Force FDA to Label "Pink Slime" Ground Beef
"Pink Slime" Ground Beef, which is currently used for roughly 70% of all US Ground Beef, is harvested from the outermost part of the cow and was formerly used only for dog food and other such non-human uses; it was considered inedible due to the amount of dangerous bacteria contained within it. Now, it is being used for the US school lunch program as well as in your local grocery store - how and why? By treating it with ammonia, a potentially deadly chemical. In large quantities, ammonia can cause burns just through exposure to its fumes. According to the New York Times, Georgia officials who unknowingly came across this tainted meat could smell the ammonia even though the meat was frozen. The primary reason they can get away with this is that it isn't required to be labeled as "pink slime" or any other moniker - they can just say it's ground beef, as though it were any part of the cow and as if it wasn't treated with a deadly chemical which could cause internal damage in sufficient quantities. Help stop this chicanery and prevent the danger of your children or children you know from being unknowingly exposed to this product.
We the undersigned, in full respect of the FDA's and USDA's respective current positions on the colloquially-named "pink slime" form of ground beef, wholeheartedly request that you - the designated officials of the elected government of the United States of America - introduce and execute legislation that will force this "pink slime" meat to be labeled in every instance of its use and, as soon as humanly possible, to remove this meat from the US school lunch program as it is a potential danger to the safety of those children. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and we send along with this request our hopes that you will keep in mind the health of the country over the pocketbooks of the companies involved.
