More on antibiotics and meat

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the problems of antibiotic abuse on factory-farmed animals. Since the FDA doesn't seem to be doing much about this problem, The Center for Food Safety is hope consumers and retailers will stand up against this abuse. Since Trader Joe's responded positively to pleas to eliminate genetically-engineered ingredients in their products several years ago, they are a great place to start on this campaign. Click on this link to sign a petition urging Trader Joe's to "source and sell only meat and poultry raised without antibiotics."

If you eat beef . . .

You might be interested to know that feedlot cattle are routinely fed chicken waste--that is chicken feces, feathers, dead birds, spilled feed, and anything else found on the ground in the chicken houses. Now I'm all for recycling, but that's going too far. Not only is it disgusting but it spreads disease like E. coli, salmonella, etc. -- not to mention, chicken feed often contains meat and bone meal from cows which when fed back to cattle can spread mad cow disease.

If you also find this disgusting, unhealthy and inhumane, sign this petition requesting that the FDA ban the practice of feeding chicken waste to cows.

Standard for Naturally-Raised Meat

Here's a press release from Consumers Union about new standards for "naturally raised" meat. Do you call animals that have been cloned or genetically engineered naturally raised? How about animals confined indoors for their lifetime and fed pesticide laced food?

News Release: Consumers Union – Publisher of Consumer Reports

 

Consumers Union and Food & Water Watch say new USDA standard for so-called naturally-raised  meat sanctions unnatural practices

 

WASHINGTON -- Following news reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had issued a voluntary standard for so-called “naturally raised” livestock and meat marketing claims, Consumers Union (CU) and Food & Water Watch (FWW) criticized the last-minute regulation, saying the labeling effort was misleading and fell short of consumer expectations.  The announcement comes days before the change in federal government administrations in Washington. 

The naturally raised marketing claim standard states livestock used for meat production have been raised without growth promotants and without antibiotics, except for ionophores used as coccidiostats for parasite control, and have not been fed animal by-products.

CU and FWW said, aiming to ban antibiotics, animal byproducts, and growth promotants are all important practices that should be labeled specifically and discreetly and not couched under a vague and misleading term that does not address how the animals were raised, their main diet, treatment of animals, space requirements and other concerns.

 

"This regulation will allow an animal that has come from a cloned or genetically engineered stock, was physically altered, raised in confinement without ever seeing the light of day or green of pasture, in poor hygiene conditions with a diet laced in pesticides to be labeled as ‘naturally raised.’  This falls significantly short of consumer expectations and only adds to the roster of misleading label claims approved by USDA for so-called natural meat," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Senior Scientist and Policy Analyst at Consumers Union.

 

"These last minute rules for the 'naturally-raised' label on meat practically invite agribusiness to greenwash their products and rip off consumers" stated Patty Lovera, assistant director for consumer group Food & Water Watch.  "Until these standards are revised, consumers will have to navigate another set of misleading labels at the grocery store."

 

USDA said it received more that 44,000 comments about the rule, while Consumers Union and FWW generated more than 36,000 signatures stating that the USDA's proposed standards for "naturally raised" were flawed, would only confuse consumers and should be withdrawn. 

 

A national telephone poll conducted by Consumer Reports’ National Research Center released in November 2008 showed American consumers want the “naturally raised” meat claim to mean more than USDA's proposed standard, including that it came from an animal that:

• Had a diet free of chemicals, drugs and animal byproducts (86%)

• Was raised in a natural environment (85%)

• Ate a natural diet (85%)

• Was not cloned or genetically engineered (78%)

• Had access to the outdoors (77%)

• Was treated humanely (76%)

• Was not confined (68%)

 

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition, and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers.

 

Media contact: David Butler, Consumers Union, 202-462-6262

Happy Turkey Day

I have gotten really soured on Thanksgiving as it seems to be all about the slaughter of millions and millions of turkeys--and much less focus on the thanks part of the holiday. Every time I hear someone call "Happy Turkey Day" I think about how totally wrong that is.

I recently saw this PETA footage about abuse of turkeys at Aviagen Turkeys, Inc.--the self-proclaimed "world's leading poultry breeding company." Here are a few of the documented offenses:

- Employees stomped on turkey's heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, struck turkey's heads against metal scaffolding.

- Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths and help turkeys' heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat.

- Workers killed 450 turkeys with 2-by-4's.

and more.

This Thanksgiving, why not skip the turkey so as not to support this cruelty and abuse--and really make it a 'happy turkey day'. If you must have turkey, look for a supplier that raises and slaughters turkey humanely. 

Hormel pork supplier charged

An Iowa Sherriff has announced that 22 charges of livestock neglect and abuse have been filed against six current and former employees of the Hormel supplier that PETA recently investigated. For more than three months, PETA went undercover at an Iowa pig factory farm, which supplies piglets who are raised and killed for Hormel products. They found rampant cruelty to animals committed by workers and supervisors. Abuse and neglect were widespread during the entire investigation.

