Should There Be Warning Labels On Packaged Meats?

By Theodora Filis

Mad Cow Disease first surfaces in Britain in 1986. The bizarre illness swept through cattle herds, and then, researchers say, started killing people who ate infected meat. Europe imposes strict laws to stop the spread of the disease. But in the winter of 2001 Mad Cow disease appears in Spain and Germany. With 1 case reported in Canada.  Mad Cow is not yet found in the United States.  But experts warn that America is risking too much by not taking all the necessary precautions.

In 2006 Mad Cow Disease causes a panic in the US. The USDA was quick to assure the American people that BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) did not pose a threat to them. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association says the American government is doing all the right things and in its view American beef is the "safest in the world." What they failed to expose was that the deadly disease had been circulating in the U.S. for over a decade. Most frightening of all… no one is talking about it. For almost 15 years, the US government and the scientific community have known that the human form of the disease, a variant of Crutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), is sometimes misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s.

An undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States showed a California plant, which supplies meat to schools, and has twice won a USDA “Supplier of the Year” award, was slaughtering “downed” animals jeopardizing the health of children and others who consumed their meat. “Downer” cows at this Hallmark slaughter plant were kicked, shocked, jabbed in the eyes, dragged with chains, and those too sick or injured to walk were rammed with a fork lift in an effort to get them to stand so they could pass USDA inspections.

“Downer” is the term the meat and dairy industries use to refer to animals so sick, diseased or disabled that they cannot even stand on their own. Every year untold thousands of “downed animals” or “downers” suffer unspeakable abuse and neglect at production facilities, stockyards and slaughterhouses.

Under current law, most downed animals are still sent to slaughter for human food in spite of their tortured condition. Sadly, even sick and suffering animals spell profit to many in the meat and leather industry. The law only includes some downed cattle (those who go “down” after arriving at the slaughterhouse may still be sent to the kill floor). Other animals who go “down” may be left to die, piled atop one another for hours or even days without food, water or veterinary care, or pushed, prodded or dragged onto the kill floor. “Downer” animals, by law, are not supposed to be added into the food supply. This is because in random USDA testing, 12 of the 15 cows who tested positive for mad cow disease were “downer” animals, making them more likely to carry BSE.

The USDA tests 1 cow out of every 2,000 making it impossible to know how many animals are already infected with the disease, and how many have already entered the food chain.

As a result of the Humane Society investigation, 143 million pounds of beef were recalled, making it the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Much of the potentially-contaminated meat has been consumed. If a facility with five federal inspectors and a veterinarian on staff can get away with such horrific abuse and contamination what goes on elsewhere?

Dr. Paul Brown, former medical director of The National Institutes of Health Laboratory for Central Nervous System Studies and an expert on mad cow-like diseases, explains in an article written for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 

“Much of the lingering uncertainty about the extent of the vCJD outbreak is attributable to the fact that the incubation period of vCJD is unknown. If the average incubation period is 10 to 15 years, the earliest patients with vCJD would have been infected in the early 1980s, when BSE was still silently incubating in small but increasing numbers of cattle. In this case, the large increase in human exposure to contaminated tissues during the late 1980s could lead to a parallel increase in cases of vCJD during the next few years." Dr. Brown warns that “If large numbers of infected persons are silently incubating the disease, the potential for human-to-human iatrogenic spread of vCJD is very real…”

Today, nearly 95% of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy cases have been located in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the US.

All packaged meats should carry warning labels that read: “This meat has been tortured using the most painful methods imaginable. No care has been taken in the raising, slaughtering or preparation. Consumption of this meat could lead to Crutzfeldt-Jakob disease causing death and is sometimes misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s.“

As you sow, so shall you reap.

Egg Farmers Are Beginning To Feel “Caged In”

By Theodora Filis

More than 95% of eggs sold in the US come from birds confined in wire battery cages so small that they can barely move.
Last week’s Green Matters column touched upon the more than half a billion eggs that were recalled in August over concerns they were contaminated with Salmonella. One reader commented: “The United Egg Producers is a lobby group with a sordid history on animal cruelty and consumer deception.” It encouraged me to find out more…
The United Egg Producer‘s website states:
Egg farmers sincerely care about the welfare of their chickens and completely understand that poor husbandry practices will result in higher mortality and fewer eggs.

