Antibiotics

What’s in our food?
The seemingly ever increasing number and volume of meat recalls has made consumers aware of the risks of food borne illnesses that may be transmitted via contaminated meat. Between 2004 and 2009 466 million pounds of meat were recalled. This includes the staggering 143 million pounds in the single recall of February 2008 from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. Fifty seven percent of all meat recalled was beef and the major reasons for recall were Listeria and E. Coli contamination.

The onus to avoid potential risks from contaminated meat has been moved from the meat industry to the consumer. Consumers are becoming used to advice to avoid potential infection from tainted meat by cooking it thoroughly and using a meat thermometer to make sure it reaches an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees—sound  advice if there is a chance of  acid resistant E. Coli from feedlot production. However, far fewer consumers are aware of the scale of a different contamination and one that cannot be mitigated by good hygiene or cooking practice. The issue in question is antibiotic residue in meat and it appears that the dairy sector is the biggest offender.

Quantity VS. Quality




The Suffering of Livestock

The Suffering
If these billions of animals lived happy, healthy lives and had quick and painless deaths, then a concern for suffering would lead us to focus our efforts elsewhere. But animals raised for food must endure horrible cruelties. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of advocating on behalf of these animals is trying to describe the suffering they endure: the confinement and overcrowding, the stench, the racket, the extremes of heat and cold, the attacks and even cannibalism, the hunger and starvation, the illness, the mutilation, the broken bones and failing organs, etc. Indeed, every year, hundreds of millions of animals – many times more than the number killed for fur, in shelters, and in laboratories combined – don’t even make it to slaughter. They actually suffer to death.

Chicken Slaughter

The last seconds of this chickens seem to be neverending as its life is going to be out of existense in just a short while. We dont think of how strong the fear of the animal must be. I guess we will never know until we get deeper into the subject.

Cow Slaughter

Under law, slaughtered cattle and hogs first must be "stunned" -- rendered insensible to pain -- with a blow to the head or an electric shock. But on most plants this stunning doesn't always work properly, with cruel consequences for the animals. Enforcement records, interviews, videos and worker affidavits describe repeated not well stunned animals at dozens of slaughterhouses, ranging from the smallest, custom butcheries to modern, automated establishments.

U.S. Wellness Meats: The Grass-Fed Difference

Here are some interesting facts of what cows gain from eating the correct food source and how it can help us the consumers of these pasture feeding beef.

The Cost of Corn-Fed Cattle

Cow on top of Manure Mountain

E-Coli is something that is a danger to human and to livestocks.Eating corn has a lot to do with this. This would not occur if cows were in a grass diet. The way they were intended to eat. If the manure seeps down to the underground water system it can contaminate it. However, if neighboring farmers are tapping into that source of water and they are using it to irrigate their crops. Their will be a contamination in our food source.

 Creating danger in our lives.

Injected Hormones

The injection of growth hormones in to cows so they can grow at a faster rate. This will make corporations very happy. According to the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating to Public Health, the use of six natural and artificial growth hormones in beef production poses a potential risk to human health.These six hormones include three which are naturally occurring Oestradiol, Progesterone and Testosterone and three which are synthetic Zeranol, Trenbolone, and Melengestrol. Scientists believe about two-thirds of American cattle raised in for slaughter today are injected with hormones to make them grow faster and America’s dairy cows are given a genetically-engineered hormone called rBGH to increase milk production.