Rick Perry, Other Governors: We'll Eat Your Pink Slime
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Mar 29, 2012 9:00PM
The growing public scrutiny over the ammonium hydroxide-treated beef filler known as "pink slime" has finally found some defenders. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad all defended the use of the product and said they would gladly eat burgers made from ground beef containing the product.
Branstad said in a news conference Wednesday after meeting with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack:
"This is an unwarranted, unmerited food scare. If there was some basis in fact to this, other than somebody's clever naming of it, then you'd say 'no you shouldn't stick your neck out on it.'"
Branstad added that an extra 1.5 million head of cattle annually would need to be killed to make up for the missing filler in America's ground beef, leading to higher prices at the supermarket.
Branstad joined Brownback and Perry in a joint statement said there was no problem with the product, that it was a “nutritious product that is backed by sound science,” which, for Perry, at least, would indicate that he believes in science when it's at least to his benefit.
(Did we mention the coincidence that all three governors happen to be Republican? And that their position is in line with that of beef industry lobbyists and organizations?)
Anyway, the three toured one of Beef Products, Inc. plant in Sioux City, Neb. today, to drum up support for pink slime. BPI suspended operations at three plants, which affected 600 workers in Iowa, Kansas and Texas. Larry Smith, of the Institute for Crisis Management public relations firm, said the damage done to BPI from the public relations campaign may be too much to overcome.
""I can't think of a single solitary message that a manufacturer could use that would resonate with anybody right now," Smith said."