6 terrifying reasons
why it’s time to stop eating meat
From disgusting slaughterhouse conditions to devastating
health consequences, the evidence keeps piling up
Martha Rosenberg, Alternet
Salon.com
Monday, Sep 29, 2014 06:17 AM PST
(Credit: Lisovskaya Natalia
via Shutterstock)
Factory farming, the crowding together of livestock in
factory-like conditions to cut down on production costs, is widely deplored for
its harm to animals, workers, the environment and food consumers. It is hard to
find a farm that crowds animals together in pens and cages that doesn’t also
rely on antibiotics and growth chemicals, mistreat workers, spew manure into
the environment and generate periodic safety questions about its products.
Meat giant Tyson dumps
more than 18 million pounds of toxic chemicals into America’s waterways each
year, according to a recent report, even as it finalizes a merger with meat giant Hillshire. Tyson was served with a federal indictment in 2001 charging it with
smuggling workers across the Rio Grande and supplying them with phony social
security cards. “They cheat these workers out of pay and benefits, and then try
to keep them quiet by threatening to send them back to Mexico,” declared Rev. Jim Lewis, an Episcopal minister in Arkansas.
Meat mergers and the globalization of meat production have
the potential for eroding U.S. food safety standards, say food experts. Few
missed this summer’s scandal in which Starbucks, Burger King, McDonald’s
and KFC were accused of using expired meat products in
their China operations. But not as many people have noted the
recent sale of Smithfield foods to Shuanghui International, China’s biggest takeover of a U.S. company to date. In 2008, dairy
products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine in China
sickened thousands and killed six infants. Last fall, the Obama
administration approved the sale in the U.S. of chickens “processed” in
China if they are raised and slaughtered in the U.S. or Canada. In 2007, an
estimated 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs in the U.S. died from
melamine-tainted food from China.
And let’s not forget that forty percent of the world’s land surface is now used for
food, the vast majority to feed chickens, pigs and cattle, not people.
Increasingly governments and environmental groups say such inefficient land use
and extreme meat consumption is not sustainable. US factory farms largely elude
pollution regulations yet hydrogen sulfide from manure lagoons is linked to
respiratory problems, seizures and worse and nitrates, found in drinking water
near hog factories, are linked to blue baby syndrome and spontaneous abortions.
As whistleblowers and undercover humane workers have exposed
unwholesome and cruel meat production practices like a California
slaughterhouse processing and selling cows with eye cancer, there has been
a public call for transparency and better regulation of meat production. Yet
this year has brought serious setbacks to food activists who seek to reform
factory farms and ensure pure, humane and clearly labeled food. Here are some
ongoing battles with Big Ag.
1. Slaughter Lines Are Increasing in Speed
Many welfare and sanitary objections concern the speed of
the assembly line on the kill floor at the slaughterhouse. Workers, federal
inspectors and reporters who have gone undercover have all noted that animals are “missed” and not stunned as
they are supposed to be before slaughter. Ten years ago, federal meat inspector
Lester Friedlander told the press that stopping the line cost about $5,000 a
minute, so veterinarians are pressured “to look the other way” when violations
happen. Nonetheless, in shocking privatization, the federal government is
increasingly letting Big Meat self-police. In 2000, it instituted a kind of
honor system called HACCP which 62 percent of meat inspectors said forced
them to allow feces, vomit and metal shards in food on a daily or weekly basis.
And it gets worse. The USDA is now seeking to implement new
slaughterhouse guidelines “that would allow poultry companies to accelerate
their processing lines” and make “plants more efficient” reports the Washington Post. Is that even possible? In March, 68 members of Congress joined many food and public health
activists in saying to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, you want to speed up
WHAT?–noting the obvious humane and hygiene risks of more “efficiency” Similar
concerns did not stop the implementation of HACCP fourteen years ago.
