Are you eating ground beef?

[Gecko]

Edited to say Sorry I think I realized what I am doing wrong when submitting polls. Oops!

[Gecko]

As some of you probably have heard Hawaii was listed as one of the states that received contaminated beef. Then we got the all clear. I wasn't really concerned until a friend returned from her mainland Christmas vacation and stated she was disposing of every scrap of ground beef in her freezer and refusing to eat it. Is this what a lot of people are doing in the mainland? I looked at buying ground turkey the other day but it is $5.79 per pound here and my buget just can't afford that, not when Costco sells ground beef for $1.99 per pound.

[gertdog]

I'm a "no, I don't eat meat." DH is a "yes but limits consumption"- he occasionally has a burger, but only at places that can tell you about the meat that they use, preferably grass-fed, no hormones, etc. His preference predates the current mad cow outbreak by a year or so, though.

[tbb113]

I was in England on business during 1990 and ate ground beef there as well. While I would like to say that I am switching to organic beef...economically I can't afford it. I do use ground turkey as well and will try and use it more than ground beef...but I'm really not that worried.

Tyra

[kristalsnow7]

I voted "No, I don't eat meat" but it should have been "O.o." since I do eat chicken, fish, etc. I just don't eat beef (don't like the taste). If I did eat beef, though, I'd probably buy organic and not worry about it too much.

[KellyD]

I only buy Laura's Lean beef anyway, and they sent out an email detailing how their cattle is raised. I was a little concerned until I read their statement:

At Laura's Lean Beef, we do not feed our cattle any reprocessed animal tissue or by-products. Since 1985, we've been committed to naturally-raised beef, and that includes feeding our cattle an all-vegetarian diet of natural grains and grasses. We use no dairy cattle, only beef cattle, predominantly Limousin and Charolais, and crosses of these breeds. Additionally, cattle in the Laura's Lean Beef program have unique identifying ear tags, enabling us to track every head of cattle back to the farm.

[JHolcomb]

Lean beef is actually the only meat I do like (I primarily eat veg or choke down poultry otherwise). So yeah, I buy ground every once in a while when I feel too lazy to grind my own (which I also do). I buy organic and have for over 2 years, but occasionally pick up a fast food burger, maybe once every couple of months or so. I'm still not very concerned. Even when I was a vegetarian (not exactly for moral/ethical reasons), I still had beef once a year on my birthday. In 1998 my birthday fell while I was in Europe. I still had beef. I eat "wild" venison, too. I'm actually more worried about other foodbourne illnesses like salmonella (from which my mother very nearly died). Heck, I'm more worried about botulism. I do wish there was more regulation in the industry, though.

[NewMrsG]

I gave it a week or so (after they came out and said that the initial list of states where the potentially-contaminated beef may have been sent was actually longer, I wanted to give it a bit). DH REALLY wanted the All-American Chili, so I gave in and bought organic. The non-organic is so pricy here lately anyway, the organic wasn't much more expensive.

[SueK]

Originally posted by NewMrsG
The non-organic is so pricy here lately anyway, the organic wasn't much more expensive.

I noticed this, too. I saw a 2 lb flank steak for $17.99!! Yikes!

Anyway, yes, we're still eating beef. We don't eat that much to begin with, but I probably will start getting either the organic kind or Laura's Lean.

[Gail]

We've backed off for a bit, as we did the last time. I only buy organic anyway, but I guess it'll be from New Zealand for a while. Just bought some ground buffalo, which I like. And of course, there's always the meat grinder...

I don't anticipate doing this for long since it sounds like things are under control. (To give you an idea of how concerned we are, I went shopping, bought ground buffalo instead of beef, then was too tired to cook that night, so we picked up burgers! About 1/3 of the way through them, it suddenly dawned on us...)

[RobinC]

We don't each much red meat to begin with, but last night I made meat loaf. It was yummy. :D I am thinking about cooking up some filets later this week.

[Alethea]

I only eat ground beef about 4 times a year because I usually don't care for it but sometimes get cravings for a burger. But if I did eat it more I still wouldn't be too worried. I do tend to buy organic and look for beef that's grain or grass fed. But then again I've eaten wild venison and beef in the UK before everyone was aware of mad cow.

