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

Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction

The crisis of factory farming becomes its own solution through the use of industrially produced bacon. We know our industrial food system is killing the planet and killing us with heart disease, diabetes and cancer, but how can we resist when it tastes oh-so-good?

We know this food is killing us slowly with diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But we cannot stop, because we are addicts, and the food industry is the pusher. Even if we could opt out completely (which is almost impossible), it is still our land being ravaged, our water and air being poisoned, our dollars subsidizing the destruction, our public health at risk from bacterial and viral plagues.

Changing our perilous food system means making choices — not to shop for a greener planet, but to collectively dismantle factory farming, giant food corporations and the political system that allows them to exist. It’s a big order, but it’s the only option left on the menu.

Salmon CAFOs Collapse the Chilean Salmon Industry

Ravaged by a virus called “infectious salmon anemia” the factory farm raised salmon from Chile are suffering the same inevitable fate as other unsustainable confinement raised animals dependent on antibiotics.

Like U.S. factory meat farms, Chile’s salmon cages veritably runneth over with antibiotics. Earlier this year, the Pew Environmental Group obtained some damning FDA documents about the Chilean salmon industry. The documents revealed that:

Three Chilean salmon farming companies, including the two largest producers of farmed salmon, used a number of drugs not approved by the U.S. government. These chemicals include the antibiotics flumequine and oxolinic acid and the pesticide emamectin benzoate. The documents further show that the farmed salmon containing residues of unapproved chemicals were destined for the U.S. market.

Antibiotic Resistant Salmonella Burgers, YUM!!

The strain of salmonella found in recalled beef in Colorado is resistant to many antibiotics and cooking is not a reliable way to kill it, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment.

The Denver-based King Soopers grocery chain on Wednesday recalled 466,236 pounds of ground beef products that were distributed to stores in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Fourteen people in Colorado became ill after eating the meat.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-24-meat-wagon-antibiotic-resistant-salmonella

July 24, 2009: 6 Hospitalized In Colorado For Salmonella

July 23, 2009: King Soopers Recalls Beef Products

CAFOs & Antibiotics = More MRSA

A bill now circulating in the House, sponsored by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D.-NY), would limit the amount of antibiotics that can be used on factory animal farms.

Prevention magazine recently ran a pretty amazing story laying out the importance of the issue of factory farm antibiotics and MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant superbug that now kills more Americans every year than AIDS.

Top Philpott says, I’m not convinced that industrial animal farming is possible without routine antibiotic use. Stuffing animals together over their own shit essentially ruins their immune systems; antibiotics keep them alive long enough to reach slaughter weight.

Hat tip to Maryn McKenna’s blog Superbug, which should be on every MRSA watchers RSS feed.