'Green Acres' - food and junk food post

Call for More Imports of GM Feed Ingredients into EU

UK - Ministers and farmers say that imports of genetically modified (GM) imports should be increased. To overcome the dilemma of dwindling global supplies on non-GM feed ingredients and the EU ban on growing GM varieties, the permitted maximum GM ingredient level in the EU may be raised.

Debunking the meat/climate change myth _ Eliot Coleman

I am dismayed that so many people have been so easily fooled on the meat eating and climate change issue following the UN report. The culprit is not meat eating but rather the excesses of corporate/industrial agriculture. The UN report shows either great ignorance or possibly the influence of the fossil fuel lobby with the intent of confusing the public. It is obviously to someone’s benefit to make meat eating and livestock raising an easily attacked straw man (with the enthusiastic help of vegetarian groups) in order to cover up the singular contribution of the only new sources of carbon—burning the stored carbon in fossil fuels and to a small extent making cement (both of which release carbon from long term storage)—as the reason for increased greenhouse gasses in the modern era. (Just for ridiculous comparison, human beings, each exhaling about 1kg of CO2 per day, are responsible for 33% more CO2 per year than fossil fuel transportation. Maybe we should get rid of us.)

National Association of Manufacturers claims climate bill would crush economy

In shocking news, water is still wet, the sky is still blue, and the National Association of Manufacturers is still predicting economic catastrophe if the United States acts against climate change.

NAM, in partnership with the American Council for Capital Formation, released a new study on Wednesday of the climate and energy bill that the House passed in June, better known as Waxman-Markey. They predict that the “anti-energy, anti-growth, and anti-jobs bill” will “destroy growth.”

“Higher energy costs are bad for manufacturers and the 12 million Americans who work in the manufacturing sector,” said Jay Timmons, executive vice president of NAM, in a call with reporters. “After all, manufacturing uses a third of all the electricity generated in the United States.”

Rep. Hechler to Greens: We need more hellraisers

While Big Coal continues to bankroll the largest public relations campaign of “clean coal” denial in recent history, former US Representative and historian Ken Hechler has issued an urgent wake up call to Greens and liberal Democrats: Tragic lessons in history remind us that the coal crisis and its deniers call for more hellraisers, not compromise.

This is the truth: While Democrats in Washington, DC tie themselves into knots over regulatory inaction and Big Coal slogans, it takes a 94-year-old hellraiser to sound the alarm on the most overlooked environmental and human rights violations today. Big Coal must be confronted, not coddled.

The Dairy Site

Dairy News Thursday, August 13, 2009

DairyCo at UK Dairy Event And Livestock Show

AFBF: Report Bearish for Corn, Neutral for SoybeansRegistration Opens for VIV ChinaIn The Cattle MarketsWednesday, August 12, 2009Feed Barley Supplies Likely to be Tight this WinterEU Ministers Propose Additional Dairy MeasuresMeasuring the Pros And Cons Of TB-Free StatusCME: Choice Cattle Supply Could be BoostedWeekly Roberts ReportTuesday, August 11, 2009FMD NEWS: Plan to Vaccinate 4.10 Lakh CattleMerial: Combine Vaccination with Parasite ControlNo End in Sight to High, Volatile Feed Grain PricesChemaphor and Elanco End RelationshipCall for More Imports of GM Feed Ingredients into EUAward Winning Green Feed Technology Debuts in USCattle Disease Hits GuluWeekly Outlook: US Wheat Exports Off to Slow StartMonday, August 10, 2009Carbon Footprinting Guide for All the Dairy Industry more Dairy news...

Featured Articles

World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates
According to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report from the World Agricultural Outlook...Aureomycin and Zinc Reduce Incidence of Foot Rot in Grass Cattle
Despite an occasional respiratory problem, the major health-related cost that stocker producers...Functional Quality Management Systems for Livestock Producers
Will livestock producers adopt a systematic management approach of continuous improvement and document...Issues and Prospects in Corn, Soybeans, and Wheat Futures Markets
The past 5 years have seen large increases in trading of corn, soybean, and wheat futures contracts by...Saving Pennies to Make Dollars
When times are tough in the dairy industry, we try to find ways to become even more efficient than we...more Dairy features...

How to make homemade cheese.

Campaign For Real Health

Recent Posts

• • Whole Foods Market: “We Sell A Bunch of Junk…”
  • Parents, Schools and Doctors: Scenes From the Fight Against Junk Food for Kids

  • Study On Type II Diabetes: Cut Carbs and Increase Fat Intake

    by Charles on August 3, 2009

    A recent study turns conventional thinking on its head. Low carb diets can cut or eliminate the need for diabetic drugs. It associates healthy fats with decreases in cardiovascular disease. Good news for diabetics; bad news for big pharma and dietary dictocrats.

