Meat Eating- Thoughts on Toxicity and the Power Steer

[Guest guest]

I am just going to jump in here and make my two cents worth. I am a beef producer. More and more that is getting to be a bad word in the United States as far as health is concerned. This article grabs your attention by stating that you shouldn't eat beef then jumps in and talks about PVC and chlorids. I agree, I think that our environment on a whole has been overpolluted by manufacturers who have made a lot of money. But please don't blame your beef producer for the fact that out land and water is so pulluted that the animals and people are in danger.

 

On our ranch we raise our own hay, very rarely do we buy outside feed. Our cows are not confined at all but are on free range. Our pastures average about 320 acres and we try to follow a good rotational system allowing the grass to grow. We do not overstock our pastures. If we do, there won't be any grass and the cows will have nothing to eat and then I would be out of a job.

 

Be a responsable consumer and citizen. Encourage your congressman to allow legislation that allows for country of origin labeling and if the meat is from a vaccine free animal. Visit www.pioneerbeef.com for natural beef. They are able to identify all their animals. This means they now where the meat came from and when it went to slaughter and how it was raised. Country of origin labeling is important. Canada and Mexico have higher incidents of disease and imported cattle do not have to meet the same slaughter requirements that American beef does. Our cattle can not have received certain medications within a set amount of time prior to being slaughtered.

 

Oh, and the life span thing. Chickens do have a shorter life span. But they are fed more concentrated feed stuff and are highly confined. Both of these factors are largely responsible for an increase in disease and death.

 

Just my opinion. Also, cattle contribute so many things to our lives besides meat. Things like drywall, gelatin, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Remember, it is important to look at the big picture. If we do away with the cattle we will be the primary consumer of anything growing on the land (vegetarian) and that means that the plants are still contaminated and we will still be ingesting the toxins.

 

NE Shadow

 

Jose and Diana <joseanddiana wrote:

 

Meat Eating- Thoughts on Toxicity and the Power Steer

 

 

NY Times 31mar02 http://www.mindfully.org/Food/Meat-Eating-PWG14apr02.htm

 

Michael Pollan's NY Times article "The Power Steer" is about raising steer. It's main theme is the over-use of antibiotics. (follow link in box) It does indeed make eating beef seem quite nasty. The use of antibiotics for nonmedical uses in the USA is the status quo. But that's not the only toxic threat from eating beef or drinking cow's milk.

 

Organic beef is an alternative, and I know a farmer in MI that has an organic beef farm. I have been on his farm many times and used to buy from him when I lived in the Midwest. After learning more about how they raise the animals on inhumane mega-farms and feedlots, my taste for it has tapered off. The only time I eat it now is that rare occasion when I am faced with travel food . . . aka road-kill, as I call it.

 

According to Dr. Arnold Schecter at the University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, Americans are getting 22 times the maximum dioxin exposure suggested by the U.S. EPA. And nursing infants are getting 35 to 65 times the recommended dosage, as if any dioxin at all can be recommended. The main causes are meat and dairy products. Beef is a major source of dioxin in the diets of humans. (see table 2 below)

 

Because steer and cows live a relatively long life, in comparison to, say, chickens, they accumulate a substantial amount of dioxin in their fat. Dioxin is lipophilic, meaning it seeks fat. It accumulates faster than it is ridded from the animal's body. The same is true for humans. Because humans are at the top of the food chain, we get the full benefit, if one can use that term, of dioxin through bioaccumulation. The embryo and suckling infant receive an even larger dose because of the accumulation of a lifetime of dioxin by the mother and father.

 

Dioxin gets into the beef by way of grass and/or livestock feeds. Looking at feeds, a lot of contamination occurs through a variety of sources, both intentional and accidental. It falls on the grass from the sky after chlorine-containing products are burned in incinerators, back-yard ash burning in barrels, accidental fires, and chemical processes such as the production of PVC plastic. Dioxin is the by-product of burning chlorine in the presence of oxygen with a catalyst. The process is known as oxychlorination.

