Guest guest Posted February 27, 2005 Report Share Posted February 27, 2005 Pizza dough and tetracycline. JoAnn Guest Feb 27, 2005 09:10 PST www.eatwild.com --- In a recent interview with a former manager of a Nebraska feedlot, Eatwild has learned of an extreme example of raising cattle on junk food. In this particular feedlot, the cattle were fattened on stale pizza crust that the owners purchased from a wholesale bakery for only a penny a pound. Feeding junk food to animals is regarded by many as a win-win situation: it keeps waste food out of the landfills and provides low cost food for the animal industry. The pizza dough was then mixed with powdered tetracycline. ] Why add the antibiotic medication? Because low levels of antibiotics make cattle eat more and put on weight more rapidly, further cutting the cost of raising them to maturity. Tetracycline is not approved as a feed additive in cattle, so the owners purchased the drug under the false pretense that they were using it to treat disease in poultry. On this junk food and drug diet, the cattle put on as much as four pounds a day, a remarkable rate of growth at a very low cost. The end result was more money for the feedlot, more abuse of medications that are important for human medicine, and more meat of questionable quality for an unsuspecting public. The degree to which American cattle are being fed junk food and off-label drugs is not known. -- Post subject: The " bad " E. coli persists in the barn --- The " bad " E. coli persists in the barn but not on pasture. The type of E. coli bacteria responsible for most cases of human illness and death is called " E. coli 0157:H7. Recently, calves that had tested positively for this deadly strain were divided into two groups. One was raised in a barn, and the other on pasture. Samples were taken once a month from April to September. The calves raised on pasture showed no signs of 0157:H7 for the entire period. Meanwhile, every one of the calves raised in pens had at least one positive sample. According to the Swedish researchers who conducted the study, " This suggests that calves on pasture may be less exposed to the bacteria or that they clear themselves. " (Jonsson, M.E. et al. " Persistence of Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia Coli 0157:H7 in Calves Kept on Pasture and in Calves Kept Indoors " Int. J Food Microbiol 66, 1-2 (2001): 55-61.) Products from pastured animals have an ideal balance of essential fatty acids or EFAs. There are two families of EFAs—omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. According to a new French study, when women eat food that is relatively rich in omega-3s and low in omega-6s, they have a 76 percent reduction in their risk of breast cancer. Products from grassfed animals and wild game have this ideal ratio of EFAs. (Maillard, V., P. Bougnoux, P. Ferrari, M. L. Jourdan, M. Pinault, F. Lavillonniere, G. Body, O. Le Floch, and V. Chajes. " Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids in Breast Adipose Tissue and Relative Risk of Breast Cancer in a Case-Control Study in Tours, France. " Int J Cancer 98, no. 1 (2002): 78-83. -- What to do with all that manure? When 1,000 plus cows are crowded into a large confinement dairy, they generate tons of manure. Typically, the manure is pumped into a lagoon to be dealt with at a later date. Last year, an Illinois confinement dairy allowed its 8.3 acre lagoon to overflow with animal waste. The Attorney General's Office filed suit against the dairy, forcing the operators to take action. Against regulations, the dairy pumped the waste into a nearby ravine and then tried to keep it from spilling over by constructing earthen dams. Not surprisingly, the dams burst, spewing the manure into a nearby pond and killing off the fish. Then a heavy rain flushed the manure into a nearby creek. For pictures of the disaster, visit the factory farm website. --- Fast Track Hatchlings Today's chicken and turkeys are being relegated to the fast track—even before they hatch. According to a report in the January 2002 edition of Nature Reviews, injecting sugar or protein into incubating eggs makes the chicks 10 percent larger at time of hatching. The net result is that the birds reach market size in 50 days instead of 60. Meanwhile, researchers are also experimenting with a more questionable practice—injecting chicken growth hormone into eggs to speed the birds' growth. (See citation below.) Commentary: Grassfarmers are advocates of the Slow Food movement. They raise poultry on pasture and allow them to reach maturity at a more normal pace. (Kocamis, H., Y. N. Yeni, D. C. Kirkpatrick-Keller, and J. Killefer. " Postnatal Growth of Broilers in Response to in Ovo Administration of Chicken Growth Hormone. " Poult Sci 78, no. 8 (1999): 1219-26.) --- Fish are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. The reason is that they either eat algae and plankton that are rich in omega-3s or eat smaller fish that dine on these greens. (Ultimately, all omega-3s come from plants, whether sea-based or land-based. These healthy fats are manufactured in the " chloroplasts, " the part of the plant that engages in photosynthesis.) The USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has now identified strains of trout that thrive on grain, a food not found in the ocean that happens to be very low in omega-3s. The reason for the artificial diet is that grain is cheaper than fishmeal, making fish farming more profitable. Also, with enough tweaking, the ARS believes that these grain-gobbling trout will reach market size faster than ordinary trout. The ARS is currently developing genetically modified grains to feed to these " superior strains " of fish to increase efficiency and minimize the damage to the environment. (Visit the ARS website for more information.) Sound familiar? This is exactly what has happened to our land-based livestock. The animals have been fed an " artificial " , " grain-based " diet that is low in omega-3s. They have been raised under crowded conditions that facilitate the spread of disease and pollute the environment. Animals that do well under these abnormal conditions have been selected for breeding stock. The grain in the animals' diet has been " genetically modified " to make the enterprise even more efficient. --- US confinement-raised poultry not " good enough " for the Russians. Early in March, 2002, Russia imposed a ban on the importation of all poultry from the United States. Vladimir Fisinin, vice president of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, explained his government's position in the March 20th issue of The Moscow Times: " I would like to note that American farmers are injecting chickens with antibiotics used to treat people. This is prohibited in Russia. " According to Fisinin, US poultry producers use such large doses of these drugs that they accumulate in the