Author Topic: Is Our Food Safe?  (Read 75140 times)

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Liane H

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #40 on: January 21, 2005, 09:25:00 AM »
Last week when I was talking to my friends Carolyn and Jake we were discussing Mad Cow Disease and other unsafe foods.

After listening to them and correcting some misconceptions they had you could see the fear in their eyes.

They are not at a point they are going to give up their meat, clean or unclean, but they this year are determined to start raising their own beef cows, getting them from the safest people possible and we are going to start a co-op garden in growing as much as we can of our own food.

For me this is a big step in the right direction for them. Over the last year I have noticed a cut in the amount of the meat they put on their plates and seeing more of other foods such as fruit and vegtables with grains.

For some it comes slowly and for others it is very quickly changed. Please keep them in your prayers that the Holy Spirit will continue to impress them.

Liane, the Zoo Mama  

Liane, the Zoo Mama
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Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #41 on: January 26, 2005, 01:04:00 PM »
The USDA and the beef industry insist that the American beef supply is safe. They argue that the infectious prions that cause the disease are only found in the brain and nervous tissue, not the muscles, not the meat.

In 2002,Stanley Prusiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of prions, proved in mice, at least, that muscle cells themselves were capable of forming prions. He describes the levels of prions in muscle as "quite high," and describes the studies relied upon by the Cattlemen's Association as "extraordinarily inadequate." Follow-up studies in Germany published May, 2003 confirm Prusiner's findings, showing that an animal who is orally infected may indeed end up with prions contaminating muscles throughout their body. And just last month, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Swiss scientists found prions in the muscles of human CJD victims on autopsy. Eight out of the 32 muscle samples turned up positive for the deadly prions.

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Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #42 on: January 27, 2005, 07:42:00 AM »
WASHINGTON -- January 26 -- Eighteen farm, consumer and public interest groups today delivered a letter to new Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, expressing their concern about the apparent retaliation against the chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals (NJC), who recently made disclosures covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) rules on bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease.

On Dec. 8, 2004, NJC chair Charles Painter sent a letter, on behalf of the NJC (the government meat inspectors’ union), to the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), outlining concerns about the removal of “specified risk materials” (SRMs) from cattle and FSIS inspectors’ ability to enforce the export requirements for products destined for Mexico. SRMS are the nervous system tissues believed to be most likely to carry the infectious prions that cause mad cow disease.

Among his concerns: 1) Plant employees are not correctly identifying and marking animals over 30 months old, which means plant employees and government personnel further down the line are unaware that numerous parts should be removed as SRMs and these high-risk materials are entering the food supply; and 2) [Production line] inspectors are not authorized by the USDA to take actions when they see plant employees sending products that do not meet export requirements past the point on the line where they can be identified and removed.

Rather than addressing the issues raised, the USDA reacted to the letter by directing extraordinary resources to targeting the NCJ chairman and other regional union presidents:

On Dec. 23, FSIS compliance officer appeared unannounced at the home of Painter, while he was on annual leave, to question him about the allegations in the letter.
On Dec. 28, Painter received a notice from FSIS that he was under formal investigation.

On Jan. 6, Painter was ordered to Washington, D.C., to be questioned for three hours by FSIS.

On Jan. 7, seven regional council presidents for the NJC also were ordered to appear in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 11 for an interview.
“Mr. Painter offered this information to the USDA because he was concerned that the agency’s inadequate policy could put consumers in danger,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s food program. “The USDA should have been grateful, but it chose to attack the whistleblower instead of attacking the problem. Secretary Johanns has emphasized that USDA employees should be treated with ‘equality, dignity, and respect.’ We urge him to live up to those words and stop this retaliatory investigation of Mr. Painter.”

In his letter, Painter did not identify specific plants where reports had come from, because he did not know. In fact, he chose not to learn the identity of the plants so he would not be forced to disclose this information, which could allow the agency to take retaliatory action against the inspectors assigned to these plants.

