Eat Shit and Die: Contaminated Veggies Are the Meat Industry’s Fault

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Eat Shit and Die: Contaminated Veggies Are the Meat Industry’s Fault

By Allison Kilkenny, Buffalo Beast. Posted June 24, 2008.

The latest salmonella scare shows that even vegetarians are still at the mercy of the meat industry.



Despite being one of the most grotesquely overfed populations in recent memory, Americans remain preoccupied only with the quantity, not the quality, of their food. They don't mind if scientists inject their french fries with high-fructose corn syrup as long as McDonald's super-sizes their order for a nickel.

Yet, the attitude toward vegetarianism is changing in the United States. While it's difficult to quantify how many vegetarians live within our borders, it's easier to observe the attitude toward vegetarians. Twenty years ago, "What're you, a Commie?" was a typical response to a confession of veggie brotherhood. Nowadays, despite the occasional stink eye, meat eaters at least understand that vegetarianism is healthy, if not a lifestyle particularly suited for them.

Even though the United States is more veggie-friendly these days, it's still difficult to avoid crappy food, even if one chooses to become a vegan, as I did six years ago. Despite my decision, I found myself projectile vomiting into my toilet last week. Diagnosis: food poisoning. Suspect: tomatoes. Unfortunately, becoming a vegetarian or a vegan doesn't ensure healthiness. Sure, vegetarians enjoy many health perks (low rates of: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc.) but we're still at the mercy of the meat industry in many ways.

For starters, the meat industry poisons the environment. A 2006 United Nations report described the devastation caused by the meat industry as "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." Aside from global warming, meat production is a large factor in deforestation, wasted land, and air and water contamination.

Water contamination may play a large part in increasing reports of vegetable and fruit contamination. In 2007, a California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach after a sample tested positive for salmonella. Nearly a year before, an outbreak of E. coli in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened 200. The recent tomato salmonella outbreak has affected at least 145 people, resulting in 23 hospitalizations, and many believe water contamination is the cause of the affected tomatoes. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/environment/89015/

[hlthe2b]

1. True, but simplistic.... Salmonella may have been human origin

When pickers are treated like so much human refuge, not even providing portapotties or bathroom breaks, as has been the case in this country and others.... well, you get the picture...

Yes, livestock production is part of the problem, but not the entire picture.

[Gman]

3. Nevertheless, it was a good enough excuse to write a screed about meat

which always plays well with the vegetarians who say, "Yeah!".

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Vegetarians and neo-Con public health inspectors

It's a marriage made in hell.

--p!

[Maureen1322]

2. "Fast Food Nation" read it and weep.