FECES FED BEEF

[canadamike]

One of my clients is a dairy farmer who sells is calves to a place in Quebec where they fatten them for the USA. He visited the operation ; 20,000 animals are there at any time. They can't sell the meat to Canada, because they squeeze out the liquids from the feces, put the solids in a silo and feed them back to the animals, at the demand of the American buyer, who wants the lowest cost, and it is the way it is achieved in your country... another proof of the grip of the corporations on the government...and common sense

I think I''ll stay up north

[grungy]

YUCK!

[MawkHawk]

Heh, we're so used to being fed shit down here that we probly can't even tell....

[plantsnobin]

Rabbit's have a special poo that they eat when nobody is looking. Keeps them healthy. Of course, they are eating their own poo, not somebody else's. If we really thought about how nasty animals are we would probably all be vegetarians. Ever see a new animal mother, cleaning up after giving birth?

[lavandulagirl]

Andre says, they are mostly fed chicken poo, not cow poo. Processing of cow poo is too expensive. GROSS!

[stratcat]

Ugh! After hearing such things, I don't even miss eating beef.

john

[sandbar]

Know where your food is coming from.

That's why I don't buy meat from the grocery store. Only from small, local, organic producers.

Had beef tenderloin with Montgomery Inn barbecue sauce (http://www.montgomeryinn.com/) last night ... mmm.

[canadamike]

Lav. as disgusting as it is to hear it, if you were very sick, it would probably do ood to drink your own urine, this is how many kids in hospices held by religious congregations were treated back to health centuries ago, the same may apply to the rabbit, but ones own...stuff...contains natural antibiotics like penicillin from mare's urine...being fed shit is a different thing altogether...

canadian strawberries are in season...no more dreadfull plaster of Paris tasting ones from California or Florida... yeppy!!

[PapaVic]

The following is taken from an article I found online:

Agriculture experts say a slew of new and questionable methods of fattening cattle are being employed by farmers. To trim costs, many farmers add a variety of waste substances to their livestock and poultry feed--and no one is making sure they are doing so safely. Chicken manure in particular, which costs from $15 to $45 a ton in comparison with up to $125 a ton for alfalfa, is increasingly used as feed by cattle farmers despite possible health risks to consumers. In regions with large poultry operations, such as California, the South, and the mid-Atlantic, more and more farmers are turning to chicken manure as a cheaper alternative to grains and hay.

Lamar Carter is one such cattle farmer. Carter recently purchased 745 tons of litter scooped from the floors of local chicken houses, stacking it 12 feet high on his farm near Dardanelle, Ark. After allowing the protein-rich excrement to heat up for seven to 10 days, Carter mixes it with smaller amounts of soybean bran, and feeds this fecal slumgullion to his 800 head of cattle. "My cows are fat as butterballs," Carter says. "If I didn't have chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my herd. Other feed's too expensive."

Agricultural refuse such as corncobs, rice hulls, fruit and vegetable peelings, along with grain byproducts from retail production of baked goods, cereals, and beer, have long been used to fatten cattle. In addition, some 40 billion pounds a year of slaughterhouse wastes like blood, bone, and viscera, as well as the remains of millions of euthanized cats and dogs passed along by veterinarians and animal shelters, are rendered annually into livestock feed--in the process turning cattle and hogs, which are natural herbivores, into unwitting carnivores.

Animal-feed manufacturers and farmers also have begun using or trying out dehydrated food garbage, fats emptied from restaurant fryers and grease traps, cement-kiln dust, even newsprint and cardboard that are derived from plant cellulose. Researchers in addition have experimented with cattle and hog manure, and human sewage sludge. New feed additives are being introduced so fast, says Daniel McChesney, head of animal-feed safety for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that the government cannot keep pace with new regulations to cover them.

Distasteful as it may seem, chicken and turkey droppings can be fed safely if handled properly. This involves correctly stacking the manure for four to eight weeks while the naturally generated heat raises temperatures to 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit, high enough to destroy bacteria and toxins. However, farmers rarely--if ever--check the temperatures of manure piles or test to make sure the waste is pathogen free, according to interviews with university extension experts, state and federal agriculture officials, livestock feed-industry regulators, and beef growers in large poultry producing states. Some farmers say they feed chicken manure raw to cattle straight from the broiler house, which virtually ensures problems. Others "go by the smell" to judge when it is ready.

Source: www.organicconsumers.org/shit.html

YUM YUM ... makes me wanna run down to Hardees and get me one of those Prime Rib boogers.

pv

[PapaVic]

And here's how the Food and Drug Adminstration begs off regulating the practice of feeding chicken shit to cattle (highlights from an FDA memo):

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for administering the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) which requires that food be pure and wholesome, that it not contain unsafe additives or poisonous or deleterious substances, and that it is truthfully labeled. [Oh, that makes me feel so safe right away!]

Recycled animal waste is a processed feed product for livestock derived from animal manure or a mixture of manure and litter. Animal wastes contain significant percentages of protein, fiber, and essential minerals and have been deliberately incorporated into animal diets for their nutrient properties for almost 40 years. Incorporation of this product into animal diets is a viable alternative to land application or land fill. [See ... give us the stock excuses ... it's been done for 4 decades ... nothin' new ... and otherwise, the manure would have to be taken to a landfill or other form of more expensive disposal. Gosh.]