These are just some of the abuses that were documented:

- A supervisor shoved a cane into a sow's vagina, struck her on the back about 17 times, and then struck another sow.
- Multiple pigs were beaten with metal gate rods, and lacerations were found on more than 30 sows, which is probably evidence of more abuse.
- A worker hit a young pig in the face four times with the edge of a herding board, and investigators witnessed dozens of similar incidents involving this worker and 11 other workers.
- Two men, including a supervisor, were witnessed jabbing clothespins into pigs' eyes and faces. - A supervisor also poked two animals in the eyes with his fingers.
- A supervisor kicked a young pig in the face, abdomen, and genitals to make her move and told PETA's investigator, "You gotta beat on the bitch. Make her cry."

To learn more about the investigation and charges, go to: http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/iowa_pigfarm_abuse2

And btw, findings on this Iowa pig farm, however, were not limited to cruelty to animals. PETA also documented an apparent violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Animals who were to be killed for human consumption were sprayed with a substance that contains gentian violet (a chemical that is linked to certain cancers) thereby making their flesh "adulterated" under federal law.

By purchasing pigs bred and born on this farm and then grown elsewhere before being slaughtered for Hormel products, Hormel is financially supporting an operation whose employees abuse animals. If you eat meat, look for local, humanely raised and slaughtered animals and if you live in California, vote 'yes' on proposition 2 to protect farm animals from abuse.

from GE plants to GE animals

Here's a statement just out from the Consumers' Union (nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports) http://www.consumersunion.org/

For Immediate Release: September 18, 2008Contact:Jean Halloran, 914.378.2457Dr. Michael Hansen, 917.774.3801

Statement of Consumers Union

Consumers Union finds it "incomprehensible" that the FDA will not require labeling of genetically engineered animals that are sold as food. Genetically engineered animals may contain genetic material from entirely different species. For example mouse genes have been put into pigs to help them metabolize phosphorous more efficiently, and spider genes have been put into goats so that they produce spider silk in their milk. FDA proposed today that they will only review genetically engineered animals for their safety as food, and will not require any labeling.

"It is incomprehensible to us that FDA does not view these animals as different from their conventional counterparts, and therefore something that under law is required to be labeled," stated Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. "In our view, consumers have a right to know if the ham, bacon or pork shops they are buying come from pigs that have been engineered with mouse genes."

Consumers Union is also concerned that cows engineered to produce antibiotics in their milk, which can help the cow avoid udder infections, also will not be labeled. "Unlike conventional antibiotics, which must be cleared from the cow before it can be used to produce milk or meat, the antibiotic that is genetically engineered into the animal will always be present. We are concerned both about the potential safety and lack of labeling on such food products," stated Michael Hansen, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Consumers Union.

My comments:

So just like plant food containing genes from other plant or animal species, these GE animals are not considered different from the original animal and don't need to be tested? If they are the same, why do the biotech companies take out patents on their version? And engineering anitibiotics into animals so they can continue to raise them in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. We are already having problems with germs becoming resistant because of overuse of anitbiotics. This could have major implications.

We need these foods to be labeled so consumers have a choice!

The Cost of Steak

Check out this great commentary in the LA Times called "The Cost of Steak: Factory farms produce cheap meat, until you consider the reivers of sewage, the contaminants and the superbugs" by Paul Roberts, author of the book "The End of Food."

View it at : http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-roberts23-2008aug23,0,1032529.story

Interesting information about beef recall

There is a great article with lots of information about the recall and beef in general - plus a video of what was done to the cows at Hallmark/Westland Meat.

Does anyone else find it appalling that Hallmark/Westland Meat was named the school lunch program's "Supplier of the Year" ? If they are the best of the bunch, how bad are the other suppliers!

The article also explains that small farmers are not allowed to slaughter their beef even though the could do it in a more humane, clean way but must ship their cattle to federall inspected slaughterhouses - supposedly for the consumers safety . . .

Also, read about the link between downer cows and mad cow disease and how it is virtually impossible to trace the meat causing mad cow disease because it can take up to 30 years to show up.

Also, it reiterates what I've said before - if you choose to eat meat, go grassfed and local if possible.

Here's the link: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/4/usda-orders-largest-meat-recall-in-u-s-history.aspx

Meat from cloned animals already in our food supply

It was all over the news about a month ago - meat from cloned animals was approved but since the technology was so expensive, we didn't need to worry that it was in our food supply . . . and the story died out because if we didn't have to worry we were eating it, who cared.