However, with fewer people having an understanding or relationship with farming and a growing public discussion about the well-being of laying hens, the industry’s trade association, United Egg Producers (UEP) began to question whether there was a need for an independent review of our industry production practices

To achieve an independent assessment of U.S. egg farming, UEP established a mission, which included: (1) A scientific approach to animal welfare guidelines; (2) guidelines that are driven by the industry rather than government mandates or legislation; (3) guidelines that created a level playing field for both egg farmers and our customers.”

Weeks after the FDA tightened safety rules for egg producers, inspectors found that 2 Iowa egg farms linked to the salmonella outbreak failed to follow their own safety plans, allowing rodents and other animals into poultry houses. During inspections conducted on August 19-26, officials found rodent holes and leaking manure at several locations run by Hillandale Farms of Iowa, and non-chicken feathers and live mice and flies at houses owned by Wright County Egg, according to reports posted on the FDA website.

The UEP says there is no difference in safety between eggs produced by caged or free-range hens. The cooperative-style organization, based in Alpharetta, Ga., represents companies that provide about 85% of the 80 billion eggs produced in the United States each year.

Group spokesman Mitch Head said measures to limit or outlaw the use of battery cages are based on emotions and flawed readings of scientific evidence. He warned that banning such cages altogether would lead to a 25% increase in egg prices or about 25 cents per dozen at the current Grade A retail average.
We would prefer that this be worked out through the marketplace and based on science,” Head said. “Instead, it’s become a political and ballot-box issue. That makes us concerned.”

In California, the egg industry and other agribusiness groups spent nearly $9 million in an attempt to head off that state’s animal-welfare initiative, which requires that egg-laying hens, veal calves, and pregnant sows be able to “lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely” while in confinement. In July, the restrictions were extended to producers of all whole eggs sold in the state, although there is disagreement about whether larger cages would be allowed.The United Egg Association PAC, the industry’s main political action committee, has donated about $1.1 million to members of Congress during the past decade, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group. 

In California, new legislation spearheaded by the Humane Society of the United States will eliminate the use of conventional battery cages starting in 2015.
Michigan has also adopted cage limits, which will take effect in 2019, while less-stringent regulations have been approved in several other states. 

Ohio announced an agreement between animal rights activists and industry groups last month that will bar new battery-cage facilities but exempt current operators.
The eggs recalled in connection with the salmonella contamination came from hens housed in industrial-style “battery cages,” in which birds are crammed against one another in a long battery of wire enclosures. These cages are common throughout the industry but have been increasingly targeted by animal welfare groups as inhumane and unsanitary.

Imported Cattle and US Modeled Factory Farms Resuscitate China's Dairy Industry

By Theodora Filis

In 2008, a food and safety scandal involving milk and infant formula, and other food materials and components adulterated with melamine, crippled China's dairy industry. An estimated 300,000 victims -- six infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and 860 babies hospitalized. The chemical appeared to have been added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In a separate incident four years before, watered-down milk had resulted in 13 infant deaths from malnutrition.

This incident raised concerns over food safety, and political corruption in mainland China, damaging the reputation of China's food exports, with at least 11 countries stopping all imports of mainland Chinese dairy products.

Today, China has allocated a trillion dollars to expand agricultural production, and aims to be 80% self sufficient in food and agriculture over the next decade. For this purpose, China is subsidizing modern US intensive factory farms, and underwriting the cost of importing cattle from around the world to increase their dairy production.

Deng Jiu Qiang, founder and chairman of Modern Dairy, said one of his company's 15 farms, is financed by the US private equity firm KKR, along with other investors, modeled on American factory farms that Deng saw on a US tour a few years ago.

The world's largest milk exporter, New Zealand’s Fonterra, receives Chinese Government subsidies, to boost their dairy farms in China. Fonterra has opened two large dairies totaling 12,000 cows and is building two more dairies, as it plays a part in China's push to meet milk consumption.

According to Alex Frangos, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, “The animals' long nightmare starts on a harrowing journey overseas in ships, where they are confined tightly and cause multiple health issues that may result in death. Those buried at sea might be the luckiest cattle, because once the animals get through the 45-day quarantine, they will continue their confinement in “football-field-size sheds” that resemble electronics factories more than farms and are milked three times a day on “bovine merry-go-rounds.”

