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Factory Farms Make You Sick. Let Us Count the Ways
Factory farms makes you sick.
Let us count the ways.
Just last week, more than half a billion eggs recalled.
Why?
Salmonella poisoning.
More than 1,300 people sick.
Just last week, a recall of more than 380,000 pounds of deli meat products distributed nationwide to Wal-Mart stores.
Why?
Possible contamination with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.
The bacteria can cause listeriosis – a rare but potentially deadly disease.
Move over Animal Farm.
Here comes Animal Factory.
And the animal factories are dominating the agricultural landscape.
Making us sick and poisoning the environment.
The Obama administration, which ran on a platform to confront factory farming, has done little to confront the problem.
“They don’t have the stomach to take on the factory farms,” David Kirby, author of the book Animal Factory (St. Martin’s Press, 2010), told Corporate Crime Reporter last week. “They are gun shy. I’m disappointed.”
While the Justice Department and the Department of Agriculture are holding hearings on concentration in agribusiness, Kirby see the exercise as a glorified listening tour.
He doesn’t anticipate federal intervention to prevent a disaster.
But he says what needs to be done is clear – move from factory farms to family farms.
How?
Ban non-therapeutic antibiotic use in animals.
Bust up the processing cartels.
“There are so few processing plants now and they are so centralized and big they want to process only factory farm animals,” Kirby says.
Cut the billions in subsidies to agribusiness.
“And by the way, why aren’t the tea partiers out there screaming about the billions of dollars we give away every year to these massive farms?” Kirby asks.
“And then take some of those subsidies and give them to small independent farmers who can really use it to compete.”
He says that the Obama administration ran on a platform to do some of these things.
But it refuses to take on big agribusiness.
Kirby says it will take a disaster to change the system.
“You can pass all the laws you want, organize all the boycotts,” Kirby said. “But ultimately when you cram thousands of animals into a single confined space without access to fresh air, outdoor sunlight, pasture, natural animal behaviors – you are asking for problems in the form of diseases that attack people.”
“Mother nature will have the last word. Mad cow disease was a warning. Swine flu was a warning. MRSA was a warning. The egg recall was a warning.”
“But we haven’t hit the big one yet.”
“Things are changing. Consumers are waking up.”
“I understand that there are lines around the block at farmers markets where eggs sell out by noon.”
“Demand for sustainably grown eggs right now is huge. That will make companies sit up and take notice.”
“Things are changing. But for a massive shift away from factory farming, it will probably take some new super-virus combining the killer bird flu and some killer swine flu.”
“And that could happen. These chicken farms in Iowa are just down the road from the hog farms.”
“And birds and rodents and insects are moving in and out of these places.”
That disaster would force public action. But what about preventable public action by the Obama administration.
“It won’t be enough to have a serious impact on the structure of the factory farms,” Kirby says. “We are awash in apathy in this country.”
[For a complete transcript of the Interview with David Kirby see 24 Corporate Crime Reporter 33(10), August 30, 2010, print edition only.]