Well . . . according to a Kansas cattle producer, offspring of cloned animals have already entered the food supply. Donald Coover, a cattleman and veterinarian, says that he has sold semen from prize-winning clones to many US meat producers in the past few years, and that others may be doing the same.

"This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain. Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're not being honest. I have sold offspring of cloned animals into feedlots, and they are in the food chain," Coover told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday.

And of course there is no label to tell you whether meat is from cloned animals or not. Organic meat however can not be from cloned animals.

For more info, go to http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_10496.cfm

Meat from sick animals served at schools

The USDA is investigating Chino, CA company Hallmark after release of a video showing workers using illegal practices on sick cows to get them into the slaughterhouse. Federal and California law prohibits the slaughter of "downer" cattle - cows that cannot stand or walk - to protect the human food supply from eating the meat of unhealthy animals. Several studies have shown a correlation between meat from downer cows and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly know as Mad Cow Disease.

Employees at Hallmark were shown using forklifts to pick up and roll animals too weak to stand and, much worse, shooting high pressure water sprays into the nostrils of cows and repeatedly shocking them with electricity so they could get the animals to get up and walk past the inspector assigned to monitor that only healthy cows were slaughtered.

Beef from the Hallmark slaughterhouse is distributed by Westland Meat Co. (also of Chino). According to the USDA, Westland sold 27 million pounds of meat last year to federal food and nutrition programs including school lunches and meals for the poor and elderly.

For more info, check out the article in the LA Times at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-humane31jan31,1,7693001.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

USDA allowing Candadian meat with high risk of mad cow

Beginning Monday, November 19, the USDA will allow Canadian cattle born after 1999 to enter the U.S., where they can be slaughtered and sold to Americans for meat. Previously, USDA only allowed cattle up to 2.5 years old to enter the country. Older cattle are believed to be at higher risk for carrying mad cow disease, in fact, at least five cases of mad cow disease have been detected in Canadian cattle born after 1999 according to Dr. Michael Hansen, Senior Scientist for Food Safety for Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. He adds that "these cattle have been detected in a relatively small test program that tests only about one percent of slaughtered or dead Canadian cattle. How many more are there that are escaping detection?" If an infected animal does come across the border, it is very unlikely that the extremely small U.S. testing program, which tests just a tenth of a percent of beef that die or are slaughtered, would detect it.

In addition to going into the food supply, a cow's remains (like that of most slaughtered cattle) would be rendered and converted into pet food and feed for pigs and chickens. Because the remains of slaughtered pigs and chickens can be fed back to cattle, it is possible that the infectious agent could find its way into U.S. born cattle in the future.

"Allowing these cows to enter into the U.S. food system is a foolhardy course," Hansen said. "According to the Center for Disease Control, the prevalence of mad cow disease is 30 times higher in Canadian than in U.S. cattle. USDA's plan to reopen the border to cows born after March 1999 puts both consumers and the livestock industry at risk."

As of now, there is no labeling of country of orgin on meat so consumers would not know if they were eating beef from Canadian cows or not.

Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed bill to label products from cloned animals

The California Legislation passed a bill (SB 63) introduced by Senator Migen to require that meat and dairy products from cloned animals be clearly labeled as such. Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

"Governor Schwarzenegger's veto is a slap in the face to a majority of consumers who say they want milk and meat from cloned to be labeled," said Elisa Odabashian, Consumers Union’s West Coast Director. "Without labeling, not only will consumers be unable to choose whether or not to buy cloned food, but government food safety agencies will be unable to track any long-term impacts of cloned food on human health."

According to a recent survey by Consumers Union, more than 89 percent of Americans want food from cloned animals to be labeled. At the federal level, the groups, along with, the Consumer Federation of America, Farm Sanctuary, Food & Water Watch, the Humane Society of the United States, the American Anti-Vivisection Society, and Union of Concerned Scientists, are also urging the inclusion of a recent amendment concerning food products from cloned animals in the 2007 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419). Amendment No. 3524, introduced by Senators Mikulski and Specter, would ensure that the potential human health, animal health, and economic impacts associated with animal cloning that are missing from the FDA's risk assessment are fully analyzed before any products derived from clones are introduced into the food market. The organizations are deeply concerned over the FDA's issuance of an inadequate draft risk assessment that endorses the safety of milk and meat derived from cloned animals and their progeny.

Experts say milk, cheese and other dairy products from cloned animals will be the first such food products to reach California stores, and will make up the vast majority of the cloned food market.

According to the Center for Food Safety, they will continue to work with California Legislators to get a labeling bill passed. Write to Governor Schwarzenegger and let him know we have the right to know where our food is coming from.

