Supermarket meat CANNOT be considered safe for human
consumption. According to a Government Accountability Project
(GAP) White Paper dated November 1997, consumers today pay for
USDA Approved fecal-soup and other filth, when they think they
are buying meat stamped as wholesome. What's worse...Consumers
are being victimized by a new food chain, foisted upon them by
an uncaring, greed motivated industry.
We are in the midst of a food safety crisis in America.
Currently the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that
4,000 deaths, over 500,000 hospitalizations and some nine million
illnesses are attributable to contaminated meat and poultry. We are at
a cross roads in food safety. It is no longer safe to trust in USDA
stamped meat. Consumers should beware, and consider other sources
to assure their own food safety.
"Beef...It's What's For Dinner."
Robert Mitchum, the movie actor, helped to institute beef as
a mainstay at the supper table through his "Beef...It's what's
for dinner" ad line. The truth is, however, there is NO way of
knowing if supermarket meat is safe to eat. consider:
Millions of pounds of contaminated meat routinely pass through
meat processing plants, even though under-staffed USDA Inspectors try
hard to spot and stop contamination. The following examples reported
by 75 whistle-blowing inspectors are illustrative of current
conditions found throughout major meat processing plants.
1. Abscesses and digestive organs are punctured during slaughter,
releasing pus, fecal material and ingesta all over carcasses. The
law requires that affected meat and poultry be trimmed rather than
rinsed. Plants repeatedly skip trimming and merely rinse the meat,
which can force bacteria into the porous flesh. Up to 25% of
slaughtered chickens on the inspection line are covered with
feces, bile and feed.
2. Diseased (cancerous and tuberculoid) animals condemned during
ante-mortem inspection are sent to slaughter in violation of
the law.
3. Red meat animals and poultry that are dead on arrival or die
in the yard while awaiting slaughter are hidden from
inspectors doing ante-mortem inspections and hung up to be
butchered. Severed heads from "cancer eye" cattle are
switched to smaller carcasses, so less meat will be condemned.
4. Chickens and hams are soaked in chlorine baths to remove slime
and odor, and red dye is added to beef to make it appear fresh.
5. Rancid meat is smoked to cover foul odor, or marinated and
breaded to disguise slime and smell.
6. Facilities repeatedly fail to send home employees who are sick.
As a result, employees sneeze on products, sneeze into their
hands and wipe them off on passing carcasses, and cough up
phlem onto product or the floor.
7. Plants repeatedly violate transportation standards. Large
plastic tubs used to transport quantities of rancid or
abscessed meat are not sanitized before transporting clean
product.
8. Plant managers repeatedly argue with inspectors over the most
basic standards of wholesomeness. Examples include fighting
to allow "some" contamination, because "just a little" won't
hurt anyone. One plant manager argued that the floor did not
need to be rinsed with 180 degree sanitizied water after an
employee urinated on it. Plant managers make comments such
as, "Who cares, this (product) is going to New York."
These examples are not anomalies, they are the rule, occurring
daily at the health and safety expense of the consumer. The above
noted examples were cited at a trade association hearing in 1995.
How Do You Like Your Beef...Grain Fed or Manure Fed?
Remember when cattle ate grain and grass? That was then.
Nowadays, everything from manure to dead cats make up a large
portion of cattle feed. Imagine standing at the meat counter and
seeing a sign that reads, "Manure Fed Beef." Kinda turn you off?
Well, the idea does to a lot of people. But if you are buying
any kind of beef, pork or poultry at your local supermarket, the
odds are you are eating meat raised on manure and Lord knows
what else.
To trim costs, many farmers and ranchers add a variety of waste
substances to their livestock and poultry feed. Chicken manure in
particular, which costs from $15 to $45 a ton in comparison with up to
$125 a ton for alfalfa, is increasingly used as feed, despite health
risks to consumers. One farmer, Lamar Carter, who uses poultry manure
to feed his 800 head of cattle says, "My cows are fat as butterballs.
If I didn't have chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. Other
feed's too expensive."
The procedure calls for the manure to be composted, which
raises the temperature high enough to kill bacteria and pathogens,
before feeding it to cattle. However, some farmers say they feed
chicken manure raw to cattle straight from the broiler house. Others
"go by smell" to judge when it is ready.