2. The Blight of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv)
Have you ever heard of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus? Big
Pork in the U.S. hopes not. Even though one tenth of U.S. pork supplies have
been decimated by the virus since May 2013, producing mountains of dead baby piglets, Big Pork doesn’t want to
turn off or scare pork eaters so the virus has been downplayed. PEDv, a severe
and usually fatal diarrhea disease, has killed seven million piglets in their first days of life in
the U.S. since 2013, though it does not affect humans who eat pork or adult
pigs. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) puts the blame for PEDv, which has spread to over half the
states, on cramped factory farm conditions which spread misery and disease
among animals.
Earlier this year, HSUS reported on a Kentucky farm that
lost 900 piglets within a two-day period and was actually feeding the dead pigs
to other pigs in an attempt to induce “immunity” in survivors. Footage from the
Iron Maiden Hog Farm in Owensboro, Kentucky shows pigs whose legs had bound
together to keep them standing when they otherwise would have collapsed.
In addressing PEDv, the National Pork Board and National Pork
Producers Council defend “indoor facilities” which allow” security protocols
[that] lead to healthier pigs and a safer food supply.” Except that they don’t.
Disposal of unwanted piglets on factory farms is by
“manually applied blunt force trauma to the head” according to the American Veterinary Medical Association also known as
bashing their heads against wall. Piglets are also gassed. A barn technician at
Country View/Hatfield Quality Meats in Fannettsburg, Pennsylvania described
watching 39 unwanted pigs “left in the cart all day to trample each other,
before being gassed all at once.” What an irony that PEDv may instill new
respect for baby piglets on factory farms.
3. California Slaughterhouse
Receives Criminal Indictment
In March, we told you about a giant recall of beef from Rancho Feeding Corp. in Petaluma,
California because the slaughterhouse “processed diseased and unsound animals
and carried out these activities without the benefit or full benefit of federal
inspection.” The recalled meat was found in Nestle’s
Philly Steaks, Cheese Hot Pockets, Walmart Fatburgers, Kroger Ground
Beef Mini Sliders and other well-known brands.
It turns out the “unsound activities” were criminal. While
inspectors were on their lunch breaks, workers processed condemned and
cancerous cows and put the heads of healthy cows next to their carcasses, charges a federal
indictment. Employees were also directed to “carve out” USDA
Condemned stamps from carcasses.
Like Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the slaughterhouse behind the school lunch recall in 2008, Rancho Feeding
Corp. was a slaughterhouse where farmers could dump sick and dying dairy cows
who could no longer walk, still making $400 per carcass. And like Agriprocessors, an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse charged with
such serious worker abuse, it was forced to shut down, Rancho was back in
business almost overnight, under a new name and with many of the same employees. We learned our lesson!
4. An Asthma-Like Growth Additive Worse Than Ractopamine
Last year, AlterNet reported on the controversial growth additive,
ractopamine, which is marketed as Paylean for pigs, Optaflexx for cattle and
Topmax for turkeys in the U.S. Widely banned in other countries, the Center for
Food Safety and Animal Legal Defense Fund have sought information from the FDA
about ractopamine’s effects on animal or human “liver form and function, kidney
form and function, thyroid form and function,” “tumor development” and urethral
and prostate effects.
Now there is news about a related drug, Zilmax (zilpaterol
hydrochloride), a growth enhancer that adds “24 to 33 pounds additional hot carcass weight,” according to Merck,
its manufacturer. Merck says that Zilmax improves “cattle’s natural ability to
convert feed into more lean beef that is flavorful, tender and juicy,” but the
drug’s destruction of cattle’s hooves is well documented.
Ten months ago, 17 Zilmax-fed heifers and steers were destroyed at a Tyson
slaughterhouse in Washington state because they couldn’t walk, leading Tyson to
tell its feedlot customers it would not accept Zilmax-fed cattle. After a video
of hoof-less Zilmax-fed cattle was shown by meat giant JBS USA LLC at a trade
meeting, Merck temporarily suspended Zilmax sales in the U.S. and Canada.
“Maybe we found the point where we pushed the cattle just so hard in the sake
of making a buck that we exceeded the biological limits of the cattle,” said Abe Turgeon, a prominent livestock nutritionist, who
had previously recommended Zilmax.
