Ottawa to allow slaughterhouses to process already dead animals

OTTAWA—The federal government wants to allow the carcasses of already dead animals to be processed in slaughterhouses for human consumption, a move that is raising concerns about the safety of Canada’s food system.

The Conservative government is pitching the change as a way to cut red tape and provide greater flexibility to slaughterhouse operators.

But the New Democrats are raising a red flag saying the move invites possible “contamination” of the food supply.

“Under the present regulations . . . it has to come in alive, be slaughtered on site,” said NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland), the party’s agriculture critic.

“Now you can bring in dead stock. It’s okay to bring in that animal into a slaughterhouse, have it cut, wrapped . . . for human consumption.

“The real fear is how did it die, (and) under what circumstances did it die.”

Full Article

FDA Proposes Rules for Nanotechnology in Food

Regulators are proposing that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

The Food and Drug Administration issued tentative guidelines Friday for food and cosmetic companies interested in using nanoparticles, which are measured in billionths of a meter. Nanoscale materials are generally less than 100 nanometers in diameter. A sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. A human hair is 80,000 nanometers thick.

Full Article

Monsanto Threatens to Sue Vermont for GMO Labeling Bill

When Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed OSGATA et al vs. Monsanto last month, it was on the basis that she did not think the corporation had any interest in suing the organic growers and trade organizations that took the case to court. But as it turns out, their fears of a lawsuit-happy Monsanto are somewhat justified. According to reports, the biotech behemoth has threatened to sue the state of Vermont if it presses ahead with the signing of the Vermont Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (H. 722), a bill that would make Vermont the first of the United States to require labeling of genetically engineered food.

Vermont is not a state that messes around with its food – last year, the state’s Agency of Agriculture threatened to sue McDonald’s over due to its Fruit & Maple Oatmeal not actually containing any real natural maple syrup. This also isn’t the first time Vermont and Monsanto have tangled, as the state was sued in the 1990s over the labeling of bovine growth hormone in milk. This time around, however, Monsanto has reportedly threatened legal action toward the state over its H. 722 bill.

Full Article

Pink slime to be served in school lunches

WASHINGTON – When McDonald’s and other fast-food chains announced last month that “pink slime” was no longer being used in their burgers, some thought that the product — beef trimmings treated with ammonium hydroxide — had disappeared from the nation’s food supply. But a new report in the Daily tablet newspaper suggests that the slime will appear in school lunches this spring — 7 million pounds of it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, schools and school districts plan to buy the treated meat from Beef Products Inc. for the national school-lunch program in coming months. The USDA said that all of its ground-beef purchases “meet the highest standard for food safety” and that ammonium hydroxide is “generally recognized as safe.” It also said it strengthened ground-beef safety standards in recent years.

Full Article

Growth Industry….

Ah it was nice to read an article that points to a sure fire ‘growth’ area of our economy, FOOD…the slow food movement is catching on and I personally support it…buy local as much as possible, grow your own when you can and don’t look for huge profits fast…

 

The constant fight for more profits, greed if you will, is just killing our economy. Wall Street looks for growth in all the wrong areas, at least in my opinion. Of course, government looks to grow itself, forever, and that is never a good idea. Eventually it will crash under it’s own weight.

 

Take a read below, well worth the time!

 

Our Economic Problem: Where Will Growth Come From?

 

While I was on vacation recently, trying to forget all my problems, I couldn’t help but notice the stock market plummeting. Oh, I tried not to pay attention. But being in business, it was hard not to. My very social littlest daughter made dear friends with two girls on the beach (she wasn’t worried about the stock market one bit!). And it turned out their dad worked on Wall Street — so at the end of the day, I couldn’t help but ask him what he thought of what was happening.

 

“The problem is,” he said thoughtfully and worriedly, “no one knows where the growth is going to come from.” After all, stock markets and economies always thrive on growth, and the traditional means of growth are slowing around the world — even in China. So, how can we continue to “grow” in a world where we have consumed more than we need, and destroyed our precious resources in the process?

 

For a moment, my stomach churned and I had a fleeting feeling that we are all doomed. But then I looked around. He and I, two random strangers who met because we were staying at the same hotel, were standing together at an event that was buzzing with excitement, sold out — a major clue to our future of growth right before our eyes.

 

What was the event? Well, that’s another random story.

 

I had pulled into the hotel that afternoon after a bit of sightseeing (OK, I confess, shopping!) to see a sign that said: “Farm fresh vendors park here.” Happy-looking people wearing cool-looking clothes were mingling around. I stopped at the front desk to ask what was up, and they said it was a sold-out event, but as hotel guests we could attend. “Some Rhode Island local farm thing,” the manager said. Well, of course, being me, MOI, Maria of Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen, why would I even think of missing it?

 

It was a Farm Fresh Rhode Island Local Food Fest, and the festival happened to be honoring one of my dear friends, a fellow board member of the Rodale Institute, Michel Nischan, chef at the Dressing Room in Westport, Connecticut, and author of Sustainably Delicious. (I shocked the bejeezus out of him when I appeared at the reception!) Also being honored were the great, epic, amazing heroine of organic food for all, Nell Newman, of Newman’s Own Organic, and their mutual friend and associate Gus Schumacher. All three of them are involved in Michel’s nonprofit Wholesome Wave. I mean, what are the chances??!! We celebrated. We ate amazing food. I tried to keep track of my little one (and later found pages and pages of photos of her making faces in the awesome free photo booth). And we watched the sun set over the harbor as the sailboats passed by.

 

 

 

Nell Newman, Gus Schumacher and Michel Nischan

I’m getting to the growth part, truly I am.

