The World Health Organization, in an effort to get some limelight and attract grant funds, releases wishy washy findings on the correlation between processed meats and colon cancer (kinda like saying “Hey, dirty motor oil may cause cancer” or “there might be too much Mercury in that there fish”) Questions: 1. Who funded the research that resulted in these kinda-sorta findings? 2. Precisely what you talking about when you say ‘processed meat’? 3. What on earth are you talking about when you say you don’t know what the effect might be from direct flame cooking? And the sophomoric news media should be ashamed of themselves for the way they took this hesitant statement from WHO and made it into a definitive, declarative, condemnation. A well-constructed sentence should never be allowed to excuse poor journalism. As for red meat: if you so choose, eat grass-fed and know the person who turns your meat into sausage, or corned beef, or jerky, or bacon, or cured meats of any kind. If you trust what they do, support them. Demand that no antibiotics, growth hormones or synthetics be fed to the animals before slaughter. Insist on humane slaughter. And have someone or company that you trust do all the processing of your meats. It is our belief that it is not the meat itself which might be unsafe, it is the handling. LRM