| By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
Teach me every language ofthe creatures that sing to me,That I may count the cadence ofInfinite lessons in harmony.-- Jamie Sams
Concern is increasing across the nation and the world about the condition of our food supply. More and more, contaminated meat products are resulting in millions of illnesses each year and estimates are that 7,000 to 8,000 people in the U.S. alone die annually from eating contaminated meat.
The situation may have worsened since the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowed slaughterhouses and meat packing plants to essentially regulate themselves. The 8,700 USDA meat inspectors used to physically examine carcasses on the production line. Now they scrutinize company paperwork and test results while millions of pounds of meat with feces, vomit, bacteria, and metal shards are packed and shipped to supermarkets.
Thousands of chickens are killed every hour. (Photo courtesy Farm Sanctuary)
Physical inspection of meat and poultry has never been very effective. There are far too few inspectors for the many thousands of packing plants in the United States. Even when inspectors are present, there is little they can do. Some contamination can be seen on the meat, like feces, abscesses, and pus, but it takes microscopic examination to find E-coli bacteria, responsible for numerous deaths.The E. coli bacterium normally lives harmlessly in the stomachs of cattle. Contamination occurs because of the system of raising thousands of cattle in confined spaces with poor sanitation. The animals spread the germ by defecating and drooling into shared water troughs. Bad sanitation and handling can contaminate fruits and vegetables as well.
Also, meat and poultry have been found to contain measurable residues of the growth hormones, antibiotics and other drugs used to raise cattle and chickens. These residues cannot be detected by visual inspection.
It is nearly impossible to inspect meat at all since the carcasses are moving at high speeds past the checkpoints. At poultry plants, chickens move past inspection points at the rate of 85 to 140 birds per minute. No one could spot contamination consistently at that rate.
Contamination problems are not limited to cattle and poultry. In January 2001, Japanese consumer groups protested against contaminated whale meat that is exported by Norway.
Whale meat (Photo by Judy Mills courtesy
WWF)
"It is scientifically proven that whale meat, especially whale blubber, accumulates dangerously high levels of toxic chemicals, such as dioxin and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)," said Yoko Tomiyama, chairwoman of the Consumers Union of Japan. Studies have shown that nearly half of the whale meat in the Japanese marketplace is contaminated with toxic chemicals. Mercury contamination has also been found in whale, dolphin and porpoise meat consumed in Japan.
This is further evidence of the deep, insidious contamination of our Earth's ecosystems from toxic industrial chemicals that have been allowed to enter our soil and groundwater for hundreds of years.
Consumer groups in Australia have been protesting that nation's double standard when it comes to food safety. Reports abound of such abuses. In the mid-1990s, reports emerged that meat found to be contaminated with bacteria due to poor storage conditions was approved for sale in Australia, but not for export to North America, Europe, and Japan.
USDA inspectors (surveyed by the Government Accountability Project in 1999) said that fecal contamination occurs almost daily in many plants.
The USDA inspection system is a failure. Only about one chicken per 22,000 and one beef carcass out every 300 each week is tested for the deadly E. coli 015H7 bacteria.
Last September, ABC News reported that the American Meat Institute, a group that represents 70 percent of the beef, lamb, pork, veal, and turkey producers in the United States said that "food-borne illnesses have been decreasing and bacterial contamination of meat and poultry has been declining."
Thousands of turkeys live in close quarters, spreading contamination and disease. (Photo courtesy Farm Sanctuary)
Food safety advocates say that it is not the incidence of illness that has decreased, but rather the reporting of such contamination because of a failed inspection system.
Imported meat puts you at risk as well. Last September, the Center for Science in the Public Interest reported that six out of 15 countries audited by the USDA in 1998 and 1999 were so filthy or otherwise in violation of department rules that they were barred from exporting to the United States. However, USDA took no action in five of those countries either to inspect or stop imports from other plants that were not inspected.
Mexico had the highest proportion of unacceptable plants. Of 37 plants authorized to export to the United States, 10 were inspected in 1999, and five were determined "unacceptable" and decertified. Another 27 were not inspected.
In France, seven of the 19 plants inspected were barred from export. Another 17 plants were not audited. USDA inspectors found that France's inspection system had "serious deficiencies."
Three of Finland's seven plants were barred from exporting to the United States. Only 11 out of Denmark's 89 plants were examined. One was decertified.
The USDA advises producers and marketers to minimize pre-slaughter fasting stress in cattle by feeding animals regularly. It may suppress bacterial like E. coli 0157:H7. (Photo by Brian Prechtel courtesy U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
The USDA inspected only 147 meat and poultry plants out of a total of 1,066 plants in the 15 European Union countries in 1998 and the first six months of 1999.
Abuse of any industry is fueled by consumer demand. As long as people demand cheap meat, these issues will haunt us.
There is overwhelming evidence today that reducing the intake of animal protein in one's diet will greatly reduce the risk of many forms of cancer and heart disease that simply do not show up in cultures whose diets have little meat.
The myth that we need huge amounts of protein in our diets has been shattered. It is virtually impossible to have a protein deficient diet if one eats a variety of plant based foods, beans rice, and potatoes.
With the vast number of non-meat, nutrition rich food choices we have, it may make little sense to base one's diet on meat any longer.
And in light of the serious contamination issues, eating meat is becoming more and more like a game of roulette - with deadly consequences for the loser.
RESOURCES
1.Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand that they fund the USDA to levels that will allow thorough meat inspection and that they halt the criminal abuses going on in slaughterhouses. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at:
http://www.visi.com/
juan/congress/ziptoit.html
2.See USDA guidelines for selecting meat at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/
howtobuy/meat.htm
3.Read about some of the dangers of meat from Britain at: http://britishmeat.com/
index.html
4.Check out some of the information by those against eating meat at: http://www.meatstinks.com/
5.Keep track of these issues with the Organic Consumers Association at:
http://www.purefood.org/
6.Read about protein from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine at:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/
Info_on_Veg_Diets/protein.
html
7.Read about how to safely store meat at the USDA website at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/
OA/pubs/storage.htm
8.Some companies produce meat products that do not contain hormones or antibiotics and are raised in a more humane fashion. Check out Coleman Farms for an example of this approach at:
http://www.colemannatural.
com/
9.See a General Accounting Office report on the use of hormones and antibiotics in food at:
http://www.gao.gov/
docdblite/summary.php?rptno=RCED-99-74
10.See the USDA's program for importing meat at: http://www.ava.gov.sg/vphfs/
11.Get info on reducing and eliminating meat from you diet from: http://www.vegan.com
12.Get foods and products that were made without animal ingredients from:
http://www.pangeaveg.com
13.For meatless recipes, check out the Vegan Chef at: http://www.veganchef.com/
archive.htm
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He hasn't eaten meat in 21 years and enjoys eating meals that have made no creature suffer. Send your thoughts and ideas to him at
jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at
http://www.healingourworld.com
http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/
2001L-02-23g.html
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