“Sometimes social change – change demanded by public health advocates, consumers, and food-transparancy advocates – causes job losses.  The outrage over Pink Slime is the latest industry to crumble to social change and health awareness.  That’s good.

“Job losses, while sad, are inevitable.  Job Losses are OK, and the destruction of an American industry is OK if such social changes benefit the larger public over a longer period of time.  Having said, punishing Pink slime Workers isn’t right either.  Let’s allow the system to change and let’s do everything in our power to not punish our kind and hard-working neighbors who are employed by these industries.  Let’s do everything in our power to provide job-relocation assistance, extra federal and state financial support, and create community safety nets and support systems.

“Historically, other industries, such as the Matchbook industry, have collapsed in response to social change.  We survived, and are better for it.

That infamous ‘pink slime’

“Known in the meat industry as finely textured beef or boneless lean beef trimmings, ‘pink slime’ is a cheap filler made from finely ground beef scraps and treated with ammonia to kill bacteria. It was dubbed “pink slime” by a former USDA microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, as first reported in the New York Times in 2009. Zirnstein told ABC News last week that he won’t eat the filler, once used only in dog food and cooking oil. He called it ‘economic fraud. It’s not fresh ground beef. It’s a cheap substitute.’

“Although the product has been on the market for more than a decade — and long assailed by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver — a public furor over its use started in March after an article in The Daily reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to buy the product for a school lunch program. A Texas mother and blogger launched an online petition calling for the USDA to scrap its plan, and “pink slime” soon became an Internet buzzword accompanied by revolting photos. (Read a full timeline of the Pink Slime Demise.) Companies including grocers Safeway and Supervalu announced they would stop buying the product.

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