The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been trying to get the meat industry to reduce its use of antibiotics, even proposing a set of voluntary guidelines in 2012, but it hasn't done much with it since. In the meantime, antibiotic (ab)use on livestock farms continues to grow. According to data from the FDA, the livestock industry now uses almost 80% of all the antibiotics used in the U.S. The main concern is that the practice of dosing healthy farm animals daily with antibiotics will create drug-resistant bacteria. About three-quarters of Salmonella found on ground turkey and chicken breast are now resistant to at least one antibiotic, and almost half of the Campylobacter found on chicken products are resistant to tetracyclines. Here are some other examples of antibiotic abuse in the food industry.

• Researchers have found 149 different drug-resistant genes in bacteria on antibiotic-intensive pig farms in China. These antibiotic-resistant genes can spread to the environment and end up in many different kinds of human pathogens. [url]
• Did you know that organic apple and pear orchards are treated with tetracycline to prevent a disease called fire blight? While this may be surprising, tetracycline has actually been allowed for use in organic farming in the U.S. since the mid-'90s (with the understanding that their use would eventually be phased out). Fire blight has already become resistant to streptomycin -- how long will it be before tetracycline stops working, too? [url]
• If you use logic "borrowed from the anti-GMO crowd," you could argue that antibiotic abuse in the meat industry causes autism and diabetes... because both antibiotic use and the number of autistic children and diabetics have been increasing over the years. Right? Right?? [url]

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The food industry has a growing number of problems, ranging from food labeling to determining what ingredients are actually considered safe to eat. One of the oldest issues people have brought up about food is whether or not to eat meat. It's a serious question, but the answers aren't so easy for the multi-billion dollar meat industry. Someday, meat producers may need to change their ways, and here are just a few dramatic suggestions.

• PETA president Ingrid Newkirk asserts that there's no such thing as a free lunch humane meat. This is obviously an extreme position (or an exercise in semantics), but there should be other ways of raising "humane meat" without resorting to eating only roadkill, right? [url]
• Animal 57 is an urban legend that commercial fast food meat is grown in tanks of water. However, the concept of lab-grown meat might not be so far-fetched. [url]
• The "Blind Chicken Solution" proposes that farmers raise congenitally-blind chickens as a more humane food source (assuming that blind chickens are actually less traumatized than sighted chickens when raised in crowded conditions). The "Headless Chicken Solution" goes the extra step of creating a Matrix-style farm of brainless birds that feel no pain whatsoever. As long as these chickens never realize that "there is no spoon" -- then we'll presumably be okay with this. [url]

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Just when you thought the horse meat scandal in Europe was winding down, it's once again getting media attention as more cases continue to pop up. But is horse meat really that bad? According to people who have (willingly) eaten it, horse meat has been described as being lean, tender, sweet, juicy, like a mix between beef and venison, and better than a really good beef steak. Perhaps beef products in Europe should just come with a label that says: "May contain traces of horse meat." Here are a few more links about horse meat.

• Traces of horse meat were found in IKEA's signature meatballs which had been distributed to 21 European countries. Did you know that food sales make up 5% of the Swedish furniture giant's $35.6 billion revenue, and that about 150 million IKEA meatballs are consumed globally? [url]
• Nestle has had to remove two of its pasta products from store shelves in Europe after traces of horse DNA were found in them. In both cases, the amount of horse DNA found in the products was higher than the 1% threshold which the British Food Standards Agency uses as an indicator of adulteration in foods. [url]
• People were up in arms recently when chef Hugue Dufour announced that he was going to serve horse tartare at his restaurant, M. Wells Dinette, in Queens, NY. With all the public opposition, Dufour decided it was best to drop the horse tartare from the menu, because he didn't want to be famous for "scandalizing animal lovers." That's probably for the best, since horse meat (esp. that sourced from the horse racing industry) could contain all sorts of drugs, including phenylbutazone, which is a carcinogen and has been strongly linked to bone marrow and liver problems in humans. [url]
• Here are some fun facts about eating horse meat: During World War II, Americans ate lots of horse meat when beef was scarce; In 723 A.D., Pope Gregory III declared that eating horse meat was a "filthy and abominable" pagan custom; In 2011, President Obama made horse slaughter for human consumption legal again; Until 1985, the Harvard Faculty Club reportedly served horse steaks, prepared "chicken fried" with a mushroom sauce; and apparently, horse meat is a healthier option than beef, since it's high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, low in fat and cholesterol, and has twice as much iron and Vitamin B. [url]

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Cupcakes were really trendy for a while, but they've probably jumped the shark by now. Still, who doesn't enjoy a good cupcake every now and then? Here are just a few examples of some interesting twists on the traditional cupcake -- that include a few more animal parts than you might expect (or want).