  • The study is called “Dietary carbohydrate restriction in type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome: time for a critical appraisal.” It’s a mouthful that carries several profound messages. The findings:

    1. Carbohydrate restriction improves glycemic control, the primary target of nutritional therapy and reduces insulin fluctuations.

    2. Carbohydrate-restricted diets are at least as effective for weight loss as low fat diets.

    3. Substitution of fat for carbohydrate is generally beneficial for markers for and incidence of cardiovascular disease. Read more...

  • The Milk Diet: A Physician’s Experience With Real Healing
  • The pharmaceutical industry gets rich making drugs that “manage” rather than “heal” disease. But a licensed M.D. had astounding success with real healing using a simple food substance from nature: Grass-fed Raw Milk. He wrote a book about his work. Another man, a nutritionist, healed himself using the milk diet and went on to build upon and modify it.
  • How To Choose Real Foods
  • All Things Vitamin D
  • Want REAL Health? Real FOOD is the key!
  • Fat 3.0: Healthy, Nutritious and Oh-So Satisfying!
  • Child Abuse? Or Vitamin D Deficiency Rickets?
  • Real Food Friday Fun — “Whip It!” Cooking With Joy!
  • 
    
  eatwild
  

  News about Pasture-Based Farming

  This section features our latest discoveries about the many differences between raising animals on pasture and in confinement. Information sources are cited at the end of each summary.

  Note: Find earlier News Bulletins in our News Archives. Also, click on the links in the left margin to find news that has been sorted into our four main categories—“Benefits for Animals,” " Benefits for the Environment,” "Benefits for Farmers,” and “Benefits for Your Health.”

  ---

  Score Ten for Grass-Fed Beef Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was: Lower in total fat Higher in beta-carotene Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium Higher in total omega-3s A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84) Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA) Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease S.K. Duckett et al, Journal of Animal Science, (published online) June 2009, “Effects of winter stocker growth rate and finishing system on: III. Tissue proximate, fatty acid, vitamin and cholesterol content.”

• Making sense out of meat labels

  Ever wonder what all those meat labels really mean? For example, what is meant by non-confined? natural? source verified? cage free?

  The folks at The Sustainable Table website have taken the time to figure it out and compile the information in a comprehensive, downloadable, easy-to read glossary of meat labels. Click here to view a copy.

• The European Union refuses to buy U.S. chicken

  Few people realize that the European Union has banned the import of all US poultry since 1997. This month, EU agriculture ministers voted to continue the ban despite aggressive pressure from the United States. The issue? The standard practice in the US poultry industry is to wash the carcasses in chlorinated water to kill bacteria.

  European health authorities are not convinced that it’s safe to ingest the small amounts of chlorine that remain on the meat and concluded that lifting the ban would “threaten the community’s entire set of food production standards.”

  John Bowis from the UK was more outspoken. He told reporters that “lifting the ban would be “outrageous” and would degrade EU citizens to the status of “guinea pigs.”

  Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of US citizens are unwittingly playing that role.

  “EU Ban Remains on US Chickens” December 19, 2008, Meatprocess.com
• 
  
• ( Ask anyone who has dealt with sanitation about chlorine. It's not a germ killer! )

• What Do the Russians Know That We Don’t Know?
  

  Effective November 1, 2007, Russians will no longer import poultry products from 17 U.S. processing plants. The reason? The plants don’t measure up to their health and safety standards.

  This summer, the Russian Federation Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service audited dozens of facilities around the country and found that the following plants failed to meet their minimal standards:

• Choctaw Maid Farms, Forest, MS.
• Sanderson Farms, Hazlehurst, MS.
• Sanderson Farms, Collins, MS.
• Mountaire Farms, Selbyville, DE.
• Tyson Foods, Carthage, MS.
• Fieldale Farms, Murrayville, GA.
• Nordic, Atlanta, GA.
• Peco Foods, Bay Springs, MS.
• Sylvest Farms, Montgomery, AL.
• Tyson Foods, Clarksville, AR.
• Americold Logistics, Montgomery, AL.
• Americold Logistics, Charlotte, NC.
• Millard Refrigerated Service, Richland, MS.
• Stanford Refrigerated Warehouses, Macon, GA.
• Greko, Cumming, GA.
• Simmons Foods, Siloam Springs, AR.

The USDA is investigating the Russian claims.

Do you know where your poultry comes from? Ask your store manager.

(Alicia Karapetian. Poultry News, 10/19/07. www.meatingplace.com

• Healthy Eggs: What We Knew in 1932

  In the 1930s, scientists and food producers were creating the first plans to take poultry off family farms and raise them in confinement. To enact their plans, they needed to create “feed rations” that would keep the birds alive and productive even though they were denied their natural diet of greens, seeds, and insects. It was a time of trial and error.

