Beef in industry, oyster industry, and typical beurocracy

[Jmolinari]

E coli from tainted beef causes 61 deaths and 73000 illnesses each year.
Vibrio vulnificus causes 15 deaths each year.

The feds go after the oyster industry, even though the beef problem is 4 times great in deaths. I wonder who has the bigger lobby. Crap like that really ticks me off. Especially since solving the beef issue is doable with technology that has no effect on the beef (irradiation), which the oysters would have been changed through heat treating.

Bah. Discuss.

[Daniel]

point, counterpoint...

there is way more than a 4 to 1 ratio of beef consumed versus oysters consumed.  americans probably eat at least 1000x more beef per year than oysters...

[Jmolinari]

ah. good point Daniel.

[HaagenDazs]

Beef is consumed far more frequently, I completely agree, but to bring another point into the discussion, oysters are fairly often consumed raw on purpose whereas beef is usually not.  Sure there's steak tartare and carpaccio, but I think the real concern with e. coli in beef is in large-scale ground beef products. 

[Mike GadgetGeek Stock]

Beef is consumed far more frequently, I completely agree, but to bring another point into the discussion, oysters are fairly often consumed raw on purpose whereas beef is usually not.  Sure there's steak tartare and carpaccio, but I think the real concern with e. coli in beef is in large-scale ground beef products.  

There is some good information on White Oak Pasture's website, especially about grass fed beef.

http://www.whiteoakpastures.com/

.

[foodnearsnellville]

I love Robb Walsh's food writing and articles like the one below are a big reason why:

http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-06-18/restaurants/not-so-clear-cut/1

FnS.