With the recall of 143 million pounds of beef from a local meat processor, you know this mystery meat went to more than schoolkids. Many more. Lucky Californians! This is the only state where the public can find out which retailers bought recalled food. In other states, USDA secrecy rules (I have to wonder whom the USDA is there to protect, the consumer or the industry?) keep the public from finding out where suspect food was sold.

Just a gander at the list, which is still being compiled as new information comes in, is enough to make a person gape at how far this recall extends and what the eventual costs will be, all because of a meatpacker cutting corners and USDA inspectors who couldn't get their act together enough to know this was going on. Hundreds and hundreds of stores and eateries listed, more than 30 per page stretching for 58 pages.