Beef

When Cyagra Inc. holds an office potluck, no one's stomach churns when the lasagna, meatloaf or tacos are made with cloned beef. The cutting-edge ingredient was produced on the company's Pennsylvania farm for the Food and Drug Administration, which spent seven years evaluating the safety of meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring. "We had leftovers," so we used them, said Steve Mower, director of marketing for the Elizabethtown, Pa.-based company.

San Bernardino County prosecutors Friday filed felony charges against a former Chino slaughterhouse manager who allegedly used cruel methods to force ailing cattle into the slaughter box. The charges follow last month's release of a video showing treatment of animals at the plant, which led to schools nationwide pulling beef from cafeterias.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the largest beef recall in its history Sunday, calling for the destruction of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef produced by a Chino slaughterhouse that has been accused of inhumane practices. However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat involved in the recall -- including 37 million pounds that went mostly to schools -- probably has been eaten already. Officials emphasized that danger to consumers was minimal.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer said Friday that the nation's largest beef recall had set back negotiations to ship U.S. beef to Japan and South Korea. Those markets were closed to the U.S. cattle industry in 2003 after a scare over bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as mad cow disease. Schafer said at a convention of meatpackers and processors that he was hopeful trade talks would continue, but that the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co.

Agriculture Secretary Edward T. Schafer sparred with Senate lawmakers Thursday, insisting that regulations governing inspections of slaughterhouses are sufficient to ensure the safety of the nation's meat supply. Schafer rejected senators' calls to completely ban from slaughter any cattle unable to walk. "Downer" cows are at higher risk of carrying E. coli and salmonella bacteria and of having the wasting neurological illness known as mad cow disease.

How do you make 18,000 pounds of beef disappear? Although it may sound like a trick question, it was a very real issue last week for Lynnelle Grumbles as she and other school food service managers throughout California grappled with the aftermath of the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

The Bush administration Thursday resisted calls from Congress to add more inspectors and new technologies to oversee slaughterhouses, saying neither was necessary to do the job adequately. The exchange, during a hearing before a House subcommittee, reflected continuing fallout from the nation's largest beef recall, which occurred this year.

South Korea's entire Cabinet, including Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, offered to resign today to take responsibility for the government's handling of beef imports. Han and the other 15 Cabinet ministers told President Lee Myung-bak that they would step down, said Kim Wang-ky, a spokesman for Han. Lee agreed in April to lift a ban on American beef to win support from U.S.

South Korea's president vowed Sunday not to allow the import of meat from older cattle, in hopes of quelling public anger at the resumption of beef imports from the United States. President Lee Myung-bak's comments came as the chief U.S. and South Korean trade envoys met in Washington on the dispute. But today, the Foreign Ministry said that there was no breakthrough. "The government stance is firm that beef from cattle older than 30 months will not be brought" into South Korea, Lee said.

America's chief diplomat found herself vouching for the purity of U.S. cattle Saturday, wading into a bitter trade dispute that for South Koreans has eclipsed the long-running drama over North Korea's nuclear activity and threatened the government of President Lee Myung-bak. Just one day after the communist North demolished the most visible symbol of its nuclear programs, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced a barrage of questions about the safety of American steaks, chops and burgers.