Where's the Beef - Coming From?

USDA Inspected - so it's safe - right? Well it used to be, when there were enough government inspectors on the job. But take 99 out of the 100 there used to be and the results is lots of people get sick, some die, and some get paralyzed for life like then-22 year-old dance instructor Stephanie Smith. Why is the US meat market less safe than in Japan or Europe? Ideology, not science. Greed, not any care for the consumer.

clipped from www.nytimes.com E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes. Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed. Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007. Stephanie Smith, 22, was paralyzed after being stricken by E. coli in 2007. Officials traced the E. coli to hamburger her family had eaten.