Mad Cow, Toxic Salmon, Avian Flu Chickens - Perfect Food Storm?

[SpiralHawk]

Do you see a pattern here? A troubling pattern? A dirty, corrupt and toxic pattern? I do.

These three rapidly emerging factors together -- with other factors such as the wholesale corporo-genetic perversion of plants and animals (without public consent) -- could spell MASSIVE TROUBLE for the global food chain.

If you have a positive pathway to suggest, this thread is a good place to post it. As many DUers will know, I am a strong advocate of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

To learn more about that, just google CSA + farm -- you'll find a wealth of links.

Here are 3 related links on what I see as 3 related food-chain phenomena that may be creating:
A PERFECT FOOD STORM.

I sincerely hope not.

Mad Cow:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Mad%20Cow%20Wash

Toxic Salmon:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june04/salmon_01-26.html

Avian Flu Chickens:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/7830148.htm

[arcane1]

1. also has the side-effect of driving up healthcare costs

since SO MANY of our health problems are directly caused by food.

I'm sure the insurance companies lose sleep over it... NOT

[salinen]

2. Greedy humans

will destroy this blue green ball for certain.

[arcane1]

5. and then Jesus will come back and thank them for it

according to the fundies :evilfrown:

[villager]

3. today's Mark Morford column

...takes on toxic US food practices:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/01/30/notes013004.DTL

[SpiralHawk]

8. Morford's first paragraphs - Great link villager!

So then from way, way over there in Ukraine comes this hilarious bit about how the country's customs officials just confiscated a whopping 19 tons of frozen U.S. chicken parts that smugglers claimed was sugar.

That's right: The crooks were trying to smuggle American-grown chicken into Ukraine territory, which is all well and good except it's very illegal, given how the U.S. genetically modifies billions of its chickens and injects them with hormones and chemicals and toxins and feeds them ground-up chicken parts mixed with chicken feces and saws off their beaks and packs them by the tens of thousands into tiny nauseating disease-ridden cages in massive "Matrix"-like hellhole factory farms and treats them worse than you treat a skin boil.

Ukraine refuses to take this crap.

(snip)

U.S. officials sneer and pout and stamp their feet and say eat our stupid noxious chicken parts goddammit. Ukrainian officials note how most of the U.S. officials are pale and sickly and obese and diabetic and precancerous and impotent and prematurely balding and sort of homely and piggish, and how seven of them just dropped dead on the spot from heart attacks just from stomping their angry little feet like that because they've eaten so many toxic chicken parts and now their bodies are saying, you know, screw you, I'm outta here.

(snip)

[tarheel]

4. This is funny

only in that, last night my wife jokingly suggested that the US was responsible for the avian Flu going around in Asia, in an effort to increase US poultry exports to offset the bans in many places around the world on US beef after the recent mad cow scare.

Kinda tinfoil hatty huh ?


(or is it ?) Doo Doo Doo Doo :evilgrin:

[nannygoat]

6. Wouldn't surprise me! Didn't you hear, tarheel, how the NC

poultry farmers are really going to "clean-up" as a result of this?

[SpiralHawk]

7. It's a small, green planet

What goes around, comes around.

Please don't put no toxic, cannibalistic crap in my food.

Thank you very much.

[seemslikeadream]

12. Since you mentioned cannabalistic

how would you feel if you were a co-worker of that cannibal guy just convicted in Germany. I heard on MSNBC this morning that he used to bring little meatballs to the office to share with them on Mondays.

[veganwitch]

9. *rises above*

i really have no problem feeling righteous indignation about all the food animal issues that have been arising in the last year+. the animal rights/welfare community has been saying for YEARS that the modern techniques in food animal raising and slaughtering are ripe with corruption and ultimate health risks.

the chickens, quite literally, are coming home to roost. and we fucking told you so.

[Dogmudgeon]

10. Lethal vedge smugness?

The food chain involves plants as well as animals. This is a small part of the violence we are doing to our entire planet.

There was an E. coli outbreak near where I live last Summer, and it killed a child who ate infected strawberries. The prions thought to cause Mad Cow/ BSE/ vCJD can easily live, and propagate, in plant substrates. Almost all genetically modified organisms are plants, and some of these artificial genes have "horizontal transmission" rates far in excess of anything seen in nature, meaning that such genes can "jump" across species easily.

We can't afford to calibrate our concern according to kingdom, since the damage is spreading so quickly. Vegetarians are going to have to lose the smugness -- this problem is universal and the struggle to limit and stop the damage is going to have to be universal, as well.

--bkl

[veganwitch]

11. "small part of the violence"

vegetarians still "kill" less plants than the average meat-eater. those animals got to eat something else when they arent eating each other. so im not sure what you are trying to say there.

but anyway. this is a big issue. there is already a case of bse/vcjd being transfered via blood transfusion. also, the prions still exist even if you render an animal carcas down to ash. where is that ash getting dumped? im not an expert on prions but im concerned about their ability to live in soil. but currently they seem to thrive in the spinal and central nervous system of animals and plants lack those.

but it was the animal rights/welfare groups that were pressuring the US government to act when bse was discovered in england and the rest of europe. while the US government was dragging its feet and tell citizen to keep chomping on their carcass burgers, peta, earthsave, vegsource, cok, were petitioning to get better health standards.

we tried and its hard to feel sorry for people who dont listen when you are right.