Beef may be what America's having for dinner, but not at my house

Beef may be what America's having for dinner, but not at my house
by Vicki Godal
LA Green Life Examiner
February 3, 2009

http://www.examiner.com/x-1440-LA-Green-Life-Examiner~y2009m2d3-Beef-may-be-what-Americas-having-for-dinner-but-not-at-my-house

As I strive for my goal to stay 100% raw, I continually read about the trials and tribulations of consuming animal products. I say trials because as it stands, scientists are finding more and more evidence to support the fact that animal products are responsible for substantially more health problems and diseases than the ones we know of like heart disease, high cholesterol, gall bladder and kidney disease. Of course, I read this stuff in order to freak myself out enough that I can make it another day without an In n' Out urge but sometimes the information I find is so important that it needs to be shared in a major way.

That's what today's raw rant is about. I bought a book called "Sunfood Living, Resource Guide for Global Health" by John McCabe. Amongst raw foodists, this book is a must have for making informed health and lifestyle choices. For me, its like Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" or Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." I was appalled and terrified at my lack of knowledge on the subject of animal consumption and production, and guessed that there are others that might equal my ignorance on something we eat so casually. Needless to say, when my husband called to see if I wanted him to bring me sashimi on the way home I declined. The very idea of eating a small piece of tuna which was once part of a magnificent fish before being subjected to an extremely cruel and savage death in order to satiate me and my fellow sushi junkies just doesn't cut it. But before you write me off as another vegetarian gone radical, I will illuminate you on the joys of life as a factory farm
animal. consider the following and think on it just a bit.

"Modern factory farms raise animals in extremely unnatural conditions. Almost all 10 billion land animals who are slaughtered in the US each year are forced to live in crowded sheds. They are surrounded by their own filth and breathe ammonia laden air that destroys their lungs and compromises their immune systems. It comes as no surprise that these facilities have become major sources for deadly disease outbreaks such as hoof-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, which is thought by most scientists to cause Crohn's disease in humans, and now the most dangerous of all: bird flu. Avian influenza, or 'bird flu,' threatens humanity with the greatest public health crisis in recorded history. Experts warn that the disease could kill one in eight human beings, including 40 million Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) while the virus is destroyed by
thoroughly cooking, it can be caught simply by eating undercooked meat or eggs, by eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even by touching eggshells contaminated with the disease."Goveg.com/Birdflu.asp,2006.

In "Sunfood Living" there are several sections covering animal consumption and production. Fact: the US devotes 87% of all the agricultural land to raise animals for food. That's 45% of the total US land mass. Animals are a big business cash crop. In 2005, the US fed and then killed 95 million cattle, several billion chickens including 347 million egg laying hens, 100 million hogs, 300 million turkeys, millions of lambs and many other types of cash crop animals including buffalo, ostrich, ducks and farmed fish. Alright so now you've got an idea of the numbers involved in America's love affair with animal products. But this is still pretty tame compared to what's coming.

Also from Sunfood Living, "In 1980 the FDA reversed a 1967 prohibition on feeding poultry waste to cattle, leaving the regulation of feeding animal wastes to the individual states. Downer cattle - dead, dying, diseased or disabled (what the Food and Drug Administration refers to as the 4-Ds)-have also been 'recycled' into feed, including poultry feed, as a source of protein. While the case of mad cow disease in Washington State may have been from a Canadian herd prior to the 1997 ban on feeding ruminant proteins to cattle, it is equally plausible -though state and federal agencies have not discussed it with the public - that the case was caused by feeding contaminated poultry feces to cattle. The FDA did not ban the inclusion of ruminant proteins in non-ruminant feed, as did the United Kingdom. Thus ruminant proteins from both healthy and 4-D animals continue to be 'recycled' into animal feed and pet foods, including poultry feed. The problem is that
poultry feces have routinely been used as cattle feed, keeping the prohibited cycle of 'feeding cattle to cattle' intact."

Okay, so this is not light reading but dark revelations on a subject that's been cloaked in hyperbole and pr for the majority of our lives. I'm not suggesting anyone follow the raw path I'm on. I am suggesting that if you're a 'died in the wool' meat, chicken or basic animal product eater, you'd be well served to read up on what's for dinner.