The Meatrix has you....

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Spelca: I don't buy them. I've been a vegetarian for over 6 years now. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

5 years here, Sensai.

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by dragon_lord: Seriously though its crazy feeding animals large amounts of antibiotics. Their the only defence we have against diseases and the more we use them the greater the risk of resistance.

That link is worth posting at length. Can anyone with knowledge comment on the validity of this? (Like Willow, perhaps).
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Although no definitive data are available, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70% of antibiotics in the U.S. are fed to healthy pigs, poultry and cattle to promote growth and to compensate for unsanitary conditions. Recent studies show that NOT feeding antibiotics to healthy farm animals can dramatically reduce the levels of resistant bacteria present in those animals.

Why Use Antibiotics In Feed?
Antibiotics have been put into animal feed since 1946, when experiments showed low levels of antibiotics could help food animals grow faster and convert feed into weight more efficiently. Antibiotics are used in 90% of starter feeds, 75% of grower feeds and more than half of finishing feeds for pigs in the U.S. Despite their widespread use, no one knows exactly how antibiotics work to promote growth in animals.

Use of feed laced with antibiotics is both routine and common in America's version of industrial animal agriculture. Large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which often raise pigs, poultry or cattle by the tens of thousands under crowded conditions, have replaced small-scale, family farms as the chief producers of the nation’s beef, pork and poultry. They depend on antibiotics in animal feed not only to promote growth but also to compensate for crowded and often less-than-hygienic conditions, which stress the animals and make them more prone to infection. Unfortunately, low level use of antibiotics for extended periods of time is one of the best ways to spread the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Human Antibiotics Commonly Used
The same mechanisms by which bacteria in humans develop resistance also work in animals that are fed antibiotics. The genes that confer antibiotic resistance to bacteria can travel from food animals to humans via several possible routes, including directly through contaminated food and less directly through contamination of the environment.

Many of the antibiotics routinely given to healthy livestock and poultry to promote growth are identical, or nearly so, to drugs that health providers rely on to treat sick humans. These include penicillin, tetracyclines, erythromycins and bacitracin, among others. For example, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that nearly 5 million pounds of two tetracycline antibiotics are given to healthy swine each year in the U.S. The volume of these two medicines given to healthy pigs alone, according to UCS estimates, is sixty percent greater than the volume of all antibiotics given to sick humans.

Alternatives to Antibiotics Available
Europe is moving in the direction of a total ban on use of growth promoting antibiotics in animal feeds. Sweden and Denmark have already completed a phaseout, while other European Union countries have ended use of most antibiotic growth promoters. These nations have led the development of large-scale livestock management techniques that use better hygiene rather than antibiotics to raise healthy animals, with no interuption in the meat supply.

[Maelakin]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: quote: Originally posted by Spelca: I don't buy them. I've been a vegetarian for over 6 years now. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

5 years here, Sensai. [/QUOTE]I can't make it an entire day without consuming meat let alone years.

[PoleCat]

Hey all!

Please bear with me - I'm more of a lurker than a poster type. I worked in the Ag business for a number of years until I got fed up with the business and went elsewhere. Pretty much everything you saw in the Meatrix is true, but it does not tell the whole story.

First off, let me say that I refuse to eat any meat but beef - no chicken, turkey, pork, roadkill, etc. Most if not all of the chicken and pork out there come from truly horrible corporate farms where conditions are so bad many animals die from diseases and ailments that most people cannot imagine. It used to be that the corpses of these animals where recycled to make feed for other feed animals, but that practice has come under attack in recent years due to outbreaks of various farm animal diseases making their way into the general farm population via the re-processed feed (Mad Cow disease is the biggest to hit the mass media, but is NOT the only one).

I say I do eat beef, but only because most cattle are not run in the same conditions as the smaller feed animals. For the first number of years most cattle are run on free range land for the simple reason that confined cattle suffer from higher death rates than hogs or chickens (veal excluded of course - they are slaughtered before this becomes an issue). After the intial 2-4 years the steers are sent to a variety of feedlots that are operated on the Factory Farm model, but the purpose of these lots is to fatten the steers as quickly as possible in as short a time as possible for slaughter. Depending on the size of the steer when it reaches the feedlot this process takes 1-2 years. It doesn't make sense to wait longer because the older a steer gets the tougher the meat is. This still isn't the best way to raise cattle, but it is not nearly as horrific as the chicken and pork industries (DAMN YOU TYSON!!!).

Secondly - family farms are NOT gone forever. For the most part many states in the US have some form of farm protection laws on the books to prevent the loss of families that have farmed for generations. Often these laws aren't enough and many go bankrupt, but through these laws the farms themselves can be saved even if most of the equipment is sold to cover debts. If you care about these small farms then pay attention to agriculture laws and issues in your state - the small farmers don't have enough political clout without the support of the general populace.

Most people want to spend as little as possible on food, but what most people don't realize is that by saving some money you are also compromising quality. Most people don't even care where their food comes from as long as it is cheap. The only way to really save the small farmers is to support non-corporate methods of food distribution - farmer's markets, public co-ops, directly buy meat from source, etc. As long as the supermarkets and the futures buyers run the whole system there cannot and will not be any meaningful change.

Sorry about the rant folks - I guess I had a few gripes to get off my chest.

Cheers!

[Timber Loftis]

Thank you for your post Polecat and
[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]
WELCOME to IWF, though I hope Skunk doesn't claim some sort of ownership to your name.

[Skunk]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Thank you for your post Polecat and [img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] WELCOME to IWF, though I hope Skunk doesn't claim some sort of ownership to your name.

Happy to welcome PoleCat to the forums too! [img]smile.gif[/img]
Guess you must be a long lost cousin, eh PoleCat?