“This case presents a classic example of the value and necessity of whistleblowers,” the letter from the public interest groups said. “The concerns outlined by Mr. Painter’s letter are of vital interest to consumers, especially in light of recent announcements of the discovery of two more cases of mad cow disease in Canada and the agency’s intent to re-establish imports of live animals from Canada. The public has the right to know that the reality inside meat plants is not the same as the picture being painted for the media by USDA officials in Washington, D.C.”

The groups urge Johanns to immediately investigate this incident and reconsider the decision to initiate a formal misconduct investigation of Painter. The USDA also should take steps necessary to establish an environment inside FSIS that encourages employees to disclose issues of waste, fraud or threats to public health, the groups said.

The groups signing onto the letter include the American Corn Growers Association, Cancer Prevention Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Community Nutrition Institute, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Policy Institute/Consumers Union, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation, Inc., Family Farm Defenders, Government Accountability Project, Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Iowa Farmers Union, Lane County Food Coalition, Organic Consumers Association, Public Citizen, Safe Tables Our Priority, The Humane Society of the United States, and the Weston A. Price Foundation.

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #43 on: January 30, 2005, 07:46:00 PM »
In response to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns' request to Japan to resume beef imports, a Japanese Agriculture Ministry official said the diplomatic pressure would not influence Tokyo's position. "Even if Japan resumes imports, Japanese consumers will not buy American beef if they are not convinced that it is safe."

All cattle in Japan are tested for mad cow disease. The United States rejected Japan's request for blanket testing of cattle.

Reuters

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #44 on: February 07, 2005, 08:01:00 PM »
FDA Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 4, 2004


Statement on Texas Cow With Central Nervous System Symptoms

On Friday, April 30 th , the Food and Drug Administration learned that a cow with central nervous system symptoms had been killed and shipped to a processor for rendering into animal protein for use in animal feed.

FDA, which is responsible for the safety of animal feed, immediately began an investigation. On Friday and throughout the weekend, FDA investigators inspected the slaughterhouse, the rendering facility, the farm where the animal came from, and the processor that initially received the cow from the slaughterhouse.

FDA's investigation showed that the animal in question had already been rendered into "meat and bone meal" (a type of protein animal feed). Over the weekend FDA was able to track down all the implicated material. That material is being held by the firm, which is cooperating fully with FDA.

Cattle with central nervous system symptoms are of particular interest because cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, also known as "mad cow disease," can exhibit such symptoms. In this case, there is no way now to test for BSE. But even if the cow had BSE, FDA's animal feed rule would prohibit the feeding of its rendered protein to other ruminant animals (e.g., cows, goats, sheep, bison).

FDA is sending a letter to the firm summarizing its findings and informing the firm that FDA will not object to use of this material in swine feed only. If it is not used in swine feed, this material will be destroyed. Pigs have been shown not to be susceptible to BSE. If the firm agrees to use the material for swine feed only, FDA will track the material all the way through the supply chain from the processor to the farm to ensure that the feed is properly monitored and used only as feed for pigs.

To protect the U.S. against BSE, FDA works to keep certain mammalian protein out of animal feed for cattle and other ruminant animals. FDA established its animal feed rule in 1997 after the BSE epidemic in the U.K. showed that the disease spreads by feeding infected ruminant protein to cattle.

Under the current regulation, the material from this Texas cow is not allowed in feed for cattle or other ruminant animals. FDA's action specifying that the material go only into swine feed means also that it will not be fed to poultry.

FDA is committed to protecting the U.S. from BSE and collaborates closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on all BSE issues. The animal feed rule provides crucial protection against the spread of BSE, but it is only one of several such firewalls. FDA will soon be improving the animal feed rule, to make this strong system even stronger.

