see here. btw, big ups to michael ruhlman for bringing this to the food community on the 31st of january. to bring it all into perspective this equates to roughly: 6.6 acres of land (43,560 ft square per acre) stacked wall-to-wall and 10 feet high in nothing but ground beef. *assuming we use a specific gravity of 0.9 for meat and converted it to water-based volume metrics. i think i just vomited in my mouth a little in any case.

now this comes on the heels of an investigation by the humane society into a slaughterhouse in chino, ca. there’s a string of videos on the humane society website that sparked a whole lot of controversy of the mistreatment of animals and slaughterhouses as a whole. one video in particular shows a downed cow attempting to be picked up with a forklift so it can meet inspection and be sold. getting flashes of the jungle by upton sinclair?

for those uninitiated a cow must be able to stand on its own and walk in order to meet the most basic qualifications for inspection. these are some of the most basic qualifications, they are not what makes it a good cow. the videos show not just the forklift but cows being stung with electric prods and shocked to try and get them to stand. now, i enjoy cheap meat as much as the next guy but here’s the worst part of the whole story: most of this meat was sold to elementary schools. yeah, you read correctly, these went to our children and while the latest recall is the largest in u.s. history the sad truth is that it’s most likely too late. sources say most of the beef has likely been consumed!

i have said it before and i’ll say it again: there are certain things in this world that you should pay good money for. for example: don’t buy cheap shoes when you have to stand or walk all day, don’t buy cheap sushi (do i even need to explain why this is on the list?), and most of all don’t buy cheap meat. know your butcher, develop a good relationship with him or her. ask them questions, don’t be accusative, but ask them questions to develop that relationship. also, when possible, get meat from a local butcher; their quality trumps that of the mega-mart any day of the week and twice on sunday. know your product and know what goes in your body. with that said, who wants a cheeseburger? i got the grill fired up already.