It unfortunately seems like the meat industry practices haven’t quite hit rock bottom despite the fact that more and more people are becoming more and more aware of the healthy dangers of meat, as well as the cruelty it entails for the animals. This article from the Washington Post, published September 8th, 2013 details evidence that things seems as though they are going to get worse before they get better. All the more reason for people to put a rush on their transition to a healthy, plant-based diet!
The article, entitled, “USDA pilot program fails to stop contaminated meat” begins:
The program allows meat producers to increase the speed of processing lines by as much as 20 percent and cuts the number of USDA safety inspectors at each plant in half, replacing them with private inspectors employed by meat companies. The approach has been used for more than a decade by five American hog plants under a pilot program.
But three of these plants were among the 10 worst offenders in the country for health and safety violations, with serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from meat, according to a report this spring by the USDA inspector general. The plant with the worst record by far was one of the five in the pilot program.
Read the USDA inspector general’s report on swine-plant inspection, with key sections annotated by the reporter.
What the USDA watchdog found