  In a 1932 experiment conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, breeding hens were taken off pasture and fed a wide variety of feed ingredients. When the birds were fed a diet that was exclusively soy or corn or wheat or cottonseed meal, the chickens didn’t lay eggs or the chicks that developed from the eggs had a high rate of mortality and disease.

  But when birds were fed these same inadequate diets and put back on pasture, their eggs were perfectly normal. The pasture grasses and the bugs made up for whatever was missing in each of the highly restrictive diets.

  “The effect of diet on egg composition.” Journal of Nutrition 6(3) 225-242. 1933.

• Corn Prices Too High?
  Feed the Animals Candy Instead

  The growing use of corn for fuel has doubled the price of corn for animal feed. Typically, corn comprises about 70 percent of the diet of animals raised in confinement. To offset the spiking cost of corn, many feedlot managers are replacing some of the corn with candy and other “junk food” that has been declared unfit for human consumption.

  According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, this sugary, fatty fare includes banana chips, yogurt-covered raisin, cookies, licorice, cheese curls, frosted wheat cereal, Tater Tots, Kit Kat bars, uncooked French fries, pretzels and chocolate bars. One feedlot operator from Idaho confesses that he feeds his cattle a 100 percent “by-product” meal.

  Grass, the native diet of grazing animals, is a rich source of protein, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids. Has anyone measured the nutritional value of meat from junk-food-fed cows? Candy may be cheap, but it’s cheating consumers out of meat’s natural nutrition. Consider grass-fed, instead.

  “With Corn Prices Rising, Pigs Switch to Fatty Snacks” Lauren Etter, Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2007.

• Pizza Dough and Tetracycline

  In an interview with a former manager of a cattle feedlot, Eatwild has learned of an extreme example of raising cattle on junk food. In this particular feedlot, the cattle were fattened on stale pizza crust that the owners purchased from a wholesale bakery for only a penny a pound.

  The pizza dough was then mixed with powdered tetracycline, an antibiotic that is not approved for use in cattle because it is important for human medicine. Adding low (subtherapeutic) levels of antibiotics make cattle eat more and gain weight more rapidly.

  On this junk food and drug diet, the cattle put on as much as four pounds a day, a remarkable rate of growth. The end result was more money for the feedlot, more abuse of medications that are important for human medicine, and more meat of questionable quality for an unsuspecting public.

  The degree to which American cattle are being fed junk food and off-label drugs is not known.

• How Spreadable is Your Butter?

  Take a cube of butter from your refrigerator, slice it with a knife, and spread it on a slice of bread. Did it coat the bread evenly or did it remain in hard lumps? Researchers have determined that the easier butter spreads, the better it is for your health.

  Why is this? The firmness of butter depends on its ratio of saturated and unsaturated fat. At refrigerator temperatures, saturated fat is hard and unsaturated fat is soft, or even liquid. Therefore, butter that is relatively easy to spread has less saturated, artery-clogging fat and more (healthier) unsaturated fat.

  In addition, a 2006 study shows that the softer the butter, the more fresh pasture in the cow’s diet. Cows that get all their nutrients from grass have the softest butterfat of all. Butter from grass-fed cows also has more cancer-fighting CLA, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids than butter from cows raised in factory farms or that have limited access to pasture.

  (For more information about the benefits of dairy products from grass-fed cows, read Jo Robinson’s essay, Super Healthy Milk. To find a local farmer who raises cows on grass, go to our Eatwild Directory of Farms and Ranches.)

  “The Linear Relationship between the Proportion of Fresh Grass in the Cow Diet, Milk Fatty Acid Composition, and Butter Properties.” Journal of Dairy Science, 2006. 89:1956–1969. [Note: this study is available free of charge at the Journal of Dairy Science website.]

• The Grass-Fed Paradox

  Grazing animals that eat their native diet of grass have more polyunsaturated fat in their meat than animals fed grain and other types of foodstuff. This is one of the reasons that grass-fed meat is better for your health. But polyunsaturated fats are prone to oxidation and oxidized meat can have a rancid or “off” flavor, and the meat spoils more quickly. It was long thought that grass-fed meat would suffer this fate.

  But new studies show that grass-fed meat is less likely to oxidize than ordinary feedlot meat. Why? The answer is that there are more antioxidants in grass than grain, and these protective substances keep the polyunsaturated fat from oxidizing. When you eat meat from a grass-fed cow, you are consuming more polyunsaturated fat, more antioxidants, and the meat is less likely to spoil.

  Mercier, Y., P. Gatellier, M. Renerre (2004). "Lipid and protein oxidation in vitro, and antioxidant potential in meat from Charolais cows finished on pasture or mixed diet." Meat Science 66: 467-473.

• The USDA Proposes a “Naturally Raised” Label

  On November 28, 2007 the USDA published a new standard for the label, “Naturally Raised.” According to the proposed standard, meat, eggs and dairy products are “naturally raised” if they come from an animal that: 1) was not treated with antibiotics, hormones or other growth promoters; and 2) was not fed by-products from mammals or poultry. According to USDA research, many consumers object to these practices, which are commonplace throughout the United States.

