7 Danergous Food Practices in the USA

[Glass]

I'm going to quote 1 of them If you want more see link.


3. "Poultry litter" in cow feed
Why it's a problem: You know how arsenic goes inorganic—and thus poisonous—in chickens' guts? Consider that their arsenic-laced manure is then commonly used as a feed for cows (http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2077). According to Consumers Union, the stuff "consists primarily of manure, feathers, spilled feed, and bedding material that accumulate on the floors of the buildings that house chickens and turkeys." The "spilled feed" part is of special concern, because chickens are often fed "meat and bone meal from dead cattle," CU reported, and that stuff can spill into the litter and be fed back to cows, raising mad cow disease concerns (http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/04/mad-cow-california).

What Europe did: Banned (http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biosafety/tse_bse/feed_ban_en.htm) all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001.

US status:The practice remains unrestricted. US cattle consume about 2 billion pounds of it annually, Consumers Union's Michael Hansen

http://www.alternet.org/7-dangerous-food-practices-banned-europe-just-fine-america

I find the farming of pigs a strange circumstance in a nation that apparently considers itself christian. Disclosure: I eat bacon from time to time and the odd pizza with a bit of ham but it's still troubling.

[Glass]

The previous quote refers to a troubling article on Cattle Farming in California.


Why You Should Be Worried About the California Mad Cow Case

Move along, nothing to see here.

That sums up the USDA's public reaction to news that a downed California dairy cow was discovered to have contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. The cow had an "atypical" case of BSE, one that likely doesn't come from BSE-infected feed, but rather from a genetic mutation, the agency insists (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9UBR2RO0.htm).

Moreover, it never came close to entering the food supply, USDA stressed—it had shown up dead at a rendering facility, where it was randomly chosen for testing as part of the USDA's BSE-testing program. USDA chief Tom Vilsack, ever ready to jump to the meat industry's aid at a time of need (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124149720284886523.html), declared on CNN (http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/24/usda-secretary-i-am-going-home-and-im-having-beef-tonight-for-dinner-and-thats-no-lie/), "I'm having beef tonight for dinner. And that's no lie."

Global food and health agencies echoed the USDA's assessment, Bloomberg reports (http://about<strong></strong>:blank): "The U.S. finding of a case of mad cow disease shows the country’s surveillance system is working, according to the United Nations' Food & Agriculture Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health."

Let me raise two uncomfortable points about this case.

April 27, 2012
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/04/mad-cow-california

[vacuum]

wtf is wrong with the US? We're the richest nation yet our food health and safety is way below everyone else.

[Celtic Rogue]

wtf is wrong with the US? We're the richest nation yet our food health and safety is way below everyone else.

Seems like its just part and parcel of the planed depopulation. We are being poisoned by the water we drink , the air we breath, the food we eat and the medicines we take.

I have always said that when something doesn't make sense .... and it is still going on... then that means one of two things... either the people in office are stupid... which is a real possibility... or there is a hidden agenda at work. I choose the latter.

[palani]

Guess you had to have been around in the '70s when the then sec of agriculture Earl Butz came out with the statement 'GET BIG OR GET OUT'. This was the federal government telling small farmers they had no future in agriculture.

[Agriculture has become synonymous with commerce and it seems to be true that in commerce you must either get big or get out]

[JDRock]

wtf is wrong with the US? We're the richest nation yet our food health and safety is way below everyone else.
HA! look no further that WHO is in control of the us food supply......the clever tribe.

[gunDriller]

i just bought some Great Value chicken.

yes, i know. Bottom of the Barrel. 10 pounds for $7.60.

i am baking the first 2 leg quarters to kill all the germs. i don't trust it to not have germs.

(an hour at 370 degrees F ?)


knowing that i am subsidizing extreme animal cruelty makes me think twice about buying some of the baby 'broiler' chickens and raising them, knowing that i will be killing them. i mean the kind that grow really fast.

i couldn't do that with my Rhode Island Reds. they are great layers, but they are pets. eating them would be sort of like eating a family member. too wierd. maybe i'll plant them under an apple tree.

it's wierd but buying Great Value chicken might just lead me to start raising my own food chickens. if i raise them, they will be well-treated to the end.


i know it's off topic, but, for those here who raise chickens, what's faster & more painless for the chicken - breaking their neck or beheading in one of those upside-down things ?

[Cebu_4_2]

Hey Gundriller,

I found if you hang them upside down they are real docile. So I figure if you do that at night when they are sleeping they wont really know WTF is happening.

I culled one, not any after that during the day in the usual hatchet method. Thing escaped into the woods and had to search for it (yes with no head).

When it was time to cull the rest of the herd I took them in. What they do is hang them and chop the heads off with a big pair of snippers, like plant trimmers. Looked fairly easy. But they were really setup for this type of work. For me to chop, bleed, soak in very hot water, pull the feathers, gut and clean it before rigamortis set in was too great a challenge. Plus I waited too long and they were very tough. Good only in soup. What a waste of life.

Eggs are much easier to deal with.

[Mouse]

Hang em upside down on a trot line and cut their throats. They bleed out in like 30 seconds. Rather than screwing around trying to pluck them you can skin them and cut em up into fryers. Reduces processing time to about 5 minutes per bird. Layers make for crappy eating. Leghorns or other meat birds can grow full in about 2-3 months and are nice and big.

[woodman]

i just bought some Great Value chicken.

yes, i know. Bottom of the Barrel. 10 pounds for $7.60.

i am baking the first 2 leg quarters to kill all the germs. i don't trust it to not have germs.

(an hour at 370 degrees F ?)


knowing that i am subsidizing extreme animal cruelty makes me think twice about buying some of the baby 'broiler' chickens and raising them, knowing that i will be killing them. i mean the kind that grow really fast.

i couldn't do that with my Rhode Island Reds. they are great layers, but they are pets. eating them would be sort of like eating a family member. too wierd. maybe i'll plant them under an apple tree.

it's wierd but buying Great Value chicken might just lead me to start raising my own food chickens. if i raise them, they will be well-treated to the end.


i know it's off topic, but, for those here who raise chickens, what's faster & more painless for the chicken - breaking their neck or beheading in one of those upside-down things ?

Grab them by the legs and swing quickly in a circle. The blood goes to their head and they become totally dazed. You can then lay them out and lop the head off with a big knife or as aforementioned hang them and slit their throat. Painless to the chicken since they are dazed from the blood running to their head.