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Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #45 on: February 07, 2005, 08:04:00 PM »
Did the cow have BSE?  It was not tested. How about that! No worry though. Only pigs are supposed to eat that cow. And they don't get mad cow. I wonder what happens to all those prions that end up in the pig. I suppose some end up in pork chops and others end up in Pork and Beans. And still others end up in ham or bacon.
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Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #46 on: February 22, 2005, 08:24:00 PM »

United States
Department of
Agriculture

Marketing and
Regulatory
Programs

Animal and
Plant Health
Inspection
Service

Washington, DC
20250
Subject: Implementation: Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy; Minimal-Risk Regions and Importation of Commodities from Canada

To: Brokers, Importers, and Other Interested Parties

On January 4, 2005, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published a final rule in the Federal Register to amend the regulations regarding the importation of animals and animal products and to recognize a category of regions that present a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States via live ruminants and ruminant products. APHIS also added Canada to this minimal risk category, which allows the importation of certain live ruminants and ruminant products and byproducts from Canada under certain conditions. The effective date of the final rule is March 7, 2005.

A. Effective March 7, 2005, the following ruminant products may be imported into
the United States from Canada without an import permit under the prescribed
conditions:

1. Beef (including veal) or bison meat, meat byproducts, and meat food products as defined by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) regulations in 9 CFR 301.2, when accompanied by the required Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinary health export certificate certifying that the products:
a. Were processed in a CFIA-inspected establishment, which operates in compliance with an approved CFIA program to prevent commingling of ruminant meat products eligible for export to the United States with ineligible ruminant meat products;
b. Were derived from animals that were subjected to a ruminant feed ban equivalent to the requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (21 CFR 589.2000);
c. Were derived from animals for which air-injected stunning was not used at slaughter;
d. Were derived from animals that were under 30 months of age when slaughtered; and
e. Do not contain specified risk materials (SRMs) as defined by FSIS regulations (9 CFR Parts 301, 309, et. al.).

Establishments wishing to export to the United States must also comply with the following FSIS requirements that the meat, meat food, or meat by-products:
a. Do not contain mechanically separated bovine meat.
b. Do not contain product from an advanced meat recovery (AMR) system in which SRMs were used.
c. Are derived from animals that have been determined to be fit for slaughter (i.e. were not non-ambulatory disabled).

For the purposes of this rule, all conditions above also apply to bison.
2. Whole or half carcasses of beef (including veal) or bison from animals under 30 months of age when slaughtered that are accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate certifying that the conditions specified in item one have been met and that the carcasses are from CFIA establishments that meet FSIS requirements also specified in item one.

3. Sheep or goat meat, meat byproducts, and meat food products as defined by the FSIS regulations in 9 CFR 301.2, when accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate certifying that the products:
a. Were derived from animals slaughtered at a CFIA-inspected establishment that either slaughters only ovine and caprine species less than 12 months of age or operates in compliance with a segregation program approved by the CFIA and the Administrator as adequate to prevent contamination or commingling of the meat with products not eligible for importation into the United States;
b. Were derived from animals that were less than 12 months of age when slaughtered;
c. Were derived from animals that did not test positive for and were not suspect for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy;
d. Were derived from animals that have not resided in a flock or herd that has been diagnosed with BSE; and
e. Were derived from animals not subject to movement restriction within Canada as a result of exposure to a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy or that the product is derived from ovine or caprine meat products legally imported in Canada from the United States or from a region not considered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to be affected with or at risk for BSE.

4. Carcasses of sheep or goats from animals that were less than 12 months of age when slaughtered and accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate certifying that the conditions specified in item 3 above have been met.

5. Cervid meat, including hunter harvested cervid meat (e.g., deer, moose, elk, caribou, etc.) will be allowed unrestricted entry. Importers will need to present to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer evidence that the product is cervid meat, such as a hunting license or commercially prepared labels found on unopened packages or other official documents.

6. Hunter harvested wild ruminant (non-cervid) meat or dressed carcasses (eviscerated and head removed) such as wild sheep, goats, or bison/buffalo when accompanied by the hunter with a hunting license, tag, or equivalent.

7. Bone derived bovine gelatin when accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate.

8. Tallow accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate certifying that it contains less than 0.15 percent insoluble impurities.

