School Lunch Program - Got Beef?

In case you haven't heard... the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company story is shocking parents across the country while School lunch program operators across the nation are being instructed by USDA officials to "pull the beef from school lunch lines as a precaution."

Video shot at the Chino slaughterhouse during an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States shows downed cows, animals that are too sick to walk, being prodded with forklifts, poked in the eyes and blasted with water.

"The attempt was to make them so distressed and to cause them so much suffering that these animals would get up and walk into the slaughterhouse," said Wayne Pacelle with the Humane Society.[link]

The Humane Society of the United States says it turned over a video showing cattle being abused at a Chino slaughterhouse to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office in December. After a month with no legal action, the animal protection agency posted some of the video on its Web site this week and turned over 96 minutes of recordings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees slaughterhouses.[Emphasis added - link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture launched an investigation into the company on Wednesday after the Humane Society of the United States released a video that appears to document workers abusing cows that are too injured or weak to stand. (link)

...and were it not for the undercover video filmed by the Humane Society, what would have happened?

After all, Westland and its parent company, Hallmark Meat, are "the second largest supplier of beef to the USDA's commodity procurement branch, which distributes the beef to needy families, the elderly, and also the schools throughout the national school lunch program," according to the Humane Society of the United States. (link)

The USDA Response to the Media Attention?

The USDA, in its news release, said it was "unfortunate" the Humane Society "did not present this information to use when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007."

The Humane Society, in its statement, said it had turned the information over to "California law enforcement officials" at that time, and "local authorities asked for extra time before public release of the information." (link)

Sidenote: Yes siree, I imagine the USDA would have liked to see the video back in fall of 2007... maybe it would have prevented them from buying "...more than 27 million pounds of ground beef from Westland in 2007 as part of the government-subsidized National School Lunch Program." (Emphasis added - link)

In another Response from USDA:

In any case, there's no evidence that meat from so-called 'downer' cattle entered the food supply, USDA official Kenneth Petersen told reporters during a telephone news conference Friday. (link)

And another:

Federal officials emphasized that a hold is not the same thing as a recall. The beef could later be used if the USDA OKs its safety. (link)

And in case you didn't know this;

...Westland, the second-largest supplier of beef for the National School Lunch Program, was named "supplier of the year" in 2004-2005 by the Agriculture Department. It has delivered beef to schools in 36 states.

The USDA today stopped Westland from supplying meat to federal food and nutrition programs pending the outcome of its investigation. While the workers in this video have been fired, the Humane Society says the most shocking thing about the abuse shown here is that it happens all the time.

Some responses from the political side:

February 1, 2008-- Congressman Leonard Boswell is pushing the USDA to examine recent reports of inhumane treatment of animals. (link)

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, sent letters Wednesday to the agriculture secretary and the head of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) asking for an immediate investigation into the safety of ground beef being used in the National School Lunch Program. "The treatment of animals in this video is appalling, but more than that, it raises significant concerns about the safety of the food being served to our nation's children," Durbin said. (link)

Federal regulations call for keeping downed cows out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of carrying E. coli, salmonella contamination or mad cow disease. (link)

Several School Boards across the country have been pulling beef from the menu until they can be certain no supplies came from Westland. Some of those School Boards reporting in the news are located in the following states (partial list, no specific order): California, Washington, Oregon, South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, Iowa and New York. For a large (and growing) list of news reports on this story, check out this link.

Now I'm guessing that Hallmark Meat Packing has become the "hallmark" brand for how NOT to run a slaughterhouse/packing plant?

Aw, heck, here's one more reported USDA response worth mentioning:

USDA officials said that despite the apparent abuses, Westland meat products have always passed stringent government purity standards, and they do not believe the company's beef is unhealthy. (link)

What the ...?

Even if you don't get sick eating the Hallmark/Westland stuff, you might get sick watching the 96 minutes of video. Yes, there are animal rights violations. Now that's an education our kids shouldn't have to receive -- in any manner, shape or form -- because it simply shouldn't BE happening -- PERIOD.

Dirty Little Secret About E Coli

There's a dirty little secret about E. Coli, salmonella, campylobacter and other forms of food poisoning that hasn't become common knowledge for the general public -- yet -- and there is considerable cause for concern.