Then, Texas Tech University and Kansas State University
researchers reported that more than 3,800 cattle fed Zilmax in 10
feedlots died in 2011 and 2012, with “between 40 percent and 50 percent of the
deaths likely attributable to Zilmax”– a far cry from the 285 Zilmax-related
deaths Merck reported.
Undaunted by reports of animal harm, Merck
wants to resume sales of Zilmax in the U.S. which brought in nearly $160 million annually. It proposes a “study” of
Zilmax in 250,000 cattle, which meatpackers oppose for human and animal safety
reasons. Meat retailers also have doubts. “We don’t want to fiddle with it as
long as there’s a known animal-welfare issue,” said Costco VP Craig. A
spokeswoman for Burger King also expressed reservations. Yes, the drug is even
too extreme for meat processors and fast food outlets.
5. Factory Farm Fires
In 2012, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) addressed the
sad and preventable scourge of farm fires by proposing an amendment requiring
all newly constructed farmed animal housing facilities to be equipped with
sprinklers and smoke control systems. But, a letter to NFPA from Michael Formica, chief environmental
counsel for the National Pork Producers Council on behalf of the other Big Ag
groups, said installing fire protection systems presented “staggering costs in
the billions of dollars,” and that many operations lack “sufficient water
supply available to service an automated sprinkler system.” This effectively
killed the proposal, condemning millions more helpless animals to die in
infernos.
In July, 65,000 hens burned to death in an Egg Innovations barn
in Kosciusko County, Indiana, an egg operation whose website brags about
“Letting Chickens Be Chickens.” Right. In January, 300,000 hens burned to death
at an egg operation in La Grange, Wisconsin. More than 50 fire departments and
100 firefighters battled the blaze at S&R Egg Farm where the trapped hens
perished in the worst manner any living being can endure.
It is shocking that animals are worth less to Big Ag than
the cost of a sprinkler system, even if they end up burning to death. But,
according to Fire
Prevention Contractor magazine, Big Ag’s cost objections are not even
correct. “In truth, the existing water supply system serving the animals at any
farm could double as a sprinkler system just by adding heat-sensitive sprinkler
heads. No more water would be needed than the water already in the supply
lines,” it writes.
6. Ag-Gag Laws
How do we know about these and other unethical practices on
factory farms? Reporters, whistleblowers and undercover humane investigators
tell us. That is why Big Ag has rolled out “Ag-Gag” laws which criminalize
photographing farm practices, even by employees, and being hired under false
pretenses. Killing the messenger rather than cleaning up farm operations may be
a transparent ruse to continue cheap meat production, but it is working.
When Idaho lawmakers were confronted with grotesque undercover
video from Bettencourt Dairies Dry Creek Dairy in Hansen, Idaho showing
workers beating trapped cows and dragging a cow by a chain, they had a swift
response: a law criminalizing videotaping of farms.
Needless to say, Animal Facility Interference laws, proposed
or enacted in about a dozen states, are about freedom of speech and the First
Amendment as much as animal welfare. “Extreme versions of ag-gag would make it
illegal for me to write about it [farm abuse], or at least publish pictures,”
wrote New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in a piece titled “Banned from the Barn.”
John P. Kibbie, a state senator from Emmetsburg and president of the Iowa
State Senate says the bills “make producers feel more comfortable.” Yes, at the
same time they tell food consumers how their food is produced is none of our
business.
KFC
KFC Corporation
is a subsidiary of the YUM! Brands, Inc.
Note: Russell Group
was the lobby firm for the YUM! Brands, Inc., and is the lobby firm for
the National Pork Producers Council.
Bill Lesher is a
partner at the Russell Group, and was the assistant secretary at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Randy Russell is
a partner at the Russell Group, was the deputy assistant secretary for
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the chairman for the World
Food Program USA.
Taco Bell Corp.
is a subsidiary of the YUM! Brands, Inc.
Robert McKay is
heir to the Taco Bell Corp., was a director at the Salon Media Group
Inc., the chairman for the Democracy Alliance, and a contributor for
the American Bridge 21st Century.
Salon is a publication
for the Salon Media Group Inc.
George Soros was a
member of the Democracy Alliance, a contributor for the American
Bridge 21st Century, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone,
the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and
is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone,
the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society,
and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Kenneth G. Langone
is a trustee at the Harlem Children's Zone, and was a director at the YUM!
