Meaningless Meat Study
Here we go once again in need of cowboy common sense, I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for Open Range. Seems every media outlet was leading last week with the same “skewed” story about the dangers of meat. The LA Times stated that meat may be widely contaminated. Really? Lets apply some cowboy logic to sensationalism. The study that was coincidentally funded by an anti- production agriculture group, The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming, reported that staph bacteria is in 47 percent of turkey, chicken, pork and beef . But if you delve deeper you learn they conducted research on only 136 samples, (about what my son consumers for lunch) from just 80 brands of meat. Only five cities and merely 26 grocery stores were tested. What they failed to report is that the germs found in those few samples could have easily (according American Council on Science and Health) come not from farm animals but people, meaning any individual with product contact along the chain could contaminate the meat, even the researchers as staph is prevalent throughout US hospitals. Consider the fact that half of all humans have staph bacteria in their nose or throat and I’ll tell you I’d rather be in a herd a cattle than on a crowed city bus. So while the anti-meat brigade continues on their mission to scare the consumer, we’re smarter! We know cooking meat kills any bacteria present and in my book that makes beef not only the best an affordable source of protein but a heck of a lot safer than bagged lettuce.