What's the dirty little secret? The news, according to this Associated Press article is alarming some sectors of the health industry:

It's a dirty little secret of food poisoning: E. coli and certain other foodborne illnesses can sometimes trigger serious health problems months or years after patients survived that initial bout. Scientists only now are unraveling a legacy that has largely gone unnoticed.

What kind of health problems? Here's one example from the article:

Consider Alyssa Chrobuck of Seattle, who at age 5 was hospitalized as part of the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger outbreak that 15 years ago this month made a deadly E. coli strain notorious.

She's now a successful college student but ticks off a list of health problems unusual for a 20-year-old: High blood pressure, recurring hospitalizations for colon inflammation, a hiatal hernia, thyroid removal, endometriosis.

"I can't eat fatty foods. I can't eat things that are fried, never been able to eat ice cream or milkshakes," says Chrobuck. "Would I have this many medical problems if I hadn't had the E. coli? Definitely not. But there's no way to tie it definitely back."

Donna Rosenbaum of the consumer advocacy group Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) is quoted saying;

"We're drastically underestimating the burden on society that foodborne illnesses represent."

S.T.O.P.'s newly elected president, Ms. Nancy Donley of Chicago, is no stranger to the effects of food poisoning. Their website indicates that "Ms. Donley, who previously served as S.T.O.P.’s President from 1996-2004, is nationally known for her extensive advocacy work on preventing foodborne illness and death. She became a member of S.T.O.P. and started her advocacy work after the tragic death of her six-year-old son, Alex, in 1993 from E. coli O157:H7-contaminated meat."

Now, if you are really curious to learn more about foodborne illnesses, you really should spend some time on the S.T.O.P. website. There "...is a collection of stories and testimonies given by victims and families of victims of foodborne illness. They bear witness to the fact that existing and emerging foodborne illness ravages victims without mercy."

The Center for Disease Control is aware of the problems relating to foodborne illness. They say foodborne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. Among survivors, some long-term consequences are obvious from the outset. Some required kidney transplants. They may have scarred intestines that promise lasting digestive difficulty.

But unfortunately, there has been little data collected on what happens to food poison survivors AFTER...

For now, some of the best evidence comes from the University of Utah, which has long tracked children with E. coli. About 10 percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where their kidneys and other organs fail.

Ten to 20 years after they recover, between 30 percent and half of HUS survivors will have some kidney-caused problem, says Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university's pediatric infectious diseases chief. That includes high blood pressure caused by scarred kidneys, slowly failing kidneys, even end-stage kidney failure that requires dialysis.

"I don't want to leave the message that everyone who had symptoms ... is in trouble," stresses Pavia.

Miserable as E. coli is, it doesn't seem to trigger long-term problems unless it started shutting down the kidneys the first time around, he says. "People with uncomplicated diarrhea, by and large we don't have evidence yet that they have complications."

There are other proven long-term consequences of food poisoning. You can read the article here for more details.

In addition to foodborne illnesses, antibiotic resistance is also one of the top concerns for the Center for Disease Controll.

The "dirty little secret" on foodborne illness comes out following another important article published on January 20, 2008, in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Bacteria race ahead of drugs Falling behind: Deadly infections increasingly able to beat antibiotics"

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't take you back to the manure issues surrounding CAFOs, considering the above news.

So many, many times before on this blog I've pointed out study after study after study regarding how long these pathogens can survive in our soils and waters. You need only look to our 303d water reports to see the E. Coli problems in Indiana waterways.

My point is this -- if you can't kill it first, you shouldn't be planting it in (or spraying it on) the ground in such massive, concentrated quantities.

BigAg has been on a mission to push farmers to "grow big or get out" for years now. And yet, in all their talks about so-called "nutrient" absorbance capacity of the land in "safe manure handling practices" it simply astounds me that they spend so little time on the health issues relating to factory farming practices that appear to be leaving a dirty trail all the way from the farm to the fork.

And what supremely ticks me off is how their push for BIG has slaughtered so many family farms across this great nation while they -- Big Ag -- keep digging into taxpayer pockets to deal with the issues surrounding their "model" for the future of our food -- to have taxpayers pay to clean up their mess.

