The Rest of the Story: Pink Slime is Good For You and Other Behind the Scenes Stories

Pretty catchy title there, eh? I can see it now. You, dear reader, in front of a piping-hot bowl of Pink Slime! Mmmm good! Just like mom used to make!

Well, I'm not too sure that Pink Slime is good for you (I'm a raw fooder anyway so my opinion about anything cooked is negative biased), but I will tell you that a good friend of mine, who is a long-time professional in the food industry, told me that Pink Slime is getting a bad rap. My friend has been in that food industry for years and owns one of the biggest food distribution companies in the United States - and he is not in the beef and pork industry - so he's not telling me 'Spin.' He told me directly yesterday at lunch that so-called Pink Slime isn't bad for your health at all...

In fact, he said it was much better than the alternative. His exact words were this: 

"When a cow or pig is slaughtered there are all sorts of left-over little bits of meat that are scrapped off and minced up into a sort of "hamburger." Into this mix, Pink Slime, which is grown from bacteria is added, to fill out the product and hold it together. Usually about 10% ~ 30% of this "hamburger" consists of Pink Slime. It isn't bad for your health at all and is MUCH better than the alternative."

Of course, being the kind of anal-retentive person who likes to learn stuff and double check my information, I looked it up. 

All this time I had thought that Pink Slime was poisonous and filled with all sorts of deadly chemicals, but it is not. Pink Slime is supposedly completely safe. Please refer to Pink Slime is Safe To Eat:

The controversy over ammonia-treated beef - or what critics dub ‘pink slime’ - broadened this week as it was revealed that the caustic cleaning chemical is also used in cheese. 

Related compounds are also used in baked goods and chocolate. 

Ammonia, known for its noxious odor, became a hot topic with the uproar over what the meat industry calls ‘finely textured beef’ and what a former U.S. government scientist first called ‘pink slime’… 

…For example, ammonia compounds are used as leavening agents in baked goods and as an acidity controller in cheese and sometimes chocolate.    

‘Ammonia's not an unusual product to find added to food,’ Gary Acuff, director of Texas A&M University's Center for Food Safety, told a recent press conference hosted by Beef Products Inc. ‘We use ammonia in all kinds of foods in the food industry.’   

After critics highlighted the product on social media websites and showed unappetizing photos on television, calling it ‘pink slime,’ the nation's leading fast-food chains and supermarkets spurned the product, even though U.S. public health officials deem it safe to eat. 

The outrage, which many experts say has been fueled by the term ‘pink slime,’ seems more about the unsavoriness of the product rather than its safety.   

‘This is not a health issue,’ said Bill Marler, a prominent food safety lawyer. ‘This is an 'I'm grossed out by this' issue.’    

OK. Now I hear you say, "Mike. Pink Slime? Well, what's this got to do with anything and why is this in a blog about Marketing and Japan?" 

Glad you asked that question. 

This little episode has everything to do with Marketing... I don't want to say it has anything to do with Japan as some readers may be having dinner while reading this.... 

Stick around, this is a very fascinating story...Let me tell you about it...

Remember a while back in Europe the huge scandal about Horse Meat being in the hamburgers and meat products at several fast food restaurants and grocery store chains? Yeah, it is a big deal and still lots of heads are rolling over this scandal. I had thought that horse meat wasn't so bad to eat, but my friend tells me that, "Horse meat is nasty stuff because it's full of all sorts of chemicals and some of those chemicals are known carcinogens!" ....Ewwww!

Horse meat could be cancerous?! Yikes! I didn't know that! So, now you know why people are up in arms about horse meat in their beef hamburgers...

Please refer to: What's behind the horsemeat contamination scandal? 

(CNN) -- Horsemeat has been discovered in products labeled as 100% beef and sold in Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. Food authorities in those countries have launched investigations but the supply chain being studied includes still more countries…

…In one sample from Tesco -- Britain's largest grocery chain -- the horsemeat accounted for about 29% of the burger.

This story was, and still is, huge news in Europe. CNN goes on to claim the reason for this tainted horse meat getting into the food chain. The article continues: 

How did horsemeat enter the food chain?

