Simply Stop Eating It!

Time to get angry!

Picking up on the debate that has been going for a while now. Here are two articles worth reading.

It is good to see a long overdue uproar like this happening!! Dead Meat: How ‘Pink Slime’ Can Start a Food Industry Revolution.

We still believe that the USDA should step up their game, and tend to actually protecting consumer’s health (instead of food enterprises profits)… 

Thanks to Grist.org for this angry article that captures the feeling of how angry we should be! ‘Pink slime’ is the tip of the iceberg: Look what else is in industrial meat.  It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to get informed and spread the word! 

The food companies as well as the USDA only seem to act on issues of food safety when urged by the public! So please keep spreading the word, and SIMPLY STOP EATING IT!   Consumers cannot be upset enough as the food industry keeps lying to us about selling us crap as food:
“I hate to break it to you folks, but ammonium hydroxide is just one in a long list of unlabeled chemical treatments used on almost all industrial meat and poultry.” A lot of other disgusting “chemicals can go on meat. Not that you’d know it, because both the industry and the USDA keep it on the down-low. In fact, they work together on this. The USDA requires processors to label certain approved antimicrobials, such as salt, spices, and even lemon as ingredients, but not their hard-to-pronounce brethren. Why not? Perhaps because it might shock and disgust consumers to know how thoroughly their meat must be chemically disinfected before it can be sold. (…) Pink slime is used in a huge variety of products including ‘hot dogs, lunch meats, chili, sausages, pepperoni, retail frozen entrees, roast beef, and canned foods.’” (The Grist.org)

 And pink slime is not where it stops... There are too many lies about what really is added in processed foods.  ”Take artificial food dyes like Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6. These synthetic colors and others—of which food producers use about 15 million pounds every year—have been linked to hyperactivity in kids, cancers, and allergic reactions. The FDA refuses to regulate Big Meat’s use of antibiotics in food animals, despite the fact that the practice has been linked to a spike in drug-resistant diseases like MRSA. In fact, the meat industry continues to feed its animals about 29 million pounds of antibiotics every year—about 80 percent of America’s total antibiotic use. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates—which studies link to cancers, obesity, diabetes, and other health problems even at low doses—are continually used in all sorts of food packaging. And these three prevalent issues are just the tip of the industrial food iceberg.” (Good.is)  

Guide: What do food labels REALLY mean?

What do FOOD LABELS really mean? Find definitions for common food labels here, or download the “Food Labeling for Dummies” guide for free. Hooray for informed consumer choices! :)

Food Labels | Animal Welfare Approved

Take Action: Tell the FDA to reduce the use of antibiotics on factory farms!

Take action please! Tell the FDA to do their job and regulate the reckless and irresponsible use of antibiotics on factory farms, thus setting perfect conditions for the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant viruses. Otherwise we might find ourselves in a time warp back to 1918 sooner or later, when the Spanish Flu killed millions and millions of people around the globe!

Can You Imagine a World Without Antibiotics?

What do you prefer, consumers? Cheap meat or a new super pandemic? Simply stop eating what factory farms try to sell you!!

Please spread the word, and share. Thank you!  

(Source: organicconsumers.org)

Keep Antibiotics Working

“When you go to the supermarket to buy one of these brands of pre-ground meat products, there’s a roughly 25 percent chance you’ll consume a potentially fatal bacteria that doesn’t respond to commonly prescribed drugs.
Compounding the issue is the recent rise in cheap meat consumption. (…) Economists in the industry attribute this to our “Hamburger Economy,” an attempt by consumers to save money by selecting more affordable options. The question is: can we afford the risk?”
http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/12/29/happy-new-year-from-the-FDA

For further reading on antibacterial resistance: Keep Antibiotics Working

Take action: Can You Imagine a World Without Antibiotics?

Take action please! Tell the FDA to do their job and regulate the reckless and irresponsible use of antibiotics on factory farms, thus setting perfect conditions for the emergence of new antibiotic-resistant viruses. Otherwise we might find ourselves in a time warp back to 1918 sooner or later, when the Spanish Flu killed millions and millions of people around the globe!