tissues of the birds. " It is dangerous, " he said, " especially for children and older people. " Fisinin also asserted that giving antibiotics to chickens fosters the growth of drug-resistant bacteria. US medical experts agree. In a study in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers randomly selected 407 chickens from 26 stores in Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon. More than half of the chickens were tainted with " antibiotic-resistant " bacteria. (McDonald, L. C., et al. " Quinupristin-Dalfopristin-Resistant Enterococcus Faecium on Chicken and in Human Stool Specimens. " N Engl J Med345, no. 16 (2001): 1155-60.) --- Grassfed meat at McDonald's?? Yes and no. McDonald's is now making up for the scarcity of lean beef in the US beef supply by importing meat from New Zealand and Australia, countries that still raise and finish the bulk of their cattle on pasture. Hamburgers made from the meat of these grassfed animals are now being tested in 400 of McDonald's 13,000 US stores—all in the Southeast. Does that mean that some lucky customers are getting extra helpings of omega-3 fatty acids, CLA, and beta carotene in their Big Macs? Yes and no. The standard practice in hamburger chains is to mix lean beef with low-cost fat trimmings from beef packing plants. This means that the meat from the pastured animals is being mixed with fat from US grainfed animals, canceling out many of its benefits. --- Let them eat worms and insects! Chickens and turkeys are not ruminants, so they cannot get all their nutrients from grass. In particular, they need a source of high quality protein. In confinement operations, chickens are fed " soybeans " (often from " genetically modified " seeds), ground-up chickens, and sometimes chicken or cow manure. In the wild, chickens and turkeys get their protein from worms and insects. A hidden advantage of these natural sources of protein is that they are relatively high in omega-3 fatty acids. In a number of countries, including the Philippines, small farmers continue to feed worms to their birds. For example, one small farmer near Manila has three plots of earthworms. Each morning, he opens the gates to the worm beds and invites his chickens to forage. We propose that the US government fund at least one study that focuses on the feasibility of raising worms as chicken feed. Part of the money can come from selling the worm castings—an excellent fertilizer—and the rest can be diverted from the dozens of studies now investigating how to remove drug residues from poultry manure and ground up hens so that they can be fed safely to our nation's livestock. (If you care to learn more about the practice of feeding chickens to chickens, visit the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension web page.) --- " Dark Cutters " —yet another downside of factory ranching. The vast majority of feedlot cattle are " implanted with hormones " to speed their growth. The trend is to implant the animals at a younger and younger age, resulting in even greater growth. Some calves are implanted as soon as they are weaned. According to researchers at Oklahoma State University, implants do indeed create bigger, leaner animals, but they have a number of unwanted consequences. As they say in a recent OSU report, " all implant regimens have some detrimental effects on marbling score and percentage of carcasses grading US Choice. " They decrease tenderness as well. To make matters worse, the implants increase the percentage of cattle that are labeled " dark cutters, " which is an industry term used to describe lean meat that has an unpleasant brown color. Customers prefer bright red meat, so dark cutters have to be sold at a discount. The OSU researchers estimate that dark cutters " cost the US cattle industry approximately $132 million annually. " Yet again, manipulating animals so they grow bigger, faster has been proven to " reduce the overall quality " of the product. (D. N. Vargas, et al, " Implant effects on USDA beef carcass quality grade traits and meat tenderness. " J. Animal Science, 1998. Vol 76 (Supplement 2), page 13.) --- Growth-promoting antibiotics—bad for consumers and farmers. According to a recent study by the USDA's Economic Research Service, hog farmers lose money if they feed growth-promoting antibiotics to their pigs. Although the drugs increase the body weight of the pigs by 10 percent, the added supply of pork ultimately cuts the price of hogs. In the words of the study, " Each producer is able to improve his or her net return by feeding anti-microbial drugs. However, when all producers act in concert, feeding anti-microbial drugs, the collective result is to increase hog supplies; the increased supplies decrease hog prices. " In 1999, the price of hogs fell from $34.80 to $34.02 per hundred pounds. So who profits from the drugs? The drug manufacturers, of course. According to the Animal Health Institute, 20.5 million pounds of antibiotics were given to animals in 1999. The European Union has " banned " farmers from giving antibiotics to healthy animals. --- Pastured cattle are cleaner, giving us safer meat. E. coli contamination takes place in the slaughterhouse when manure from an animal comes in contact with meat. The less manure on an animal when it enters the slaughter house, the less likely the meat will become contaminated. Even the meat-packing industry acknowledges how difficult it is to remove fecal contamination from feedlot cattle when they stand all day long in dirt and manure. In a recent article in the magazine Meat Marketing and Technology, the associate editor stated that pasture-raised animals were much easier to clean " because they come from small herds raised in relatively clean pastures. " Most US cattle, he said, " are raised in far larger numbers in congested and typically less sanitary feed lots. " (From an article titled, " The Future of Food Safety, " by Joshua Lipsky. Meat Marketing and Technology, April 2001) --- Seeing is believing. If you are 60 or younger, you may not know what butter and eggs are supposed to look like. When chickens and cows are raised on pasture—their natural environment—their products have a rich golden color that you don't find in products from factory-raised animals. (The color comes from all of the carotene they get from the grass.) The Eggs Florentine in this picture were made from eggs from pastured hens and butter from grassfed cows. Ask your parents or grandparents if they remember eggs and butter being this brightly colored. (Click on photo to enlarge.) http://www.eatwild.com/news2.html#growth _________________ JoAnn Guest mrsjo- DietaryTi- www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes AIM Barleygreen " Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future " http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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