|
Posted on 11/25/2012 10:46:52 AM PST by drewh
he Pentagon wins a Hammer for spending money earmarked for weapons and combat gear testing on jerky available at any grocery store UPDATED 7:17 AM EST, November 23, 2012 | BY Phillip Swarts
The Defense Department's Foreign Comparative Testing program is supposed to study weapons and combat technology and determine the appropriate gear for U.S. troops. That usually means testing body armor, batteries for battlefield electronics and mine-clearing systems.
But the program strayed from its normal work recently to study the culinary skill of turning thin strips of beef into jerky. The goal, officials say, was to make a beef jerky that was more like a Fruit Roll-Up -- tastier and cheaper -- than than the traditional grocery store fare.
The project, however, cost taxpayers $1.5 million and is unlikely to improve battlefield performance. And that has left some lawmakers in Congress incredulous that the money wasn't spent on something more essential, especially in an era of soaring deficits, fiscal cliffs and impending defense budget cuts.
"While our men and women in uniform certainly would welcome new menu options, these dollars could be better spent at this time when sequestration imposed by the Budget Control Act is set to cut billions of dollars from our national defense budget," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who identified the program as an example of unnecessary spending at the Pentagon.
For doling out $1.5 million developing a snack that can be bought from the nearest grocery store, the Pentagon's Foreign Comparative Testing program wins this week's Golden Hammer, a distinction given out by the Washington Guardian to the worst examples of government misspending.
The Pentagon isn't apologetic, insisting its research into jerky is actually designed to save money. It's cheaper to produce than store-bought jerky and will store longer, possibly up to three years, the Army said. Plus, the military jerky is less salty and more nutritious to better meet troops' nutritional needs. A couple different flavors are being tested out, including salami, chipotle, turkey, smoked ham and fish.
"Warfighters like something that is meaty, tasty and healthy - a high energy product," said Tom Yang, an Army food scientist. "This will make a lot of product. It's very juicy, with whatever nutrient you want in there, and it will be well preserved."
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins said the nation's military is always working to save taxpayers money.
"The DoD budget is aligned to strategic priorities we have identified to keep America safe and maintain the strongest military in the world," she said. "Over the past several years we have redoubled our efforts to make better use of the taxpayer's defense dollar and meet our fiscal responsibilities."
IIRC, back in the 90s the DoD came up with their own energy/power bar instead of using commercially available ones. They were called “Hooah! bars” or something like that, and (again, IIRC) meant for First Strike Rations and other lightweight meal kits.
I always thought it tasted more like a cross between spotted owl and California condor, but hey.....that's just me.
Next time just call Oak Brothers or Oma’s Choice and the troops will thank you.
That will be 1.25 mil. Paypal?
Pentagon Spends WASTES $1.5 Million To Develop Its Own Jerky (that tastes like a Fruit Roll Up)
God forbid we do something nice for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the least we could do.
jerky that tastes like fruit roll ups is something nice??? if you say so...
While at the same time contacting military retirees that further throat cutting is coming this next year and the victim will be military retirees.
“As to just going commercial...”
They did go commercial. They teamed up with FPL Foods for the development.
What did they develop? ‘Continuous Osmotic Dehydration’.
http://science.dodlive.mil/2012/09/27/army-designing-tastier-meats/
The link above contains the second quote I have seen from this Yang guy, saying normal jerky is to salty...which makes me suspicious there is a ‘Lets Move’ component to this (and skepical the jerky tastes good at all).
Anyway, that’s the $1.5 million voila moment. Instead of using salt to cure the meat, the meat is “...pulled through an osmotic solution [composed of sucrose/sodium chloride/water] that extracts moisture” (I’ll ignore the fact that ‘continuous osmotic dehydration’ uses sodium chloride in its no salt breakthrough dehydration method).
BTW, the Army already uses jerky in its First Strike Rations...’The use of commercial off-the-shelf products like this is one of the ways development time of the FSR was lowered.’:
http://www.mreinfo.com/us/fsr/first-strike-ration.html
So, unless this new jerky is remarkably cheaper, lighter, tastier...something, its just a classic case of a solution in search of a problem.
bump
There is no telling what secret ingredient they wanted to test in this jerky.
I would assume that they want to get all the nutrion in as small a package as is possible to fit in the soldiers pack/gear.
Might also want to put some sort of turbo charger in it to increase strengh and endurance.
Tea Party people should be screaming about issues like this till we change the culture of washington. Who thinks that the defense Dept should be creating food products - send out to the industry a request for bids and for a variety of tastes. The same thing should be done till every dept is more effective rather than LARGER.
Basic Rule:
If you can find it in the Yellow Pages, government doesn't need to do it.
i'd like to know who did the RFP and who was head of testing and what their background is...
i’d like to know why this crap has not been stopped? What the heck is wrong with these folks? When does the crap stop?
at least not till the mutt in the white hut is gone...
Pork and little mf’ers jerky?
Beef and grease jerky¿?
Only the best c-rat flavors!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