 

A chief source of dioxin in the air and water is the production and disposal of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic. Note the chloride in PVC. Other chloride-containing products include the typical paper used by most people--paper used for writing, copying, wiping your bum, bleaching clothes, swimming pools. The list is quite large. It could also be created when bleached clothes are dried using heat, as is typically done in the US because energy is still extremely cheap.

 

Dr. Hillary Carpenter, a toxicologist with the Minnesota Department of Health is studying recently discovered dioxin in livestock feed ingredients from Quali Tech, a Minnesota company. When I spoke to him in March, he told me that the source was kelp. We already know that dioxin exists in low levels in the ocean, and that it accumulates on various surfaces. Dr. Carpenter has only begun to study the problem. In an AP interview , Carpenter incorrectly stated that "[t]he dioxin levels found in the feed supplements made at Chaska-based were so low, especially after they were diluted in feed, that they wouldn't pose a health hazard to people. Comments such as his are a good reason why the public is clueless with regards to dioxin. But this is a typical comment by a toxicologist. I once had lunch with a group of prominent toxicologists in Chicago at an EPA workshop on dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD). I was appalled

at the datedness of their knowledge.

 

As a side note, if clothes are dried naturally on a wooden rack, the use of dryer softener sheets is also avoided. The chemicals that impart the anti-static quality in the dryer sheets is highly toxic. The scents used in them are also toxic. When combined with the scents of the typical detergent, the effect for some can be the cause of severe physical reactions. I am one of those people who reacts strongly to scents. Any and almost all scents cause an allergic reaction that can last a day. My breathing becomes heavy because my larynx becomes constricted.

 

Back to chlorine for a moment. Chlorine production in the US is also quite large, and it requires a substantial amount of energy. It is made by send an electrical charge through brine, aka salt water, sodium chloride plus H2O. Take a look at the 1953 Life magazine article "The Reign of Chemistry" in Life 5jan53. In it there is a photo of chlorine production by Monsanto, noted as the WORLD'S LARGEST single chlorine plant is operated by Monsanto for US at Muscle Shoals, AL. Electrodes extract chlorine from brine. It is a highly toxic and energy intensive industry.

 

Most of the chlorine goes into making PVC. In 1998, the world production capacity of PVC equaled 27,000,000 tons. It is impossible to make PVC without creating dioxin. The industry has known this for decades, as well as the fact that it is a potent carcinogen and endocrine disruptor, meaning it mimics the hormones of our bodies. In fact, it mimics ever hormone in the human body, and it is active in the single-digit parts/per/trillion range. One ppt can be represented by one drop of water in 660 rail tank cars, or a train six miles long! I know one researcher, mentioned in Our Stolen Future, that has told me that it is active down to 1/10 ppt. The 6-mile train just grew to 60 miles with one drop in it. He has not published this yet, but the interesting thing about his study is that this level of 1/10 ppt is not the threshold (the lowest level at which it is hormonally active).

 

Think of all the PVC in our lives. The 27 million tons of it produced each year makes lots of stuff. Building materials such as roofing, flooring, windows, piping, wall coverings, electrical wiring, swimming pool liners, and lots of the furniture that goes inside those buildings as well; Children's toys and clothing; Hospitals use a significant amount of PVC as IV bags, tubing, sheeting, kidney dialysis machine parts and tubing, disposable eating utensils, plates, cups, and on and on, ad infinitum.

 

PVC is NOT recycled. Less than .002% is recycled. The industry definition of recycling includes incineration, so this figure is next to meaningless. Waste PVC products are incinerated, landfilled, and/or shipped off to less developed nations such as India. This exporting of our toxic waste is called environmental discrimination, and it is an exceedingly common practice.