 

As I was walking back to our cabin on the beach (and Lucia was flying down the path on her scooter), I thought about where the growth was going to come from, and it hit me. There is one thing that’s still been growing, even during the darkest days of the recession: the organics industry. But not just the organics industry — also the local food industry; the sustainable, renewable energy industry; and the services around health and healing industry. Sure, we are still small. But the organics industry, at $30 billion a year, is now bigger than the publishing industry. And part of playing the market successfully is picking something small that will grow big over time. (Trust me, I bought Amazon.com stock back when people thought it was a joke… who’s laughing now?!)

 

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the growth of our future came from industries that are actually making the world a BETTER place rather than sucking out the value, spitting out the waste, and leaving a trail of damage and destruction in their wake? Maybe this is our global tipping point — the point at which the world realizes that you can’t create healthy economies without having businesses and services that respect people and the planet. Wouldn’t that be amazing and wonderful if it turns out to be true? Perhaps, if we believe it, we can make it true. After all, we’ve already accomplished much, much more than the early naysayers said we would.

 

I’m betting my money on the future growth of businesses that are organic, renewable, sustainable, and good for everyone. Organic growth is the only growth that actually improves things over time, rather than destroying things in the process.

 

Maybe nothing is random after all.

 

For more from Maria Rodale, go to www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com.

I wish I had been at the above mentioned event!

Flooding in too many places

Flooding has reached epic proportions in many places and the suffering is enormous. More suffering is predicted as the floods may cause food shortages in the affected areas. Millions are affected…in Brazil, Australia and Sri Lanka.

These are added to the list of horrible tragedies, Haiti (still suffering the aftermath of the earthquake and now cholera), Chile, volcanoes going off everywhere and Brazil.

Folks these events sure seem to be ‘heating up’ if you ask me. It is enough to get the attention of even the casual observer!

Be Prepared is the motto of the times.

Lies told by meat industry

Folks, if you want to get and stay healthy you might want to consider cutting down on animal based protein. At the very least change to organic, grass fed beef; wild caught fish and/or free range chicken. Even then you are not guaranteed that what you are getting is as labeled!

There are so many lies being told to line the pockets of industry at the expense of the health of the consumer it ceased to be amusing a long time ago. Please pay attention to this article and then act according to your convictions.

3 Lies Big Food Wants You to Believe and the Truth Behind Factory-’Farmed’ Meat

Most of the meat Americans consume is from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which are horrific for animals and terrible for our health and our communities.

October 21, 2010 |

CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, edited by Daniel Imhoff and published by Watershed Media and the Foundation for Deep Ecology, is a must-read and must-see book about the horrors of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. With over 400 photos and 30 essays, the book includes contributions from Wendell Berry, Wenonah Hauter, Fred Kirschenmann, Anna Lappé, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. CAFO pulls back the curtain on what goes on inside so-called “factory farms” and what the effects of industrial meat production are on the animals, our environment, our communities, our agricultural system and our health. Below is a brief excerpt from the book. You can learn more about CAFO and what to do to end industrial meat production at the book’s Web site.

Lie #1: Industrial Food Is Cheap

The retail prices of industrial meat, dairy, and egg products omit immense impacts on human health, the environment, and other shared public assets. These costs, known among economists as “externalities,” include massive waste emissions with the potential to heat up the atmosphere, foul fisheries, pollute drinking water, spread disease, contaminate soils, and damage recreational areas. Citizens ultimately foot the bill with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, medical expenses, insurance premiums, declining property values, and mounting cleanup costs.

Walk into any fast-food chain and you’re likely to find a “value” meal: chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger and fries for a price almost too good to be true. For families struggling to make ends meet, a cheap meal may seem too tough to pass up. Indeed, animal factory farm promoters often point to America’s bargain fast-food prices as proof that the system is working. The CAFO system, they argue, supplies affordable food to the masses. But this myth of cheap meat, dairy, and egg products revolves around mounting externalized social and ecological costs that never appear on restaurant receipts or grocery bills.

Staggering Environmental Burdens

Environmental damages alone should put to rest any illusions that food produced in industrial animal factories is cheap. Soil and water have been poisoned through decades of applying synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to grow billions of tons of livestock feed. Water bodies have been contaminated with animal wastes. The atmosphere is filled with potent greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The mitigation costs for these problems are enormous. But what is worse, this essential cleanup work of contaminated resources is, for the most part, not being done.

To cite just one example, agricultural runoff–particularly nitrogen and phosphorus from poultry and hog farms–is a major source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, a once-vital East Coast fishery, now with numerous species on the verge of collapse. One study estimated the price tag for restoring the bay at $19 billion, of which $11 billion would go toward “nutrient reduction.” There are over 400 such dead zones throughout the world.

Health Costs

Industrial animal production brings profound health risks and costs to farmers, workers, and consumers. CAFO workers suffer from emissions associated with industrial farming, as do neighboring communities. Medical researchers have linked the country’s intensive meat consumption to such serious human health maladies as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Annual costs for just these diseases in the United States alone exceed $33 billion. Antibiotic-resistant organisms (“superbugs”) created by overuse of antibiotics in industrial meat and dairy production can increase human vulnerability to infection. One widely cited U.S. study estimated the total annual costs of antibiotic resistance at $30 billion. Estimated U.S. annual costs associated with E. coli O157:H7, a bacteria derived primarily from animal manure, reach $405 million: $370 million for deaths, $30 million for medical care, and $5 million for lost productivity.