[HRJ]

This is kind of a long, round-about answer. Bear with me. :rolleyes:

A few years ago, I was researching an article about raw-milk cheeses (I'm a writer by profession). As part of that story, I spent a lot of time reviewing data about food poisoning. After finishing the story, I've never had any qualms about eating raw-milk cheese. BUT -- I came across so much information about food-poisoning outbreaks related to ground beef, it got me pretty skeeved out, and I stopped eating ground meat for about a year.

I eventually went back to it, because I really love a good charbroiled burger (not a fast-food burger, but from a "decent" restaurant, or at a back yard BBQ). And I like cooking with it -- it's very versatile, and has such great flavor and "mouth-feel."

The recent reporting about beef, however, has got me queasy again -- not so much because of mad cow, but because of the much greater issue of safe food-handling in general. So I've pretty much decided to stop eating ground beef "on the road."

At home, I've been buying only organic or kosher meat for a while now, before the mad cow thing started, mostly because of concerns with antibiotics and hormones. More expensive, but I can make it up with careful grocery savings in other ways. (I'm only feeding two adults and a small child, though). I'll probably continue to do that.

I also use a lot of ground turkey or soy substitutes, to try and keep the sat. fat count in our meals down, so I wasn't using a huge amount of ground beef to begin with.

DH doesn't care much for red meat -- he wouldn't mind if I stopped serving it, but he's felt that way for years. He just isn't wild about the taste/texture. When we go to someplace like Outback, he'll often get chicken or shrimp.

Helene

[wallycat]

O.o here..
We almost never buy ground beef...no real reason except that I'm not overly fond of it.
We do go out for a Kopps burger (similar to Culvers)...maybe twice/year....I'll probably still do that this summer :)

[Sami]

I do what Helene does, buy organic or kosher ground meat. If I run out of organic or kosher, I put a chuck steak through the Cuisinart and use that as ground beef.

Sami

[WWShannon]

I am buying organic ground beef and have recently ordered a hamburger at a restaraunt. It was delish.

On the same note, I am thinking about buying a meat grinder just so that I can start controlling what types of meat we consume in the ground form.

Shannon

[beckms]

Ditto what HRJ said about buying organic meat. I've been doing it ever since I read Fast Food Nation over a year ago. BEsides, the contaminated meat was recalled, and if I ate contaminated meat before the recall, than oh well, right? Guess I'll find out in a few years! :eek:

I'm trying not to get hysterical, just like with the flu "scare".

[lorilei]

Well -- not at the moment. :p



More seriously, though, I chose O.O. We don't eat much beef at all, and what we do eat we buy organic. So, I'm not terribly worried.

If we were meat eaters (as we once were), I'd definitely be cutting back on our beef consumption. It's just not worth it to me. There are safer meats to eat.

[Mariela]

We have been purchasing grassfed beef for year and a half now from a small farm. Before we used to buy it from Whole Foods. I noticed that lately the commercial beef in the regular supermarkets had increase in the price, and now I pay more only $5-6/month compared to if I was to purchase our beef from the regular grocery stores.

[KristinK]

I don't eat red meat, though DF does. We only buy ground beef for him occasionally, and always organic, so it hasn't even really been an issue for us. I did make him some hamburgers the other day, but I used ground beef that we had bought at least a month ago.

[scout1222]

O.O. because I do not ever eat ground beef. I have for several years been substituting ground turkey. So it has nothing to do with Mad Cow.

[TerriS]

I do not normally buy ground beef. I got kind of grossed out after reading Fast Food Nation. I tend to stick to flank steak bought at Costco. I don't care that much for other forms of beef.

If I want to make something ground beefy, I use morningstar crumbles. I don't really care for ground turkey either. I tend to use homemade (someone else's home) pork sausage in things like chili.

I live pretty far out of the "distribution" area for this particular case of mad cow, so I haven't given it much thought. Although I do not doubt there might be lots of other sick cows out there.