Dr. Neal Barnard, head of the Physicians Committee For
Responsible Medicine says, "Feeding manure that has not been
properly processed is supercharging the cattle feces with
pathogens likely to cause disease in consumers."
Chicken manure often contains campylobacter and salmonella
bacteria, which can cause disease in humans, as well as intestinal
parasites, veterinary drug residues, and toxic heavy metals such as
arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. These bacteria and toxins are
passed on to the cattle and can be cycled to humans who eat beef
contaminated by feces during slaughter. A scientific paper scheduled
for publication in the journal Preventative Medicine points to the
potential dangers of recycling chicken waste to cattle.
Rendering Cattle to Cannibalism:
If feeding cattle manure is repulsive to you, this next bit
of information will knock you flat. Some 40 billion pounds a
year of slaughter-house wastes like blood, heads, stomachs,
intestines, spinal cords, grease, feathers, and bones, as well as
the remains of millions of euthanized cats and dogs passed along
by animal shelters and veterinarians, are rendered annually into
livestock feed...turning cattle and hogs from herbivores into
carnivores. In other words, cannibals!
Some 250 rendering plants nation-wide process 100 million
pounds of animal carcasses daily. The city of Los Angeles alone
sends 200 tons of euthanized cats and dogs a month for rendering.
This so called "food enhancer" is then shipped to poultry ranches,
cattle feed-lots, dairy and hog farms, fish-feed plants and pet food
manufacturers where it is mixed with other ingredients to feed to
animals, who in turn, will be eaten by humans.
Food production through this kind of waste management may be
economical, but it has become a re-cycling, toxic waste nightmare.
Pet remains are frequently thrown into the rendering pit with chemical
laden flea collars still attached. Cattle insecticide patches
containing the insecticide, Dursban, become part of the mix.
Pharmaceuticals leaking from antibiotics in livestock, euthanized drugs
given to pets, and heavy metals from a variety of sources (i.e. pet ID
tags, surgical pins, needles), all become part of the rendered
ingredients.
The American Journal of Veterinary Research investigated the
persistence of sodium phenobarbital brought into the rendering
process from pet remains and found..."virtually no degradation
of the drug occurred during this conventional rendering
process..." and that "...the potential of other chemical
contaminants (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides and environmental
toxicants which may cause herd mortalities) to degrade during
conventional rendering needs further evaluation."
The volume of carrion is so huge there is no time to sort
through the carcasses to remove unwanted elements. And so it is,
millions of unsold, supermarket meat packages arriving in
styrofoam trays and shrink wrap, plastic insecticide patches,
ID tags and green plastic bags containing pets from veterinarians
are all routinely thrown into the rendering pits to become part of
the end product.
It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out our
industrialized, commercial food industry has changed our natural
food chain. We have become unwitting players, as PR campaigns
encourage us to enjoy this new food chain. But what dangers lie
in wait for us as we enjoy our evening dinner portion of beef?
If you eat meat, do not buy meat from the supermarket. Here
are some suggestions to locate a safe meat supply.
1. Buy your meat from small, local slaughter-houses, who
routinely butcher cattle and hogs from small suppliers. This
is a much safer way to purchase meat than through your
local supermarket. Small growers tend to graze their stock
on grass, and only supplement their feeding with hay and
grain. Small growers usually know the score, which is one
reason they are raising their own livestock.
2. Ask neighbors and friends if they know of someone who raises
a few cattle or hogs. Contact that grower and ask them what
kinds of food they feed their livestock. Make a deal to
purchase a side of beef or pork the next time they take their
livestock to slaughter. Be sure to investigate the slaughter-
house. You will need freezer space.
3. For Poultry, most small farmers keep grain-fed, free-range
chickens. Chickens allowed to roam on the ground are
considered safer and healthier to eat than chickens raised
in large broiler houses. Make arrangements to purchase
fryers and eggs from these small farmers.
Fact: According to the USDA;
1. A typical hamburger contains meat from 80 cattle.
2. E.Coli bacteria will survive long-term freezing.
3. 90% of all broiler-house chickens now carry salmonella bacteria.
4. Salmonella is now present inside eggs. Never eat one uncooked.
Next month EOO will examine Mad Cow disease, and it's
relationship to CJD (Creutsfeldt-Jackob Disease), the name given
to Mad Cow disease as it is found in humans. We will learn of a
possible link between eating meat and Alzheimer's disease, the
4th leading cause of death among the elderly in the U.S.