Britain's FSA said the evidence it had "points to either gross negligence or deliberate contamination in the food chain."

"Gross negligence" or "deliberate contamination"? Hmmm? Well, lucky readers, this isn't exactly why this happened. Of course, it was deliberate contamination. No doubt about that. But why was it deliberate?

Why would anyone deliberately "contaminate" the food? Well, folks it has nothing to do with trying to kill people... It has everything to do with Marketing and the Mass Media and sensationalism.

Before this scandal broke about the horse meat, Pink Slime had been taking a big hit everywhere on the Mass Media. The revulsion by the public (due to typically uneducated and sensationalistic mass media fueled hysteria) created a back lash towards Pink Slime. Suddenly the public was grossed out by Pink Slime and thought they were eating 50 gallon barrels full of deadly Ammonium every time they ate a chicken nugget. 

Because the public outcry was so bad, even retailers had to try to placate their customers and so they began a campaign to stop buying products that had Pink Slime in them.

Still following me here?

OK. So the big grocery chains and the big fast food chains start complaining about Pink Slime and they begin an informal boycott of products that contain Pink Slime.

Now, let's not forget something about sales and the free market; the customer is King! For distributors and whole sellers, the chain stores and restaurant chains are their customers; what the customers wants, the customer gets. Large retail stores have huge sales and very much clout. One contract with a large retailer is worth tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars a year in revenue for a distribution company. 

Getting a deal with a major retailer is the Holy Grail for a salesman from any distributor. 

Of course, the stores also need to increase sales and profitability while cutting costs. So when a buyer at a chain tells a salesman that they no longer want to buy the beef product that has the Pink Slime in it, what is the salesman to do? 

The buyer now wants to buy the same amount of beef with no Pink Slime in it for the same price. Of course, the beef is sold by weight. But now the meat no longer has 10% ~ 30% extra weight in it that the Pink Slime accounted for. 

The stores want the same weight in meat yet they do not want to pay more or increase their beef prices to customers as that would hurt their sales!

What is the salesman to do? Many of these companies now stood to lose contracts worth millions and millions of dollars simply because the possibly the public has been misinformed (again???) by a mass media that is only interested in ratings and selling advertising space.

What is the wholesaler and the distributors to do? It's a big problem and a terrible dilemma. Back at the Corporate HQ, the bosses of all these distributors and whole sellers got together and tried to find a solution.

What could they do? The process for making these beef and meat products had been the same for many years; it called for a 10% ~ 30% addition of Pink Slime. The products were completely safe, yet the public no longer wanted to buy them, yet they wanted the beef for the same price? How could the manufacturers sell their meats for the same competitive price when they suddenly had to eat an - sometimes up to - 30% increase in costs? They couldn't...

The entire beef industry in Europe was in a crisis! Bankruptcy loomed for many. What to do?

My friend I mentioned before from the food industry told me that this is EXACTLY what happened: The executives and presidents all met at a lodge in the country to discuss a way, any way, to rescue their industry and their businesses... It was a dark time for the industry...

That is, until, as my friend described, one of the company presidents looked out the window towards the beautiful mountains in the distance and the fantastic country view... He stared at the mountains and contemplated life, the trees, the birds, his family, his entire purpose for living...

Was it all to end this way? Just as the presidents of those companies were about to give up and throw in the towel, a lone horse walked up to the window, looked in at the presidents of the wholesalers and distributors and whinnied. 

Just like this:

And now you know.... The Rest of the Story.

NOTE: Generally speaking, I don't really care too much about this as I never eat stuff that has been processed. May I recommend that you do the same? Please read: The Super Healthy Breakfast - Raw Food: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.jp/2012/02/super-healthy-breakfast-raw-food-live.htmlAs

Bringing American Democracy, Freedom and Culture to the Benighted World

The other day I had the pleasure to go to MTV Japan and meet with my good friend, Jake (not his real name). While I sat in the lobby waiting, there was a big screen TV on and it showed the "Korea Top 10 Videos." I thought it strange that MTV Japan would be showing the Korea Top 10, but, I guess what sells get aired.

Beavis and Butthead. American junk culture? I don't know... 

