. . . .you don’t know where it’s been.  Just like this old saw, we should be questioning everything we eat these days. Unless we know who produced it, where it has come from and where it has been–then we are playing Russian Roulette with our lives.



Take the latest media rodeo for an example. On Thursday the US Secretary of Agriculture held a BSE Roundtable Discussion on June 9. Rather than have a true roundtable with views from all sides this was more like a Mutual Admiration Society Circle Jerk. Instead of including Consumer Groups, Scientists, Health Organizations and the like, the "roundtable" was made up exclusively of special interest groups: the American Farm Bureau, the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Meat Association, the National Milk Producers and the National Renderers Association.  The purpose of the meeting? To assure the US consumers, and Canada, and Japan and Korea, that US Beef is Safe once again to cross borders and be consumed en masse.


To quote an article from the Center for Media & Democracy: "There’s just one problem with this rosy picture of mad cow disease in North America: it has little or no basis in fact. The steps that the United States and Canada must take to prevent the spread of mad cow disease have not been taken. Instead, lip service and deception have fooled the media and the public, while dangerous animal feeding practices remain routine; hundreds of millions of pounds of slaughterhouse waste are still fed to North American cattle.
Even with the 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in North America, the Bush administration is refusing to take the steps proven to address the problem. Those simple measures have worked well in Europe and Japan. They are: a rigid, complete ban on using rendered slaughterhouse waste such as blood, meat and bonemeal in livestock feed, and the testing millions of cattle a year to ensure food safety. Japan tests 100 percent of its cattle (although U.S. pressure recently resulted in Japan agreeing to waive testing requirements for cattle younger than 20 months). In more than a decade, the United States has tested fewer than 400,000 cattle of a third of a billion cattle slaughtered." And: "The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration are still allowing slaughterhouse waste in the form of blood, fat and meat and bone meal to be fed to cattle, pigs and other livestock. At the same time, the USDA, FDA and the livestock and animal feeding industries have maintained successful PR campaigns to fool the media and the public into thinking that such feeding practices have been banned."



There simply is no need for this sort of mass commercial abuse. Ruminant animals should not be fed rendered byproducts. This is what Centralization and profit-hunger brings. Mad Cow aside, our Beef, Dairy, Pork, and Chicken are all affected by industry abuses and coverups. The Vegans, and Vegetarians will cry victory (there are problems with the sources of these ingredients too–think GM (and not the car producer)), but they need not carry the day–you can have your meat and live to enjoy it–Support Local, Sustainable Agriculture. Source your meats, dairy and vegetables from quality producers you can trust. Take an hour and visit their facilities. KNOW where your food comes from and HOW it is produced.  Check out The Meatrix for information. Or read this (certainly only one side of the issue, but. . . .?)

Popularity: 4% [?]