Put down the hamburger!

If "Food Inc." wasn't enough to get you to rethink your supermarket purchases - or "Omnivore's Dilemma," of "Fast Food Nation," or any of the other contemporary screeds on the vagaries and dangers of our industrial meat system - I have something here that will. A story in the New York Times today that does a better job of tracing one hamburger than just about any other story I've ever seen. When food contamination scares start, we usually hear from the FDA that, well, it's just too hard to actually trace where our food comes from. The Times, in a feat of solid and persistent journalism, says differently. The story - about a 22 year-old dance instructor who is now paralyzed after eating hamburger meat contaminated with E. coli - is well worth a few minutes of your time for its startling findings. Like this jewel:

The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

Using a combination of sources — a practice followed by most large producers of fresh and packaged hamburger — allowed Cargill to spend about 25 percent less than it would have for cuts of whole meat.

I might suggest that you put down the hamburger and read this story. Then, if you're a bit sickened by the prospect of going to the store for beef, consult our farm locator and give a call to one of the myriad friendly farmers in our state who'd love to sell you a side a beef - grown here in a field in Alabama, and slaughtered here by someone you can actually meet! We've got a quarter of beef - split up between a few friends - coming to us at the end of the month. Drop us a line if you want some help or suggestions about where to find beef.

And be sure to read the article here.