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Show AllI push my cart through the supermarket, as I do early every Saturday morning. I go through the meat department, looking at everything stacked in its neat rows; a food that had been the central part of my diet my entire life. I think about way my parents cared for, fed, killed and butchered that part of our diet, and the way most of that process is done in our modern world. I think of our poluted oceans, wondering what I might be eating with the salmon steak I'd like to buy. I remember seeing the factory where chickens were processed. They were large and grotesque; hardly resembling chickens anymore. So I push my cart on by. I push it past the rows of produce, seeing the beginning of decay on some, already rotten places on others, and the shriveling of most. Nothing is near being fresh. I think of the garden I grew up working in, remembering the smell of the plants as I weeded among them, how the developing vegatables and the aroma from them mingled together in the summer heat. I still remember the rich smell of those vegetables as we prepared them for a meal. Produce smells are absent in the supermarkets of today. By the time anything reaches them, from wherever it has come from, there's little left of the important nutrients, even if you eat it raw. I push my cart on past, into the eggs, milk, and dairy products department. There I think about the cows producing the milk, from which comes the cream, the butter, and cheeses. Locked into their stalls day upon day, month after month, never seeing the light of day, never having grazed on the grass in a sweet-smelling meadow, never breathed the fresh air nor felt the sun, warm on their backs. I think of the hens, in wire cages stacked stories high, a downward spiraling trough that sends the eggs they squat to lay on their way to market. I think of what is in the food they're fed, the conditions of their environment. I push my cart on by. I go into the canned foods department, and the frozen foods. I read the ingredients. So many things listed that I have no idea of what it is. I see all the soy components listed in just about everything. I think about the bad allergic reaction I had to a small portion of pizza that had soy oil in every component of it, and I think of how bad I sometimes feel after a meal, and wonder. So I push my cart on through the store, filling my basket with the things I need, like laundry soap, toilet paper, garbage bags, and so on. Once again, as I do every Saturday morning, I stand in the middle of the store, looking down into my shopping cart at the items there; aware of all the food that surrounds me, and feel like I'm dying of hunger.
Well stated.
You might also notice that canned foods do not tell you where the food is produced, only whom it is 'Distributed By'!
By locally grown foods whenever possible even if you must travel to by them.
It's sad, isn't it? In Central Massachusetts a group has started an online coop where we can get grass-fed beef, pastured pork, eggs, produce, plants, and crafts from local farms. It is wonderful! I have not bought meat from a supermarket for months. This is exactly what Michael Pollan said, vote with your food dollars, and that's what we are doing, putting them into local farms.
The food is marvelous. Yes, the meats are more expensive, but we eat smaller portions. This is also food security - support it locally and it will always be there for you.
Can you share the name/url of the (online) coop? Do they ship out of state? Many thanks.
SHADRE: Thank you for sharing the very moving post. I know exactly what you mean.
There was a song done (and I forget who sang it), with lyrics:
"Everything gives you cancer
There's no cure,
There's no answer,
Everything gives you cancer..."
Then it went into a Latin-salsa beat and began to describe all those things.
When I shop I think in terms of the lesser evils. Pesticide is so thick on produce that even scrubbing it won't get rid of it. Our bodies are a massive chemical Guinea Pig experiment.
Edgar Cayce spoke of diversifying the diet so that should any one staple prove dangerous, by not over-indulging in it, your body is given a chance to work its toxins through.
Hope you find a reasonably priced organic outlet. Where I live, that is a rarity.
Thank you, Sioux Rose.
Guess there's still a great many of us who follow Edgar Cayce's great wisdom. I've always tried to keep diversity in my diet.
There are some organic outlets here - though quite pricey, as well as a large local growers' market held twice weekly. I've managed to go there a few times.
That was truly beautiful. And it make me soooooo homesick, all I can do is cry. I WANNA GO HOME!!!!!wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
as long as people want their meat there is going to be a problem...people think its ok to keep buying eggs as long as the eggs are cooked a long time to kill viruses...wow...they dont care about the hens and animal cruelty...they just care about cooking the eggs good...or cooking the meat all the way through...people are still selfish to not care about the animal cruelty...lets start killing cats and dogs...and eating them....in a humane way of course...
Reading FASTFOOD NATION when it was first published changed our eating habits. We no longer eat meat that has anything to do with the big factory farms and the monpolistic meat packer industrialists. Heaven knows, well - actually the book expains what they put into it, the contaminants that can be found in that industrial strength meat. It took a while but we found some honest independent reliable butchers who still beleive that food should be good without artifically injected hormones and other toxic products along with more humane ways of raising animals for food. Plus it doesn't hurt to have weekly meatless days as well.
If we treated our companion animals the way factory farms treat animals raised for food, we would be prosecuted. Why do we look the other way when chickens, turkeys, cows, and pigs are mistreated?
You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!
Great analogy.