The recycling of animal waste as a feed ingredient is primarily a local practice. The bulk and weight of the product are such that transportation costs for significant shipment across State lines is generally uneconomical. Generally, animal waste is used within the State where it is produced. [Yeah, right. Lessee. So what the FDA is hinting at is unless chicken shit crosses state lines, it ain't none of their business who it gets fed to or whether or not the labelling reflects the truth? Duh.]

Because it (chicken shit cattle feed) is generally used within the State where it is produced and the States have the capacity to effectively regulate its use, FDA policy is not to take an active surveillance role in regulating the use of processed animal waste as an animal feed ingredient (FDA Compliance Policy Guide, Sec. 685.100, Recycled Animal Waste -- CPG 7126.34.) [Oh, okay ... so, unless Farmer Brown trucks a load of chicken shit from Mountain Home, Arkansas to Branson, Missouri ... oh, nevermind ... I forgot ... FDA already said they assume it's gonna be fed to cattle in the same state where the chickens pooped it out.]

FDA may still take regulatory action if shipment of waste across State lines which presents a health hazard is brought to the Agency's attention, and the State(s) involved cannot take appropriate regulatory action. [In other words, FDA ain't gonna do surveillance ... they're just gonna wait for someone to squeal on someone else ... and then FDA "MAY still regulate" ... not "shall regulate" what it is their charter says they should regulate.]

www.ehso.com/ehshome/FoodSafety/chickenmanurefda.htm


Whatta bunch of shit.

pv

[jaliranchr]

There are choices out there. They do cost more, but they are there. Some of us raise em the same way our great grandpappies did in the 1880s on short grass prairie helped with a few modern conveniences, but it won't come in the bargain roll at the superstore.

[canadamike]

The good food business has been killed by the modern grocery store, probably the worst heritage ever left by Quebecers , who invented it in the fifties, to the world .

It was actually OK until centralised buying came along the process with the establishment of the chains and the impossibility for the local owner to buy is produce himself from the farmers of his area...

What I say to my plants: '' eat shit and grow'' is now applied to us.

It is funny to see the gvt describe the shit in term of source of protein, as if taste was not part of the equation...well, they are right in a way, it has long been taken out of it...

That's what so great with the concept of ''terroir'' in France, wich has no linguistic equivalent in english, but could be described as '' the taste of the land of a precise area'', the term including historical cultural practices and local varieties of either wild plants or grown ''specific'' vegetable varieties, cultivars etc..

It is becoming more and more important in Quebec, so the rest of Canada should follow.

For exemple, the famed ''poulet (chicken) de Bresse '' has to be fed with corn only, and from the area, along with the critters and grasses it gathers while roaming freely in the fields...

And it is good chicken... and we could do the same as a society, as a lot of us here do already.

[flowerpower]

After reading about the cows, I can't even imagine what's in Canadian Bacon. Honestly, I try not to watch what the chickens are eating outside. If I did, I would never eat eggs again.

[canadamike]

All that shitty stuff, including hormones , is illegal in Canada, it is also illegal to feed animals with animal flour of the same group, ie for exemple cows with sheep by produts and so on.

The regimen for milking cows is pretty strict too, and since in this country milk comes from family farms, thanks to the quota system that has saved us from the milk industrial factories, cows are tended mostly with care and even affection.

I have a lot of farming clients, and one of the funniest thing is when they show you the operation and introduce you to the cows.

I have a client, milking 350 cows ( this is hyper huge here ) that introduced me to ALL of them , name and all. It took a couple of hours .

Real farmers love their animals.

Another client of mine, raising egg chickens, went to an american fair and ask for info at an automated chicken raising system. The guy asked for which size he was interested in. When he heard his numbers he started laughing.

Their SMALLEST UNIT was ONE MILLION.

My client raises his family on a huge 13,000 egg laying chickens...

Bless the country who protects the family farm.

[plantsnobin]

My husband feels the same way FP. I told him about my pet hen going through the rabbit poo for fly larvae before I put my worms in it. He said, 'she's eating the maggots?' he was a little disgusted by the thought of eating eggs. It's what chickens do, what can I say. We have outside rabbit hutches, and pigs. You should see the lovely butterflies puddle in the poo. They get lots of nutrients from it and they will congregate in large numbers. As for our food system, I am sure that if we all saw what happens we would never buy from a store again. I remember seeing a show on 'How it's made' or something similar, around easter time. They were showing where all those eggs came from. They showed the chickens in what had to be less than a square foot cage. At first I thought it was an expose type show, but no, they showed how these chickens were kept, not even enough room to turn around. Like it was perfectly normal for a chicken to never see the light of day, or scratch around in the earth. I thought it was terrible, and that people would protest and boycott eggs when they saw the conditions the chickens lived in. I guess not. My husbands business partner used to work on a chicken farm when he was a teenager, and he still won't eat chicken, 20 years later. In an ideal world we would grow all our own, or at least know the farmer who grew it. Sadly, I don't think that is realistic for most people in our country.