Beat The Meat Essay

The quality of the meat that is fed to children in school and at the fast food restaurants is, in some cases, horrendous. "The animals used to make about one quarter of the

The demand for beef was caused by the expeditious growth of fast food restaurants in a short amount of time. Over the past several decades of the industrialization of food, most Americans have resorted to eating mainly processed foods, including beef and products that are derived from cows’ milk. These products were made to become appealing through countless advertisements, many of which exaggerated their health benefits and tried to bring a shot of sex appeal to their

The dependence on meat and meat products in the United States is at an all-time high. Despite the great need for healthy and ethical meat, the procedures in meatpacking facilities have not been improved much in the past century. In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser outlines some of the most important facts and realities facing slaughterhouse workers today. The problems with the food can be fixed with chemicals and the like, but the value of human life cannot be improved without the influence of government actions. There are still such injustices to the workers as sexual harassment, injuries that go unnoticed, and horrific treatment of sanitation workers.

Typically speaking, most Americans base their diets around meat. As the greatest source of protein, it is consumed at nearly every meal, even in between meals, with the exception of vegans, vegetarians, and other dietary abstainers. Meat is an intrinsic part of American culture— it’s on everything. Pizza. Hamburgers. Hot dogs. Barbeque. Meat is even on salads. Most of this meat comes from livestock farms throughout the country. Bred, fed, and raised to be the best tasting; many times, it is pumped full of hormones and chemicals or forced into “all natural” and “organic” diets. There is, however, a new source of meat emerging— roadkill. Hundreds of thousands of vehicular accidents over the past few years have forged a growing

Some of those would be practicing sterile operations, keeping pens clean and freshly bedded, and by properly euthanizing animals before they are made into food. The article specifically states that cows are “hoisted upside down by their hind legs and dismembered while they’re still conscious.” This is untrue because all animals are dead before they are slaughtered because that is proper procedure and is always

Because E. Coli O157:H7 is found in cattle intestines, a key method to prevent E. Coli O157:H7 contamination is to prevent fecal matter from splattering on the beef.12 However, this was not a priority for the meat processing and feedlot industries, which was focused instead on minimizing costs and maximizing profits. The feedlot sectors held responsibility due to the poor conditions it raised cattle. In order to minimize costs, cattle were kept in “medieval conditions” where they were without clean water and sewage disposal. Because cattle deposit around 50 pound of manure everyday, the result of the poor sanitation conditions is that cattle spend most of the day in their own feces, coating their hides with waste. In addition, the animal feed contained fecal matter from other animals. The meat processing industry further exacerbated this problem through their slaughtering techniques. In order to maximize profits the cattle were slaughtered at high speeds by employees who were increasingly composed of poorly trained, poorly paid, and politically vulnerable immigrant workers. To slaughter the cattle, workers must first remove the cattle’s hide before physically removing its inner organs. However, if the hides are not properly cleaned, pieces of dirt and fecal matter will fall into the meat. Furthermore, if the organs are not removed

There are many areas things can go wrong in the process of raising, slaughtering, and packaging the beef for human consumption. Especially so in slaughterhouses and processing plants, as there are many potential contamination hazards, and most depend on human attention to catch and correct. The cattle may arrive at the slaughterhouse with feces on their hides, which present the first risk of contamination as it can be very difficult to remove the hides from the animal without transferring any of the pathogen bearing feces to the carcass. The second high-risk area in the slaughterhouse is the gutting station, where at some locations, workers are expected to keep up an extremely fast pace, as many as sixty cattle per hour, which does not provide adequate time to prevent accidents. A ruptured gut sac can leave a carcass intended for human consumption covered in fecal matter or stomach acids all potentially containing the potentially deadly foodborne bacteria (Schlosser 203). At these slaughterhouses, steps are taken to clean and disinfect the carcasses, but E. coli is hard to kill. It is encouraged by the Agricultural Department to begin testing at these locations for E. coli, but most choose not to, as they stand to suffer significant monetary damage if they discover any E. coli present in their products (Moss 3). Most slaughterhouses will not sell their products to processing plants that plan to pre-screen the meat before combining and

