Business and Society 9th Edition by Archie Carroll,Ann Buchholtz

Exercise 4

Has "Pink Slime" Gotten a Bad Rap?
In the early 1990s, Eldon Roth started a meat processing company named Beef Products, Inc. (BPI). The company would buy tons of fattymeat scrap thatwas left over after cattle were carved into steaks and roasts. Roth developed a centrifuge that would spin the fat away. The remaining product was then treated with a puff of ammonia hydroxide as a safety measure to kill bacteria. This concoction was frozen into a pink pulp that, when mixed in with ground beef, made it leaner. The product became known as "lean finely textured beef" or LFTB in the industry. Roth's company would then package the product in the form of frozen bricks and sell them to companies as an additive to ground beef, making the resulting beef leaner and cheaper. Among others, McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Kroger and Walmart were clients.
Roth's company was so successful that it opened plants in Kansas, Texas, Iowa and Nebraska, employing about 1,500 workers. In fall, 2011, Roth was inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame. Roth had been called a genius who ran a company that was on the vanguard of food safety.
In March 2012, someone labeled Roth's product "pink slime" and a food blogger launched an online petition to have it removed from the federal lunch program. ABC News and other media jumped on the story and soon the product was being assailed as unsafe and gross as the story went viral on the blogosphere. As media scrutiny increased, many customers quickly abandoned his product. Roth was forced to suspend production at three plants and lay off half his workers. He is now working hard to keep his company afloat.
After the ABC News reports, BPI initiated an extensive PR campaign seeking to get the truth out. BPI also filed a $1.2 billion lawsuit against ABC News and the reporters. The company claimed more than 200 false or disparaging statements were made about BPI.
For the record, LFTB is not an unsafe product, even in the eyes of food safety advocates. It is an ingredient most of us have eaten many times. The USDA insisted the product was safe but left schools to decide whether to buy meat with or without the textured beef. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, whose state hosts a BPI plant, said he would call for a congressional investigation of the "smear campaign" against BPI.
1. How can a product that has been characterized as "lean" and less expensive be treated in this way?
2. Do you think LFTB and Roth's company has been treated fairly? Has this product gotten a bad rap by overzealous media reporters and critics?
3. Should those who labeled the product "pink slime" and questioned it unfairly be disciplined in any way? Or, is this just an example of the "market at work" and nothing should be done?
4. What should Roth and his company do now? What further action should the USDA, state governors or other officials take to ensure fair treatment?