Food Safety Bill Opposed by CAFO Zealots

The Wall Street Journal reported that lobby groups representing large-scale grain and livestock interests zealously opposed the bill, with the reliably pro-agribusiness House Ag committee chair Collin Peterson pushing their agenda.

The fear is that the bill would give the FDA authority to regulate livestock feed rations—which likely contribute significantly to food safety issues. Outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA) and salmonella seem related to routine doses of antibiotics on livestock farms; and the practice of feeding animals an ethanol byproduct called distillers grains has been linked to both E. coli 0157 outbreaks and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains.

Cattle producers still routinely feed their cows “chicken litter" - chicken shit mixed up with excess feed and other wastes - even though it can contain cow blood meal (which large-scale poultry farmers often feed to chickens).

Though the origins of BSE remain unclear, scientists are convinced that it spreads among cattle through infected feed containing blood-meat-and-bone meal, protein supplements made from the blood and ground-up parts of cows. If the animal being processed is infected, then the meal can transmit the disease to many other animals. It takes only one gram of contaminated material to infect a cow.

“Live animals are not ‘food’ until the point of processing, which is why this bill needs to clarify that the FDA does not have regulatory authority on our farms, ranches and feedlots,” a functionary for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association told the Journal.

Read http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-30-house-food-safety-bill-questions-remain