Stuff We Need To Know

By now you know that we try to eat as close to 100% organic as we can. I have reported to you our reasons for eating organic including better tasting foods, avoidance of genetically modified foods, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics etc.

We eat less and less animal protein these days - mostly because the flavors of the food we cook are better. Some recent research I did validated what was a gradual and natural pullback from meat.

These are the things you need to know about commercially processed meats and their impact on our environment.

1. Factory animal farms in the US produce 1.3 billion tons of waste per year. That number is roughly 5 tons per human in the US and 100 times the amount of human waste generated per year. While we treat and deal with human waste the waste produced at factory farms is spread on the surrounding land. That may sound like fertilization but the amounts spread have more phosphorus and other material than the soil can absorb. The net effect is that the soil is killed and the excess runs off into the water supply.

2. 70% of the antibiotics used in the US are used in livestock. The bulk of them are used in the feed at factory farms. They use them to aid in the growth of the animals. Since the animal won't use any energy fighting off bacterial infections they can use the energy to grow to maturity faster. If you used this tactic with your child you would be have a 2 1/2 year old that was over 300 lbs! Does that sound right to anyone?

3. Arsenic is widely used in chicken feed at factory farms. The addition of arsenic in chicken feed fights parasites in the birds again so they can grow faster. As scary as that sounds for the meat they produce it is even worse than you might think as the manure from the birds has stable arsenic in it as well. It doesn't take much research to find cancer cluster near factory chicken farms as they are more than happy to spread the manure at schools and parks. Nice Huh?

4. Growth hormones are a staple food at factory farms. They also remain stable in the meat and in the waste. They are one of many Endocrine Disruptors which are known cancer causes. Other endocrine disruptors include pesticides. Just sayin'.

We have been overwhelmed lately with problems like MRSA and other antibiotic resistant infections and we have been told it is from over-prescribed antibiotics. While that is part of the problem it makes just as much sense that our food supply which is laden with antibiotic raised animals has a good part of the blame as well.

We are the only advanced country that allows antibiotic, hormones, GMO feed or arsenic in meat production. THE ONLY ONE! Why?  Money of course. Beginning with the Clinton administration relaxing the regulations and continuing and expanding under Bush the EPA and FDA have been neutered in terms of enforcement while the regulations have been stripped of any real teeth.

I'd like to think we can just vote with our dollars and buy organic to fix this problem, but the reality is that water and air are not infinite resources. We need to vote with our votes this time. We need to install leaders with the moral will to overcome the political pressure to leave things as they are.

Maybe we need to occupy the FDA and EPA.

More soon.....