• Cupcakewurst is actually somewhat meatless -- it's a sausage casing filled with cupcake batter. This dessert is baked, and then *grilled* a little before serving to provide a sweet ending to a meaty meal. [url]
• The Meatloaf Bakery in Chicago has created a burger cupcake with a cheesy mashed potato frosting. "That'd be a really good dessert for your kid's surprise party, if you didn't like your kid." [url]
• If you live in the DC area, you can get a BBQ pulled pork cupcake for about $9 as a bar snack at the Bourbon Steak Lounge. It's a cheddar-flavored biscuit in the shape of a cupcake, filled with pork... yum. [url]

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Back in May, we were one of the first to write about some people claiming to have figured out a new cut of steak, and trying to patent that cut. The story got a lot of attention in a lot of places, as many people (reasonably) think that patenting a cut of meat seems particularly crazy. The good folks over at Planet Money just recently decided to explore the question of meat cut patents. They talk to Tony Mata, the "inventor" of that new meat cut, dubbed the Las Vegas steak, but the... er... "meat" of the conversation actually involves talking to his mentor, Gene Gagliardi, the "inventor" of the Steak-Umm, KFC's popcorn chicken and, according to this video, Popeyes' "Rip'n Chick'n", which Gagliardi calls "Fing'r Pick'n Chick'n" and for which he holds US Patent 5,346,711 on a "Method of making an animal muscle strip product." In the Planet Money podcast, he also demonstrates some other cuts, which he won't let them videotape. I'm guessing he's okay with showing off the method in the '711 patent because, if I read it right, that patent expires in a month. In the video, he actually appears to admit that the "invention" itself wasn't original. He was "inspired" by the famed "Bloomin' Onion" at Outback Steakhouse, and a challenge from his wife to make a chicken version of the Bloomin' Onion.

Gagliardi appears to hold somewhere around 40 patents on various cuts of meat, all starting from back in the day when he tried to make the meat in Philly Cheesesteaks easier to chew, and supposedly came up with the product that eventually went on to be marketed as "Steak-umms," which were popular when I was a kid. As for "popcorn chicken," well that's US Patent 5,266,064, for a "Method of making a food product from the thigh of a bird and food product made in accordance with the method." And, if I'm reading it correctly, that patent should have expired earlier this year. Assuming that's the case, you may now be able to make your own popcorn chicken without infringing. How exciting.

Of course, for some of us, this still seems ridiculous. Is the progress of the "useful arts" really being promoted by giving a monopoly to someone figuring out new and different ways for fast food joints to chop up their chickens?

An amazing number of cupcake stores have been popping up everywhere over the last few years, in what's been called the "Cupcake Bubble". (Just check out CRMB on NASDAQ for one public company dedicated to cupcake bakeries -- or the reality show about cupcakes, Cupcake Wars.) These tasty treats are not only easy to make cheaply, but scaling up also doesn't require too much effort. As a result, there are tons of different cupcake choices out there, and stores are distinguishing themselves by offering cupcakes with a twist. Here are just a few examples.

• How about an ATM that takes your cash and dispenses cupcakes? Sprinkles, the "pioneer" of cupcake bakeries, has set up a 24-Hour Sprinkles cupcake ATM that is restocked day and night with a variety of freshly baked cupcakes. The machine also dispenses cupcake mixes, apparel, and... cupcakes for dogs(!) [url]
• The world's most expensive cupcake -- The Golden Phoenix -- costs over $1,000. The cupcake is made by Bloomsbury's Cupcakes in Dubai, and it's made from the finest chocolate and covered in 23 carats of edible gold sheets. [url]
• The Meatloaf Bakery in Chicago sells savory meat cupcakes. Each cupcake is a self-contained meal, and there are eight different varieties. For example, the "Wing and a Prayer Loaf" features ground chicken and celery topped with hot wing sauce and a blue cheese crust. [url]

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Analyzing baseball statistics turned into a huge field called sabermetrics. A long time ago, geeks were weird people who performed strange stunts like biting the heads off chickens. But geeks nowadays are gathering stats on just about everything, so here are just a few meaty figures to chew on.

