Why Did Trump Order Up 660 Million Pounds of Mystery Meat?

If you buy a T-shirt at Gap, it will have a label that tells you where it was made. That's federal law. The same is true for automobiles, appliances, television sets, every fresh or frozen fruit and vegetable sold at the supermarket. Beef and pork are notable exceptions to these laws. And that may help to explain why President Trump signed a proclamation last week that will allow the duty-free importation of about 660 million pounds of inexpensive beef. If American consumers knew where that beef was coming from, they might not want to eat it. The cuts of meat covered by Trump's proclamation aren't fresh sirloins, rib eyes and filets. They're lean beef trimmings that will be added to fattier American cuts to make ground beef. They're small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers. I've been a longtime critic of food-safety practices in the U.S. meatpacking industry. But some of the practices in the 16 countries currently authorized to export raw beef to the United States are worse than any on these shores. During the past year, China rejected two shipping containers of beef from Uruguay after finding residue of an anti-parasitic drug in the meat, and rejected beef from Argentina reportedly because it tested positive for a banned antibiotic that can cause serious blood disorders. One of the worst food-safety scandals occurred in Brazil, the world's largest exporter of beef. In 2017, the Brazilian federal police raided nearly 200 meatpacking plants after allegations that government inspectors and politicians were being bribed to allow the sale of contaminated beef. Rotten meat treated with ascorbic acid and other chemicals to mask the contamination had been sold to hospitals and schools in Brazil and also been exported. Executives at the Brazilian company JBS, the largest beef producer in the world, later admitted to bribing inspectors. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.