Of course, I don't know how the ground beef itself was made, but it didn't seem any different than the stuff you get at the grocery store.

The stuff i've seen is huge precooked bags of grey grade F meat that was boiled in a huge vat of water to reheat it. Freshness of the veggies isn't really that big of an issue to me, as they usually are prepared by the restaurants.

But arguments against ground beef in general are a completely different issue than arguments against fast food chains.

I disagree with that one. Who do you think is BY FAR the largest consumer of ground beef? The fast food chains have more influence than the government in many cases on how the meat packing plants are run, what gets inspected when, and how fast the lines run. Arguments against the health related risks in consuming lots of ground beef may be a seperate issue... but i see that as tied in to fast food chains in tons of ways. Again... most of the consumption of ground meat is done via the hamburger. I'll see if i can pick up another copy of that book this weekend and lend it to ya Tony... I think you'd really dig it. It's not preachy, just flat informational.