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PBS
Frontline: Aired Thursday, April 18,2002 at 9pm, 60 minutes (Press
release)
It's as American as apple pie and vastly more popular. The hamburger has become our national food: Americans eat more meat than any other people in the world, with the average person devouring three hamburgers a week. And with more meat available than ever before, today's beef costs 30 percent less than it did in 1970, making it that much more attractive to consumers looking for a quick, cheap meal. Yet despite new federal safety regulations, more than 100 million pounds of meat has been recalled since 1998 due to suspected bacterial contamination. And just last summer, the nation's largest meat processor had to recall 500,000 pounds of beef contaminated with e.coli bacteria from seventeen states. How much does the average American know about the beef they're eating? Have dramatic changes in the U.S. meat industry compromised the overall safety of American beef? And are the new federal regulations enough to guarantee the safety of the meat we eat? FRONTLINE explores these and other questions in "Modern Meat," airing Thursday, April 18, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings). Through interviews with current and former U.S. Department of Agriculture officials, meat inspectors, food safety experts, and industry representatives, the one-hour documentary reveals how today's highly-industrialized meat business has fundamentally changed the composition of the typical American burger, causing some to fear the spread of serious -- and even deadly -- bacteria. The program also explores the powerful U.S. meat industry's attempts to resist certain government regulations aimed at preventing contaminated meat from ending up in supermarkets and fast food chains across America. "I think what the [meat] industry is saying
is that they don't want to be accountable for the product that they're
selling," says Eric
"Modern Meat" takes viewers inside the U.S. meat industry, beginning at the cattle ranch and then moving on to the "feedlot" -- a huge industrial holding pen where as many as 100,000 |
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carcasses make their way down a Detroit-style assembly line -- or "dis-assembly
line," as one industry insider quips -- where modern advances have enabled some meat
companies to strip as many as 400 carcasses an hour -- nearly three
times as many as in 1970.
But such modern efficiency may pose potential health risks.
In "Modern Meat," FRONTLINE speaks with
numerous scientists and
industry observers who raise serious concerns
about today's meat production
system. With large numbers of animals
being raised together in huge
feedlots covered with feces, they say,
it's easy for bacteria to spread from
one animal to another.
"Cows tend to produce feces [and] feces
is primarily bacteria," says
Glen Morris, a microbiologist at the University
of Maryland and a former
USDA official "When those bacteria are
spread around, there's ample
opportunity for bacteria to be spread
from one cow to the next.
"In the larger feedlots," he adds, "there's
a greater chance for the
passage of microorganisms back and forth.
All of that contributes to the
spread of microorganisms like e. coli."
Dr. Robert Tauxe is also concerned. "The
new highly industrialized way
we produce meat has opened up new ecological
homes for a number of
bacteria," says Tauxe, head of the Centers
for Disease Control's Foodborne
Illness Section.
Gone are the days, Tauxe says, when a hamburger
patty contained the
meat from a single cow; with enormous
numbers of cattle now being herded,
fattened, slaughtered, and ground up together,
it's virtually
impossible to determine how many cows
contribute to a single burger.
"If we take meat from a thousand different
animals and grind that
together," he says, "we're pooling bacteria
from a thousand different
animals as well."
What's more, there is increasing evidence
that the modern meat
industry's widespread use of antibiotics
to promote growth and keep livestock
healthy may result in the development
of bacteria strains that are
resistant to antibiotic treatment.
The consequences of bacterial contamination
can be deadly. In 1993,
Jack in the Box hamburgers contaminated
with a deadly strain of e. coli
killed four children and injured 750,
causing the government to seek a
more scientific system for inspecting
meat.
For decades, industry experts say, meat
inspectors had practiced the
"poke and sniff" method of visually inspecting
carcasses for signs of
disease. Following the Jack in the Box
outbreak, the government proposed
implementing a new inspection system --
known as "HACCP" (Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Points)
-- that would require microbial testing
to detect the presence of invisible --
yet harmful -- bacteria such as
e. coli and salmonella.
The proposed testing for salmonella, however,
was not embraced by the
meat industry. In "Modern Meat," FRONTLINE
speaks with industry insiders
and government officials who say the powerful
U.S. food lobby -- which
has contributed heavily to key Capitol
Hill lawmakers -- aggressively
fought including this testing as part
of the new regulations.
It's a charge that the American Meat Institute's
J. Patrick Boyle
denies. "It's not the beef industry that's
fighting standards that are
meaningful, that improve the wholesomeness
of the product," Boyle tells
FRONTLINE. "The beef industry has reservations
about unscientific standards
that have no relation to the safety of
our products."
The USDA resisted industry pressure, and
in 1996 the U.S. meat industry
began making the transition to the new
inspection system. Since then,
the USDA has reported a marked drop in
salmonella contamination of
ground beef, while the CDC has also begun
to see a drop in some food borne
illnesses. Yet the American consumer still
faces serious risks.
Each year, the CDC tracks numerous cases
of food poisoning, while the
USDA maintains a running list of tainted
meat recalls. The growth in
global trade, meanwhile, has increased
the risk of diseased cattle or beef
coming into the country and decimating
the U.S. livestock population.
Last year, for example, USDA Inspector
General Roger Viadero discovered
that 650,000 pounds of foreign meat from
a country embargoed because of
foot and mouth disease found its way into
America's heartland.
In addition, a recent court ruling threatens
to limit the government's
enforcement of its new food safety regulations.
In "Modern Meat,"
FRONTLINE examines a lawsuit filed by
Texas meat grinding company Supreme
Beef against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
When the USDA
effectively shut down the company after
it failed bacterial contamination tests
three times -- once after nearly 50 percent
of its meat was found to be
contaminated with salmonella -- the company
sued. Supported in its
lawsuit by the National Meat Association,
Supreme Beef charged that the
government didn't have the right to shut
down its operations simply
because it failed to meet the USDA salmonella
standards. Last month, a
federal appeals court ruled in favor of
the meat industry, prompting concern
from some industry observers.
Carol Tucker Foreman, head of food safety
at the Consumer Federation of
America and a former USDA official, believes
the modern meat production
and distribution system leaves consumers
vulnerable to a widespread
outbreak of bacterial contamination. She
points to a case in which sixteen
deaths and five stillbirths were connected
to Ball Park Franks found to
be contaminated with deadly listeria.
"Those hot dogs were shipped everywhere,"
Foreman says. "And thousands
and thousands of them were made every
day. So the potential for one
mistake rippling out and causing thousands
of deaths is there."
Visit FRONTLINE's
Web site for more on this report, including:
Statistics and articles
on the industrialization of the U.S. meat
industry; Background
reports from inside the slaughterhouse, readings and
interviews on current
conditions, and the movement for humane slaughter;
Facts and advice for
the consumer about choosing meat and eating
safely; Extended interviews,
chronologies and a video report.