 

But how are we to know about this when the media white-washes and censors the news, and our children's classrooms receive materials fro such industries claiming the miracles of plastic? While in a dentist's waiting room, I read an advertisement in a popular magazine claiming that plastic is "The Sixth Basic Food Group," and "Plastics. One part of your diet you may never break." I wrote a page in honour of that advertisement.

 

Most of what we learned in school was either mis- or disinformation. The misinformation comes from teachers who, through no fault of their own, are either ill informed or disinformed. Then there are the teachers "on a mission." It may be for the Messiah or it may be for Monsanto. But all of this adds up to an ignorant public. When I write, many times I get to the end of an article on a new subject and I am floored by what has appeared in words. It goes against most of what I learned and assumed until about eleven years ago, when I began questioning.

 

Search mindfully.org for dioxin

 

Question everything at every opportunity, no matter who or where the audience is.

 

--

 

Table 1 - Inventory of Sources of Dioxin in the United States

 

Reference Year 1995 Central estimate (gm TEQ/year)

 

Air: Municipal waste incineration 1,100 Secondary copper smelting 541 Medical waste incineration 477 Forest 208 brush and straw fires Cement kilns 153 hazardous waste burning Coal combustion 72.8 Wood combustion 62.8 residential Wood combustion 29.1 industrial Vehicle fuel combustion 33.5 diesel Cement kilns 17.8 non-hazardous waste burning Secondary aluminum smelting 17 Oil combustion 9.3 industrial/utility Sewage sludge incineration 6 Hazardous waste incineration 5.7 Vehicle fuel combustion - 6.3 unleaded Kraft recovery boilers 2.3 Secondary lead smelters 1.63 Cigarette combustion 0.81 Boilers/industrial furnaces 0.38 Crematoria 0.24 Total 2,745

 

Products: Pentachlorophenol 25,000 treated wood Bleached chemical wood pulp 24.1 and paper mills Dioxazine dyes and pigments 0.36 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid 18.4 Non-incinerated municipal sludge 7 Total 25,050

 

Land: Non-incinerated municipal sludge 207 Bleached chemical wood pulp 1.4 and paper mills Total 208

 

Water: Bleached chemical wood pulp 19.5 and paper mills

 

Source: USEPA (1998) The Inventory off Sources of Dioxin in the United States, USEPA, Office of Research and Development, EPA/600/P-98/002Aa, External Review Draft, April. Table 2 - Dioxin Levels in U.S. Foods

 

Total TEQ(pg/gram food) Food Type (ppt) Ground beef 1.5 Soft blue cheese 0.7 Beef rib steak 0.65 Lamb sirloin 0.4 Heavy cream 0.4 Soft cream cheese 0.3 American cheese sticks 0.3 Pork chops 0.3 Bologna 0.12 Cottage cheese 0.04 Beef rib/sirloin tip 0.04 Chicken drumstick 0.03 Haddock 0.03 Cooked ham 0.03 Perch 0.023 Cod 0.023

 

Source: Schecter, A., et al. (1994) "Congener-specific levels of dioxins and dibenzofurans in U.S. food and estimated daily dioxin toxic equivalent intake." Environmental Health Perspectives 102: 962-966. ___________

 

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

[Guest guest]

hello there.

Generally, on this list, I don't really post many replies, due to my

lack of time.

But in this case, I really must.

I was a vegetarian for alot about 15 years, and am slowly going back

to my vegetarian ways, due to my RA-Reumatoid arthritis. I have found

that staying away from animal flesh does help me and my mood stay

regular.

Of course, not everyone feels that it's wrong to eat meat. I do, so I

don't eat it.

But as the bible says, some folks think it's okay to eat meat and some

folks think it's a sin. In either case, we should realize this and not

be too offended nor offend.

 

~Diana

list mom

 

 

, NE Shadow

<neshadow2002> wrote:

> I am just going to jump in here and make my two cents worth. I am a

beef producer. More and more that is getting to be a bad word in the

United States as far as health is concerned. This article grabs your

attention by stating that you shouldn't eat beef then jumps in and

talks about PVC and chlorids. I agree, I think that our environment on

a whole has been overpolluted by manufacturers who have made a lot of

money. But please don't blame your beef producer for the fact that out

land and water is so pulluted that the animals and people are in danger.