I heard David Kirby on Democracy Now this past week and am still haunted by his description of pig 'farms.' He said in researching his book, this experience was by far the worst. Pigs' high intelligence made them super aware of their own torture--and he was kept up nights by their desperate screaming.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/24/david_kirby_on_the_looming_threat
A return to the pre factory farming days and single payer health care is best kind of a health care system that is now out of reach in this country.
Those who eat factory farmed meat are complicit in an animal holocaust. Those that eat factory farmed animal products are complicit in a genocidal violence that feeds many other forms of violence.
If you choose to eat meat prepared by others, demand local, organic, and sustainable. Otherwise, don't participate.
Regardless, eating a ton of animal products will kill you faster than smoking.
Thank you for your wise input. You are absolutely correct.
Actually, animal products are really good for you...depending on where they come from. Beef that is foraged on grass, as it is meant to, is full of Omega 3's and good protein and fat. Animal fats are good for you, despite what most physicians tell you. They are being spoon-fed by the pharmaceutical companies who want you to be sick and take lots of expensive drugs!
Read the China Study:
http://amzn.to/d2acqD
Animal products are not good for you, especially in the quantities that Americans eat. The conclusion of that study, considered the most comprehensive and conducted by respected biochemists and nutritionists, is to avoid animal products as much as possible, especially dairy.
I think reasonable amounts in very small quantities are probably fine, especially if it's healthy animals. But I think eating animals without respect to them and their ecosystems is a crime...
malatesta1936, I'm glad you mentioned the book "The China Study". A great read, despite the statistics and the charts. The part about cancer research and the suppression of information by the "establishment" is a must-read. T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., the author, presents not only statistical correlation between consumption of animal protein and certain forms of cancer, but also the mechanistic explanations. Can't recommend this highly enough. For those who cannot get a copy of the book, I would suggest searching YouTube or Google Videos with "China Study" (in quotes) - to hear T. Colin Campbell speak. The other person I would recommend searching is John McDougall, M.D.
If you think "The China Study" is accurate and valid... you don't have a clue.
Do some research and here is a great place to start;
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/cancer/the-china-study-vs-the-china-study/
I know about the online ganging up against that book. The site you mention is "Protein Power", and one of the things Campbell talks about in "China Study" is about the harmful effects of too much animal protein. And he also lays it out about how information on certain cancer mechanisms is kept away from the public. I bet you can find some things against John McDougall's views about dairy as well. Taking on the establishment ain't easy and we all have to make our judgement call. I've made mine, but thanks anyway for trying to warn me ;)
Animal products are bad for you, period. They're a luxury like whiskey. Okay in moderation, but definitely not good for you.
Grass fed meat that used to be dominant prior to factory farming was nutritious and rarely would you see people eating meat in excess because the nutrients in one serving would be plentiful compared to factory farm produced meat that would have you coming for more unexpectedly.
We had a disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but it did not -- and will not -- result in any change in business as usual. I firmly believe that the swine flu that swept the country last year and killed hundreds of Americans originated at a factory hog farm. But that truth was buried by the media. As a result, nothing has changed, and nothing will change.
Even if a massive swine/bird flu kills thousands upon thousands in this country, nothing will change. The truth will be buried. Those thousands will be forgotten, just like the thousands who died in Katrina have been forgotten and the thousands who will die from the toxic oil and dispersants in the Gulf will be forgotten.
Not yet mentioned here are all the genetically-engineered foods in the big stores. Much, if not most, of the nation's corn and soy, and now other foods, too, are genetically-engineered to withstand large doses of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, certainly not a benign product (google dangers of roundup).
To facilitate the bonding of the dna, they use a bacteria which causes tumors in many of our food plants: Agrobacterium Tumefasciens. Nice, huh?
Grow your own garden - build a raised bed 2 feet high, 4 feet wide, by any length long, fill it with composted food and yard waste (grass clippings, leaves) and good soil from your own yard, order seeds, plant, water, weed, harvest. No machines needed.
GEt a few chickens, too. They're fun, provide material for compost, eat bugs and weeds, and provide eggs. If you can stand to eat your friends, they will also provide meat.