9. Sheep casings when accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export casings certificate.

10. Offal, derived from cattle or bison that were under 30 months of age when slaughtered, or derived from sheep, goat, and cervidae when accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate.

11. Food products containing relatively small amounts of ruminant ingredients, e.g. 2 percent or less cooked bovine meat or 3 percent or less raw bovine meat, from animals under 30 months of age, for commercial use when accompanied by the required CFIA veterinary health export certificate. Examples of such products are prepared foods that are not regulated by FSIS and that contain bovine extracts such as: flavored noodles, soup products and bouillon.

12. All products identified in items 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 above that clear CBP at designated ports of entry must proceed to an official FSIS import establishment (listed below in section E) for reinspection. All shipments presented to FSIS for reinspection must include complete Customs Entry Numbers in order for an inspection assignment to be generated.

Beginning March 7, 2005, the conditions prescribed in the final rule will take effect. All of the above commodities (excluding cervid and hunter harvested ruminant meat) will be required to be accompanied by a CFIA certificate and presented to a CBP Agricultural Inspector Specialist (CBP AIS) at the ports of entry listed under Section D.

B. Import permits, (VS Form 16-6), will still be required for the following products:

1. Ruminant products transiting the United States from Canada. Ruminant products transiting the United States must meet all USDA import requirements for ruminant products from Canada.

2. Pet food that contains ruminant products of non-Canadian origin or non-ruminant animal products processed in facilities that do not receive, store, or process ruminant products.

3. Animal feed that contains ruminant products of non-Canadian origin or non-ruminant animal products processed in facilities that do not receive, store, or process ruminant products.

4. Ruminant hide derived gelatin limited to human or industrial use.

C. The following products continue to be prohibited:

1. Personal use amounts of beef, lamb, and goat meat.

2. Pet food in passenger baggage and groceries.

D. The following ports of entry must be used for shipments requiring CFIA
certification. Arrival at the port of entry must be during the listed hours of
operation. These hours are when CBP-AIS are available:

Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #47 on: February 22, 2005, 08:27:00 PM »
Notice this one:  "Bone derived bovine gelatin" will be coming in from Canada. Also, deer and elk which suffer CWD (mad deer disease).
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Bill Wennell

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #48 on: February 23, 2005, 11:13:00 AM »
     When the new secretary for the Department of Agriculture was before the (house or senate, I forget which) for a confirmation hearing, he was quoted in the paper as saying he wanted to relax the regulations that went into effect after the first case of madcow was confirmed in December of 2003. It further stated that he, like so many others in the USDA, had come from a milk (or meat) background.
    Too many government officials have too many hats and try to please both sides of the fence. Of course when that happens, they usually end up pleasing the money side, which is big business. At least one good thing came out of the current regulations, no more downer cattle were allowed into the human food chain. This is one area he specifically stated as wanting to amend - the definition for a downer cow. This may be one reason Ann Veneman stepped down, too much pressure.
    Is the USDA doing everything possible to make sure our meat is safe? If you think so, I have a bridge I want to sell you - cheap!

------------------
Bill Wennell (USDA Meat & Poultry Inspector)
BiblicalTruths2000@Juno.com

[This message has been edited by Bill Wennell (edited 02-23-2005).]

Bill Wennell<BR>Medical-missionary Brazil<BR>BiblicalTruths2000@Juno.com

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #49 on: March 06, 2005, 07:02:00 PM »
Seems that something has happened in Washington. There is a delay on the new rule allowing Canadian beef into the U.S.

"On January 4, 2005, the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
published a final rule which amended the regulations to provide for the importation of certain ruminants, ruminant products and byproducts from regions that pose a minimal
risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States,
and designated Canada as the first minimal-risk region (70 FR 460-553, Docket
No. 03-080-3). The effective date of the final rule was to be March 7, 2005.

However, on March 2, 2005 the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana granted
a preliminary injunction to prevent the implementation of the minimal risk rule until the R-CALF lawsuit is considered on the merits by the court.

