Finish your pink slime, Bobby--it's fortified with NH3

Just read this article at the NYT about Beef Products, Inc. and their "processed beef." Is this what we've come to? Let's take the leftover muck that we would feed only to animals (and beef processing plants aren't exactly inefficient to begin with, so this really is muck), liquefy it, mix it with ammonia and feed it to kids (in school and out at McDonald's)--all to save three cents per pound of ground beef? And after all that it's still contaminated with E. coli and salmonella?

I propose some NY resolutions:

1. Avoid McD, BK--heck, all fast food burgers. Not hard for me, I rarely go anyway and always regret it, plus there's not much choice here anyway.
   
2. Never buy pre-ground beef. Also not hard, the ground beef here is too lean for burgers and freshly-ground beef is soooo much better.
3. Source the majority of my meat from reputable farms, e.g. via Simply Sourced, Carlow Foods, Coolanowle.

We can afford to support artisan producers such as these, but we're in the minority.

Update: BK and McD defend their use of the ammoniated beef.