>

> On our ranch we raise our own hay, very rarely do we buy outside

feed. Our cows are not confined at all but are on free range. Our

pastures average about 320 acres and we try to follow a good

rotational system allowing the grass to grow. We do not overstock our

pastures. If we do, there won't be any grass and the cows will have

nothing to eat and then I would be out of a job.

>

> Be a responsable consumer and citizen. Encourage your congressman to

allow legislati

on that allows for country of origin labeling and if the meat is from

a vaccine free animal. Visit www.pioneerbeef.com for natural beef.

They are able to identify all their animals. This means they now where

the meat came from and when it went to slaughter and how it was

raised. Country of origin labeling is important. Canada and Mexico

have higher incidents of disease and imported cattle do not have to

meet the same slaughter requirements that American beef does. Our

cattle can not have received certain medications within a set amount

of time prior to being slaughtered.

>

> Oh, and the life span thing. Chickens do have a shorter life span.

But they are fed more concentrated feed stuff and are highly confined.

Both of these factors are largely responsible for an increase in

disease and death.

>

> Just my opinion. Also, cattle contribute so many things to our lives

besides meat. Things like drywall, gelatin, pharmaceuticals and

cosmetics. Remember, it is important to look at the big picture. If we

do away with the cattle we will be the primary consumer of anything

growing on the land (vegetarian) and that means that the plants are

still contaminated and we will still be ingesting the toxins.

>

> NE Shadow

>

>

>

> Jose and Diana <joseanddiana@g...> wrote:

> Meat Eating- Thoughts on Toxicity and the Power Steer

>

>

> NY Times 31mar02

> http://www.mindfully.org/Food/Meat-Eating-PWG14apr02.htm

>

> Michael Pollan's NY Times article " The Power Steer " is about raising

> steer. It's main theme is the over-use of antibiotics. (follow link in

> box) It does indeed make eating beef seem quite nasty. The use of

> antibiotics for nonmedical uses in the USA is the status quo. But

that's

> not the only toxic threat from eating beef or drinking cow's milk.

>

> Organic beef is an alternative, and I know a farmer in MI that has an

> organic beef farm. I have been on his farm many times and used to buy

> from him when I lived in the Midwest. After learning more about how

they

> raise the animals on inhumane mega-farms and feedlots, my taste for it

> has tapered off. The only time I eat it now is that rare occasion

when I

> am faced with travel food . . . aka road-kill, as I call it.

>

> According to Dr. Arnold Schecter at the University of Texas School of

> Public Health at Houston, Americans are getting 22 times the maximum

> dioxin exposure suggested by the U.S. EPA. And nursing infants are

> getting 35 to 65 times the recommended dosage, as if any dioxin at all

> can be recommended. The main causes are meat and dairy products.

Beef is

> a major source of dioxin in the diets of humans. (see table 2 below)

>

> Because steer and cows live a relatively long life, in comparison to,

> say, chickens, they accumulate a substantial amount of dioxin in their

> fat. Dioxin is lipophilic, meaning it seeks fat. It accumulates faster

> than it is ridded from the animal's body. The same is true for humans.

> Because humans are at the top of the food chain, we get the full

> benefit, if one can use that term, of dioxin through bioaccumulation.

> The embryo and suckling infant receive an even larger dose because of

> the accumulation of a lifetime of dioxin by the mother and father.

>

> Dioxin gets into the beef by way of grass and/or livestock feeds.

> Looking at feeds, a lot of contamination occurs through a variety of

> sources, both intentional and accidental. It falls on the grass from

the

> sky after chlorine-containing products are burned in incinerators,

> back-yard ash burning in barrels, accidental fires, and chemical

> processes such as the production of PVC plastic. Dioxin is the

> by-product of burning chlorine in the presence of oxygen with a

> catalyst. The process is known as oxychlorination.

