In recent months, the beef industry in general, and BPI in particular, have fallen victim to a cultural and media firestorm that continues to do damage to the food industry. Unfortunately, such trends go well beyond the hysterical falsehoods which have been widely disseminated by critics of lean finely textured beef, and are thus likely far from over. Rather, they may be an alarming harbinger of things to come.
The meat industry can, by its nature, be vulnerable to stories which play at people’s emotions. BPI is simply the latest victim in a chain of companies and products that have fallen victim and will fall again to activists and opportunists who invent irrational and inflammatory stories that feed upon people’s fears.