Can You Imagine a World Without Antibiotics?

(Source: organicconsumers.org)

Environmental Working Group recommends less meat and cheese

Rather than promoting strict vegetarianism or veganism, the EWG instead points out the American over-consumption of meat and suggests a reduction in portion sizes. In 2009 the US produced 208 pounds of meat per person for domestic consumption alone, almost 60% more than Europe. Additionally, the study states that eliminating meat and cheese from one meal a week for a year would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road.

Environmental Working Group recommends less meat and cheese | Nourishing the Planet

read more here:  2011 Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health

it is simple and good advise: ‎”By eating and wasting less meat (especially red and processed meat) and cheese, you can simultaneously improve your health and reduce the climate and environmental impact of food production. And when you do choose to eat meat and cheese, go greener. There are many environmental, health and animal welfare reasons to choose meat and dairy products that come from organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed animals. It may cost more, but when you buy less meat overall, you can afford to go healthier and greener.”

What and how much you eat matters!  Even smaller changes in your diet can have great health benefits (they also can have positive political and environmental implications). 

“it seems smart to limit consumption of factory-farmed meat and fish”, because…

Is Your Meat Habit Giving You Diabetes?

“A new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Diabetes Care  found a strong link between diabetes onset and blood levels of a group of harsh industrial chemicals charmingly known as ‘persistent organic pollutants’ (POPs), most of which have been banned in the United States for years but still end up in our food (hence the ‘persistent’ bit—they degrade very slowly).

The ones with the largest effect were PCBs, a class of highly toxic chemicals widely used as industrial coolants before being banished in 1979. Interestingly, the main US maker of PCBs, Monsanto, apparently knew about and tried to cover up their health-ruining effects long before the ban went into place. (…)

 How are these awful chemicals sticking around and still causing trouble decades after being banned? POPs accumulate in the fatty tissue of animals—and transfer to the animals that eat them, including humans who eat meat and fish. In industrial animal farming, livestock are often given feed that includes animal fat, which helps POPs hang around in the food chain. ‘We feed the cow fat to the pigs and the chickens, and we feed the pig and chicken fat to the cows,’ one expert told Elert. The widespread practice of feeding ‘poultry litter’ — chicken feces mixed with feathers, dead chickens, and feed remnants, including beef products — to confined cows is another way these toxins keep cycling though the food chain. Why would the meat industry engage in such feeding practices? Simply put, because they’re cheap. (…)

Given these findings and the emerging link to diabetes, it seems smart to limit consumption of factory-farmed meat and fish. And ’70s-era chemicals like PCBs are only part of the problem. A newer chemical class called polybrominated flame retardant (PBDEs) also appear to be entering our bodies through industrial meat, recent research published in Environmental Health Perspectives shows. These persistent toxins are only now being phased out, but they’re ubiquitous in everything from furniture to textiles—and in the equipment used in factory-scale meat processing. PBDEs ‘accumulate in the liver, kidney and thyroid gland and are known endocrine disrupters,’ EHP reports, and they have also been linked to diabetes.”

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And in the same f a t t y vein:  The Inside Story: Anniston, AL In-depth: Monsanto knew about PCB toxicity for decades

“Today Monsanto does not deny that everyone is contaminated with PCBs. They argue instead that since they have contaminated the entire planet they are innocent of all liability. In Monsanto’s opening statement to the court in the trial of Owens v. Monsanto on April 4, 2001, the company’s lawyers acknowledged: ‘The truth is that PCBs are everywhere. They are in meat, they are in everyone in the courtroom, they are everywhere and they have been for a long time, along with a host of other substances. The truth is that the men and women who have worked around PCBs the most over forty, fifty, sixty years, people in our plant, people in the electrical industry, have not experienced any significant health problems which can be associated or tied into or caused by PCBs other than a serious skin condition called chloracne, which is easily treatable.’ 
In making these arguments, Monsanto is ignoring the growing evidence that PCBs are quite capable of causing harm to the human body. (…) Other studies on health effects associated with PCB exposure indicate neurotoxicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, immune system suppression, liver damage, skin irritation, and endocrine disruption. “