Beavis and Butthead are not a problem. The problem is that there are 5 million American kids just like them. 

As I watched some girls group I was struck by how much of a copy of American Hip-Hop the video and music was; you know girls dressed like sluts and dancing like they are having orgasms on the stage.. Undoubtedly, it was a carbon copy of "American Junk Culture" Korea Style... Just like the Japanese style or even, I'm sure, the Thailand style shown on MTV Thailand or any other country. (By the way, I also consider today's fast food, most contemporary pop music, Hip Hop, and Punk, music and fashions, American TV - the list goes on and on - to be "American Junk Culture.")

Kara: One of Korea's top musical exports! (At about 1:22, they even have scenes 

that hint at a glorification of the military. How uniquely American!)

This is not, by the way, a criticism of MTV or Korean pop music at all. It is a criticism of American exceptionalism and, as said, American Junk Culture. Read on...


In the early 1990's and the beginnings of the current era of American imperial ambitions in the Middle East, guys like former president George W. Bush and talking head Ann Coulter said that we were bringing democracy, freedom and American culture to the Middle East.


Even at that time, I wondered if that was a good thing. I mean, I can't really imagine changing a culture that, for example, has women wearing burkha for over one-thousand years into a culture of "Ho's" shaking their booties to the Afghani version of Snoop Doggy Dogg.


"Yo! Yo! Yo! Wassup Kabul?"


Why can't Americans and their government just leave other people and their political and cultural social "problems" alone? 


My god, why would anyone want American democracy, freedom and culture? Look at how well it has done in Chicago this year versus the entire nation of Afghanistan:

The Daily reports:

While 144 Americans have died in Afghanistan in 2012, a whopping 228 Chicago residents have been killed, and the murder rate is up a staggering 35 percent from last year. That’s a rash of homicides quadruple the rate of New York City’s, and police and crime experts fear it may only get worse.

You'd think that we'd get ready to invade Chicago and bring them American democracy, freedom and culture... But, it looks already as they are doing well enough with it as is...


Meanwhile, in South East Asia, another girls group mimics the latest dance steps and does their best to be "Just like the Americans."


All I can say is, "Be careful for what you wish for. You just might get it."

Japanese People Going Crazy Like Americans - Is it the Food or the Water? Japan Gulps American Fast Food

Japan is going nuts, my friends. What I mean by that is Japan is becoming more and more like the USA day by day and it's not good. I've said for a long time that Japan was thirty or forty years behind the USA and I stand by that statement. Several decades ago, America was generally a good place to live, had good industry and service was done with a smile. 

Today, Japan still has good service with a smile and industry... But for how much longer?


I even remember when McDonald's had the campaign in the USA that burgers were a dollar but the smiles were free. Not anymore in the nuthouse that today's USA has become. I lived in the USA as a kid in the sixties and seventies. I think it was the golden age of the richest country in history. Those days are long gone. 


Unfortunately for Japan, as I said, I believe my axiom holds true: Japan is thirty or forty years behind the USA... Today Japan is now heading into some very bad times and I don't see a way to avoid them. Please refer to: Japan's Collapse Will Be Absolute and it Cannot be Stopped - Here's Some BIG Reasons Why.


Like a rash that at first starts off small and slowly spreads, the symptoms of Japan's decline have started to appear and are unmistakable for those who are alert enough to notice them. 


Things are happening in Japan today that were unheard of just a few years ago. Did you know two women got into an altercation at a pub yesterday in Nishi Arai (Adachi ku, Tokyo) that resulted in one of the women dying? It hasn't hit the English language news services in Japan as far as I can see but here's a Japanese link from Yahoo Japan. What happened was that it seems two women went separately to a pub. There, for some reason, a argument broke out between them. Soon the argument turned into into a fist fight with one woman using a beer mug to hit the other woman in the face and over the head. When the woman who was stuck by the beer mug collapsed to the floor, the other woman jumped on her and began kicking her repeatedly while she was on the ground. 


The collapsed woman was taken to a hospital where she died.