They're eager to throw another few billion at the FDA for tighter food safety.

They're happy to see more billions flow to the USDA for greater food safety.

They eagerly wait to see how much more money can go into farm subsidies and the like to deal with everything from........

DANG IT!!! They created the dang mess in the first place... even convincing small farmers, who would have had to quit and lose their farms, to go BIG so they could compete in the industry -- glossing over the unresolved problems tied to this style of Agriculture. AND NOW -- DIG DEEPER INTO TAXPAYER POCKETS ...scare the hell out of them to make them pay more, and more, and more... and... geez. It's time to get responsibility back where it belongs, dangit!!

Sorry. Got a little carried away with this post. (taking a deep breath here)

Gotta run -- but you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be back soon with more on this issue.

Want to do something right now?

Call Rep. Crawford ASAP and request that he schedule HB 1168 for a hearing and vote in House Ways and Means Committee. They're trying to keep it out.

His office number at the statehouse is 317-232-9875.

The toll free number for the Indiana House is 800-382-9842.

You only have until Thursday, by the way. Yeah, they like to slip past these as fast as possible -- my humble opinion.

The High Cost of Low Price

By now, a lot of people the world over have seen the movie, "WALMART: The High Cost of Low Price" so I won't go into all the details here.

A lot of people are saying, and I humbly agree, that even Sam Walton would be disappointed to see what has become of retail stores across America -- including Wal-Mart.

Think about this a moment ...as you stroll down the aisles in any retail superstore these days, how many items can you find that are Made In The USA?

As if 21.7 million pounds of burger being recalled were not enough to shake things up, the ongoing recalls from "that other" corner on supply are pushing the threat level to public health significantly higher. Even Boy Scout badges are being recalled, for heaven's sake! (see this story - Scouts Not Prepared for Lead Badges)

Meanwhile, legislation right here at home seems to be bent on lining the pockets of the profiteers ...and to heck with public health and safety altogether... or at least, that's how it appears to me.

The manure bill designed (IMHO) to protect large industrial farms is bad enough, but did you see the mercury thing? (learn more here)

And just wait till you find out what's going on with almonds. The new pasteurization laws put in place have more than a few people upset. I'll quote William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. on that story as follows:

But perhaps the biggest hit will be taken by the smaller almond operations. Truth be told, even though all of the problems originated with the biggest almond industries, this little piece of legislation could spell the end of the line for organic and small-time almond operations. The minimum cost of the pasteurization equipment is $500,000 - a hefty price that not many smaller businesses can afford. Shipping the almonds off to be pasteurized has its own road bumps, not the least of which includes higher prices tied up in transportation costs.

This is an awful lot of fuss, especially considering the fact that nuts are not likely to pose a threat in and of themselves. It's when manure or other fecal matter gets transferred to the crops that contamination can occur. A better solution is one that would regulate the manmade carelessness that's the source of all these problems to begin with. But with today's Band-aid mentality, the likelihood of that happening is almost nil.

Yeah, there's that "perfectly safe manure (NOT)" sliding it's way through our food supply again.

By the way, in case you didn't know it, propylene oxide has been banned in Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. The pasteurization method the FDA is recommending requires the use of propylene oxide.

It's a recognized carcinogen. A pollution information site called Scorecard says that propylene oxide is in the top 10 percent of compounds that are hazardous to human health and to the ecosystem. In six out of twelve ranking systems, it's ranked as one of the most hazardous chemicals.

Meanwhile the Big AG groups get richer, and the rest...?

As a quick aside, if this source is correct, did you know that the top 1 per cent of Americans now accounted for 22 per cent of national wealth, compared with 9 per cent in 1970?

Go figure!

Hamburger Class I Recall - Health Risk: High

It began on Sept. 25, 2007 with a recall of 335,000 pounds of ground beef...

-- BUT --

On Sept. 29, 2007, following "an additional positive product sample reported by the New York Health Department, reported illnesses and findings from a food safety assessment conducted by FSIS at the establishment"

...the recall was expanded to include...

21,700,000 pounds of ground beef!

