The High Price of Cheap Food

Time Magazine Cover Story This Week

The U.S. agricultural industry can now produce unlimited quantities of meat and grains at remarkably cheap prices. But it does so at a high cost to the environment, animals and humans. Those hidden prices are the creeping erosion of our fertile farmland, cages for egg-laying chickens so packed that the birds can't even raise their wings and the scary rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria among farm animals. Add to the price tag the acceleration of global warming — our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.

And perhaps worst of all, our food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous. A series of recalls involving contaminated foods this year — including an outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanuts that killed at least eight people and sickened 600 — has consumers rightly worried about the safety of their meals. A food system — from seed to 7‑Eleven — that generates cheap, filling food at the literal expense of healthier produce is also a principal cause of America's obesity epidemic. At a time when the nation is close to a civil war over health-care reform, obesity adds $147 billion a year to our doctor bills. "The way we farm now is destructive of the soil, the environment and us," says Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist with the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Cargill's Beef Packers Plant Previously Cited Says AP

March 2008 inspection records show that USDA auditors found Beef Packer workers using electric prods to urge uncooperative cattle through a small chute that opened to the slaughterhouse. When three cows would not move, workers stunned the animals into unconsciousness “so that they could be pulled through the restrainer to be shackled, hung, and bled,” the records state.

The risk for pathogenic food poisoning, such as E. coli and Salmonella, increases when cattle are treated in such a way because the animals, when dragged, can pick up the dangerous germs from waste products that end up on their hides and can contaminate the chute and surrounding area, according to experts, said the AP. “All kinds of feces and urine get into those chutes because they typically aren’t cleaned out during the day because too many animals need to get in,” said Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinary inspector.

Cargill Meat Solutions appealed the alleged violations and the FSIS rescinded the citations, sending Beef Packers a so-called letter of concern, said the AP. Cargill Meat Solutions is the parent company of Beef Packers.

Salmonella Burger Recipe

Two pounds of contaminated hamburger, allow to sit out at room temperature for 8 hours, just in case.

Hand form into four half pound patties more or less football shaped. Don't wash your hands first.

Cook on real charcoal grill to just past rare, there is no point cooking them well done since heat does not kill the bacteria.

Serve on fresh buns with Immodium Mayo and slices of raw onion and ripe tomato.

Cargill Salmonella Infected Beef Recall 825,769 Pounds

Back in January Peter Kreitler blogged:

Quoting from a Cargill advertisement I am astounded by the hubris of the copy writers and the company who state in bold letters:

“WE ARE BRINGING RANCH QUALITY BEEF TO GROCERY STORES.”

Then in smaller type:“Supermarkets know that shoppers will judge the quality of an entire store with what they see in the fresh meat department. So savvy grocery chains have turned to Cargill’s branded beef programs to provide their fresh meat departments with products that bring back customers. This is how Cargill works with customers. – collaborate – create – succeed.”

If this is in fact how shoppers judge grocery stores then everybody in California and surrounding states will be on a hunger strike for a while.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that a beef packing facility in Fresno, Calif., is recalling 825,769 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with an antibiotic- resistant form of the Salmonella bacteria. The recalled ground beef products produced by Beef Packers, Inc., "may be linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis" in Colorado. The company is recalling the ground beef it sent to Colorado, Arizona, Utah and sold in California, according to a USDA announcement.

Beef Packers Inc. is owned by Cargill Inc.

The USDA says this strain "is resistant to many commonly prescribed drugs, which can increase the risk of hospitalization or possible treatment failure in infected individuals," the USDA said. "The most common manifestations of salmonellosis are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within eight to 72 hours."

Possible treatment failure = death?

By the way, the USDA does not have the authority to impose recalls, recalls are all voluntary.

Salmonella Burgers - Round 2 - Second Outbreak

August 3, 2009

GROUND BEEF WARNING: Colorado state health officials, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several other state health departments are investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections that are resistant to several commonly used antibiotics. Experts from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Friday urged Coloradans to avoid ground beef or to cook it carefully to prevent foodborne illness. To date, cases of illness have been identified in nine states. The majority of cases have been reported in Colorado. Preliminary evidence from the multi-state investigation strongly suggests that ground beef is the source of the outbreak, although further investigation is ongoing. Twenty-one illnesses have been reported in Colorado in the following counties: Arapahoe (three), Broomfield (three), Denver (three), Douglas (one), Elbert (one), Garfield (one), Jefferson (four), Mesa (one), Pueblo (one) and Weld (three). For more information about food safety, call the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Consumer Protection Division at 303-692-3620.

Convenience vs Ethics in Food Choices

My grandpa would have said: What in the Sam Hell are we thinking?

Most cows in the U.S. are on feedlot diets (fed corn and grain instead of grass). As many as 30 percent of them are plagued by acid indigestion, then ulcers, then the bacteria that sets up shop in their livers. Other maladies: dirt eating, diarrhea, polio, convulsions. Adding insult to injury, cows that collapse are electrocuted or forklifted to standing because a "downer" cow cannot be sent to market.

This meat then makes its way to school lunches.

Three-quarters of the nation's antibiotics go straight to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Recently, the USDA's Agricultural Resource Service engineered a vaccine for sick, shipped cows, licensing it to pharmaceutical giant Schering- Plough. We now have two powerhouses feeding off each other and feeding us problems. All these pills and bills seem to be small bandages over our festering food wound.

Grass-fed animals are higher in all kinds of goodnesses: omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid, Vitamin A. They are lower in fat, cholesterol and calories. The risk of E. coli is nearly nil. According to the American Grassfed Association, if a person switched from their average 66.5 pound consumption of feedlot beef to a grass-fed diet, they would reduce their yearly calories by 17,733.

The lesson is that when meat quality slides, it brings morality — the producers', the buyers', the quality controllers' — down with it.

Boss Hog's attempted regulatory coup in North Carolina

A state commission spent two years crafting rules to monitor water pollution at factory farms -- but a state senator with close ties to the hog industry got his colleagues to unanimously pass a bill nixing those rules. Will the House follow suit?

That lawmakers are so sympathetic to a polluting industry is not altogether surprising considering the enormous clout the corporate agriculture lobby has in North Carolina -- influence that's apparent in bill sponsor Senator Charlie Albertson's record of campaign contributions.