USDA’S CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL LUNCH DECISION SPARKS DEBATE, PUBLIC OUTRAGE
BY STEFANO RUMI, REPORTER
LOS ANGELES, CA
LAUSD and school districts across the country are receiving a new ingredient to add to their meals, but the closest thing it resembles is Silly Putty.
“Pink Slime”, as critics appropriately name it, was approved by the USDA to be used in cafeterias across the United States. All seven million pounds of it.
Pink slime is made up of reconstructed nerve and scrap cuttings from slaughterhouse floors, usually reserved for dog food. It is treated with various chemicals such as ammonia hydroxide, which ends up leaving the slime disease-free, but filled with harmful substances. The USDA recently approved the addition of pink slime to school food in response to rising beef prices, and falling school budgets.
Pink slime was dropped from fast food menus such as McDonald’s recently because it was deemed “inappropriate” to serve.
Carl Custer, an avid critic of pink slime, claims that it is a high risk substance that simply cannot be fed to the nation’s young because it is not meat, and has little to no nutritional value. He says the worst part is that pink slime does not have to be labeled as such, and it has already made its way into our grocery stores, where it is virtually indistinguishable from the other ground beef it is mixed with.
Many LAUSD students have voiced their dismay over the USDA’s decision.
“That’s just plain wrong,” said Ashley Yi, a sophomore, when she saw a picture of the pink slime. “How do [they] expect us to eat clay and not get sick? I’d rather get a morsel of decent food than a tray of… that.”
Yi is not alone with her complaints. A petition has recently been circulating around the internet, calling for the USDA to reconsider. It has already gathered 20,000 signatures.
However, there is a growing voice that argues in favor of the pink slime, saying that 15%, the percentage pink slime makes up in a school hamburger, is not enough to cause harm or worry.
“Sure, pink slime isn’t appetizing, but it only makes up 15% of the patty,” says Scott Oh, a senior. “Would you rather eat meat that, contrary to popular belief is deemed safe by the USDA, or lose the benefits of a free public education?”
Amy Bell, the spokeswoman for the California Department of Education Food Distribution Program, recently released a statement that the 15% used in school meat, will indeed not be marked, making it indiscernible for the average student or parent.
The most controversy, however, comes from the report that grocery meat may contain this pink slime. Examples have already turned up from various states, indicating that pink slime was, indeed, mixed into the meat.
Either way, many are looking to the government with looks of surprise. “I can’t believe that our government thinks it’s okay to eat [pink slime],” says Katie Lee, a freshman, “but if it’s been approved and tested, I guess it won’t hurt to eat it.”
