Published on: March 2, 2011
Responding to yesterday’s story about Taco Bell defending itself against charges that there isn't enough beef in its meat mixture, one MNB user wrote:
Directly from Taco Hells website...
Southwest Chicken: Chicken Breast Meat with Rib Meat, Water, Seasoning [Maltodextrin(Corn, Potato, Tapioca), Spices, Salt, Garlic Powder, Yeast Extract, Carrageenan, Paprika, Onion Powder, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Citric Acid, Tapioca Dextrin, Modified Corn Starch, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Inactivated Yeast, Chicken Powder, Grill Flavor (from Sunflower Oil), Dehydrated Chicken Broth, Chicken Fat, Trehalose, Smoke Flavor, and less than 2% Silicon Dioxide and Soybean Oil added as Processing Aids], Modified Food Starch, Sodium Phosphates.
Steak: Beef, Water, Seasoning [Modified Potato Starch, Salt, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Carrageenan, Paprika, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Spices, Hot Sauce (Aged Red Peppers, Vinegar, Salt), Citric Acid, Sugar, Dehydrated Vinegar, Soybean Oil, Natural Flavors, Soybean Lecithin], Sodium Phosphates. Sauce: Water, Seasoning (Salt, Caramel Color, Modified Food Starch, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Maltodextrin, Dextrose, Garlic Powder, Xanthan Gum, Onion Powder, Beef Stock, Vinegar Solids, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Sugar, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Succinic Acid, Soy Lecithin, Beef Fat, Potassium Sorbate) Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, BHT. CONTAINS SOYBEANS"
I can understand the other items on their menu having "value added ingredients, but when did chicken and steak get so complicated? If the meat started out of reasonable quality it wouldn't need this treatment to make it palatable.
Not so sure they are doing themselves any favors.Oh, come on. You mean those ingredient lists don’t make your mouth water in anticipation?
Another MNB user wrote:
You could definitely make a case about visiting one time, having a less than adequate dining experience, never going back for that reason, etc... This would be an "eye opener" as we all have to be on our "A game" all the time. The reason...because you never know what customer is going to walk through the door and the impact on future business.And another MNB user wrote:
I am not being judgmental in any way, but your comments about Taco Bell's meat are interesting to say the least.
You may be right in your assessment and are definitely entitled to your own opinion...but seriously, how often do you eat there?
Not that there's anything wrong with that.I like to think I’m smart enough not to have to continually subject myself to the same mediocre food over and over just to be qualified to say that it is mediocre.
I’ve eaten there enough. Which is to say, too often.
And I actually was being generous when I said they serve mediocre food. What I probably should have said is that it is crappy food.
But that just seemed a little over the top.
On another subject, MNB user David Burgess wrote:
I don’t exactly see how taking away collective bargaining rights for benefits is demonizing teachers. They reacted as if they are under attack, of course, but the point of the policy change was not to blame them for the problem, but to fix it. You can disagree with the fix, and there are other alternatives, but this approach does have its merits. Also, taking away public sector collective bargaining rights is no more governmental fiat than was taking away the bondholder rights in the GM debacle. They are not constitutional rights. They were awarded by the government, so it is the government’s prerogative to take them away, if done so through a legal process. Calling it governmental fiat is simply deliberate provocation.First of all, deliberate provocation is what I do for a living.
Second, you’re right ... taking away certain rights can be seen as a legitimate way to deal with a problem. My point is that this always seems more legitimate when you're the one doing the taking, as opposed the one losing the rights.
Finally, I think there are different things going on here. There is a collective bargaining issue, but there also is the larger, more concerning problem of devaluing our teachers and lumping them together in a way that highlights the bad ones and doesn’t do a lot to attract new and good ones.
Another MNB user chimed in on this one:
While I believe that Governor Walker has over reached in his requested legislation, I would point out that the Wisconsin legislature gave the unions the right to collective bargaining in 1959. Thus the legislature has the right to repeal this right. Many states do not allow for collective bargaining by public employees and I don’t recall a vocal outcry to allow such a right to the public employee unions in those states.We had an email yesterday that talked about global warming and the impact on food prices all over the world, which led one MNB user to write:
Every day I have kept myself from responding to some of the inane commentary by your readers. I think you put the letters in today because you really wanted to hear from me.
Obviously the readers that talked about the global warming myth have no level of understanding of what causes rising food prices. A larger population and the fact less wheat and grain is being grown. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out, but to jump to global warming????
Do you really think the earth’s core temp hasn’t gone up and down for millions of years? Do you really believe the climate extremes that have happened for millions of years are caused by our carbon footprint? Anybody that still believes the global warming myth needs to see me, for I have some great oceanfront property in Kansas. I cannot believe there are still that many uneducated people in the world ... Please do not use my name.Must be tough for you. It is a heavy load, being the sole arbiter of what is fact and what is fiction. (No wonder you want to remain anonymous.)
Seems to me that it is entirely possible to believe that indeed that the earth’s temperature has gone up and down for millions of years, and still accept the notion that an industrialized society could be having an impact on climate change ... and that it simply makes economic and environmental sense to do whatever one can to be good stewards of the planet. Those don’t seem like oppositional thoughts to me.
And it doesn’t seem like such a stretch to think that in addition to a growing global population, climate change can have an impact on food prices. Again, to me, those concepts don’t seem mutually exclusive.
But then again, maybe that’s just because I’m one of the uneducated class.