Yep. You read right. That's 21.7 million pounds!!

And of course, the culprit is -- AGAIN -- E. coli O157:H7

According to USDA/FSIS:

There are currently 25 illnesses under investigation in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. An investigation carried out by the New York Department of Health in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preceded the recall of Sept. 25.

One blogger writes:

E. Coli meat contamination is the result of cow sh** in your meat. Or steer sh** in your meat. Or calf sh** in your meat.

Ummm... I provided the **s for those who might be offended by the word sh**

If you have a strong stomach that can handle sh**, and you're really curious as to how so much sh** can get into so much burger, you really want to read a little history about HACCP and HIMP to find out "who pushed food safety over the cliff." Here's the link.

Don't Let Your Dingell Dangle in the dirt...

Now, if a little bit of sh** happens to splatter on some burger and people get excited enough to recall 21.7 million pounds of the stuff -- why is it ok to dump millions (or billions) of gallons of sh** all over the land?

You gotta wonder what's got into the heads of this powerful group of lobbyists pushing to make sure they aren't liable for any of their sh** ...

I'm talking about this story...

The AFBS -- oops, I mean AFBF (not) -- has joined forces with the likes of Land O' Lakes, National Chicken Council and Tyson to name a few, plus a new group calling themselves -- get this -- Farmers for Clean Air & Water Inc. -- now there's a crock of... oops, my bad.

Anyhoo... the groups above are lobbying for a Dingell (et al) bill to be pushed quickly through that takes manure (the polite word for sh**) out of the Superfund, essentially meaning they can dump their sh** without being held responsible for cleaning up the mess if/should something go wrong.

So if you happen to live downstream from a factory farm, guess what? You gotta rely on taxpayers to clean up any mess if something particularly nasty happens as a result of the farm, since the farm itself can't/won't be held accountable -- if this thing goes through.

All This For Cheap Meat?

You know, I get sooooooo tired of hearing how factory farming is so much more efficient in bringing us cheap meat (and eggs, and dairy, etc.). Cheap for the producers, maybe -- but for the taxpayers and the consumers?

Think about it...

The LA Times reported:

In the first nine months of 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced 60 recalls totaling nearly 30 million pounds of meat.

And now here we have 21.7 million in just a single recall. Add up all the other tons and tons of recalls that have been happening just over the past 24 months. I don't care how you slice it, that's not what I would call efficient by any stretch.

By the way, did you know this...?

"21.7 million pounds of ground beef just happens to be an entire year’s worth of production." According to Dr. Kirk James Murphy, M.D. If you have the stomach for it, you really gotta read his blog on this subject!

If you read through his entire article and the links leading from it, you'll soon realize that buying meat to eat these days is a total crap shoot (pun intended).

Udderly Insane?

Have you herd (pun intended) the latest news on mastitis?

What Is Bovine Mastitis?

For those who don't know what bovine mastitis is...

In dairy cows, bovine mastitis is a common bacterial disease of the mammary that causes the udder to be painful and swollen. It has been associated with overproduction of milk. Cows that are injected with rBGH are believed to be prone to mastitis.

Even so, here in the USA, many scientists believe... "The gram negative bacterium, Escherichia coli is responsible for most cases of bovine mastitis in North America."

Yes... there's that ugly E. Coli bacterium popping up again.

By now, just about everyone has heard about some strains or versions of it; particularly since it's been popping up so frequently in our food supply in recent years.

But with regards to bovine mastitis, here's something you might not have heard about:

The USDA is promoting a potentially disastrous strategy for controlling mastitis in cows that could enhance a host of other diseases and create new disease agents. Prof. Joe Cummins (link)

To fight E. coli mastitis in dairy cows, the USDA/ARS's mad scientists have been feverishly at work adultering tobacco plants to produce a CHEAP new protein (called CD14) which they say can reduce the severity of mastitis.

So, in addition to that massive tax slam on cigarette taxes, after reading the brief article at this link, we have one more reason to quit.

What else might be affected besides tobacco?

We-ell... it kinda makes you wonder if this delightful little protein has been added to your milk in recent years, doesn't it? You'll understand why after reading the article.

TTFN