Vegan MoFo, Day 19
Friday sneaked up on me. Normally, I’m waiting for it, but I woke up and suddenly realized what day it was. I usually write my Feast On This post Thursday nights, so you’ll have to bear with me this a.m.; I haven’t had my cup-of-joe to get my Vegan MoJo on for Vegan MoFo yet. . . so here goes.
Gee . . .Another Recall
2,600 pounds of full-cooked, ready-to-barf-eat turkey breast was recalled in Texas because it may have been contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, a potentially deadly bacteria. Lovely. The four different products by the New Braunfels Smokehouse, were distributed nationwide and each has a UDSA Inspected mark on them. Way to go.
The FDA just made their third cheese recall of the month. In Washington state, several varieties of Del Bueno Mexican-Style cheese was found to also contain listeria.
Earlier this month, Gorgonzola cheese was recalled from Cosco stores because of E. coli.
It is absolutely staggering the amount of food recalls in the United States just this year—we only hear about some of them. People have gotten sick. People have died. Some people could still have these products at home, unaware of the recall. Check out an earlier post regarding recalls. Visit the Recall page of the FDA’s website for a comprehensive list of recalled products. With the amount of meat and dairy recalls that continue to pile up, why do Americans take the risk?
Fat=Taste?
(I try not to post dead animals on my blog, so here’s a fake dead animal)
What food do you consider to have more taste? Meat? Veggies? Dairy? Since going vegan, I have found for myself that food has so much more flavor and taste. I never was a huge meat-eater before and never understood that thrill people claim they get when eating a steak. Peter Springberg, MD, a fellow NCW member, wrote an interesting post the other day regarding fat, taste, and beef burgers, entitled Even More Fat for our Taste Buds. The post is based on a Wall Street Journal article about celebrity chefs’ quest to make the most expensive, fattiest, and tastiest burger. Two burgers were featured in the article, one costing $39, and another a whopping $60! I guess compared to the cost of a triple bypass, it’s nothing.
“If you knew how meat was made, you’d probably lose your lunch.”
-K.D. Lang
I am so thankful that I bypass the deli counter each and everytime I go to the grocery store! Thank you for sharing with us. I hope you have a relaxing weekend!
Since I’ve been a vegetarian for a long time, like you, I definitely don’t worry myself over the majority of food recalls, but I have to point out that recalls don’t just apply to non-vegan foods. Vegetables (especially spinach, it seems) also get recalled due to glass fragment contamination, salmonella contamination, improper canning, etc.
I think it’s important to recognize that all food has the potential to be unsafe if processed improperly. I also think it’s important to respect the dietary choices of other people and to recognize that all healthy lifestyles require nutritional balance, and not necessarily the elimination of specific types of foods in order to be good.
I couldn’t agree more, however, what I think is important to realize is that salmonella and E. Coli are animal-based bacterias. Contamination happens when crap from feed lots and dairy farms leech into neighboring fields. There are actually less regulations and inspections of produce than there are in the meat and dairy industries, yet contamination happens more and more. Overall, the chances of getting sick from animal products are much higher than from vegetables and I suppose I’d rather go with those odds.
btw, I fixed a link that was screwy on this post: check out an earlier post I did on recalls and the contamination of vegetables and fruits.