Meat Industry Gets Word In On Food Safety

(MoneyWatch)  Patrick Boyle, who heads the American Meat Institute, was part of a Larry King Live segment entitled, "Beef: Safe or Scary?" He got the chance to point out that "Americans consume a billion meals a day -- the vast, vast, vast majority of them safely and enjoyably," though he was perhaps overshadowed by the more dramatic characters on the program, including E. coli victims and advocates of strict vegetarian diets.

The impetus for the show was a recent New York Times article about meat and E. coli, but bad press for the meat industry is nothing new. Meat production is accused of contributing disproportionately to the world's greenhouse gases, and both the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research say people should eat less meat for their health.

A campaign called "Meatless Monday," in which participants avoid meat at least one day a week, has been gaining in popularity, and Baltimore furthered the trend when its public school system became the first in the nation to join in.

But despite all of this, the burger industry is doing fine, and I don't see that changing any time soon. Stricter government regulations on food safety are a distinct possibility, but a mass exodus from beef-eating to vegetarianism? Not until pork wings are on the menu.