Unlabeled irradiated foods

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new federal regulations that will allow manufacturers and retailers to sell controversial irradiated foods without labeling them, as previously required by law. Consumers are justifiably wary of foods bombarded with nuclear waste or powerful x-rays or gamma rays--since irradiation destroys essential vitamins and nutrients, creates unique radiolytic chemical compounds never before consumed by humans, and generates carcinogenic byproducts such as formaldehyde and benzene. Although irradiation, except for spices, is banned in much of the world, and prohibited globally in organic production, U.S. corporate agribusiness and the meat industry desperately want to be able to secretly "nuke" foods in order to reduce the deadly bacterial contamination that is now routine in industrial agriculture and meat production.

The Organic Consumers Association and other public interest groups have repeatedly pointed out that the best way to reduce or eliminate America's 78 million cases of food poisoning every year would be to clean up the nation's filthy slaughterhouses and feedlots, stop contaminated runoff from intensive confinement feedlots from polluting adjacent farms (as in the recent spinach e-coli outbreak), and to stop feeding animals slaughterhouse waste and manure. Instead, FDA and corporate agribusiness have apparently decided, with the backing of the nuclear power and weapons industry, to take away consumers' rights to know if their food has been irradiated or not.

Let the FDA that you want to know how your food is processed. For more information and a link to the FDA, go to: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11102

Contaminated Pet Food moving into Human Food Supply

The FDA and USDA, the federal agencies responsible for protecting the nation's food supply, said on Monday that contaminated wheat gluten from China was used in chicken feed on about 30 Indiana poultry farms and that all the broilers fed contaminated pet food have since been processed.

Imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten have been found to contain melamine, the USDA and the FDA said the byproducts from pet food manufactured with contaminated wheat gluten imported from China were also used in chicken feed on eight breeder poultry farms in the state. Melamine is a cheap protein additive Chinese farmers use, and is blamed for a rash of deaths among pets in the United States. Just recently, several hundred of the 6,000 hogs that may have eaten contaminated pet food are believed to have entered the food supply for humans.

Investigators are tracking streams of the contaminated food through several states.
"Our sense is that the investigation will lead to additional farms where contaminated feed may have been fed to either animals or poultry," said Kenneth Petersen of the Agriculture Department Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Officials said the FDA has received 17,000 reports of pets that owners believe were sickened or killed by contaminated food. About 8,000 reports, roughly half of them involving animals that died, have been formally entered into the FDA's tracking system for further analysis.

And what other action are our government agencies taking to protect consumers from the contaminated meat? None. They say the risk to humans is "minimal" even though all these pets have been dying. However, this should be reassuring to know: "The USDA and FDA continue to conduct a full, comprehensive examination to protect the nation's food supply and will provide updates as new information is confirmed," the agencies said in a joint statement. "If any evidence surfaces to indicate there is harm to humans, the appropriate action will be taken."

Independent Testing for Mad Cow Disease May Be Allowed

Remember last year when Creekstone Farms, a meatpacker in Kansas, wanted to test all of its cows for mad cow disease at its own expense. Then the Department of Agriculture, who currently administers the test to less than 1 percent of all slaughtered cows, threatened them with prosecution. It seems that larger meat companies were afraid that given the choice between tested beef and untested, the consumers might chose the safe beef.

Well, on Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the federal government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for mad cow disease if they so choose and does not have the authority to regulate the test. Robertson put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, he said the ruling would take effect.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is linked to more than 150 human deaths worldwide, mostly in Britain.There have been three cases of mad cow disease in the U.S. The first, in December 2003 in Washington state, was in a cow that had been imported from Canada. The second, in 2005, was in a Texas-born cow. The third was confirmed last year in an Alabama cow. After the first case of mad cow disease heightened concern about the disease, the department increased its testing for the disease to about 1,000 tests each day. Last July, the department cut its testing by about 90 percent.

Beef consumption during pregnancy may affect children

According to a study by Dr. Shanna H. Swan of the Universtiy of Rochester Medical Center, men whose mother’s ate a lot of beef during pregnancy had a sperm count about 25% below normal and three times the normal risk of fertility problems. They think it’s because of the hormones found in beef.

Six growth-promoting hormones (one of which are steroids) are routinely used in cattle production in the US and Canada and at the time of slaughter not all of them have been metabolized. Although the FDA limits the amount of hormone residue allowed, the limits may need to be reexamined based on this study.

In the meantime, if you eat beef – stick to grass-fed or organically-fed beef.

Mad Cow

There was an interesting article in this week's newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association. It seems that McDonalds Corporation is complaining about how poorly the FDA is monitoring U.S. beef safety. Currently, they test less than 1% of cattle for mad cow disease. It will be interesting to see if anything changes now that a major beef buyer is speaking out.

Check out this link for more articles about mad cow http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.htm. While you're there, sign the petition urging the government to enforce the same testing standards required by the European Union and Japan.

To subscribe to the Organic Consumers Association newsletter, go to www.organicconsumers.org.