TOUGHER THAN BEEF CARCASSES

Dunno if you heard - I didn't until Tuesday - but there was another moderate-sized E. Coli recall - 320,000 pounds of beef, or 160 tons of dead animal. You might not have gotten wind of it, see, because ONCE *COUGH* AGAIN, the USDA thoughtfully scheduled this disclosure for a Friday afternoon! But don't worry, the all-new War-Against-E.Coli USDA is getting reeeeeeally tough now. For instance, that Conagra plant that caused the second-biggest recall ever, last summer? The one that had been cited dozens of times before that? The one that was subsequently closed down after 19 new citations for fecal contamination? Well, they better watch their step, because now they can only have FIVE feces-smeared carcasses per hundred before getting a citation, and only a handful of citations before they're (threatened with) shutdown. Yeah! We sure are kicking butt now!