Meat Stream

I heard this on public radio yesterday -- apparently it's from the AP wire. "A group of cattle ranchers, known as Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, brought the suit on behalf of U.S. ranchers. They said allowing the imports from Canada threatened the U.S. meat stream with mad cow disease." (The quote and link are from sfgate.com.)

Meat stream? Ew. What is the meat stream? That is not a term the cattle industry should be using unless they want all of us to become vegetarians.

Update (15 October 2005, 9:26 PM): I thought of some bad meat stream jokes. Is a nation's meat stream part of its gross domestic product? Where is the meat stream? Is it near the big rock candy mountain?

Update (21 October 2005, 4:14 PM): Another bad meat stream joke: does the meat stream originate in Liverpool?

Technorati tags: meat, cattle, mad cow, BSE, disgusting, terminology, meat stream, vegetarianism