Meat

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.

Back in 1989 when Noah Alper opened his first Noah's New York Bagels shop in Berkeley, he decided to keep things strictly kosher. Now, to the chagrin of many kosher Jews, the chain, which Alper sold in 1996, has gone treif. In other words, Noah's is no longer kosher.

So it turns out that meatless Fridays, which for generations inflicted fish sticks and tuna casseroles on millions of school-age children, Catholic and otherwise, were actually saving the planet. The United Nations is now urging wealthy nations to make a dramatic shift in eating habits, saying the best way to curb climate change is for people to go at least one day a week without meat. And Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- which shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year -- isn't just asking diners to bypass a burger now and then.

The government urged consumers and retailers Monday to rid their shelves of more than 90 different products, including chili sauce, corned beef hash and dog food, produced at a plant linked to a botulism outbreak. Castleberry's Food Co. of San Diego closed the plant, in Augusta, Ga. "You're talking tens of millions of cans that may have been involved," said Robert Brackett of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Holidays have a way of being identified with certain kinds of food. Turkey makes us think of Thanksgiving. Potato latkes always appear at Hanukkah time. Eggnog is usually under the mistletoe and ham is a traditional Easter meal. But pork has a somewhat justified reputation as being high in fat and not really a component of a healthful diet. The biggest villains, of course, are bacon, sausage, hot dogs, ribs and pork rinds.

Today marks not just the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, it's also the biggest hot dog day of the year. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council claims that the all-American hot dog is the most popular food for backyard Fourth of July barbecues around the nation. Lynn Constantino, who sells hot dog vendor carts on the Internet, believes the hype.

Someone in state government altered a document to make it appear Hebrew National sold non-kosher frankfurters, needlessly alarming Jewish consumers nationwide, the meat company charged in a lawsuit announced Thursday. "We have built an outstanding reputation over the course of 81 years and will not permit that reputation to be tarnished by irresponsible acts of New York state officials," said Isidore Pines, Hebrew National president.

Cargill Inc. is voluntarily recalling more than 840,000 pounds of frozen ground beef patties distributed at Sam's Club stores nationwide after four Minnesota children who ate the food developed E. coli illness. The children became ill between Sept. 10 and Sept. 20 after eating American Chef's Selection Angus Beef Patties from three Sam's Club stores in the Minneapolis area. The Cargill recall comes on the heels of Elizabeth, N.J.-based Topps Meat Co.'s recall of 21.

THE new good-for-you meat won't be pork or grass-fed beef, and it won't be made of soy. If the efforts of a few future-minded scientists succeed, it will taste and look like old-fashioned meat -- only it'll be raised in a lab, not on a farm. Several groups of scientists are cultivating edible meat in dishes from animal muscle cells.

County officials are investigating the kosher meat business in the aftermath of an allegation that one of the busiest butcher shops in Los Angeles has been selling non-kosher meat to patrons for several months. News that Emes Kosher Meats' kosher certificate was suspended came as a shock to religious Jews who once shopped there, lured away from other kosher establishments by the shop's relatively lower prices for beef, veal and poultry.