All these associated health problems drive up the costs of social services and insurance premiums. They reduce productivity and increase employee sick days. They can also result in premature deaths, with incalculable costs for families and communities.

Farm Communities

The retail prices of cheap animal food products also fail to reflect industrial agriculture’s ongoing dislocation of farm families and the steady shuttering of businesses in rural communities. According to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the average industrial hog factory puts ten family farmers out of business, replacing high quality agricultural jobs with three to four hourly wage workers in relatively low-paying and potentially dangerous jobs. When small farmers fall on hard times, many local employers close their doors and, at worst, entire communities, towns, and regional food production and distribution webs disappear from the landscape.

Government Subsidies

Perverse government subsidies–both in the United States and Europe–provide billions of tax dollars to support industrial animal agriculture. Tufts University researchers estimate that in the United States alone, between 1997 and 2005 the industrial animal sector saved over $35 billion as a result of federal farm subsidies that lowered the price of the feed they purchased.

Similar savings were not available to many small and midsize farmers who were growing their own feed and raising livestock in diversified pasture-based systems. Throughout the 2002 U.S. farm bill, individual CAFO investors were also eligible to receive up to $450,000 for a five-year EQIP contract from the U.S. government to deal with animal wastes–allowing large operations with many investors to rake in a much greater sum. European Union agricultural subsidies also bolster industrial animal producers, providing $2.25 per dairy cow per day–25 cents more than what half the world’s human population survives on.

A Less Costly Alternative

By contrast, many sustainable livestock operations address potential negative health and environmental impacts through their production methods. They produce less waste and forgo dangerous chemicals and other additives. Grass-pastured meat and dairy products have been shown to be high in omega-3 and other fatty acids that have cancer-fighting properties. Smaller farms also receive fewer and smaller federal subsidies. While sustainably produced foods may cost a bit more, many of their potential beneficial environmental and social impacts are already included in the price.

Lie #2: Industrial Food Is Efficient

Industrial food animal producers often proclaim that “bigger is better,” ridiculing the “inefficiency” of small- or medium-size farms using low-impact technologies. CAFO operations, however, currently rely on heavily subsidized agriculture to produce feed, large infusions of capital to dominate markets, and lax enforcement of regulations to deal with waste disposal. Perverse incentives and market controls leverage an unfair competitive advantage over smaller producers and cloud a more holistic view of efficiency.

Factory farms and CAFOs appear efficient only if we focus on the quantity of meat, milk, or eggs produced from each animal over a given period of time. But high productivity or domination of market share should not be confused with efficiency. When we measure the total cost per unit of production, or even the net profit per animal, a more sobering picture emerges. Confinement operations come with a heavy toll of external costs–inefficiencies that extend beyond the CAFO or feedlot. These hidden costs include subsidized grain discounts, unhealthy market control, depleted aquifers, polluted air and waterways, and concentrated surpluses of toxic feces and urine. The massive global acreage of monocrops that produce the corn, soybeans, and hay to feed livestock in confinement could arguably be more efficiently managed as smaller, diversified farms and pasture operations, along with protected wildlands.

Reverse Protein Factories

Animal factory farms achieve their efficiencies by substituting corn and soybeans and even wild fish for pasture grazing. To gain a pound of body weight, a broiler chicken must eat an average of 2.3 pounds of feed. Hogs convert 5.9 pounds of feed into a pound of pork. Cattle require 13 pounds of feed per pound of beef, though some estimates range much higher. To supplement that feed, one-third of the world’s ocean fish catch is ground up and added to rations for hogs, broiler chickens, and farmed fish. The 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report Livestock’s Long Shadow summed it up this way: “In simple numeric terms, livestock actually detract more from total food supply than they provide. . . . In fact, livestock consume 77 million tons of protein contained in feedstuff that could potentially be used for human nutrition, whereas 58 million tons of protein are contained in food products that livestock supply.”

Total Recall

The efficiency of slaughterhouse practices should also be called into question, as their incessant increases in speed, drive for profit, and huge scale have resulted in contamination and massive meat recalls. In the United States, between spring 2007 and spring 2009 alone, there were 25 recalls due to the virulent E. coli O157:H7 pathogen involving 44 million pounds of beef. When all costs of research, prevention, and market losses are added up, over the last decade E. coli contamination has cost the beef industry an estimated $1.9 billion.

Mounting Waste

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that factory animal farms generate more than 500 million tons of waste per year–more than three times the amount produced by the country’s human population.

On a small, diversified farm, much of this manure could be efficiently used for fertilizer. Instead, most CAFOs store waste in massive lagoons or dry waste piles with the potential to give off toxic fumes, leak, or overflow. Ground and surface water can be contaminated with bacteria and antibiotics; pesticides and hormones containing endocrine disruptors; or dangerously high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients. Inconsistent enforcement of regulations has allowed CAFO waste disposal problems to escalate in many areas.

Meanwhile, the environmental and health impacts of this pollution are rarely calculated as part of the narrow range of parameters that CAFO operators use to define efficiency.

Government Subsidies

Not only do CAFOs burden citizens with environmental and health costs, they also gorge themselves at the proverbial public trough. Thanks to U.S. government subsidies, between 1997 and 2005, factory farms saved an estimated $3.9 billion per year because they were able to purchase corn and soybeans at prices below what it cost to grow the crops.

Without these feed discounts, amounting to a 5 to 15 percent reduction in operating costs, it is unlikely that many of these industrial factory farms could remain profitable. By contrast, many small farms that produce much of their own forage receive no government money. Yet they are expected somehow to match the efficiency claims of the large, subsidized megafactory farms. On this uneven playing field, CAFOs may falsely appear to “outcompete” their smaller, diversified counterparts.