>

> A chief source of dioxin in the air and water is the production and

> disposal of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic. Note the chloride in PVC.

> Other chloride-containing products include the typical paper used by

> most people--paper used for writing, copying, wiping your bum,

bleaching

> clothes, swimming pools. The list is quite large. It could also be

> created when bleached clothes are dried using heat, as is typically

done

> in the US because energy is still extremely cheap.

>

> Dr. Hillary Carpenter, a toxicologist with the Minnesota Department of

> Health is studying recently discovered dioxin in livestock feed

> ingredients from Quali Tech, a Minnesota company. When I spoke to

him in

> March, he told me that the source was kelp. We already know that dioxin

> exists in low levels in the ocean, and that it accumulates on various

> surfaces. Dr. Carpenter has only begun to study the problem. In an AP

> interview , Carpenter incorrectly stated that " [t]he dioxin levels

found

> in the feed supplements made at Chaska-based were so low, especially

> after they were diluted in feed, that they wouldn't pose a health

hazard

> to people. Comments such as his are a good reason why the public is

> clueless with regards to dioxin. But this is a typical comment by a

> toxicologist. I once had lunch with a group of prominent toxicologists

> in Chicago at an EPA workshop on dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD). I was appalled

> at the datedness of their knowledge.

>

> As a side note, if clothes are dried naturally on a wooden rack, the

use

> of dryer softener sheets is also avoided. The chemicals that impart the

> anti-static quality in the dryer sheets is highly toxic. The scents

used

> in them are also toxic. When combined with the scents of the typical

> detergent, the effect for some can be the cause of severe physical

> reactions. I am one of those people who reacts strongly to scents. Any

> and almost all scents cause an allergic reaction that can last a

day. My

> breathing becomes heavy because my larynx becomes constricted.

>

> Back to chlorine for a moment. Chlorine production in the US is also

> quite large, and it requires a substantial amount of energy. It is made

> by send an electrical charge through brine, aka salt water, sodium

> chloride plus H2O. Take a look at the 1953 Life magazine article " The

> Reign of Chemistry " in Life 5jan53. In it there is a photo of chlorine

> production by Monsanto, noted as the WORLD'S LARGEST single chlorine

> plant is operated by Monsanto for US at Muscle Shoals, AL. Electrodes

> extract chlorine from brine. It is a highly toxic and energy intensive

> industry.

>

> Most of the chlorine goes into making PVC. In 1998, the world

production

> capacity of PVC equaled 27,000,000 tons. It is impossible to make PVC

> without creating dioxin. The industry has known this for decades, as

> well as the fact that it is a potent carcinogen and endocrine

disruptor,

> meaning it mimics the hormones of our bodies. In fact, it mimics ever

> hormone in the human body, and it is active in the single-digit

> parts/per/trillion range. One ppt can be represented by one drop of

> water in 660 rail tank cars, or a train six miles long! I know one

> researcher, mentioned in Our Stolen Future, that has told me that it is

> active down to 1/10 ppt. The 6-mile train just grew to 60 miles with

one

> drop in it. He has not published this yet, but the interesting thing

> about his study is that this level of 1/10 ppt is not the threshold

(the

> lowest level at which it is hormonally active).

>

> Think of all the PVC in our lives. The 27 million tons of it produced

> each year makes lots of stuff. Building materials such as roofing,

> flooring, windows, piping, wall coverings, electrical wiring, swimming

> pool liners, and lots of the furniture that goes inside those buildings

> as well; Children's toys and clothing; Hospitals use a significant

> amount of PVC as IV bags, tubing, sheeting, kidney dialysis machine

> parts and tubing, disposable eating utensils, plates, cups, and on and

> on, ad infinitum.

