On the legalization of feces-eating by Big Meat, its lobbyists and the FDA.

::::::::

Big Meat, Part One:  Slaughterhouse Number 666

In Big Meat's slaughterhouses
they ignore the adulteration
of their product,
looking the other way
as hormones, hair and feces,
cancers, tumors and vomit

make their way down the dis-assembly line
of macabre, mass-produced death
to be dealt on down to you
and the children you're supposed to protect,

because the cost is $5,000 per minute
to shut down the slaughter for inspection.
Big Meat and the government agencies
that were created in order to protect them,

scapegoat the packagers and the distributors
of their dirty, murderous product
rather than trace any "problems" discovered
back to Big Meat's self-inspected slaughter.

H.A.C.C.P., the voluntary system
under which Big Meat operates,
allows contamination to be blamed
on workers who don't wash their hands,
or forget to wear hairnets,
and meat sold past its expiration date.

And since local and state officials
long ago recognized the need
to protect Big Meat businesses
       not people
when deadly pathogens like Mad Cow break out
names of responsible restaurants,
stores and ranches are kept secret

just as packagers and distributors
refuse to name their original suppliers
who are each busy serially killing
over 220 animals every hour

many of which are skinned
while fully conscious, still alive,
kicking, crying and moaning,
throwing their heads around, wild-eyed

as their hocks are hacked off their bodies.
Who would do a job like this?  Prisoners refuse.
Work release inmates quit their slaughterhouse jobs,
preferring prison to committing this abuse.

And who would consume this atrocity?
             You would. 
             And you do.
Because Big Meat works very hard
to keep its executions hidden from your view.

It's one thing to know the meat you eat is full of feces,
and quite another to see cows who clearly don't want to die
hung upside down and torn apart on the Killing Floor
while they're still obviously and painfully alive.

Besides, admitting where it comes from,
really ruins a nice steak with French fries.

Big Meat, Part Two:  It's a Gas, Gas, Gas!

One clear sign of fresh meat
is its bright red color, right?
Well if you spray it with carbon dioxide
and a few other gasses -- not quite.

This makes decomposing meat stay red
not just for days, but for months,
so there's no more tell-tale browning.
And, if I may, let me be blunt.

In 2004, the Food Feds were afraid
this fraud could mask dangerous meat,
but in JUST ONE MONTH Big Meat's lobbyists
got them to reverse their "decree".

The Food Feds okayed forever-red meat for sale
without any reliable studies
on the strength of Big Meat's own data,
and neglected to inform the general public

that the redness of meat offered for sale
was no longer an indication of its freshness.
Well now there's a movement to label gassed meat
making its way through the United States Congress.

That way those who might eat this gassed meat
can decide whether or not they want to buy it,
but Big Meat's lobbyists claim such labeling
is "unfair" and unnecessarily "alarmist"

because the Feds have already okayed
the carbon dioxide-gassing process
so there's no need to inform the consumers
their lives and safety rank second to profit.

Big Meat can offer a decomposing product
and cosmetically alter it to disguise it,
write the laws which enable this fraud
and then cite them as a reason to keep lying.

Authors Bio:
Vi's works appear widely both in print and online. She conducts Poetry Workshops and gives readings in Central New York. Her latest chapbook is "Sine Qua Non Antiques (an Arcanum of History, Geography and Treachery).