Ground beef recalled (and we’re surprised?) 

My lovely childhood friend Sweet Tater posted the news that 34,000 pounds of so-called “organic” ground beef was recalled. Sweet Tater is a vegetarian – which I forgive her for – but she does offer a pretty good insight into why this happened.

But be aware that factory farming is inherently bad, wretched, terrible, wrong. And even an organic label can’t save such an operation from itself. The mass production of meat is unnatural and, in the end, unhealthy.

As a Paleo eater, I eat more meat than the average American. Eggs are a mainstay for breakfast, often accompanied by pork; poultry or fish is requisite for lunch; and dinner is anything that used to have a beating heart, whether it’s fish, fowl or ruminant. We also buy everything short of chicken from local farmers. (Local-ish, the current freezer cow came from mid-Wisconsin.)

Factory farming is a terrible thing for two reasons.

1. The animals are treated poorly, live miserable lives and are usually grotesquely ill by the time they get to slaughter.
2. The animals are butchered in an industrial process originally invented for manufacturing cars.

Animal rights activists have, traditionally, been at odds with the more carnivorous in society. We eat too many animals, we further suffering, [etc.]. The line is becoming blurred as more carnivores wizen up to the realities of factory farming. Reason 1 leads to Reason 2 leads to your kid dying in the hospital because of an infected hamburger. (It happens.) On a less dramatic note, Reason 1 also leads to less nutritious meat, which is just a waste of money.

With yet another recall on the books, it’s time for carnivores to shirk the system that was created specifically for them. Sure, we can pick up meat at $2 per pound, but it’s improperly and inhumanely raised; it’s unethically slaughtered and often contaminated; it’s loaded with all kinds of chemicals and drugs, and deficient in the nutrients meat is supposed to give us.

Of course, you’ll pay more for locally sourced meat, but you won’t need to inspect your shopping list to make sure what you’ve purchased hasn’t been recalled.