Anticompetitiveness

Another issue clouding any meaningful discussions of efficiency is the lack of access to markets among many independent producers. Because CAFOs have direct relationships with meat packers (and are sometimes owned by them, or “vertically integrated”), they have preferred access to the decreasing number of slaughterhouses and distribution channels to process and market products. Many midsize or smaller independent producers have no such access and as a result must get big, develop separate distribution channels, or simply disappear.

Lie #3: Industrial Food Is Healthy

Industrial animal food production heightens the risk of the spread of food-borne illnesses that afflict millions of Americans each year. Rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity–often related to excessive meat and dairy consumption–are at an all-time high. Respiratory diseases and outbreaks of illnesses are increasingly common among CAFO and slaughterhouse workers and spill over into neighboring communities and the public at large.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that contaminated meat- and poultry-related infections make up to 3 million people sick each year, killing at least 1,000–figures that are probably underreported.

Crammed into tight confinement areas in massive numbers, factory farm animals often become caked with their own feces. Animal waste is the primary source of infectious bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella, which affect human populations through contaminated food and water. Grain-intensive diets can also increase the bacterial and viral loads in confined animal wastes. As a result, CAFOs can become breeding grounds for diseases and pathogens.

Dietary Impacts

Americans consume more meat and poultry per capita today than ever before, part of a diet that is high in calories and rich in saturated fats. According to the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, meat and dairy foods contribute all of the cholesterol and are the primary source of saturated fat in the typical American diet. Approximately two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, increasing their chances of developing breast, colon, pancreas, kidney, and other cancers. Obesity and high blood cholesterol levels are among the leading risk factors for heart disease. Both of these conditions are associated with heavy meat consumption. More directly, researchers have linked diets that include significant amounts of animal fat to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease.

On the other hand, studies regularly show that vegetarians exhibit the lowest incidence of heart problems. High intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and Mediterranean dietary patterns (rich in plant-based foods and unsaturated fats) have been shown to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and associated risk factors, including body mass index and obesity.

Contaminated Feed

Animal feeding practices also raise important health concerns. Corn and soybeans, for example, have been shown to absorb dioxins, PCBs, and other potential human carcinogens through air pollution. Once fed to animals, these persistent compounds can be stored in animal fat reserves. These harmful pollutants can later move up the food chain when animal fats left over from slaughter are rendered and used again for animal feed. As fats are recycled in the animal feeding system, the result is a higher concentration of dioxins and PCBs in the animal fats consumed by people. Animal and plant fats, both of which can store dioxins and PCBs, can compose up to 8 percent of animal feed rations.

Worker Health

CAFO workers suffer from numerous medical conditions, including repetitive motion injuries and respiratory illness associated with poor air quality. Studies indicate that at least 25 percent of CAFO workers experience respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and occupational asthma.

Slaughterhouse workers are also at risk for work-related health conditions. In early 2008, for example, an unknown neurological illness began afflicting employees at a factory run by Quality Pork Processors in Minnesota, which slaughters 1,900 pigs a day. The diseased workers suffered burning sensations and numbness as well as weakness in the arms and legs. All the victims worked at or near the “head table,” using compressed air to dislodge pigs’ brains from their skulls. Inhalation of microscopic pieces of pig brain is suspected to have caused the illness. After a CDC investigation, this practice was discontinued.

Community Health

CAFOs can put neighboring communities at risk of exposure to dangerous air and water contaminants. More than a million Americans, for example, take drinking water from groundwater contaminated by nitrogen-containing pollutants, mostly derived from agricultural fertilizers and animal waste applications. Several studies have linked nitrates in the drinking water to birth defects, disruption of thyroid function, and various types of cancers. Further, the use of antibiotics on livestock over sustained periods is widely acknowledged to increase the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Infections from these new “superbugs” are difficult to treat and increase human risk of disease. In a study of 226 North Carolina schools, children living within three miles of factory farms had significantly higher asthma rates and more asthma-related emergency room visits than children living more than three miles away. A separate study found that people living close to intensive swine operations suffer more negative mood states (e.g., tension, depression, anger, reduced vigor, fatigue, and confusion) than control groups. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide–given off by concentrated animal feeding operations–has been linked to neuropsychiatric abnormalities.

Food production that is safe for the environment, humane to animals, and sound for workers and communities gives us the best chance for a food system that is safe and healthy for eaters and producers alike.

I personally eat zero animal protein. Completely vegetarian and have been for 20 plus years now. To say that vegetarians don’t get enough protein is not a true statement. Our idea of adequate protein is something like 5 times the average consumed throughout the world…they seem to be healthy…even healthier.

We used to be one of the longest lived people, Americans, around, ranking 4th in the world for longevity. Now we are at 49th…do you think it has something to do with what we eat and how we eat it? I think there is a direct correlation between our food and our length of service on this planet!

3 Lies Big Food Wants You to Believe and the Truth Behind Factory-’Farmed’ Meat

Most of the meat Americans consume is from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which are horrific for animals and terrible for our health and our communities.

October 21, 2010 |

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CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, edited by Daniel Imhoff and published by Watershed Media and the Foundation for Deep Ecology, is a must-read and must-see book about the horrors of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. With over 400 photos and 30 essays, the book includes contributions from Wendell Berry, Wenonah Hauter, Fred Kirschenmann, Anna Lappé, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. CAFO pulls back the curtain on what goes on inside so-called “factory farms” and what the effects of industrial meat production are on the animals, our environment, our communities, our agricultural system and our health. Below is a brief excerpt from the book. You can learn more about CAFO and what to do to end industrial meat production at the book’s Web site.

