Hallmark Meat: Not so total recall

...in which the Hallmark Meat 'recall' gets watered down. Even more.

I am really trying to wrap my brain around something and not having much luck. Read this and tell me what I am missing.

"If a processor or grinder has records demonstrating that products were produced using less than 100% of recalled Westland meat for the meat component, then there is no need...to retrieve that 'commingled' product,"  Beef Industry Presses For Reduced Recall - WSJ.com

So if I understand this correctly, if you take the meat that might be from downer cars and you spread it around, then it is okay? Because if it's only one bite of your child's school lunch you won't mind. What's that? You do mind? You are such a picky parent!

Lots of folks have written about Hallmark, so if you want to read more of the original outrage, check out one of these sites:

• Largest Beef Recall in US History a Natural Consequence of Industrial Agricultural Practices
  In the crystal ball: a future headline about the meat recall 
• 143 million pounds of beef recalled but everything's fine
• Laugh so you don’t cry!
• Another downer: The school lunch program

If you need a laugh, albeit a through gritted teeth because it's only funny if you aren't eating lunch, check out Mark Fiore's Doreen the Downer.

This, however, reminds me of that Noka Chocolate guy. Oh, I mean, totally disconnected guy who wrote comments defending Noka Chocolate out of the goodness of his heart and then was hired by Noka Chocolate to be their PR guy in a totally disconnected incident happening within 24 hours of said comments.

I realize I should have some great action item here, you know, write Congress or the USDA or something, but...not so much. Call it fatalism if you will but I don't think it will make a darned bit of difference what we say to the government. Like Lily Tomlin's telephone company, they don't care, they don't have to.

So what can you do? Stop buying industrial beef. Period.

Sure, that means less beef but that's not such a bad thing. Consider it an opportunity to expand your usual menu options, find some local meat producers, or go vegetarian for a month. Paying through the nose for meat that is, at best, marginal and, at worst, really awful, is no longer an option. At least not for me. I'd rather eat cake.