[VitaBrevisEst]

Originally posted by scout1222
O.O. because I do not ever eat ground beef. I have for several years been substituting ground turkey. So it has nothing to do with Mad Cow.

ditto that, my situation exactly. otoh, SO east lunch at work and they are big on stuff like meatloaf, lasagna, burgers, etc. i have been urging him to make other choices, but he is a very big boy and will have to decide for himself.

[Molli526]

Yes, I like it and will continue to eat it until they pull it all from the shelves!

[sneezles]

Wel, since DH does raise cattle...yes! The meat in the freezer is the show steer from DS#2's FFA project last year..a very well corn fed steer.
I have no problem buying it though if that were necessary since in Texas the animals have to walk off the trailer on their own (Not with 6 men surrounding it either). And just as cows from Canada and the US cross borders so do cows from Texas and Mexico.
Beef was at it's all time high ever just before this mad cow was discovered. DH had sold 16 calves and was amazed at the price they brought.

[SueK]

Originally posted by sneezles
Beef was at it's all time high ever just before this mad cow was discovered.

I read that in our local paper. They interviewed a beef farmer from here and he had just sold something like 12 head of cattle for $35,000 right before the mad cow situation. He said he had never gotten so much for his cows before.

[Laurielee]

Well since the contaminated beef showed up here on our Winco store shelf "As 14 lean ground beef" bought between the 16 the and 23rd. And I bought the same the same thing from the store 2 days later and it was just announced 4 days ago this was being recalled. So I am not eating ground beef at the moment, it just freaks me out, but I have eaten steak with no problem

Laurie

[Ohioan]

I buy only kosher meat, so I don't worry about mad cow disease (if that's the point of the poll), because the contamination seems to be in the feed, and kosher animals aren't given the kind of feed that's spreading the disease -- i.e., full of beef by-products. Imagine that: cannibal cows! It's like something out of Macbeth, where the killing of Duncan causes all sorts of inversions in the natural order, one of which is that Duncan's horses kill and eat each other.

Yes, English teachers have a Shakespeare allusion for every occasion.;)

Cheers,
Phoebe

[sunberst]

to be honest, i have only eaten beef a few times over the course of the past year. (i can count them all on one hand)

ironically, this past week i have been craving it for some weird reason and have eaten it twice in just the last week! out of all times, too. right when the mad cow concern arises, i suddenly crave it. after the steak pitas last night i think i have had my meat fix for the next few months.

i voted option #2.

it concerns me, but lots of problems arising from beef consumption concern me. not just mad cow. that is why i don't eat it much. besides, i am not crazy about the taste.

[Sami]

Ohioan, Kosher meet doesn't come from downer cows either. They have to be healthy before they are slaughtered. I can't believe that the US would allow cows that couldn't walk on their own to be put into the food chain.

Sami

[lisalee]

If I could vote :confused: I would have voted yes with no concerns. Arizona isn't part of the recall for beef, and I am not too concerned about the beef here.

Lisa

[Mariela]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Sami
[B]Ohioan, Kosher meet doesn't come from downer cows either. They have to be healthy before they are slaughtered. I can't believe that the US would allow cows that couldn't walk on their own to be put into the food chain.

Sami,

Last year the Seattle, Washington TV station KIRO-TV had an investigation about downer cows. They aired the results of their investigations in series. Here is the link to the first one from Oct.31, 2002.

Meat From Dying, Sick Or Diseased Cows Getting into Food
Chris Halsne
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter
A KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovers an explosive story about meat from dying, sick or diseased cows getting into your food.

http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/1868748/detail.html

The above link contains the links for the other parts
(under "Downer cows investigation").

[Varaile]

I had to vote O.o. I still eat ground beef and I have no qualms. However, we mostly eat venison anyway. I honestly can't remember the last time I bought straight ground beef. It was at least a year ago.

If we're in the mood for an actual hamburger, we tend to go to a local place called the Buffalo House and we get Buffalo burgers.

I guess overall I'm not too concerned.

[kgraham]

We are a bit concerned about consuming beef (especially ground), but that isn’t the only reason we have decided to stop eating it for the time being.

