Tuesday, March 18, 2008

US Olympians will bring their own meat

As far as the US Olympic Committee is concerned, this year's games in Beijing is BYOM. After testing a piece of meat from the People's Republic last year, committee members have determined that -- just to be safe -- olympians will be dining on meat that's up to US standards before their competition. Apparently, the piece of meat in question was a 14-inch long cut of chicken -- and it was only half a breast. From the article:
"We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes. They all would have tested positive."
Steroids aren't the only concern that makes officials wary of the Chinese-produced foods. Other pesticides and illegal veterinary drugs have been found in China's meat that could harm or disqualify athletes. That's why good ol' Tyson foods corp is coming to the rescue -- they're sending our Olympians to China with chicken that has only the legal limit of steroids injected into it.

Treehugger brought up the point that, combined with the already large carbon-footprint of meat in general, the 25,000lbs of meat sent to China will have a colossal footprint. I say, better to not waste the already gigantic footprint of sending athletes, trainers, etc to the Olympics only to have them disqulaified by eating super roided-up meat. Heads would roll.

What do you think? Are events like the Olympics are worth their carbon footprint? Or should they be completely rethought to reduce their impact on the environment?
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