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Amid growing concerns over food safety in the United States, President Donald Trump last month authorized the duty-free importation of 660 million pounds of cheap beef trimmings that will get mixed in with other cuts to make ground beef. Imported beef and pork were once labeled with their country of origin, but Congress voted in 2015 to end that requirement, so customers at the grocery store will have no way to identify this “mystery meat,” which is coming mostly from Brazil. President Trump’s proclamation in August came just a day after he met in the White House with Joesley Batista, whose family controls the Brazilian company JBS, the largest beef producer in the world. JBS is notorious for food safety violations and admitted in 2017 to bribing thousands of Brazilian officials for favorable treatment.

“It smells like a pretty corrupt deal,” says investigative journalist Eric Schlosser. He says Trump’s move is “basically screwing over American ranchers,” and the imported beef is “some of the meat most likely to be contaminated.”

Schlosser is author of the landmark book Fast Food Nation, published in 2001. He says that in the 25 years since then, the United States has developed “two food systems.” While affluent and well-educated people increasingly favor sustainable, organic foods and care deeply about how food is grown and consumed, working people and the poor are relegated to the “fast-food industrial system” of cheap, mass-produced food of dubious safety.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, Democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

GOP Farm Bill Puts Food Assistance at Even Greater Risk Amid Growing Crisis

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And I’m Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.

“If you buy a T-shirt at Gap, it will have a label that tells you where it was made. That’s federal law. The same is true for automobiles, appliances, television sets, every fresh or frozen fruit and vegetable sold at the supermarket. Beef and pork are notable exceptions to these laws. And that may help to explain why President Trump signed a proclamation last month that will allow the duty-free importation of about 660 million pounds of inexpensive beef. If American consumers knew where that beef was coming from, they might not want to eat it.”

Those are the opening lines of a recent article in The New York Times headlined Why Did Trump Order Up 660 Million Pounds of Mystery Meat?.

AMY GOODMAN: The piece is written by investigative journalist and author Eric Schlosser. Twenty-five years ago, he wrote the landmark book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. The 25th anniversary edition of the book is being published next week. Eric, welcome back to Democracy Now! I remember when we had you on 25 years ago with this groundbreaking book, Fast Food Nation.

ERIC SCHLOSSER: Yeah, I’m so sorry to be here talking about it again. I really wish these problems had been solved and that my book was only of antiquarian interest. But it’s amazing to me to read the headlines and to look at what’s happening right now. The book is about fast food but it’s really about unchecked corporate power. When you want to understand why 660 million pounds of some of the least expensive frozen beef that’s going to go into fast food hamburgers, and why is that coming to the United States? Just remarkable unchecked corporate power.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what “mystery meat” is, and how did this come into being?

ERIC SCHLOSSER: “Mystery meat” is a colloquial phrase for lean beef trimmings. These are little pieces of frozen beef, the beef that’s most likely to be contaminated, taken from the outside of the animal. It’s sort of generic industrial meat that will then be ground into hamburger meat, mainly for fast food restaurants.

President Trump allowed—made a proclamation saying that 660 million pounds could be coming into the country. It’s quite remarkable that we have this president who talks about “America First” and is so supported by rural America, but with a stroke of his pen is basically screwing over American ranchers. This beef is most likely coming from Brazil.

In my New York Times article, it’s this remarkable coincidence that the day before Trump issued this proclamation, he met with the head of the biggest beef company in the world, JBS. His name is Joesley Batista. He’s one of the co-owners. He met with Joesley Batista at the White House—who, you know, Maggie Haberman at the New York Times said is a friend of Melania’s. I don’t know what that connection is. But he met with Batista and the next day issued this proclamation bringing in hundreds of millions of pounds of beef, most likely from Brazil.

And another really weird coincidence is that the European Union has suspended all imports of beef from Brazil starting the first week of September. And Trump, in allowing these imports into the United States, it just so happens the timing is the first week of September. So it smells like a pretty corrupt deal. The European Union has suspended the import of Brazilian beef for concerns about antibiotic misuse. And this meat is some of the meat most likely to be contaminated.

This company, JBS, I mean, it’s quite remarkable that Joesley Batista was meeting with the president of the United States to help determine our agricultural policy when he has confessed to spending over $186 million bribing almost 2,000 legislators in Brazil, including three presidents of Brazil. I have never met Mr. Batista but he is clearly a very bright man to be able to bribe three presidents of Brazil and yet be meeting with the president of the United States and helping to determine our agricultural policy. I mean, he may have a great career in American politics.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: As you also point out, what makes it even more remarkable is that he was long considered persona non grata in the U.S. And then not long after his meeting with Trump in November at the White House, JBS got approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

ERIC SCHLOSSER: The timing is a little different. The largest single donor to Trump’s second........

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