Now, if this were the United States, we'd all say, "Ho-hum. So what's new?" But in Japan? This is unheard of. To prove that this is not an unusual occurance in today's USA, I went to Youtube and searched "Fight at McDonald's" I got over 5,500 results. "Fight at Chuck E. Cheese" resulted in over 15,700 results. "Fight at restaurant" received 8,530 results (and climbing)...


To compare with Japan, I searched "Fight at restaurant"（レストラン 喧嘩）and found 76 results. None involved people fighting. The top video was of some pigeons fighting over food. 


What is the cause of this? Scoff now, my friends, but I am convinced that it is all a part of the Zeigeist of the times and has much to do with the food and water people consume. Now, it's come to Japan. The rise - and current dominance - of the western diet and fast food culture in Japan will result in more crime, dissatisfaction, clinical depression, medical maladies and an more unhealthy populace in general. And, "unhealthy populace" means not just physically unhealthy, but mentally unhealthy too. 


Some people will argue this but it's laughable to think that eating chemicals and processed, unnatural foodstuffs won't cause all sorts of problems. Think about this: Do you know why homeless people generally go crazy after about two months on the street? Well, it should come to no surprise to learn that homeless people do not eat well and consume lots of fast food. Just add two and two and you'll get four. 


I was just telling a friend of mine yesterday that, 15 or 20 years ago, you never saw very fat Japanese people. But you see them now. I find it not just a coincidence that, as the Japanese increase vastly their intake of  western food they become more and more obese like Americans.


This chart is a bit dated but we can compare it with what I'm saying: 15 ~ 20 years ago, you rarely ever saw a Japanese person who was fat... Sumo? Yes. Obese people? I mean really fat people like you see in the USA? No. This chart compares the obesity rate of many countries around the world including Japan:

Country by country comparison of obesity

As you can see, twenty years ago, in 1990, about 2.5% of the Japanese population were considered obese... Trust that there aren't that many sumo running around so we can figure that this rate is pretty true. Compare that with the '88 ~ '94 rate of the USA that was about 24%. 

By the mid-1980s the American inspired fast food fueled boom was deeply entrenched in Japan amongst an entire generation of young people. Those twenty-year olds of 1980 are now 50-year-olds today... Gee, I wonder how that has affected Japan's obesity problems? I'm not exactly sure about that and have no data but it is common knowledge that today's Japan is beginning to have an obesity problem too. 

I do have anecdotal evidence in the fact that the word, "Metabo" became a common word in the Japanese vernacular over these past 5 years. "Metabo" is short for "Slow metabolism." It is the lame excuse that overweight people use for being fat as in,

Fat person: "Oh, I am getting over-weight. It's that darn slow-metabolism!" 

Me: "No. It's not your slow metabolism. It's because you eat too much junk like a pig and don't exercise."

Of course the obesity problem in Japan is nowhere near the crisis porportions of the USA but judging from the chart below, we might get a good idea where we're heading.

The next chart give us clues. It is an interesting chart on the exponential growth of obesity in America. I haven't any chart like this for Japan with regards to up-to-date information, but while Japan is still decades behind the USA in the overweight department, Japan is growing exponentially too... Thank you McDonald's!

But it's not just obesity and all the health problems that follow the American diet wherever it goes around the world. I've mentioned mental health problems. I submit to you that insanity also follows along with the Standard American Diet (SAD).


The SAD diet is chock full of chemicals and preservatives. People think eating that hamburger is just food that goes right through you and out the other side. Wrong! Thinking that way is just plain ignorant. That food doesn't go though you folks, it goes in you and is processed by your body. It becomes you.


They don't say, "You are what you eat" for no reason. Eat junk, become junk. 


And on that note, did you know that cancers and heart diseases were unheard of diseases in Japan and Asian countries before the 1950's? Yep. It's true. There's even a movie about it. It's called Knives Over Forks. Here's a trailer.

Over the years, I've heard many anecdotal stories about America going crazy and have told my fair share myself too. The noticeable thing is that these stories get more and more common and wilder and wilder. I've often wondered if it was fluoridation of the water or the poisoning of the food. Let me guess though, it's both. It's everything. It's all the crap that people ingest in their food, water and air.