We are quite disturbed by the way the recall of beef/products from the cow in question have gone on in our area. In the past, when a meat product has been recalled, it is made public knowledge which stores are affected, how the product was labeled, etc. etc. In this case, we are getting virtually NO information besides the fact that there are 11 stores/restaurants in our county that received parts of the cow in question. Oh & that they went to small, ethnic restaurants and stores. Our county health officials have been forbidden by USDA to release the names of those restaurants/stores! This bothers me most of all.

It is because of this secrecy that DH & I have decided to not eat beef for the time being. At some point we will start eating it again – but we will be changing our purchasing habits & only buy organic or kosher & we will be grinding our own beef.

[Sami]

Mariela, that was an interesting article you posted. I am so glad I have only eaten kosher hotdogs all my life, and can't imagine what soup products the meat would be in. It is enough to make a vegetarian out of one.

DIL was in graduate school in London when the mad cow disease there and she became a vegetarian. Over Thanksgiving, she told me that I did not have to make special vaegatarian food for her, because she would try some turkey. She had a few bites, and the next night when I made both lasagne and macaroni and cheese (birthday dinner for 3 yr old who requested the mac & ch)I notices she ate a bit of lasagne. Now I wonder what she is thinking and whether it will send her back to being a vegetarain.

Sami

[schuh]

I didn't vote because I didn't find just the right response for me...

I AM concerned about mad cow. But I haven't quite figured out what to do about it and therefore haven't done much of anything. I've been seriously considering grinding my own hamburger ... but would need to buy a meat grinder. And I'm thinking about changing the ground beef I buy. And I want to further reduce the amount of processed food I purchase (it sounds to me like this area could be the biggest risk).

I'll be honest -- a lot of this boils down to convenience. I have a husband and son with limited palates and hamburgers, hot dogs, and lunch meat are easy solutions. I try to limit all of this but sometimes I get sick of cooking healthier fare and then having them not eat it. But I wouldn't forgive myself if anyone in our family came down with the human equivalent of mad cow. I know it's one isolated case but how sure are they that there aren't more? I heard that only a small fraction of our cattle are tested for this disease.

So that's where I stand right now.

[Jill123]

I have always liked ground beef and will continue to eat it until it's unavailable.

I'm not too concerned with Mad Cow. I think my chances (and everyone else's chances) of getting Mad Cow are pretty low.

[Karen M]

Just buy ground round, chuck or sirloin and avoid "ground hamburger". The round, chuck and sirloin come from a specific part of the animal and isn't all the scraps.

[linsleyd]

I only buy my meat from the local butcher. Our grocery stores meats are usually disgusting and old anyway and I would rather support the local guy anyway. If we are near Wegman's I'll get meat there since they only buy from an organic place in Montana.

[Leslie w]

Kosher and organic cows are not fed animal by-products, but as I understood it, it's against the law for any cow to be fed animal by-products. I'm not sure when that law took affect but I think it was sometime in the '90's. Still, it doesn't make me feel any safer buying ground beef. I try to avoid it whenever possible and use ground turkey, but when my family craves my meatballs, ground turkey just doesn't cut it! I want to start grinding my own beef but I don't have a grinder attachment to my KA and don't feel like spending the money right now to buy one. I do have a Cusinart. For those who use it for meat grinding do you use the shredding disc or the steel blade? I try to grind some chuck stew meat in the Cusinart using a steel blade but it came out pretty tough.

[Sami]

Leslie w, I use my Cuisinart steel blade to get ground meat from steaks and roasts. I also only buy turkey breast and grind that up the same way after I learned that the fround turkey came from all pasts of the turkey.

For the meat, do it in small batches so that there are no chucks. A meat grinder probably is better but I gave my mother's away and don't want another appliance.

Sami

[Mariela]

Leslie,

Not true. Here is an excerpt from an article:

"The FDA banned the feeding of cattle brain and spinal tissue to cattle in 1997, but they still allow the following materials to be fed to non-organic cattle:

· Blood and blood products (from cattle and other species);
· Gelatin (rendered from the hooves of cattle and other species;
· Fats, oils, grease, and tallow (from cattle and other species);
· Poultry and poultry by-products;
· Rendered pork protein;
· Rendered horse protein;
· Poultry manure (which may include spilled feed containing rendered
animal products); and
· Human food wastes[1] (which may contain beef scraps)".