Therefore, until further notice, the current import requirements for ruminant and ruminant commodities from Canada will remain unchanged. Only those commodities that were listed in the August 15, 2003 notice (republished May 6, 2004) will be eligible for importation from Canada, under the risk-mitigation measures specified in that notice."

Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #50 on: July 03, 2005, 08:39:00 AM »
The question comes to mind as to how the medical profession is doing when it comes to warning us of health risks due to eating infected animals. Here is a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999.

Risk of Transmission of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy to Humans in the United States--Report of the Council on Scientific Affairs--Litjen Tan, PhD; Michael A. Williams, MD; Mohamed Khaleem Khan, MD, PhD; Hunter C. Champion; Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD; for the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association.

JAMA. 1999;281:2330-2339.

Conclusions  Current risk of transmission of BSE in the United States is minimal because (1) BSE has not been shown to exist in this country; (2) adequate regulations exist to prevent entry of foreign sources of BSE into the United States; (3) adequate regulations exist to prevent undetected cases of BSE from uncontrolled amplification within the US cattle population; and (4) adequate preventive guidelines exist to prevent high-risk bovine materials from contaminating products intended for human consumption.

Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #51 on: July 15, 2005, 05:44:00 AM »
Many in the meat industry (processors)are happy that the court has allowed the USDA to follow through with it plan to import both meat and live cattle from Canada.  The U.S. finds itself in an interesting situation. They have been pressuring Japan to lift its ban an American beef that was imposed when the first Mad Cow was discovered in the U.S. It was of Canadian origin and the world was told that the U.S. meat was safe. Now that the U.S. has its own home grown Mad Cow, how can it forbid Canada to export to the U.S. when it continues to pressure Japan to import U.S. beef?

So, all are happy now that the U.S. has BSE. Like Canada all is under control and the world can continue to eat meat knowing that the government has their best interests at heart. Japan has been testing all of its cattle for BSE. But, the U.S. will not allow any rancher to test their own. Greed is running rampant in the world and disease is upon us. Epidemics of Biblical proportions can be expected. I guess AIDS has already made this a reality. But, more is on the way. The connection between diseases in animals and humans is not rightly considered. The eating of animal flesh, milk, and eggs is a vector for the transmission of many diseases. As the diseases spread in the animals, so it does in the those who eat from them.

Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #52 on: July 15, 2005, 06:00:00 AM »
Japanese food safety regulators are questioning the safety of U.S. beef after a Ministry of Agriculture study showed nearly half of the 20 mad cow cases found in Japan would have passed unnoticed under U.S. testing methods. Business Week
Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.


Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #54 on: November 02, 2005, 04:37:00 AM »
Is there any evidence that eating scrapie infected sheep and goat is safe? I have not seen any. How does the USDA treat the subject? Being invested with the job of promoting agriculture in the U.S. they approach the subject not with the safety of humans in mind. They make the statement that there is no evidence that eating scrapie infected sheep is  harmful to humans.

From the USDA--

"Interpretive Summary:

Scrapie is a fatal disease of sheep and goats characterized by degeneration of the nervous system. It is part of a group of diseases classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These diseases include forms that affect cattle, elk and deer, mink, and humans. The infectious agent is thought to be a prion, an agent smaller than the smallest known virus. Scrapie has a long history with the first descriptions dating back over two hundred and fifty years. Despite this long history, many factors of the disease are still not fully understood including a complete characterization of the infectious agent, how it is transmitted and how it causes disease. Recent evidence linking the human TSE to the cattle TSE (mad cow disease) has increased attention for all TSEs, including scrapie. There are many laboratories in several different countries actively conducting research on scrapie and other TSEs. There is no evidence to date that scrapie is a risk to human health.

