Parents of children killed by E. coli poisoning show up to find themselves on a show that's covering some absurd issues...Ob Fo was live tweeting from the CNN studios in Los Angeles last night, where Larry King was ostensibly devoting an hour of his nightly Larry King Live to meat safety. It turned out, however, that the show was a car crash of everything under the sun having to do with beef, from whether or not it should be eaten from a moral stand point, to its "deliciousness," to its health value, as well as a relatively brief look at contamination/mortality issues. The guests included not only preeminent food poisoning attorney/food safety advocate Bill Marler (whom Ob Fo was accompanying) and his clients, Barbara Kowalcyk and Nicole Fenstermaker, whose children died from E. coli poisoning, but also celeb chef Anthony Bourdain, novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, two nutritionists, a former USDA undersecretary for food safety, and Patrick Boyle, the head of the American Meat Institute, a major lobbying entity. (Above: Two minutes before air time, King with from L: Kowalcyk, Pat Buck, Fenstermaker, Marler, and a sound technician)
King's producers missed an amazing opportunity to have a real discussion about both the safety of the US meat supply, and the grave dangers the public still faces due to gaps in policy, regulation issues, monitoring issues, lack of effective legislation, and perhaps the most complex issue--what gets classified as an adulterant for beef. There are so many issues surrounding meat safety, USDA's role in monitoring the meat supply, and potential food safety legislation that could boost these efforts, that it was absurd to not devote an entire hour to the issue. King's producers also missed an excellent opportunity to elevate public understanding of personal practices to ensure safer beef, including how to navigate the complex world of purchasing it in a world in which there's global meat sourcing, poor or no labeling for product origins, and little consumer information available. Raising the question of whether or not people should eat beef--whether ground, whole or offal--is beside the point: People DO eat beef, they're not stopping eating beef anytime soon, and our beef supply must be safer. (Above: Marler with King after the taping)Beef can be safer, and we're at a moment in history when President Obama has shown a tremendous willingness to address food safety issues, with the creation of the White House's Food Safety Working Group, as well as his public comments regarding a safer food supply--across the board, whether foods are regulated by FDA or USDA. We also have Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (who co-chairs the FSWG), who has repeatedly shown that he's remarkably open to addressing the needs of all of his constituents, from eaters through farmers to meat producers, and who has been steadily working on ways to improve food safety. King read out a statement by Sec. Vilsack on meat safety; you can read it here. Sec. Vilsack's best quote: “We will not rest until we have dramatically reduced the number of foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths." Last week, Sec. Vilsack noted that these body counts should be reduced to zero, which Marler pointed out to King.
Marler's clients who appeared on the show both lost children to E. coli poisoning. Barbara Kowalcyk and her deceased son Kevin were featured in the film Food, Inc., and she's become a food safety advocate with her mother, Pat Buck. Together, they now run the Center For Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention, and were in Washington last week to meet with Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, to press for stronger food safety legislation. They were joined by Nicole Fenstermaker, whose daughter Abby died of E. coli poisoning--which she contracted not from eating a hamburger herself, but from visiting her grandfather, who was hospitalized for E. coli illness after eating a tainted burger. Secondary E. coli infections such as Abby's are a stunning occurrence, and something that is little known by the general public: You don't even have to have eaten contaminated meat to die from it. These secondary food poisoning events are currently about fifteen percent of illnesses. This segment should have been the entirety of the Larry King Live hour.
The American Meat Institute, via satellite, fails to answer: Why does the definition of acceptable risk include the idea that a certain percentage of beef aaters are guaranteed death?
Former USDA undersecretary Elsa Murano got about thirty seconds of airtime and said little of substance; American Meat Institute's Patrick Boyle briefly debated food safety issues with Marler, and gave the meat industry standard line about self monitoring. He congratulated his industry on performing just 15,000 safety tests annually on the millions and millions of pounds of ground beef that are processed. Some perspective: In July, JBS Swift meat company had a Class 1 recall for 421,000 pounds of beef tainted with E. coli 0157:H7--and the 421,000 pounds was processed in a single day. Boyle also said that meat is safer today than ever, which elicited an outcry back in the green room, where the parents of the dead children were watching his segment. Boyle should do a little bit of community service with victims of E. coli poisoning from beef, perhaps spend an afternoon changing the diapers of adults whose internal organs were destroyed by the kind of contaminants that his agency has essentially blocked USDA from classifying as poisonous adulterants. Boyle also noted that the meat industry has focused tens of millions of dollars on safety practices, which raises the obvious questions: Why are there still so many recalls of beef? Why are people getting life-destroying illnesses and dying from tainted beef? Why does the definition of acceptable risk include a certain percentage of eaters dying? Why is Marler still in business? Boyle's full statement on his position is here.
The Off-Topic Guests: Clouding The Complicated Subject
There was no reason for the two nutritionists who were booked for the program to be in on the discussion about meat safety; their eat-or-don't-eat-meat platforms could be an entire other show. And one of these guests has had her research funded by the meat industry--so she's officially tainted anyway. Novelist Foer has a new book coming out about going vegetarian ("Eating Animals"), and while he had some insightful comments about factory farming--he's a vegetarian, and his principled position on not eating animals has little to do with discussing meat safety...because people are going to continue to eat animals. Chef Bourdain was witty, and called beef producer Cargill "bordering on criminal," and he also pointed out that "the idea of eradicating meat eating is silly." But Bourdain is not out campaigning for food safety...at the moment. He's not visiting Senators on Capitol Hill, and he also missed the opportunity to inform America that their hamburgers and steaks should be cooked well done in an effort to kill any pathogens that might well be on the raw meat.
Larry King is a swell interviewer, a health advocate, and he has a huge audience who listens to him. Apparently his producers need a meat education as much as the rest of the American public, because they really missed the meat wagon with this broadcast.
*Last night's Larry King Live show was in part a response to Michael Moss' exhaustive New York Times investigative report into ground beef, regulation issues, and E. coli: 0157:H7, a very dangerous form of E. coli. Marler client Stephanie Smith was profiled in the article. *Photos by Morgan Marler.
