Meat&Poultry - November 2012 - 90

The Insider

OVER HERD
Pink slime opportunities
During a Meat&Poultry interview with animal handling expert, Dr. Temple Grandin, this past month, the controversial topic of Lean Finely Textured Beef came up. She discussed how the industry was unnecessarily rocked by “pink slime” media reports and its prevalence on social networking sites from coast to coast. Now that the controversy has simmered somewhat, Grandin suggested a very outside the box, and very tongue-in-cheek marketing idea to turn the tide. “Maybe we ought to have a pink slime product,” she mused, suggesting someone should consider trademarking the term. She even suggested a slogan: “Be the fi rst kid on your block to have it in your lunchbox.” ■

“Nobody ought to have to work for a jerk, and I sit here as a reformed jerk.”
— Bill Rupp, CEO of JBS USA, on how his company’s agreement to manage XL Foods’ troubled beef plant will encourage workers to not be afraid to speak out about food-safety issues at the facility.

Out of this world burger
According to a recent report on Discovery.com, three Harvard Univ. students were the first to successfully deploy a hamburger 90,000 feet above the Earth. Using a weather balloon rigged to carry the quarter-pound passenger and a strategically placed video camera trained on the burger, the ascent was stopped when the balloon popped and the entire contraption plunged to the Earth. The students tracked its landing spot down, over 100 miles from its launch site and posted the footage online at: http://youtu.be/nRkQE0I4NZw . ■

Tyson takes flight for vets
On Oct. 20, approximately 170 World War II veterans visited memorials dedicated in their honor during a trip to Washington, DC, as part of the first official Honor Flight from Little Rock, Ark. Two commercial jets were chartered to fly 168 veterans free of charge, from Little Rock, Ark., to Washington, DC, and back, thanks to donations from Tyson Foods Inc., the Walmart Foundation and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. This honored group, which included veterans as old as 94, saw the World War II Memorial plus other military memorials during the day. Since 2009, Tyson and Walmart have been the primary sponsors of five Honor Flights from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. ■

Ozzy ousts meat
During a recent appearance on “The Talk,” a daytime show hosted by Sharon Osbourne, the wife of rock legend, Ozzy Osbourne, the man known as “The Prince of Darkness,” announced he had adopted a vegan diet. The iconic rocker said he is foregoing meat and dairy products in an effort to become healthier. After watching a documentary about the benefits of vegetarian diets, he said, “I’ll give this a shot.” Adjusting to the diet, he said, is going well. “I feel OK actually; I feel better about myself.” He concluded: “I’m not saying I’m going to do it forever; I might go back,” said the 62-year-old Osbourne, “when my wife learns to cook, so that’ll be never.” ■

• Meat&Poultry • November 2012 • www.MeatPoultry.com

http://www.Discovery.com http://www.youtu.be/nRkQE0I4NZw http://www.MeatPoultry.com

Meat&Poultry - November 2012

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