Lie #1: Industrial Food Is Cheap

The retail prices of industrial meat, dairy, and egg products omit immense impacts on human health, the environment, and other shared public assets. These costs, known among economists as “externalities,” include massive waste emissions with the potential to heat up the atmosphere, foul fisheries, pollute drinking water, spread disease, contaminate soils, and damage recreational areas. Citizens ultimately foot the bill with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, medical expenses, insurance premiums, declining property values, and mounting cleanup costs.

Walk into any fast-food chain and you’re likely to find a “value” meal: chicken nuggets or a cheeseburger and fries for a price almost too good to be true. For families struggling to make ends meet, a cheap meal may seem too tough to pass up. Indeed, animal factory farm promoters often point to America’s bargain fast-food prices as proof that the system is working. The CAFO system, they argue, supplies affordable food to the masses. But this myth of cheap meat, dairy, and egg products revolves around mounting externalized social and ecological costs that never appear on restaurant receipts or grocery bills.

Staggering Environmental Burdens

Environmental damages alone should put to rest any illusions that food produced in industrial animal factories is cheap. Soil and water have been poisoned through decades of applying synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to grow billions of tons of livestock feed. Water bodies have been contaminated with animal wastes. The atmosphere is filled with potent greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The mitigation costs for these problems are enormous. But what is worse, this essential cleanup work of contaminated resources is, for the most part, not being done.

To cite just one example, agricultural runoff–particularly nitrogen and phosphorus from poultry and hog farms–is a major source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, a once-vital East Coast fishery, now with numerous species on the verge of collapse. One study estimated the price tag for restoring the bay at $19 billion, of which $11 billion would go toward “nutrient reduction.” There are over 400 such dead zones throughout the world.

Health Costs

Industrial animal production brings profound health risks and costs to farmers, workers, and consumers. CAFO workers suffer from emissions associated with industrial farming, as do neighboring communities. Medical researchers have linked the country’s intensive meat consumption to such serious human health maladies as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Annual costs for just these diseases in the United States alone exceed $33 billion. Antibiotic-resistant organisms (“superbugs”) created by overuse of antibiotics in industrial meat and dairy production can increase human vulnerability to infection. One widely cited U.S. study estimated the total annual costs of antibiotic resistance at $30 billion. Estimated U.S. annual costs associated with E. coli O157:H7, a bacteria derived primarily from animal manure, reach $405 million: $370 million for deaths, $30 million for medical care, and $5 million for lost productivity.

All these associated health problems drive up the costs of social services and insurance premiums. They reduce productivity and increase employee sick days. They can also result in premature deaths, with incalculable costs for families and communities.

Farm Communities

The retail prices of cheap animal food products also fail to reflect industrial agriculture’s ongoing dislocation of farm families and the steady shuttering of businesses in rural communities. According to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the average industrial hog factory puts ten family farmers out of business, replacing high quality agricultural jobs with three to four hourly wage workers in relatively low-paying and potentially dangerous jobs. When small farmers fall on hard times, many local employers close their doors and, at worst, entire communities, towns, and regional food production and distribution webs disappear from the landscape.

Government Subsidies

Perverse government subsidies–both in the United States and Europe–provide billions of tax dollars to support industrial animal agriculture. Tufts University researchers estimate that in the United States alone, between 1997 and 2005 the industrial animal sector saved over $35 billion as a result of federal farm subsidies that lowered the price of the feed they purchased.

Similar savings were not available to many small and midsize farmers who were growing their own feed and raising livestock in diversified pasture-based systems. Throughout the 2002 U.S. farm bill, individual CAFO investors were also eligible to receive up to $450,000 for a five-year EQIP contract from the U.S. government to deal with animal wastes–allowing large operations with many investors to rake in a much greater sum. European Union agricultural subsidies also bolster industrial animal producers, providing $2.25 per dairy cow per day–25 cents more than what half the world’s human population survives on.

A Less Costly Alternative

By contrast, many sustainable livestock operations address potential negative health and environmental impacts through their production methods. They produce less waste and forgo dangerous chemicals and other additives. Grass-pastured meat and dairy products have been shown to be high in omega-3 and other fatty acids that have cancer-fighting properties. Smaller farms also receive fewer and smaller federal subsidies. While sustainably produced foods may cost a bit more, many of their potential beneficial environmental and social impacts are already included in the price.

Lie #2: Industrial Food Is Efficient

Industrial food animal producers often proclaim that “bigger is better,” ridiculing the “inefficiency” of small- or medium-size farms using low-impact technologies. CAFO operations, however, currently rely on heavily subsidized agriculture to produce feed, large infusions of capital to dominate markets, and lax enforcement of regulations to deal with waste disposal. Perverse incentives and market controls leverage an unfair competitive advantage over smaller producers and cloud a more holistic view of efficiency.

Factory farms and CAFOs appear efficient only if we focus on the quantity of meat, milk, or eggs produced from each animal over a given period of time. But high productivity or domination of market share should not be confused with efficiency. When we measure the total cost per unit of production, or even the net profit per animal, a more sobering picture emerges. Confinement operations come with a heavy toll of external costs–inefficiencies that extend beyond the CAFO or feedlot. These hidden costs include subsidized grain discounts, unhealthy market control, depleted aquifers, polluted air and waterways, and concentrated surpluses of toxic feces and urine. The massive global acreage of monocrops that produce the corn, soybeans, and hay to feed livestock in confinement could arguably be more efficiently managed as smaller, diversified farms and pasture operations, along with protected wildlands.