The meat could be getting a disease anywhere from the time they leave the barn to the time they hit the consumers plate. (Hedges) When the cattle leave the barn they go to a huge packing plant which has cattle from hundreds of different lots and the cattle get handled by multiple people. They could be getting a disease from one of the other bunches of cattle that came in from a different state or could be coming from the people that are cutting the meat and processing it. After the meat leaves the processing plant it could also be getting a disease in the grocery store if it is not stored properly or even from the consumers kitchen if they do not prepare it on a clean surface or cook it to a proper

When most people think about a juicy, flavor filled hamburger – the warm buns, melted cheese; ice cold lettuce and tomato; sweet pickle; and the perfect, equal amounts of both ketchup and mustard – they are likely reminded of grilling outside at a BBQ or grabbing a bite to eat at famous burger shops like Fuddruckers or Five Guys. However, the idea of the “All American Hamburger” has been changed in the eyes of some scientists and those who prefer not to eat meat. Researchers and developers have come up with a way to grow lab-cultured meat by vitro methods. This method of producing meat has raised concerns and has been a growing topic of discussion based of the unnaturalness and potential health risks

There is definitely more and more of a demand for health foods and healthy lifestyles. Your post makes me think of my own values and how they relate to how I eat. I personally always aspire to live a healthy lifestyle, however a few days a week you will find me buying my family fast food. This happens mostly due to the convenience. Since the price is reasonable, in most cases, and the taste is appealing, it keeps me coming back when I am too tired to cook and on my way home from a long day. When considering a “clean” meat, I think much like so many other healthy choices; it will not be convenient and many times will lose out to the easier, quicker and cheaper choices. However, if marketed well they will target their market accordingly.

Striding alongside the muddy riverbank, the aubade beginning to sound in the air as dawn arose, the clay pigmented canine remained focused on the task he had set for himself; breakfast. Splotchy shade was cast down upon his pelt as the light began to shine in between the leaves of bushes and small trees, the light making his red hued fur look almost orange. The male's nose and nostrils twitched, ears rotating from side to side, forward and back, his senses looking for anything that would captivate his desire for meat.

Meat has been in our diet since the start of mankind. We eat meat everyday mindlessly. It is hard to avoid meat since it is everywhere we go. Meat is the majority of today’s food. There are very few vegetarian or vegan options in the food industry. Although, it has been growing more and more popular since it has become a lifestyle. The reason is to be the horrifying truth of today’s meat industry. For those who cannot bear the truth, pick up the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

Do you know what the meat of your delicious burger is made of? What you may think is beef in your burger may actually be what scientist call “In Vitro Meat” the meat produced by strips of muscle fiber from an animal. Each year lab created meat is growing its possibility of one day replacing actual beef, and chicken with vitro meat. This meat can become the next big thing because lab meat will get popular and eventually the mass population will want more of it. Because lab created meat are beneficial for everyone in some way lab created meat should be part of the human diet.

In recent years the trend towards eating less meat has increased because the technology that has so successfully increased meat production is an unnatural method. The use of chemicals and the unnatural living conditions the animals are kept in, which in many cases are appalling, are designed to force growth. People are now becoming increasingly concerned about their intake of chemicals and fat via the

The world’s population is anticipated to reach nine billion by 2050, having almost ninety percent of that growth occurring in the developing world. On top of that, the world’s population will continue to develop toward urban areas having approximately 70% living in urban populations by 2050 as compared to around fifty percent today. The world has faced an unprecedented rise in population during the past century having dramatic shifts in the production and consumption of food and for the most part has accommodated this population explosion, but with the changes in the consumption of meats in the world, the strain on resources will become more severe. In 1965, the per capita consumption of meat in developing countries was around ten