Brands, Inc.
Mirian M.
Graddick-Weir is a director at the YUM! Brands, Inc., and the EVP for Merck.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, a board member for the American
Constitution Society, Merck was his client, and is the attorney
general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama
administration.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP was the lobby firm for Merck.
Carlos E.
Represas is a director at Merck, and was the EVP for Nestle S.A.
Jean-Pierre
Meyers is a director at Nestle S.A., and the vice chairman for the Bettencourt
Schueller Foundation.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at
the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), was a director at the Hillshire
Brands Company, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a trustee at
the Aspen Institute (think tank),
and was a director at the Hillshire Brands Company.
R.
Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory
A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday,
December 17, 2013
Miles
D. White is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a director at the McDonald's
Corporation.
Andrew J.
McKenna Sr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and the chairman for the McDonald's Corporation.
Walter
E. Massey is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a director at the McDonald's
Corporation.
Cary
D. McMillan is a director at the McDonald's
Corporation, and was the EVP for the Hillshire
Brands Company.
Tyson Foods Inc.
acquired the Hillshire Brands Company.
Crandall C. Bowles
was a director at the Hillshire Brands
Company, and is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Lee
H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Kathleen M. Bader
is a member of the Homeland Security
Advisory Council, and a director at Tyson
Foods Inc.
Tyson Foods Inc.
acquired the Hillshire Brands Company.
Hillshire
Brands Company was an Edelman
client.
Burger
King Corporation was an Edelman
client.
Starbucks
Corporation is an Edelman
client.
Mellody L. Hobson
is a director at the Starbucks
Corporation, a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and her mentor is William
W. Bradley.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Sheryl K.
Sandberg is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and is a director at the Starbucks Corporation.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), a director at the American
Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States
in war)
Jon M. Huntsman
Jr. is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a trustee
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was
the ambassador to China for the Barack Obama administration.
William W. Bradley
is a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank),
a director at the Starbucks Corporation,
and Mellody L. Hobson’s mentor.
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Donald Kennedy was
a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank),
and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA).
Margaret A.
Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Sam Nunn is a
co-chairman & CEO for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and was the chairman for the Democratic Leadership Council.
Tom
Vilsack was the chairman for the Democratic
Leadership Council, and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the Barack Obama
administration.
Paul Weinstein
Jr. was a senior fellow at the Democratic
Leadership Council, and is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.
Progressive
Policy Institute was an affiliated think tank for the Democratic Leadership Council, and is a project of Third Way Foundation Inc.
Alvin From was a co-founder
for the Democratic Leadership Council,
and is the chairman for the Third Way
Foundation Inc.
Thomas
R. Carper was the vice chairman for the Democratic Leadership Council, and is an honorary co-chair for the Third Way.
Nancy Jacobson
was a national finance chair for the Democratic
Leadership Council, the founder/senior adviser for the Third Way, and was Evan Bayh’s
staff member.
William M. Daley
is a trustee at the Third Way, a
member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and was the chief of staff for the Barack
Obama administration.
Cyrus F. Freidheim
Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Evan Bayh’s staff
member was Nancy Jacobson, a
chairman for the Democratic Leadership
Council, and David F. Hamilton’s
counsel.
David F. Hamilton’s
counsel was[S1] Evan
Bayh, a canvasser for the Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and is Lee H. Hamilton’s nephew.
Lee H. Hamilton is
David F. Hamilton’s uncle, an
honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Kathleen M. Bader
is a member of the Homeland Security
Advisory Council, and a director at Tyson
Foods Inc.
Tyson Foods Inc.
acquired the Hillshire Brands Company.
Sidley Austin
LLP was the legal adviser for the Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and the attorney for ACORN vs. Illinois State Board of Elections.
Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was the plaintiff in ACORN vs. Illinois State Board of
Elections.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
R. Eden Martin is
counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a trustee at
the Aspen Institute (think tank),
and was a director at the Hillshire Brands Company.
Tyson Foods Inc.
acquired the Hillshire Brands Company.
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