I used to be employed on the laboratory side of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, testing meat, poultry, and unshelled eggs for microbiological adulteration. I never loved the work,...
I used to be employed on the laboratory side of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, testing meat, poultry, and unshelled eggs for microbiological adulteration. I never loved the work, especially the testing and smell of warm incubated raw meat.
The worst sample I’ve analyzed was a cow’s raw tongue, still slick with spittle and saliva. I don’t know why the CSI sent that part, as we usually only tested body muscle trim. Prepping a mammal’s tongue for analysis really drove home the grim reality of my work.
I recognize the need for public health oversight of meat production, but always felt a measure of internal conflict at being part of such an unaccountably cruel system. I don’t condemn the consumption of meat, only the disconnected, morally ambiguous means by which we so efficiently harvest it.
I used to be employed on the laboratory side of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, testing meat, poultry, and unshelled eggs for microbiological adulteration. I never loved the work, especially the testing and smell of warm incubated raw meat.
The worst sample I’ve analyzed was a cow’s raw tongue, still slick with spittle and saliva. I don’t know why the CSI sent that part, as we usually only tested body muscle trim. Prepping a mammal’s tongue for analysis really drove home the grim reality of my work.
I recognize the need for public health oversight of meat production, but always felt a measure of internal conflict at being part of such an unaccountably cruel system. I don’t condemn the consumption of meat, only the disconnected, morally ambiguous means by which we so efficiently harvest it.
I left the job, and am unlikely to return.