Word: meat
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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ROGERS, Ark.: What took them so long? Meat processor Hudson Foods Co. is warning consumers nationwide to get rid of burgers that may be contaminated with the deadly E.coli bacteria. The recall comes two months after the patties were produced, and is definitely too late for four people in Colorado who downed a few last month and got sick. Hudson doubts any of the burgers are still on store shelves, but says you should check your freezer for 48-ounce packages with the code 156A7, three-pounders (156B7) and 15-pound boxes (155B7). Especially dangerous to children, the elderly...
...reverse, however, isn't close to being true. Fish of all kinds are being hauled from the sea faster than they can reproduce, but until quite recently sharks were exempt from this reckless harvest. Not anymore. Each year between 30 million and 100 million sharks are caught for their meat (boneless and mild-tasting), their fins (a great delicacy in Asia), their hides (source of an exotic, high-quality leather), their jaws (worth thousands of dollars from collectors) and their internal body parts (made into everything from lubricants to cosmetics to "health" products of dubious value...
...starving children. They're used in Asia for shark-fin soup, a delicacy that fetches up to $150 a bowl. The market for shark fins is incredibly profitable; U.S. fishermen earn as much as $25 per lb. for fins, compared with 50[cents] per lb. for shark meat. The trade has grown dramatically since commerce with China began expanding in the 1980s: some 125 nations are now involved...
Though far less profitable, shark meat has also enjoyed a sales boom since the early 1980s. Tuna and swordfish stocks began to dwindle at that time, and the U.S. government encouraged fishermen to pursue other targets. That may have been a big mistake. Traditional food fish, like cod and tuna, grow quickly and lay millions of eggs at a time. Sharks, by contrast, can take two decades to reach sexual maturity, have a long gestation period and bear only a few young at one time. Killing a relatively small number of females can dramatically limit the reproductive potential...
...hours before sundown, the wagon train made camp. I had walked only a few miles that day, but I was parched and exhausted. A meal was served. I sat in the dirt and devoured a plate of meat loaf, while around me devout believers watered horses, repaired bent wagon wheels, fed bottles to crying infants. In just a few days, to quote their ancestors, they would cross the mountains and be "safe in Zion." I could not help wishing them well. In their epic trek across Smith's American Eden, they have lost more paradises than they've found...