Reverse Protein Factories

Animal factory farms achieve their efficiencies by substituting corn and soybeans and even wild fish for pasture grazing. To gain a pound of body weight, a broiler chicken must eat an average of 2.3 pounds of feed. Hogs convert 5.9 pounds of feed into a pound of pork. Cattle require 13 pounds of feed per pound of beef, though some estimates range much higher. To supplement that feed, one-third of the world’s ocean fish catch is ground up and added to rations for hogs, broiler chickens, and farmed fish. The 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report Livestock’s Long Shadow summed it up this way: “In simple numeric terms, livestock actually detract more from total food supply than they provide. . . . In fact, livestock consume 77 million tons of protein contained in feedstuff that could potentially be used for human nutrition, whereas 58 million tons of protein are contained in food products that livestock supply.”

Total Recall

The efficiency of slaughterhouse practices should also be called into question, as their incessant increases in speed, drive for profit, and huge scale have resulted in contamination and massive meat recalls. In the United States, between spring 2007 and spring 2009 alone, there were 25 recalls due to the virulent E. coli O157:H7 pathogen involving 44 million pounds of beef. When all costs of research, prevention, and market losses are added up, over the last decade E. coli contamination has cost the beef industry an estimated $1.9 billion.

Mounting Waste

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that factory animal farms generate more than 500 million tons of waste per year–more than three times the amount produced by the country’s human population.

On a small, diversified farm, much of this manure could be efficiently used for fertilizer. Instead, most CAFOs store waste in massive lagoons or dry waste piles with the potential to give off toxic fumes, leak, or overflow. Ground and surface water can be contaminated with bacteria and antibiotics; pesticides and hormones containing endocrine disruptors; or dangerously high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients. Inconsistent enforcement of regulations has allowed CAFO waste disposal problems to escalate in many areas.

Meanwhile, the environmental and health impacts of this pollution are rarely calculated as part of the narrow range of parameters that CAFO operators use to define efficiency.

Government Subsidies

Not only do CAFOs burden citizens with environmental and health costs, they also gorge themselves at the proverbial public trough. Thanks to U.S. government subsidies, between 1997 and 2005, factory farms saved an estimated $3.9 billion per year because they were able to purchase corn and soybeans at prices below what it cost to grow the crops.

Without these feed discounts, amounting to a 5 to 15 percent reduction in operating costs, it is unlikely that many of these industrial factory farms could remain profitable. By contrast, many small farms that produce much of their own forage receive no government money. Yet they are expected somehow to match the efficiency claims of the large, subsidized megafactory farms. On this uneven playing field, CAFOs may falsely appear to “outcompete” their smaller, diversified counterparts.

Anticompetitiveness

Another issue clouding any meaningful discussions of efficiency is the lack of access to markets among many independent producers. Because CAFOs have direct relationships with meat packers (and are sometimes owned by them, or “vertically integrated”), they have preferred access to the decreasing number of slaughterhouses and distribution channels to process and market products. Many midsize or smaller independent producers have no such access and as a result must get big, develop separate distribution channels, or simply disappear.

Lie #3: Industrial Food Is Healthy

Industrial animal food production heightens the risk of the spread of food-borne illnesses that afflict millions of Americans each year. Rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity–often related to excessive meat and dairy consumption–are at an all-time high. Respiratory diseases and outbreaks of illnesses are increasingly common among CAFO and slaughterhouse workers and spill over into neighboring communities and the public at large.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that contaminated meat- and poultry-related infections make up to 3 million people sick each year, killing at least 1,000–figures that are probably underreported.

Crammed into tight confinement areas in massive numbers, factory farm animals often become caked with their own feces. Animal waste is the primary source of infectious bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella, which affect human populations through contaminated food and water. Grain-intensive diets can also increase the bacterial and viral loads in confined animal wastes. As a result, CAFOs can become breeding grounds for diseases and pathogens.

Dietary Impacts

Americans consume more meat and poultry per capita today than ever before, part of a diet that is high in calories and rich in saturated fats. According to the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, meat and dairy foods contribute all of the cholesterol and are the primary source of saturated fat in the typical American diet. Approximately two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, increasing their chances of developing breast, colon, pancreas, kidney, and other cancers. Obesity and high blood cholesterol levels are among the leading risk factors for heart disease. Both of these conditions are associated with heavy meat consumption. More directly, researchers have linked diets that include significant amounts of animal fat to an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease.

On the other hand, studies regularly show that vegetarians exhibit the lowest incidence of heart problems. High intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and Mediterranean dietary patterns (rich in plant-based foods and unsaturated fats) have been shown to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases and associated risk factors, including body mass index and obesity.

Contaminated Feed

Animal feeding practices also raise important health concerns. Corn and soybeans, for example, have been shown to absorb dioxins, PCBs, and other potential human carcinogens through air pollution. Once fed to animals, these persistent compounds can be stored in animal fat reserves. These harmful pollutants can later move up the food chain when animal fats left over from slaughter are rendered and used again for animal feed. As fats are recycled in the animal feeding system, the result is a higher concentration of dioxins and PCBs in the animal fats consumed by people. Animal and plant fats, both of which can store dioxins and PCBs, can compose up to 8 percent of animal feed rations.

Worker Health

CAFO workers suffer from numerous medical conditions, including repetitive motion injuries and respiratory illness associated with poor air quality. Studies indicate that at least 25 percent of CAFO workers experience respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and occupational asthma.