• The Big Mac serves as an interesting economic tool -- providing a global standard for comparing national currencies and economic activity. Analyzing the Big Mac consumption per country can show interesting trends in wages and how economies reacted to the Great Recession -- although not every country sells Big Macs. [url]
• The price of a Big Mac jumped 26% in Argentina because the government of Argentina was playing around with its national inflation numbers -- and pressuring McD's to keep its prices low. If Big Macs didn't lose their freshness, there might have been an arbitrage opportunity.... [url]
• The number two burger chain in the US (for 2011) goes to Wendy's -- as Wendy's US sales topped $8.5 billion and Burger King trailed at $8.4 billion. McDonald's crushed both of them with $34 billion in sales last year. [url]
• The US consumed almost 38 million tons of meat in 2007 (at 125.4 kg per person), but Luxembourg is the country with the highest meat consumption per capita (136.5 kg per person). Obviously, population figures into Luxembourg's bragging rights -- and likewise China's population makes its consumption of 54.1kg of meat per person an impressive total of around 77 million tons. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

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A lot of vegetarians were likely inspired by The Jungle (the novel about the meat packing industry), but a lot has changed in the field of meat since the early 1900s. However, transparency about how animals are treated before they're served onto dinner plates could perhaps use a little more work. Here are just a few recent stories that are starting to gross out some meat-eating Americans.

• Gerald Zimstein coined the term "pink slime" and the substance has been in the news because of its "yuck" factor. But pink slime isn't particularly unhealthy -- or at least it hasn't been proven so (yet?). [url]
• Tuna scrape is almost like hamburger meat, and its use in sushi could become another kind of pink slime issue. So be careful with those spicy tuna rolls... [url]
• The use of antibiotics in food production might be getting out of hand, but fortunately, we can reduce antibiotics in the meat industry by using vaccines and other techniques. The concern is that we're slowly creating a world of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. [url]
• The enzyme transglutaminase is also known as "meat glue" -- and creating frankenstein steaks from cheap cuts of meat. While transglutaminase is generally safe and naturally occurring, the danger of using it comes from gluing together pieces of meat that may have bacteria contamination -- and when the glued-together meat is merely seared on the outside, the rare inside isn't properly cooked (and not sterile like the inner part of a single piece of meat). [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

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Some people don't eat meat at all for a variety of reasons, and some omnivores are just picky about the types of meat they eat. There are a lot of other animals besides cows and pigs. Here are just a few less commonly consumed meats that seem more suitable for exporting.

• Puerto Rico is planning to get rid of its overpopulation of iguanas by exporting the meat of this lizard -- and selling it for up to $6 per pound. These reptiles aren't native to the island, but since they were introduced in the 1970s, the creatures have thrived -- and currently outnumber the human population in Puerto Rico. [url]
• There's an interesting outlier in the trade imbalance between the US and China -- American chicken farmers supply China with a vast number of chicken feet. And US researchers somewhere are working on genetically modified chickens to grow more than two feet... [url]
• After years without USDA funding for the inspection of slaughterhouses for horses, Congress lifted the inspection ban in 2011. Horse flesh isn't expected to become a widely popular entree in the US, but some 200,000 horses per year could be processed and exported. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

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Protein is protein to some folks. But not all protein comes from happy soybeans or chicken eggs. Domesticated animals are pretty tasty sources of meat, but the treatment of farmed vertebrates is distasteful to some people. Here are just a few interesting links on cooking meaty meals.

• Squirrel stew is a dish cooked up by an adventurous meat eater and hunter with some gourmet culinary training. Tasty free range squirrels are available everywhere, too. [url]
• Sous-vide cooking sounds like a fancy version of a product developed by Ron Popeil. Cooking meat for long periods of time at relatively low temperatures is a pretty simple recipe if you have the right equipment. [url]
• A self-cloning lizard species was discovered last year -- on the menu in a restaurant in Vietnam. Natural and organic cloned meat sounds much better than the GMO kind, doesn't it? [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

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