scientists decided to use the same simple but effective standard used by farmers since the dawn of agriculture: If a farm animal appears in all respects to be healthy, then presume that food from that animal is safe to eat.

Somehow, I'm not reassured... E. coli, anyone? Added bonus: as of now, when that cloned meat starts hitting the grocery shelves, it will not be required to be labeled as such, à la the current guidelines for genetically modified foods.

Though the few articles I've looked at this morning haven't really touched on this, the only point I can see in cloning animals for food is to give cloning companies business and boost meat production in the States, like we need it. Is that so crazy, or am I missing something? Well, count me among the folks who would rather eat meat from a known farm upstate once every couple of days than have cloned meat from who knows where for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

New York Times: Cloned Animals Safe to Eat, FDA Concludes
Washington Post: FDA Says Clones Are Safe For Food
Washington Post: Animal Cloning: A Risk Assessment (excerpts from the FDA report)
The Ethicurean: FDA approves food from cloned animals

Dinner For Us Lazy People

At the Tompkins Square Park farmer's market this past Sunday, I realized that New York City is in a state of produce limbo.  Lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, and other delicious goodies are losing their luster, while apples, pumpkins, and other fall fruits and veggies haven't quite come into their own yet.  I secured some surprisingly good peaches, but otherwise it was not a produce-heavy trip this time.

Instead, I took advantage of Stannard Farm's extensive choice of meats.  On my last trip to this market, I bought some of their nitrate-free uncured bacon.  It's thickly cut and incredibly rich, but not too salty.  I cooked the last of it at breakfast before heading to the market, so of course the void needed to be filled. 

I also got a pound of their grass-fed ground beef, which I used in my dinner this evening.  The beef was a beautiful deep red, and even after cooking it with vegetables and seasonings it maintained a very rich, beef-y aroma and flavor. 

After a long day I often find it hard to muster up the energy to cook any kind of extensive meal, so tonight I compromised and cooked something that wouldn't take too much effort or time, but still tasted yummy and was not peanut butter crackers or a bowl of cereal (both are specialties of mine, I'll have you know).  So, it was taco night.

Not Blogging, Still Eating

I'm not dead or otherwise incapacitated.  I'm just a graduate student.  As such, I have been feeding myself quite poorly for the last two weeks, because I've been consumed by new classes, new homework, a new babysitting gig, and no sleep. 

There have been a handful of shining culinary moments, however.  As soon as I can secure the official menu from the evening, I'll be posting in detail about my friend Will's 30th birthday dinner, which was held at the new Park Slope restaurant Palo Santo, thanks to the generosity of chef/owner (and Will's friend) Jacques Gautier.

I also enjoyed a delicious dinner at 12th Street Bar and Grill this past Saturday.  12th Street (1123 8th Avenue, Brooklyn) has been a favorite of mine for brunch since moving to the neighborhood (their Sunday Eggs and chicken-apple breakfast sausage are mouth-watering), but it's taken me three years to finally get there for dinner. 

I was tempted by their burger, which comes highly recommended from various sources.  At $8, I am guessing that means it's worth it.  But I decided instead to go with the appetizer special of goat cheese croquettes with caramelized onions, daikon radish sprouts, and tomato coulis, and then a medium-rare hanger steak au poivre with seasonal greens and pommes frites.

The croquettes were delicious, but there were far too many onions than were necessary for the three of them.  Never one to want food to go to waste, I piled the rest on a slice of 12th Street's house bread (flavored with anise seeds) and polished it off.  Not bad.

The hanger steak was very good and cooked just right.  I'd remarked on the way into the restaurant that the place across the street (Johnny Mack's) has delicious french fries, but little did I know that the pommes frites at 12th Street are pretty spectacular themselves.  My only beef with them (ha ha) was that they were salted too heavily, which made them a little less desirable on their own. Combined with the steak and the greens, though, they were just right.  So perhaps the salt was strategic.

One of the things I've always enjoyed about 12th Street is the decor.  It has high tin ceilings that are painted a dark pewter color, nice ambient lighting, and an ever-changing selection of artwork on the white walls.  Al Green playing in the background was a smooth touch. 

My dinner experience was proof positive that 12th Street isn't a one trick brunch pony; their food is the real deal.  When all was said and done, though, I had positively no room for dessert, so a square from my stash of Green and Black's Maya Gold organic chocolate bar did the trick at the end of the night.

Lots of Manhattanites refuse to make the trip to Brooklyn just to eat out (don't even get me started), but regardless, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, 12th Street is definitely a safe bet for a good and affordable meal (brunch will run you about $15, and entrées range from $16 to $22).