Wenonah Hauter, reported, Chinese farmers will need to rely on genetically modified feed – substantially increasing the cost to small farmer's. “Factory farm models have been a failure for public health, the environment and animal welfare in the US, just like it will be for China.”

Given a lack of domestic supply and growing demand from the dairy farming industry, China has an increasing demand for imported US alfalfa products. “This is an extra expense for US dairy farmers who are already squeezed, thanks to low dairy prices and industry consolidation that favors the biggest producers.” said Hauter.

New age music, including a version of “Time to Say Goodbye,” made famous by Andrea Bocelli, plays from loudspeakers while the cows are being milked. Chris Sun, KKR’S representative, says it is meant to calm the cows, though there is no scientific proof that it works. 

Factory-Farming Puts Human Health At Great Risk

By Theodora Filis

Public health concerns beyond foodborne illness are created when overcrowded animals are susceptible to infection and disease. Industrial livestock facilities treat animals with low levels of antibiotics to prevent illness and promote weight gain. This creates a breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The sub-therapeutic dosages used on millions of factory-farmed livestock can reduce the effectiveness of antibiotics for human patients. The feed used for livestock can also introduce public health threats. Broiler chickens often receive arsenic-based feed additives to promote pinker flesh and faster growth, and beef cattle continue to be fed with animal byproducts, which increases the risk of mad cow disease.

According to the FDA, approximately 80% of all antibiotics used in the United States are administered to farm animals for non-therapeutic purposes.

The routine administration of antibiotics has a harmful effect, promoting the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Although the low dosage of antibiotics kills many bacteria, the stronger bacteria that survive can reproduce and pass their resistance to future generations. Since bacteria reproduce in as little as 20 minutes, routine administration of antibiotics can induce the rapid development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can spread directly to humans and animals. When manure is spread onto fields or stored in manure lagoons, these bacteria can also contaminate waterways and groundwater. In fact, scientists have detected antibiotic-resistant bacteria in groundwater as far as 250 meters away from manure lagoons.

Rise of the Super-bug

The rise of factory farming is a result of public policy choices driven by big agribusinesses, especially meat packers and processors that dominate the critical steps taken between farm and consumer. The silos and gentle meadows portrayed in advertisements are a sham. With tens of thousands of animals comes millions of tons of manure, which adds to the increased pollution of waterways, groundwater, air, and soil. Wetlands have been destroyed; beautiful rivers and tributaries turned into algae-choked cesspools devoid of life, pastures ruined by excess nitrates, phosphates, and toxic residues from antibiotics, hormones, and even dangerous heavy metals. Oceans are so filled with industrial effluents and animal factory waste that it is no longer safe to eat any ocean creature, as all are contaminated by excess levels of mercury, cadmium, and other trace metals.

Most of the pork, beef, poultry, dairy, and eggs produced in the US come from large-scale, confined livestock operations.

Large-scale farms do not produce healthy or safe food, and in no way maintain our environment. The growth of factory farms, in recent decades, is decimating the small and medium-scale livestock farms that provide good food for us and good economies for rural communities. Industrial livestock operations create public health hazards with overcrowded facilities, making it easy for disease to spread. When thousands of beef cattle are packed into feedlots full of manure, bacteria can get on their hides and then into the slaughterhouses. Contamination on even one steer can contaminate thousands of pounds of meat inside a slaughterhouse. In 2010, the crowded, unsanitary conditions at two Iowa egg companies caused a recall of more than half a billion potentially Salmonella-tainted eggs.

As antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread, medicines used to treat human diseases can become less effective, which poses a significant threat to public health. The Institute of Medicine estimates that antibiotic-resistant bacteria cause US health care costs to increase by four to five billion dollars each year.

Factory farms threaten human health by incubating infectious diseases that can spread to the human population. Diseases can be transferred directly from animals to humans, or from an animal serving as a “mixing vessel” for a new strain of a disease. In cases of direct transmission, a worker who comes in contact with a diseased animal or its manure can contract the disease and pass it on to family and the surrounding community.

In other cases, an animal infected with one disease can contract a second disease from another animal, causing the diseases to mix and form a new type of illness.

Scientists suggest that a virus passed from hogs to humans may have caused the 1918 “Spanish Influenza” pandemic, which eventually killed 40 million people worldwide. The Centers for Disease Control has expressed concern that another similar epidemic will occur in the future.