The Burger You Eat May Eat Back

Dear All;

This NY Times article may stop you
from never ever eating a burger ever
again. It's like laws and sausages - you
don't want to know how they get made.

The article points out the failures of
the Dept. Agriculture inspection system
and the failures of the meat packers to
self inspect (surprise - surprise - surprise).

Consumers as usual pay the price in
more ways than one.

Meatpacking companies can claim
they are following the Dept. Agriculture
guidelines and Dept. Agriculture
inspectors can claim they are following
FDA guidelines. Nice ring around the
rosy. Sort of make you wonder who
provided the input on those guidelines?

FDA guidelines and meat inspections
are a bust and are at best - look we
are doing something fig leaf - honest
we are doing something.

So how would a true free market
for safe burgers vs. government
regulations for safe burgers work?
Any thoughts?

BTW: Please note I am requesting
for the nonce no veggie discourses
on stop eating meat and poultry.

This is about the Great American Food
- Burgers - in all its prepared permutations
from the home concoctions to fast food
concoctions for the Great American
Carnivores. :slight_smile:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?th&emc=th

http://snipurl.com/sbo5g

Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno

Dear All;

Dear Ron,

You ask about the Libertarian slant on the challenge of the grossness of meat and how can the government make it non-gross. Well, it cannot, without a lot of regulations that put all the producers out of business. Thus, producers who on their own want to capture the "eat clean" market, clean up their act; and producers who want to cater to the "don't know, don't care market", why, go for it!

Marcy

Dear Marcy;

You certainly said something worth chewing on - I guess I'll bite on that! :slight_smile:

Otherwise absent all those delightful government regulations and inspectors how about forming private industry licensing standards requiring certain minimum standards of inspection and meat packing.

This instead of what appears to be self - protectionism as the article so duly notes with its I won't sell to you if you inspect after I have already purportedly inspected.

Apparently the only way to get "safe ground beef" is to buy a T-bone and grind it up yourself.The price of carnivorehood.

Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno

I eat lots of burgers, but won't eat the crony capitalist big corporate product. Prather Ranch, at the south west corner of the Ferry Building, not to be confused with the GLTTCC Building, sells pure organic grass fed beef products. The herd is closed, with only sperm being imported, not the whole Bull. The beef is from the slopes of Mt. Shasta and they have their own slaughtering operation. The operation is large and is largely subsidized by selling pure organic pituitary glands to the pharmaceutical community. the rest of the cow is by product.

Prather ranch is relatively unique. It shows that size matters because to set up a small scale slaughter house would be impossible because of the expenses of meeting FDA regulations , designed to keep the small fry guys out of the marketplace.

A good start would be to allow small ranchers and processors to be exempt and permitted to start their own certification process along with trademarked labels.

There's a very good Asian style burger they sell in the frozen food section at Safeway - I think it's made from various vegetables, which is a nice change from soy (although I like the soy, especially the spicy faux chicken).

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))

If you're going to eat beef, definitely better from an anti-cruelty perspective that you would buy from a small, organic outfit like that.

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))

Dear Ron,

Oh, OK, here you go again with a serious, practical, libertarian solution! BUT (can't let a serious, practical, libertarian solution go without challenge) "forming private industry licensing standards" that work significantly better than government standards might not be all that easy; since the same forces that result in yucky meat now (need to turn a good profit, cut corners, produce more), would presumably still result in yucky meant under private standards.

So, although private standards in any field of endeavor are always preferable from a libertarian perspective than government standards, the ultimate solution is consumer choice. Such choice can be aided by private organizations that rate products, consumer inquiry and research, common sense, etc. All such alternatives rely of personal initiative, and are therefore problematic, judging by the lines that form after work at McDonald take-out windows.

Regards,

Marcy

Dear Marcy;

So then maybe a UL - Underwriters Laboratory for burgers? Let the Burger Wars begin with consumer choices across the length and breadth of Burgerland. That'll be a burger in every garage. :slight_smile:

Ron Getty - SF Libertarian
Hostis res Publica
Morte ai Tiranni
Dum Spiro, Pugno

As a long-term goal, I would suggest the development of more plant-based and eventually synthetic alternatives that taste just like, or better than, animal flesh. And for the even longer term, the improvement of other forms of life along with our own (human), so that all beings can be as intelligent, aware, loving, and capable of living productive, fulfilling, meaningful lives as possible.

  David Brin, a sci-fi author who spoke at an LP convention, wrote a novel set several hundred years in the future which took place mostly aboard a spaceship crewed by a mixed group of dolphins, humans, and apes, both of the latter species having been raised up to roughly human levels of awareness through human endeavor. Ultimately I see the universe evolving (perhaps a new term is needed for consciously directed evolution aided by technology) toward a state of total divinity. Why not?

Love & Liberty,
        ((( starchild )))