But eggs are a perfect protein - no one needs to eat meat if they eat good, organic eggs where the chickens were fed on pasture and/or organic grains.
We all have to take more responsibility for our food, since private-for-profit industries have made a mess of it.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4613
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHUeyD_KCrI&feature=player_embedded
will soon be illegal to grow your own food...
Let us think about the eating of meat in a spiritual context and if one thinks about the fact that they are also sentient beings then maybe it will be easier to stop eating meat all together.
Fasting may become a way of life..................
It's not the factory farms that are the issue, it's the system that allows corporations that own factory farms to exist that is the issue. Capitalism is what's making us sick, not factory farms.
(NaturalNews) Rawsome Foods, part of The Right to Choose Healthy Foods buyers` club association in Venice, California, was raided by several agencies. Federal officers, representatives of the State of California, Los Angeles County Health officials and Los Angeles police officers arrived with guns drawn. Although the volunteer workers at the food club had committed no crime, the government agents forced them to remain on the property for the entire 5 hours while they seized 17 huge coolers of high quality food; their warrant, however, explicitly stated that they could only take sample vials of food. The agents threatened and coerced club members who wanted to film the trespass and confiscation of property. The authorities stole thousands of dollars of the club members` raw milk and honey.
The club was found to be in violation of a misdemeanor (minor accounts of law), Illegal Food Facility (CAL Code 114381) and the county law of business without a public health license (Title 8 LA County Code 8.04.932), but the warrant was issued on claims of felony violations. Even though Rawesome is operating illegally, these alleged infractions of the law come with extremely minor penalties. In other words, the violations would be something on the level of forgetting to pay your car registration. So why didn`t the government simply write a letter or pay a non-threatening visit asking the food club to produce a license?
The Right to Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) is a not-for-profit trust association formed to protect individuals` rights to obtain and consume healthy food. The club members are well-educated and intelligent, who daily choose to reject standard toxic governmental food restrictions, preparations and packaging for natural God-given healthy food. RTCHF contracts with farmers to lease their animals and/or fields and owns the produce of those animals and fields. Therefore, all members of all clubs own the produce, not the farmer. The farmer does not sell people anything but gets paid for his services to cultivate, grow, harvest, and board and care for animals, as well as collect, package and ship the produce owned by club members.
In the USA and Canada, we have the right to ownership. As it states in statutes of law, government agencies, including the USDA, have jurisdiction over commerce. Commerce is the open exchange of goods to the public. Since RTCHF and its clubs are private closed-to-the-public associations, the government has no jurisdiction. This government raid is equivalent to a government agent entering your private home and telling you what foods you can have in your home.
In order to obtain the warrant for the food club raid, government agents had to lie about the mentioned laws and claim that operating a business without a license is a felony, even when it is a misdemeanor.
As more and more people realize the health benefits of raw milk, they are turning away from factory farmed milk. We don`t want animals that are treated in inhumane ways, kept alive on antibiotics, and forced to eat genetically modified soy and corn to be providing our milk, cheese, and butter. Yet here the government is acting to protect big dairy interests and stamp out the growing small farm suppliers.
Private buying clubs like RTCHF acquire food directly from farmers, insuring that small farms can make a living producing humanely cared for dairy foods, and insuring consumers get the healthy food we deserve. In these actions, the Federal, State and even local authorities have violated our sovereignty, our boundaries, and our personal freedom.
Article Sources:
California Health and Safety Code (http://law.onecle.com/california/he...)
LA County Codes (http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/ga...)
E-mail Aajonus Vonderplantiz mailed July 2nd, 2010
Dairy Raids (http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2...) , (http://www.gaia-health.com/articles...) (http://www.naturalnews.com/028620_r...)
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4613
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHUeyD_KCrI&feature=player_embedded
will soon be illegal to grow your own food...
Wal Mart is also "leading" the way in reestablishing slavery in the USA.
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For sources of real food in your area, try:
realmillk.com
eatwild.com