The full article can be read here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/beef011204.cfm

And even these rules are violated. AgObservatory published an article titled "Mad Cow Rules Violated by Feed Mills in Washington State". Excerpt from the article:

"Of 300 firms in violation of FDA regulations nationwide as of October, 173 handled or distributed prohibited materials. And 32 of these handled both prohibited materials and ruminant feed, making them the most likely firms to spread Mad Cow disease".

http://www.agobservatory.org/madcow/index.cfm?id=4649

A few years ago Purina feed mill in Texas shipped contaminated cattle feed (containing cattle byproducts to a Tx ranch). The herd was qurantined by the Feds. If I remember correctly Purina purchased the herd later and destroyed it.

Mariela

[Leslie w]

Originally posted by Mariela
Not true. Here is an excerpt from an article:

"The FDA banned the feeding of cattle brain and spinal tissue to cattle in 1997, but they still allow the following materials to be fed to non-organic cattle:

· Blood and blood products (from cattle and other species);
· Gelatin (rendered from the hooves of cattle and other species;
· Fats, oils, grease, and tallow (from cattle and other species);
· Poultry and poultry by-products;
· Rendered pork protein;
· Rendered horse protein;
· Poultry manure (which may include spilled feed containing rendered
animal products); and
· Human food wastes[1] (which may contain beef scraps)".

Mariela

Ewww! Gross! Guess I'll be buying organic from now on!

[Shirley Ekstein]

Thought you might be interested in a view from England, post (we hope) BSE.
And yes, a few years ago when the whole thing blew up many of us stopped eating beef of any description, not just ground beef, for quite a while.
There came a point where our government banned the sale of beef on the bone, because the spinal cord was where the infection was presumed to be. You could still buy the roasting cuts as long as they were boned, but things like ox-tail were out of the question - and how on earth were you supposed to make a decent beef stock with no bones?
And what about stock cubes - were they safe?
And what about gelatine - was that safe?
The bone ban was lifted a couple of years ago and I think beef sales are pretty well back to normal.
I, for one, am sick to death of food scares, but as long as we all demand cheap food I have little doubt they will continue. Good food is NOT cheap to produce - if we were all prepared to pay the proper cost of food production, we'd get fewer food scares and more importantly, we'd get better food.
But am crying in the winderness, I know.

(And Ohian - I think I'd argue with you - Duncan's horses didn't kill and eat each other - they escaped from their stalls, ran wild and THEN ate each other, and think one of the points was that they ate each other alive. [OK - admit is pedantic point - but an English teacher should have her facts straight. . . !])

(Edited to remove an unnecessary pronoun.)

[JHaris]

Originally posted by Sami


For the meat, do it in small batches so that there are no chucks. A meat grinder probably is better but I gave my mother's away and don't want another appliance.

Sami

If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer, you can get a food grinder which attaches to the front of the machine. I use this a lot to do my own grinding of meats and other foods.

Sue, where do you buy the Laura lean beef? At Wegmans?

[SueK]

Hi Joan!

I haven't used any Laura's Lean yet, but I know Weg's doesn't sell it. I checked on the Laura's web site and it says Giant carries it. Now, I have not been there yet to check and see if they have any in stock, but I'm doing my weekly grocery shopping tomorrow, so I'll let you know if they do indeed have it.

(I'm still eating Wegman's ground beef we had in the freezer, too....hasn't stopped me for now. :) )

[Ohioan]

Originally posted by Shirley Ekstein
(And Ohian - I think I'd argue with you - Duncan's horses didn't kill and eat each other - they escaped from their stalls, ran wild and THEN ate each other, and think one of the points was that they ate each other alive. [OK - admit is pedantic point - but an English teacher should have her facts straight. . . !])

I'm not sure what your point is. They killed and ate each other after they broke loose. So? To quote:

OLD MAN: 'Tis said they eat each other.
ROSS: The did so, to th' amazement of mine eyes
That looked upon 't.

It's difficult to eat someone (somehorse?) without killing him, no? Unless, as in the "Conscious Food" thread, the bits of horse remained alive until fully digested? But then again, since the horses ate each other, I'm not sure which horses' digestive juices lasted longest.

