<p>I saw a very, very disturbing thing on the local news last night: undercover video of slaughterhouse workers abusing sick cows. The animals were eventually slaughtered and ended up in the hamburger meat sent to local schools (USDA prohibits sale of meat from downer animals for human consumption). This morning the Seattle Times reported that the recall is now nationwide:</p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004158504_webschoolbeef02m.html[/url]”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004158504_webschoolbeef02m.html</a></p>
<p>Our local newspaper reported this a.m. that our school districts have stopped serving all beef in the school meals this week until further notice from the FDA. I was not brave enough to click on the video link from the Humane Society to actually watch the abuse of the cows (probably because I’ve been a vegetarian for the past 17 years). </p>
<p>Here’s the link to the abcnews video… :(</p>
<p><a href=“ABC News Videos - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4217527</a></p>
<p>OK, I work for the Food Service Director in our district and we’ve heard nothing about this. But last week, my boss happened to hear from another director that there was a recall on canned green beans from 2003-04 that have botulism. We had our managers search their store rooms and we came up with 6 cases of these green beans, which had to be wrapped in plastic and discarded. My boss called the Dept of Ed Nutrition people, and they at first they knew nothing about it, then they found a memo they said was mailed to us (we never received it). On their webpage that is supposed to have the latest news and info - no reference to the recall.</p>
<p>So I don’t know if/when we’ll ever hear anything about ground beef from gov’t commodities. But I’ll pass the info on to my boss!</p>
<p>(I just looked at the time on these postings, they were Saturday, so maybe we’ll get some info on Monday).</p>