National
A worker moved sides of beef towards the production line at the Cargill meat packing facility in Dodge City, Kansas. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Ever since a restaurant steak gave her an infection that cost her part of her intestines, Margaret Lamkin of Iowa has had to use colostomy bags that attach to an opening in her abdomen. Now age 90, she keeps a supply of the bags handy. "I never dreamed of anything happening like this," she says. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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The Costco meat plant in Tracy, California, does not slaughter animals. It receives cuts of beef from outside suppliers that arrive in plastic lined tubs on pallets. The plant produces hamburgers, franks and seasoned meatballs for Costco stores across the country. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Because of low supplies of organic beef in the U.S., Costco imports frozen blocks of the beef from Australia at their hamburger plant in Tracy, California. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Tubes of hamburger come off the line at the Cargill beef processing plant in Dodge City, Kansas. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Cargill has used insights from livestock behavior specialist Temple Grandin in the design of their cattle handling facilities at their beef processing plant in Dodge City, Kansas. Live cattle enter the plant (at left) through a system of pens and curving chutes. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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After cattle are stunned, blood gushes from cuts to their throats as they are bled out on the Cargill production line in Dodge City, Kansas. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Costco says it does more E. coli testing in its lab than the USDA does at all other beef plants combined. These beef samples are prepared for testing in Costco's Tracy, California plant. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Costco produces hamburger for all their stores at a meat plant in Tracy, California. Hamburgers are flash frozen as they move through the plant. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Organic ground beef comes off the line ready for packaging at the Costco beef plant in Tracy, California. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Costco produces hamburger for all their stores at a meat plant in Tracy, California. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Costco produces hamburger for all their stores at their meat plant in Tracy, California. The facility does not slaughter animals but instead uses cuts of beef shipped in tubs from other suppliers. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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The family run Ehresman Packing Company in Garden City, Kansas, slaughters about 20 to 25 head of cattle a week. Josh Plankenhorn keeps a ledger for each animal noting the dressed-out weight. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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Pigs toes or pigs feet are for sale at Ehresman Packing Company in Garden City, Kansas. (Keith Myers/Kansas City Star/MCT)
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