Everyone knows about the fights and insanity going on in America... Now that we have fast food in Japan on every street corner, Japan is indeed becoming more and more like the United States.


This isn't turn out good. Just look at the USA to see what's going to happen... 

Nuclear Panic Time? What is Important to You?

I often wonder what people are thinking and how they deem what is important to their lives or not. I never ever wonder if people watch too much TV (they do) or if they are brain-washed by the mass media (they are).


While searching for relative and credible information on the Fukushima nuclear accident and nuclear power in general, I found a forum called, in the expected creative fashion of physicists (I suppose) "Physics Forum" on the Internet that is used by various mathematicians, scientists,  nuclear engineers and physicists to discuss the issues of the day. Some of the things discussed there I found quite interesting. 


There were several threads about Fukushima. The discussions were quite level-headed, it seemed, with a healthy bashing of mass media sensationalism... Just like you've read on this very blog. There were also many scientific comments about the levels of radiation from Fukushima and how the situation was being way blown out of proportion.


I am going to list up just a few of those comments for you and then ask a question that seems to be bothering me concerning my question in the very first sentence of this post; I often wonder what people are thinking and how they deem what is important to their lives or not.


In one thread, several of the engineers were complaining how people are always confusing nuclear energy with nuclear weaponry and how that is a ploy used by the anti-nuclear power lobby to scare people. The over-whelming consensus was that people don't have a clue that there is no way to rationally compare a nuclear weapon and the process one uses to kill people with a nuclear power plant that is designed to generate electricity.


It's true. There's no way that any informed person could compare a nuclear power plant with a nuclear weapon. They are two completely different things. Wikipedia's page on nuclear fission reports:


While the fundamental physics of the fission chain reaction in a nuclear weapon is similar to the physics of a controlled nuclear reactor, the two types of device must be engineered quite differently (see nuclear reactor physics). A nuclear bomb is designed to release all its energy at once, while a reactor is designed to generate a steady supply of useful power. While overheating of a reactor can lead to, and has led to, meltdown and steam explosions, the much lower uranium enrichment makes it impossible for a nuclear reactor to explode with the same destructive power as a nuclear weapon.


One comment, on the "Physics Forum" thread about Fukushima, from a nuclear engineer, was short and to the point. He wrote that the evidence concerning longevity in the USA and around the world since the beginning of the nuclear age does not show that nuclear power has shorten our lives at all. In fact, if the anti-nuclear crowd were to be believed, then our average lifespans would be getting shorter, when, in fact, life expectancy has increased anywhere from 11% ~ 15% in 50 years. He gave this chart below. 

He added: "Obviously, background radiation, atmospheric testing, and nuclear power are major impacts on world health."

Of course, there are many other factors that would play a part in our lives getting longer such as food, water, environment and medicine.... But, I wonder, is there anyone of us who thinks that of the four I just mentioned, the only one that has gotten better over these 50 years can only be medicine. Certainly our environment, food and water has not gotten better.


One only need to look at the average American or the grocery store shelves full of processed, pumped-full-of-chemicals food that many people feed themselves to know that can't be good for you. 

Another engineer commented on how he thought it was curious that people get all riled up and up in arms about nuclear power plants but are basically silent when it comes to nuclear weapons testing.


He wrote:


I guess atmospheric tests were stopped before word "radiation" became synonym of "panic". For anti-nuclear activists, equating nuclear weapons and nuclear power has always been a key tactic. It's just that they haven't had anything to raise panic over in more than 20 years. 


On that note, I strongly agree. Since 1945 to today there have been over 2055 (at least) above ground and underground nuclear weapons tests all over the world. That's an average of 31 nuclear explosions on our earth every year. This chart from Wikipedia on Nuclear Weapons Testing:

Nuclear weapons release thousands of times more energy (read: radiation) into the environment than nuclear power plants do or ever could; known nuclear weapons testing has occurred, on average, over 31 times a year, every year since 1945. We've had three nuclear power plant accidents.


The jury is still out on Fukushima. Many people's lives have been devastated and many people have lost loved ones in the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima disaster... But, still, to this date, no one has died from exposure to radiation. Hopefully, no one will. 