At any rate, the horses ate each other. Which was my point. So?

Phoebe

[Mariela]

Shirley,

I am in full agreement with you! We purchase our beef,pork,lamb, milk, eggs and poultry from small local farmers. The products come from animals that are grassfed. I am from Eastern Europe and have been living in America for 10 years now. My observations are that a lot of the people here are accustom to cheap food and feel cheated if must pay more. During the same time Americans love convinience. They will pay that extra $$ for a pre-made food, packaged food, and a new toy but will refuse to spend it on better meats and dairy. For many of them food is food and any extra dollar spent is a "waste of money".
A friend of my husband is an example. He spends $120/month on cigaretts. Instead orange juice he buys something that is made from water, colours, flavorings, sintetic vitamin C and preservatives. But hey, it is a dollar cheaper than the real juice! Then they wonder why they get every cold and flu around. If he has a few dollars left at the end of month, he will immediately spend it on items such as games,CD's, decorative figurines for the wife,etc. But when comes to food he always shop for the cheapest. If you only could see the junk these people are eating!

[Shirley Ekstein]

Phoebe, I wasn't getting at you, honest!
Just a bit of a fun debate. I think the point is that they DID eat each other alive, which is, if it were possible, even nastier and more 'out of joint' than killing and then eating, d'you see? Is a minute point, I agree, and doesn't detract in the slightest from what you were saying, but Shakespearephiles will, as you know, endlessly debate the tiniest details.

And Mariela - am delighted you agree! We obviously share a very European slant on the issue of food.

[claire797]

No. DH is a carnivore, but he thinks ground beef is suspect. Doesn't like the taste, doesn't like the texture. I like it, but never eat it. Obviously, now is not the time to start!

[AD]

For those of you in search of Laura's Lean Beef, try this link:

www.laurasleanbeef.com/whereToBuy

I eat very little ground beef, but when I do, I usually get Longhorn ground beef (more at www.springerhillranch.com). I'm not sure how it's raised, but it can't be too bad.

I've never been afraid of eating meat, but after reading up on it, I hate the thought of contributing to any ranch or business that is so abusive in raising its cattle. It seems somewhat cruel.

[HejazSunKat]

Originally posted by Mariela
I am from Eastern Europe and have been living in America for 10 years now. My observations are that a lot of the people here are accustom to cheap food and feel cheated if must pay more. During the same time Americans love convinience. They will pay that extra $$ for a pre-made food, packaged food, and a new toy but will refuse to spend it on better meats and dairy. For many of them food is food and any extra dollar spent is a "waste of money". A friend of my husband is an example. He spends $120/month on cigaretts. Instead orange juice he buys something that is made from water, colours, flavorings, sintetic vitamin C and preservatives. But hey, it is a dollar cheaper than the real juice! Then they wonder why they get every cold and flu around. If he has a few dollars left at the end of month, he will immediately spend it on items such as games,CD's, decorative figurines for the wife,etc. But when comes to food he always shop for the cheapest. If you only could see the junk these people are eating!

Originally posted by Shirley EksteinAnd Mariela - am delighted you agree! We obviously share a very European slant on the issue of food.

Oh please, please, please Dear Mariela and Dear Shirley do not lump us all together. Not all of us Americans are slavish devotees of convenience food. Please see recent thread (title of which I forget) lamenting the growing loss of cooking and eating real food in America. If anything, we Americans are victims of a far too overactive marketing machine that gobbles us up like little Pac-men and women (wait a minute...the pac-men/women were the eatERs not the eatEEs...well, you know what I mean) making us believe we have no time to do anything but rip open a box and Just Add Chicken! Oh yes, there was a subject of this thread wasn't there? As for me, I've been living in Saudi Arabia for 6 years and have no idea what country the beef I've been eating has come from. Seems to change every week in reponse to the latest food scare (I think we're on Brazil now, was Ireland when I got here in '98) so I think I am, induibitably, screwed. *sigh*...What's a few more holes in the old gray matter?

And Phoebe I wish I'd had you for an English teacher...your posts never fail to delight me...and now you're making me want to re-read Macbeth. :D