Meat Wagon: Filthy swine
U.S. officials dither while antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains creep into our pork supply
Posted by Tom Philpott

The good news is that people are earnestly trying to figure out if a deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria strain is infecting our nation's vast supply of pork.

The bad news is, they don't work for a government regulator with the power to do something about it. Rather, they're university researchers and journalists, whose only real power is the public outrage they can generate through their work.

Prepare to be outraged by the work of University of Iowa professor Tara Smith and veteran Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Andrew Schneider. Prepare also to give up industrially produced pork, if you're still eating (or, even worse, cooking with) the stuff.

First, some background. No one disputes that a bacteria called MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- has become a major public-health menace.

LINK TO CON.