(Under)ground Beef

You may have read last week's headlines about the recall of 143 million pounds of beef marked unfit for human consumption, the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

So what's going to happen to all of that dodgy meat? According to the New York Times, New Jersey schools obtained 143,000 pounds of beef from the offending processor. Much of it will be sent directly to the state's landfills and incinerators:

Under federal guidelines, any school that has more than 50 cases of the beef must take them to a landfill or incinerator for disposal, in the presence of a local health department representative or other qualified official. Schools that have less can dispose of the beef on their own property, so long as there are witnesses like a school food service director. Schools have until Tuesday to report to state agriculture officials how much they have in their inventory.

It seems to me that New Jersey officials are missing a once-in-a-lifetime Guinness opportunity. All they'd have to do before burying and incinerating the meat is wrap it in foil and they'd have the world's largest Silver Turtle. It might also be prudent to skip any upcoming BBQs, potlucks, or PTA suppers hosted by your local elementary school.