Slaughterhouse workers are also at risk for work-related health conditions. In early 2008, for example, an unknown neurological illness began afflicting employees at a factory run by Quality Pork Processors in Minnesota, which slaughters 1,900 pigs a day. The diseased workers suffered burning sensations and numbness as well as weakness in the arms and legs. All the victims worked at or near the “head table,” using compressed air to dislodge pigs’ brains from their skulls. Inhalation of microscopic pieces of pig brain is suspected to have caused the illness. After a CDC investigation, this practice was discontinued.

Community Health

CAFOs can put neighboring communities at risk of exposure to dangerous air and water contaminants. More than a million Americans, for example, take drinking water from groundwater contaminated by nitrogen-containing pollutants, mostly derived from agricultural fertilizers and animal waste applications. Several studies have linked nitrates in the drinking water to birth defects, disruption of thyroid function, and various types of cancers. Further, the use of antibiotics on livestock over sustained periods is widely acknowledged to increase the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Infections from these new “superbugs” are difficult to treat and increase human risk of disease. In a study of 226 North Carolina schools, children living within three miles of factory farms had significantly higher asthma rates and more asthma-related emergency room visits than children living more than three miles away. A separate study found that people living close to intensive swine operations suffer more negative mood states (e.g., tension, depression, anger, reduced vigor, fatigue, and confusion) than control groups. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide–given off by concentrated animal feeding operations–has been linked to neuropsychiatric abnormalities.

Food production that is safe for the environment, humane to animals, and sound for workers and communities gives us the best chance for a food system that is safe and healthy for eaters and producers alike.

To be a good Warrior, spiritual or political, you have to be healthy. Good Warriors are not afraid to question existing paradigms, even those associated with the food you eat. I suggest everyone do some real thinking here and detach from what everyone says and pay attention to facts and equally important attention to the lies!

Great Vegetable recipe!

This just looks great! I am going to make this tomorrow.

The Temporary Vegetarian: A Vegan Main Dish of Indian Green Beans

By ELAINE LOUIE

Julie Sahni

This succulent green bean dish, in a gently spiced sauce of coconut milk, is from Bihar, a state in India. “It is an everyday, simple dish that is several hundred years old,” said Julie Sahni, a cooking teacher, and author of eight cookbooks, including “Classic Indian Cooking” (William Morrow, 1980), which is in its 38th printing.

She prepared the dish in her home in Brooklyn, where she gives cooking classes. On her shelf, she had unmarked glass jars for her spices, arranged by color. How does one tell one white ingredient from another, or a red-orange one from a burnt orange one?

You don’t, unless you’re Ms. Sahni or a kindred professional. The ignorant have to turn the jar upside down, and read the label on the bottom. “This is to test the students,” she said, smiling.

The dish requires fresh green string beans, not French haricot verts or Asian long beans, which are thinner, and more dense. “The string beans will plump up, and absorb some of the sauce,” said Ms. Sahni, who is 64.

When she added the beans to the bubbling ochre sauce, she covered the saute pan, to help the spices penetrate. When the beans were nearly ready she took a handful of fresh cilantro, and chopped it, stems and all, which is an Indian tradition. She finished the beans with a squeeze of fresh lime juice, the cilantro, and for crunch and contrast, toasted slivered almonds. Rice is the natural accompaniment.

The recipe can be adapted for 12 ounces of raw cauliflower, carrots, eggplant, or brussels sprouts. For the eggplant, she uses the long, slender Japanese ones, and cuts them on the diagonal, in one-inch slices. She trims and peels the carrots, and cuts them like the eggplant, in one-inch diagonal slices. For the cauliflower, she uses the florets, and cuts them in pieces that are one and a half inches in diameter. For Brussels sprouts, she trims and discards the stems, and cuts the vegetable in half. Very fresh cauliflower cooks in four minutes, the other vegetables in six minutes, Ms. Sahni said.

Print Recipe

Bihari Green Beans Masala

Yield 2 to 3 servings

Time 40 minutes

Julie Sahni

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or light olive oil

* 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion

* 3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

* 1 teaspoon ground cumin

* 1 teaspoon ground coriander

* 1 teaspoon sweet paprika

* 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes

* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

* 3/4 cup coconut milk

* 3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

* 1 teaspoon lime juice

* 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro.

Method

* 1. Heat the oil in a 3-quart sauté pan over medium heat. Add almonds and cook, stirring, until light golden. Remove from heat and transfer almonds to a plate or bowl; set aside for garnish.

* 2. Add onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, chili pepper flakes and salt to the unwashed sauté pan, and return to medium heat. Sauté until the onion is tender and begins to fry, about 4 minutes.

* 3. Add coconut milk and green beans. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until the beans are tender, about 6 minutes.

* 4. Sprinkle beans with lime juice, and toss lightly. Transfer to a warmed serving dish and garnish with almonds and cilantro. If desired, serve accompanied by plain cooked rice or roti flatbread.

While Indian food can be quite spicy, which i enjoy, many don’t and i would say to reduce the chile flakes as required.

Healthy Foods in Schools and workplaces

This is a well done article. Don’t you think it is time for healthy foods to be introduced into schools? All the research shows less problems and better test scores…who wouldn’t want that?

I am all for better foods everywhere and why not in the workplace?

Food in Schools and Workplaces

by Gina Crandell – January 6th, 2010.

Since obesity alone threatens to overwhelm the healthcare system, The Full Yield delivers healthy food to the workplace, Nest Collective and Revolution Foods deliver nutritious meals to underserved schools while Safeway rewards employee’s improvements in health measures.

