“In another telling anomaly of the meat-grinding business, many of the larger slaughterhouses will sell their product only to grinders who agree to not test their product for E. coli contamination--until after it's run through a grinder with a whole bunch of other meat from other sources...It's like demanding of a date that she have unprotected sex with four or five other guys immediately before sleeping with you--just so she can't point the finger directly at you should she later test positive for clap.” HumorFoodFood Regulation Book:Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook Source: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
“Much of our food system depends on our not knowing much about it, beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner; cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring–to the carelessness of both producers and consumers that characterizes our economy today. Of course, the global economy couldn't very well function without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. This is why the American food industry and its international counterparts fight to keep their products from telling even the simplest stories–"dolphin safe," "humanely slaughtered," etc.–about how they were produced. The more knowledge people have about the way their food is produced, the more likely it is that their values–and not just "value"–will inform their purchasing decisions.” IgnoranceIndustryProductDilemmaAmericanFood ChainFood SafetyMichaelPurchaseOmnivoreFood RegulationMichael Pollan Omnivore DilemmaPollan Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Source: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals