We Can Make A Difference - Pink Slime Manufacturer Bankrupt!

Make sure you question and know where your meat comes from and what is in it from now on!

If you fit into any of the below categories (which is pretty much everybody!) you should read this...and you should care.

1. You're a parent with kids who eat a school lunch in America

2. You buy any hamburgers/ground beef product at any fast food restaurant in America (that includes you too, taco bell!)

3. You buy and consume ground beef in America 

It's no wonder they can sell these "meat" products so cheaply relative to %100 grass fed beef.

Here's what the frozen filler "trimmings" look like. Uggh.

A leading US ground-beef processor, AFA Foods, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, blaming media coverage of one of its products dubbed "pink slime" by critics.

AFA Foods said it was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "given recent changes in the market for its ground beef products and the impact of media coverage related to Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT)." BLBT is made from beef trimmings otherwise used in pet food and cooking oil that is treated with a puff of ammonia to deter e. coli bacteria.

The lean, finely textured beef is typically added to ground meat, like hamburger, as a low-cost filler.

In mid-March, public furor about the so-called "pink slime" drove the US Department of Agriculture to announce it would leave it to schools to decide whether to use the controversial ground-beef filler in the meals they serve to students. The USDA's National School Lunch Program feeds more than 31 million school children, many of them from low-income families.

What does the health of the kids eating these ingredients on a consistent basis, look like when they're 60?

USDA recently bought seven million pounds (3.6 million kilograms) of the rosy-colored product for school meals -- prompting more than 250,000 consumers to sign an online petition demanding a halt to its use in school food.

Several fast-food chains, including McDonald's, have declared they would cease beefing up their burgers with lean finely textured beef.

Find places to get beef without the use of the filler.

7 Healthier Fast Food Options for Kids

I will be the first to admit that I love pizza. Although, I'd prefer to cook for my family there are times when the only thing around that won't bust your wallet or satiate your tantrum throwing kids is hitting the drive-thru.

It is 2012, afterall. There are more businesses that cater to "quick, easy and cheap" rather than "healthy, transparent and looking out for our best interests".

Look around, realistically it's sometimes easier go the fast food route. And hey, fast food is cheap—if you’re not counting the health costs down the road, that is. But, believe it or not, it is possible to come away from a fast food menu with something that’s both cheap and healthy-ish. Learnvest is a site I like for getting my budgeting and investing tips, but it's also a site that has articles that cater to moms and how to live life richly.

If we’re going to do fast food, we figure we might as well make an informed decision. Luckily, researchers at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity have done most of the legwork for us. The center researchers analyzed the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in more than 3,000 possible combinations that chains market as “kids’ meals,” and ranked them as best and worst using a few different factors, one of which was the guidelines set in 2009 by the Institute of Medicine:

- Preschool children should consume no more than 410 calories and 544 milligrams of sodium per meal

- Elementary school children should consume no more than 650 calories and 636 milligrams of sodium per meal

- Older children should consume no more than 700 calories and 720 milligrams of sodium per meal

See the full slideshow and read more on Learnvest.