“Pink Slime” continues to ooze….

Just when we thought that school children across the country would be faced with brown bag lunches to avoid the consumption of “pink slime” in the ever tasty school cheeseburger, the US government reconsidered the plan and did what they do best – leave the decision up to the school districts in terms of who buys pink slimed meat and who doesn’t.  PERFECT!!!! So as the budgets tighten and the pennies of every school district are being tightly monitored by “the powers that be,” now school districts have to decide whether it is worth the cost to buy slime free meat.  Hmmm…slime free meat or textbooks – great options!!!!

Oh course the pink slime industry has responded to the claims that their food is unsafe, and to be fair, I am including their statements;

That said, forgive me as a rant for a moment but lets look at this from the schools lunch room vs. the world point of view.

• If school districts do not buy biodegradable lunch trays the environment groups get upset.  While I know that there does not seem to be a big difference between a $.03 styrofoam tray and a $.07 biodegradable tray, when your buying 1,000,000 trains the difference then become a staggering $40,000.
• If school districts do not serve culturally diverse foods to meet culturally diverse students then the cultural groups get upset.  Students need to be given food options that meet their diverse palettes,
• If school districts serve peanuts (in any form) then the students who are allergic are being exposed to potentially deadly lunchroom experiences.
• And now if school districts choose to sell slimed meat then everyone including the head of McDonald’s is going to be pointing their fingers at the school districts and reminding everyone that they “told them so.”

It seems as if, the school lunch program is becoming an even greater burden to the already scrutinized schools.  Is it really that difficult to just keep the slime from the lunch program.   Now parents are faced to not only make sure their child’s school is not only a good institution for educating their child but also have to make sure that the school is also serving food that is not slimed. I mean, if McDonald’s won’t use it – why does the US government think it is okay???