CNN's Larry King Live: "Should You Eat Meat?" - Part 2

(Part 1)
Here's the entire program. It aired Monday, October 12, Transcript

Excerpts (See Part 1 for the guest list):

Factory farming is criminal:

Anthony Bourdain: "I think the standard practices of outfits like Cargill and some of the larger meat processors and grinders in this country are unconscionable and border on the criminal."

Factory farming is unconscionable:

Jonathan Safran Foer: "There's a certain kind of meat, which is produced on factory farms, that is in every single way unconscionable.
It's unconscionable to feed to our children because of the health.
It's unconscionable because it's the single worst thing we can to do to the environment by a long shot.
And it's unconscionable because of what we're doing to animals who are raised on factory farms."

Factory farming: You can't escape it:

Jonathan Safran Foer: "Upwards of 99 percent of the animals that are raised for meat in this country come from factory farms. When we're talking about meat, when we're talking about the meat they sell in grocery stores, when we're talking about the meat we order in restaurants, we are effectively talking about factory farms."

Factory farming: It's the American way:

Patrick Boyle (American Meat Institute): "The whole comment about factory farming, from my perspective, that's a negative reference to high volume, low cost, efficient meat and poultry processing facilities, that give Americans an abundant variety of safe and wholesome products at a very reasonable price. The lowest price in terms of disposable income spent of any terms of developed country in the world."

Bacon, sex, and reason:

Anthony Bourdain: "I would counter Jonathan's argument [factory farming is unconscionable] just with one word: bacon. It's so delicious."
Jonathan Safran Foer: "I have a counter to that, which is I would say, sex, it's so wonderful. That doesn't mean we have sex with everyone we want to have sex with."
Bourdain: "Not simultaneously, no."
Foer: "Anyway, it's funny that the argument for refraining from eating meat is often cast as a sentimental one, where I would say it's exactly the opposite. Sentimentality is the valuing of our feelings over our reason."

Spinach doesn't have an intestinal tract:

Caller's question: "Isn't the leading source of E. coli over the last five years been through agriculture, leafy vegetables, red peppers and even peanut butter?
Nancy Rodriguez (Nutritionist): "... there have been recalls with regards to E. coli contamination of lettuce and vegetables. Yes, even peanut butter."
Jonathan Safran Foer: "Nancy, surely you know the CDC has said all of those, the primary source was animal agriculture. It may be true that the vehicle was spinach. But if we're wondering where e. Coli -- we know where e. Coli comes from, right? It comes from poop. It's not coming from the spinach. It's coming from run off from factory farms.

One E. coli test for every 3.3 million pounds of red meat does not make an effective testing scheme:

Patrick Boyle (American Meat Institute): "The Department of Agriculture conducts 15,000 tests for E. coli each year."
American Meat Institute: "In 2007, the US produced 48.8 billion pounds of red meat."
Me: Does that mean that the USDA conducts one E. coli test for every 3.3 million pounds of red meat processed in the US annually? Recalling that it takes only about 10 E. coli bacteria to make someone ill, with upwards of 100,000 that can fit on the head of a pin, I'd say we're missing a LOT of E. coli.

Why we need one agency that oversees food safety:

Bill Marler: "I think what the lay person needs to do is spend a little bit more time putting pressure on their Congressmen and Senators to pass some food safety legislation that's been hung up in the House and the Senate."
Patrick Boyle (American Meat Institute): "The legislation actually applies to companies that produce food under FDA's jurisdiction, not meat or poultry companies."

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