>

> PVC is NOT recycled. Less than .002% is recycled. The industry

> definition of recycling includes incineration, so this figure is

next to

> meaningless. Waste PVC products are incinerated, landfilled, and/or

> shipped off to less developed nations such as India. This exporting of

> our toxic waste is called environmental discrimination, and it is an

> exceedingly common practice.

>

> But how are we to know about this when the media white-washes and

> censors the news, and our children's classrooms receive materials fro

> such industries claiming the miracles of plastic? While in a dentist's

> waiting room, I read an advertisement in a popular magazine claiming

> that plastic is " The Sixth Basic Food Group, " and " Plastics. One

part of

> your diet you may never break. " I wrote a page in honour of that

> advertisement.

>

> Most of what we learned in school was either mis- or disinformation.

The

> misinformation comes from teachers who, through no fault of their own,

> are either ill informed or disinformed. Then there are the teachers " on

> a mission. " It may be for the Messiah or it may be for Monsanto. But

all

> of this adds up to an ignorant public. When I write, many times I

get to

> the end of an article on a new subject and I am floored by what has

> appeared in words. It goes against most of what I learned and assumed

> until about eleven years ago, when I began questioning.

>

> Search mindfully.org for dioxin

>

> Question everything at every opportunity,

> no matter who or where the audience is.

>

>

>

--

 

>

>

> Table 1 - Inventory of Sources of Dioxin in the United States

>

> Reference Year 1995 Central estimate

> (gm TEQ/year)

>

> Air:

> Municipal waste incineration 1,100

> Secondary copper smelting 541

> Medical waste incineration 477

> Forest 208

> brush and straw fires

> Cement kilns 153

> hazardous waste burning

> Coal combustion 72.8

> Wood combustion 62.8

> residential

> Wood combustion 29.1

> industrial

> Vehicle fuel combustion 33.5

> diesel

> Cement kilns 17.8

> non-hazardous waste burning

> Secondary aluminum smelting 17

> Oil combustion 9.3

> industrial/utility

> Sewage sludge incineration 6

> Hazardous waste incineration 5.7

> Vehicle fuel combustion - 6.3

> unleaded

> Kraft recovery boilers 2.3

> Secondary lead smelters 1.63

> Cigarette combustion 0.81

> Boilers/industrial furnaces 0.38

> Crematoria 0.24

> Total 2,745

>

> Products:

> Pentachlorophenol 25,000

> treated wood

> Bleached chemical wood pulp 24.1

> and paper mills

> Dioxazine dyes and pigments 0.36

> 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid 18.4

> Non-incinerated municipal sludge 7

> Total 25,050

>

> Land:

> Non-incinerated municipal sludge 207

> Bleached chemical wood pulp 1.4

> and paper mills

> Total 208

>

> Water:

> Bleached chemical wood pulp 19.5

> and paper mills

>

> Source: USEPA (1998) The Inventory off Sources of Dioxin in the United

> States, USEPA,

> Office of Research and Development, EPA/600/P-98/002Aa, External Review

> Draft, April.

> Table 2 - Dioxin Levels in U.S. Foods

>

> Total

> TEQ(pg/gram food)

> Food Type (ppt)

> Ground beef 1.5

> Soft blue cheese 0.7

> Beef rib steak 0.65

> Lamb sirloin 0.4

> Heavy cream 0.4

> Soft cream cheese 0.3

> American cheese sticks 0.3

> Pork chops 0.3

> Bologna 0.12

> Cottage cheese 0.04

> Beef rib/sirloin tip 0.04

> Chicken drumstick 0.03

> Haddock 0.03

> Cooked ham 0.03

> Perch 0.023

> Cod 0.023

>

> Source: Schecter, A., et al. (1994) " Congener-specific levels of

dioxins

> and dibenzofurans in

> U.S. food and estimated daily dioxin toxic equivalent intake. "

> Environmental Health Perspectives 102: 962-966. ___________

>

> " First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight

you, then you win. "

> -- Mahatma Gandhi

>

>

>

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