  We find the proposed label misleading. A package of “Naturally Raised” steak as defined by the USDA could come from a cow that was confined in a feedlot for six months; fattened on GMO corn, candy and stale pastry; and was forced to stand knee-deep in its own manure.

  We prefer a more wordy but accurate label: “Raised without Antibiotics, Hormones, or By-Products from Mammals or Poultry.” Such a label would help consumers avoid unwanted chemicals and practices but not imply that the animal was raised under natural conditions.

  You can comment on the proposed label until January 28, 2008. To read more about the label or register your comments follow this link.

• Cheap Meat: An Accident Waiting to Happen

  The latest fiasco in the U.S. livestock industry is that 20 million chickens, thousands of hogs, and an unknown number of farmed fish have been raised on feed contaminated with melamine, the chemical that made headline news when it got into pet food and sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs. According to the USDA, meat from hogs and chickens fed melamine has already entered our food supply.

  How did this happen? The story begins in China. Melamine is an inexpensive by-product of the coal industry. In a deceptive practice, Chinese producers have been mixing melamine with certain feed ingredients in order to inflate their protein content. (Melamine is not a protein and has no food value, but it mimics protein on standardized laboratory tests.) Melamine costs less than true sources of protein, so the manufacturers make more money.

  The story continues in the United States. In order to lower the cost of production, U.S. pet food manufacturers have been importing cheap protein meal from China. Unbeknownst to the manufacturers, recent shipments have been spiked with melamine. As a result, thousands of pets became sick or died.

  Now we get to the pigs, chickens, and fish. A common cost-cutting practice in the livestock industry is to supplement animal feed with floor sweepings and other remnants from pet food plants. The sweepings contain enough meal to offer some nutritional value. But recently, the sweepings have also been laced with melamine. In this serpentine fashion, a toxic chemical that was first added to pet food found its way to our very own tables.

  The USDA does not foresee any health consequences from eating melamine-spiced pork, poultry, and fish. Hopefully, this will prove to be true. But as long as we feed our animals on a “least-cost” basis, we risk a host of problems, ranging from minor contamination with an industrial chemical to mad cow disease. The solution is to raise our livestock on their native diets or on quality ingredients that match their original diets as closely as possible. We are what our animals eat.

• Antibiotic Growth Promoters Lose Money for Chicken Industry

  Many large-scale chicken producers feed antibiotics to their birds to speed their growth. This unnecessary use of antibiotics increases the likelihood that bacteria will become resistant to the drugs, making the antibiotics ineffective for veterinary and human medicine.

  Now we know that this much-criticized practice is also costing the industry money. Researchers from John Hopkins examined financial records from a study involving 7 million chickens. Their analysis showed that the antibiotics did indeed speed the growth of the poultry, but the drug use cost the producers more than they gained from the sale of the bigger birds.

  Raising chickens without antibiotic growth promoters is better for the birds, consumers, and—surprise, surprise—the poultry industry itself.

  Jay P. Graham, et al, Public Health Reports, “Growth Promoting Antibiotics in Food Animal Production: An Economic Analysis.” 122:1, 2007.

• Farm Milk Linked with Lower Rate of Asthma and Allergies

  A large European study of nearly 15,000 children revealed that drinking farm milk rather than commercial milk is linked with a lower risk of asthma and allergies.

  Children who drank farm milk at any time of their lives had a 26% lower risk of asthma, 33% lower risk of pollen sensitivity, and a remarkable 57% lower risk of food allergies. This was true for children who lived on a farm and those who lived in the city and drank farm milk.

  It was not clear from the study whether the reduction in risk was due to the fact that the milk was unpasteurized or the fact that the farm milk came from grazing cows. Milk from cows raised on pasture has more omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and other nutrients that may reduce the risk of allergies.

  Clinical and Experimental Allergy.Volume 37, pages 661-670. 2006

• U.S. Meat Safety Standards Not Good Enough for Japan

  On June 21, 2006, Japan agreed to lift its ban on the import of U.S. feedlot beef—as long as certain conditions are met: 1) The Japanese must be allowed to inspect U.S. meat packing facilities without prior notice, and 2) they must be allowed to check every shipment of meat for tissues that have the potential to transmit mad cow disease.

  They have reason to be suspicious of current safety standards. On January 21, 2006, the Japanese received a shipment of U.S. veal that contained spinal cord tissue—tissue that can harbor mad cow disease and has been banned from the food supply. Later, when Japanese inspectors visited a number of U.S. slaughter facilities, they concluded that U.S. safeguards were not able to insure the removal of the potentially infectious material. They now demand that Japanese consumers be given additional safeguards.