As far as Chernobyl is concerned, the Physics Forum moderator had this comment about claims that Chernobyl has caused cancers:


"...there is no Chernobyl effect visible in the epidemiological data - background is high enough to mask it."


This claim is backed up by a BBC Documentary called "Nuclear Nightmares." Episode Three, from 1:20 ~ is particularly relevant.  

The BBC documentary confirms the remarks by the moderator in that "According to standard models for radiation risk, the Chernobyl nuclear accident should have caused over 9,000 deaths due to cancer... Numbers have varied widely... But the most authoritative were published in 2005 by the Chernobyl Forum, an international forum of scientific agencies, including a number of UN bodies...." The total confirmed deaths were 47 and those were from the clean up crews at Chernobyl. 


You can view the BBC Documentary "Nuclear Nightmares", in full, here. 


(Please also pay close attention to the information about children's cancer in the same part three.)  


Continuing on, many will say that the discovery of irradiated tea in Kanagawa or other vegetables in Ibaraki are proof that the Fukushima accident is worse than reported. I have another thought on this notion. 


We have a saying, "If you go looking for trouble, you'll find it." I think that now, since everyone is so concerned about Fukushima, that we are being much more careful and diligent in our checking of our immediate environment. But I want to postulate one idea that won't be comfortable for most people...  I am wondering if this newly found radiation is not from Fukushima and we found it because we actually bothered to look. The fact is, it came from somewhere else.


Perhaps it came from another nuclear power plant? Perhaps Tokai or Hamaoka? You know, there was a cooling breakdown at the Tokai nuclear reactor on March 14th? Could these sorts of things be the origin of this radiation? Or could it be from something else? 


I suppose we might never know. Like I said, if you go looking for trouble, you'll most probably find it.


Do not misunderstand what the purpose of this blog post is. I am not pro nor anti nuclear power. I do believe that the worst thing that could happen to us is a loss of cheap and clean energy. But the real purpose of this post is not to defend the nuclear industry. It is to go back to my comments at the very start of this post: "What is important to people?"


Specifically, in this case, and finally to the point; we know that many nations have a massive amount of nuclear weaponry. We know that these nations have been testing these weapons, that, I think is an easy guess, to say that they've released hundreds of millions and millions more time the radiation into the earth and atmosphere than our three nuclear power plant accidents up until now... The USA and NATO nations have, and continue to do so until this very day, used highly radioactive depleted uranium weapons in the Middle East, yet you don't hear a peep about that from most people.

Effects of depleted uranium in mid east. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Most people panic and crap their pants about Fukushima, but when their governments wage war and use nuclear weaponry, they say nothing.


It's a real head scratcher for me. What are these people thinking about? What is important to these people?


As these people stuff their face daily with food laced with chemicals, preservatives and other carcinogenic agents that they eagerly put into their own bodies; things they buy that are part and parcel of the processed foods, chips, pizza, etc., from the grocery store. They eagerly lunch daily on chemical trash from fast food establishments like McDonald's or the like. Then they wash it down with other chemical drinks like Coke that can dissolve metals...


Ex-Max Health Reports: According to a new study led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), with collaborators from the University of Toronto and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The researchers found that smoking is responsible for 467,000 premature deaths each year, high blood pressure for 395,000, and being overweight for 216,000. The effects of smoking work out to be about one in five deaths in American adults, while high blood pressure is responsible for one in six deaths. 


People don't seem worry about these things that are known to cause all sorts of health problems like high-blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, etc.... These things that they could handle if they showed some self restraint for a better, healthier life... They don't seem to worry about that...


No, they won't do anything, won't say anything, about that... 


But, they will worry, and be very vocal, about the effects on their health from a minuscule amount of radiation from a nuclear power plant's accident hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.


You really have to wonder how people create their priorities. 


Is "what is important" only what the mass media tells people what is important at that time? It seems so. We have a society of people who are being led by the nose who have lost the ability to think for themselves.


Interesting, no? Just what is important to people? What is important to you?


------  


I present for you now, a video showing a marker for every nuclear weapons test made from 1945 to 1998

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 to 1998