Melanie Warner of the New York Times reported on the relationship between rising health care costs and the food we eat. Without irony, she reports that the CEO of the third largest grocery in the US, Safeway, became really interested in food in 2005 when the company’s health care costs reached above $1 billion per year. Well, if not food directly, then he did become interested obesity. Since health insurance is the fastest-growing single corporate expense, a majority of large companies have developed wellness programs to reduce health care costs. Few have been successful but Safeway has leveled its health care costs since 2005 when costs have been rising by 10% per year. The company’s voluntary Health Measures plan checks employee’s weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and whether they smoke. Improvements are rewarded with reductions in payroll contributions to health care coverage, for individuals up to almost $800 a year. But how to deliver food that reduces obesity is the compelling question, since, as Warner points out, obesity alone threatens to overwhelm the health care system.

For the workplace, Warner reports on The Full Yield, a start-up in Boston partnering with health plans, employers, food retailers, and food manufacturers to help employees and shoppers eat healthier food through education, a comprehensive wellness program, and by selling whole, nutrient-rich, freshly prepared foods and snacks at participating grocery stores and in workplace cafeterias. By the middle of next year they hope to explore opportunities to promote local producers/farmers within their brand and with their retail partners. Wouldn’t it be great if Slow Money could fund the infrastructure of sustainable food networks that operate between food in the workplace and farmers?

For underserved public schools, Nest Collective and Revolution Foods deliver tasty and nutritious meals and nutrition education. Founded in 2007, Nest acquires small companies focused on improving family and kids’ health and is now working in California, Colorado, and Washington, D.C. Nest makes products for the lunch box while Revolution Foods’ food-service business services the lunch line. Both provide healthy, “yummy,” sustainable food and each company’s services are important because about 50% of the kids bring their lunch to school. Nest gives 3 percent of net sales of the consumer food products back into the school service program, or about $100,000 this year, said CEO Sheryl O’Loughlin.

There upshot is that there are multiple places and organizations that are resources for healthier foods in public places. USE THEM and get something done!

Michelle Obama urges Food Inc to rethink!

I have to tell you, the woman has some grit! Getting in front of an ‘industry’ sponsored event and telling them that their food is unhealthy takes guts. Far too many scientists and executives are paid a lot of money to overlook the facts, which says a lot about our society as a whole doesn’t it?

I applaud anyone in their efforts to change the way we eat and most importantly the composition of the food we eat!

Michelle Obama talks anti-obesity to food giants

By MARY CLARE JALONICK (AP) – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama is urging the nation’s largest food companies to speed up efforts to make healthier foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

Obama asked the companies, gathered at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, to “step it up” and put less fat, salt and sugar in foods.

“We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering,” she said.

The first lady has talked to schools and nutrition groups across the country in her effort to reduce childhood obesity. This is the first time she has confronted the food companies that make the snacks and junk food that stuff grocery aisles and school vending machines.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association — which counts Kraft Foods Inc., Coca Cola Co. and General Mills Inc. among its members — invited her to speak at its science forum this week and attendees gave her a standing ovation.

Welcoming the first lady and embracing her campaign for healthier kids, launched earlier this year, could have advantages. The industry is positioned to take some blows in the coming year, including a child nutrition bill about to move through Congress that could eliminate junk food in schools, digging into some companies’ profits.

The Food and Drug Administration is also beginning to crack down on misleading labeling on food packages, saying some items labeled “healthy” are not, and the Senate last year mulled a tax on soda and other sweetened drinks to help pay for overhauling health care.

That tax did not make it into the health care bill, but it could be seen as an opening shot in a quietly growing effort to target food companies, especially as local, state and federal governments scrounge for revenue in a tight fiscal environment.

Obama said she would like to see less confusing food labels and portion sizes and increased marketing for healthy foods. She urged companies not just to find creative ways to market products as healthy but actually increase nutrients and reduce bad ingredients.

“While decreasing fat is good, don’t replace with sugar,” she urged. “This needs to be a serious industry wide commitment to provide healthier foods.”

Obama’s campaign is largely focused on school lunches and vending machines, along with making healthy food more available and encouraging children to exercise more.

Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the grocery association, said the industry is open to working with the government on finding ways to produce healthier foods.

“Consumers are demanding more and more healthy choices,” he said. “Our industry will do our part by changing the way we make and market our foods, but government has a big role to play as well.”

While introducing Michelle Obama Tuesday, Rick Wolford, chairman and CEO of Del Monte Foods Co. and chairman of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said it is “a watershed moment in the fight against obesity.”

“We are willing to do more and we are willing to go the extra mile,” he said.

This approach is a far cry from the fights consumer groups had with food companies a decade ago, said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“When I first started working on junk food in schools, it was a very contentious issue where we regularly did battle with junk and snack food companies,” she said. “Now it’s a whole new world, and many of them are supporting updating standards.”

Wootan said she believes that embarrassment is in part fueling the companies’ push, as more attention has been placed on foods’ nutritional values or lack thereof. More uniform federal standards could also be helpful to food companies, she said, as some states and localities are creating their own standards for marketing and making foods.

“When you see the handwriting on the wall, it’s time to get on the right side of the issue,” Wootan said.

Consumer advocates say they are cautiously optimistic about the industry’s involvement, but will wait to see how amenable they are to real change.

“They want to be riding that crest rather than fighting it,” said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, a Washington-based public health research organization. “There is a long ways between saying the right things and doing the right thing.”

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

So, change your diet and vote with your dollars. Don’t buy unhealthy items. Stay away from any processed foods and move towards freshly prepared and raw foods such as salads.

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