Letters by Boz

Marketing Geniuses

On recent ticket orders for Morrissey’s upcoming west coast gig,  Ticketmaster has allowed Denny’s to run a cross promotion offering a free hamburger. Why isn’t this okay? Only because Morrissey is one of the most outspoken vegetarian celebs ever!

via www.ecorazzi.com

I hope Morrissey raises holy hell over this. It's easy to choose sides here. The ex-leader of one of the greatest rock bands ever (the Smiths), or fountain of greed Ticketmaster and purveyor of disgusting near-food Denny's. Time, perhaps, to revisit a particularly relevant Smiths song...

Hot-Buttered Torture

I've already given up meat and poultry, and am moving to greatly reduce my consumption of dairy products and eggs. This video from an undercover PETA investigation of a Land O'Lakes dairy supplier shows why:

USDA: The U is for Useless

In the wake of the scandal of sick, tortured cows being slaughtered for human consumption right under the eyes of the Keystone Kops at the USDA, one lawmaker has concluded we probably need to rethink the federal government's relationship with the food industry. From an MSNBC.com article:

A lawmaker called Tuesday for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be stripped of its responsibility for food safety in the wake of the nation’s largest-ever meat recall.

The agency’s twin mandates of promoting the nation’s agriculture and monitoring it for safety have become blurred, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro said.

“Food safety ought to be of a high enough priority in this nation that we have a single agency that deals with it and not an agency that is responsible for promoting a product, selling a product and then as an afterthought dealing with how our food supply is safe,” said DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee responsible for the USDA’s funding.

    The USDA is hamstrung by its ties to the very industry it is supposed to be monitoring. It is well-known that there are never really any surprise visits to processing plants and slaughterhouses, and as Michael Pollan described, inspectors biggest concern is often whether or not they have access to private bathroom during their inspections. Toughen up standards in the food industry, and create an agency with real power to enforce the rules, and let the corporations worry about "promoting a product."

Hail Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's markets are among the very best in the nation. And now they are even better. From the Yahoo! News:

US grocery chain Trader Joe's said Monday it would stop selling food imported from China due to customers' concerns about the products' safety.

"Our customers have voiced concerns about products from this region and we have listened," Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in a statement.

    In the wake of pet poisonings in the U.S. and the outbreak of dangerous dumplings in Japan, it would appear obvious that there are serious concerns about the quality of food coming out of China. Consider the following examples cited in the Washington Post:

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical.... Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics.... Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria.... Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

    The strange hybrid commie-capitalist system employed by the Chinese seems only concerned with maximizing profits, and there is little oversight or quality control. The U.S. inspection program is a farce, with nowhere near enough inspectors to handle the staggering amounts of cheap foodstuffs flooding our shores from China. Less than 1 percent of regulated imports are ever inspected, so quite a bit of questionable product makes it onto the supermarket shelves.
    Free trade is a great and beneficial thing. So is not being poisoned. It America is going to continue to import large quantities of food from China, than rigid standards must be enforced to insure the public's safety. If more chains took a stand like Trader Joe's has, both the Chinese and U.S. governments may get the hint and begin taking these issues seriously.

Pelosi's Tasty Triumph

Much to my dismay, I find myself in agreement with Nancy Pelosi about something of great importance. That something is food.
    According to Politico.com, the Democrats have ushered in a culinary revolution at House eateries:

The processed cheese has been replaced with brie. The Jell-O has made way for raspberry kiwi tarts and mini-lemon blueberry trifles. Meatloaf has moved over for mahi mahi and buns have been shunted aside in favor of baguettes.

Of course, the GOP continues to want to pretend to be the party of ‘jes folks,’ so there have been complaints from the meat n’ potatoes wing of the Republicans:

“It’s a big jump from high school cafeteria to fancy-pants gourmet,” said Caryn Schenewerk, a staffer for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).... One House Republican aide lobbed attacks at the Democrats over e-mail. “I really don’t like Nanny Nancy telling me what I can and cannot eat for lunch. If I want to eat unhealthy, I should have that choice!” the aide fumed.

(“Fancy-pants?” Does Ms. Schenewerk think she’s Grannie from ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’?)
    In describing the new, better foods now being served, the author of the article, Josephine Hearn, also seems to want to play the “don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout that gor-met stuff” angle:

There are vegetables with funny names, like bok choy, arugula and jicama. There are baked goods with Italian names, like biscotti, focaccia and frittati.... There are foods in funny colors, like yellow tomatoes and purple Peruvian potatoes. There are things that are free of other things, like “cage-free shell eggs,” “rBGH-free milk” and “free-range chicken.”

    C’mon now, Ms. Hearn! Stop pretending to be such a hick. You can get arugula at McDonald’s of all places.
    All in all, I tip my hat to the Dems for improving the culinary fare available at the House. As for Republicans, the food populism thing was tired when they used the “brie and chardonnay” shtick to attack John Kerry supporters in 2004. It is even more tired now.

Where's the E-Coli?

In the beef of course! From The Ethicurean:

First major E. coli-related recall of 2008

Well, the meat’s from 2007, but why quibble when we have this exciting new graphic to guide your decision whether or not to eat a burger of questionable provenance?

Details: Rochester Meat of Minnesota is recalling approximately  188,000 pounds of ground beef products because — drumroll! — they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced yesterday. Wisconsin and California’s public health departments alerted the agency after six illnesses were reported.

The possibly contaminated products were produced on Oct. 30, 2007, and Nov. 6, 2007, and shipped to restaurants and food service institutions nationwide. (Box numbers here.) Because of the size of the recall — that’s easily half a million burgers we’re talking about — and the fact that it’s not a retail-establishment recall, the Ethicurean Department of Gastrointestinal Security has run our scientific algorithm and assessed the risk of a burger-induced bathroom attack as Orange, for High.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Since I eat a pretty much vegetarian diet, I often get asked if I miss things like good, old-fashioned hamburgers. Sometimes I do... but not so much after reading news items like this.