Technical Abstract:
Scrapie is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats. It is part of a group of diseases classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These diseases include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in elk and deer, transmissible mink encephalopathy, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. The infectious agent is thought to be a prion, an agent smaller than the smallest known virus. Scrapie has a long history with the first descriptions dating back over two hundred and fifty years. Despite this long history, many factors of the disease are still not fully understood including a complete characterization of the infectious agent, routes of transmission and pathogenesis. Recent evidence linking vCJD in humans to BSE in cattle has increased attention for all TSEs, including scrapie. There are many laboratories in several different countries actively conducting research on scrapie and other TSEs. there is no evidence to date that scrapie is a risk to human health."

One day someone in the government will admit that eating sick sheep is a risk to hujan health. For those who have any common sense it can well be understood that there is a great risk associated with eating any animal that has a spongiform disease.

Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #55 on: November 02, 2005, 04:39:00 AM »
"Researchers hunting the herd linked to the first U.S. case of mad cow disease found most of the animals were slaughtered - and possibly in the human food supply - even before the government probe began."  San Luis Obispo Trib
Jesus receives His reward when we reflect His character, the fruits of the Spirit......We deny Jesus His reward when we do not.

Liane H

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #56 on: November 02, 2005, 06:02:00 AM »
Lets face facts here. In the year 2002 there were 9.8 billion animals slaughtered for food in the United States. Each year increase of 400 million additional animals so we are far over the 9.8 billion now.

There are only 4.8 million vegetarians of various sorts in the United States, so if there are presently 297 million Americans so we can see why so many animals are slaughtered each year for food, just for humans. There is a percentage of this slaughtering of animals for pet food as well.

Let us look at the process of this food. Let us take a cow that is raised on a ranch for food. Can we trust these people to care for these animals? Do they cut corners to save money with the price of so many things going up including oil?

The the next step is shipping these animals to the slaughter house. Who are these people that do that? How well and humanly do they care for these animals that are taken from the only place they have known in their lives?

Once at the slaughter place, they do not yet die. They are kept in pens to be fatten up so there is more meat on them with fat in them. How long do they stay in these small areas? How well are they cared for?

Then the people on a daily bases that kill these animals. 9.8 billon around the country in a year. Anyone want to guess how many animals are killed per second each day? Are they treated humanly as they are killed? Are they still alive when they cut them to release the blood or hang them by their legs? How clean are these places? How cold are the rooms that this skin is cut away so that bacteria does not get into the meat? Are the lands clean that do this work?

Then after the animal has been cut up it is stated that if they see cancerous parts of the meat, they now can cut that part out and sell the rest for human consuption. Who makes that determination? Do they reall do it enough to make the meat safe? With the magnitude of this are the people expected to meet a quoto of processing and do they cut corners in doing so?

Then the meat is shipped to the various markets around the country. How is the packing done? What kind of containers is the meat put into? Is the temp safe and correct? What do they do when a container shuts down and the cooling system is not working? Do they still sell the meat? Who are these people that do this? How clean are these containers?

Once at the stores. Do they maintain the temp that this meat needs to be at? How long is the meat exposed to regular temp as they cut it up for pakaging? Do they label the dates on them correctly so that they are not sold after a safe time?

I often wonder back when I was eating meat that those days I did not feel to well was not some flu, but what I had been eating.

Liane, the Zoo Mama

How healthy are all these people that are around these animals from start to finish.  

Liane, the Zoo Mama
Romans 8:19   For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

WendyForsyth

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #57 on: November 02, 2005, 08:45:00 PM »
To date, less than 360,000 cows have been tested out of the millions that are slaughtered every year.

The White House menu for Prince Charles and Camilla. Interesting how the President isn't serving beef for himself and his family, or the royal family.

Medallions of Buffalo Tenderloin, Roasted Corn, Wild Rice Pancakes, Glazed Parsnips and Young Carrots; Mint Romaine Lettuce with Blood Orange Vinaigrette, Vermont Camembert Cheese and Spiced Walnuts; Petits Fours Cake, Chartreuse Ice Cream, Red and Green Grape Sauce...

I have no doubt that God considers you to be one of His friends; otherwise He would not trust you with so many crosses, sufferings and humiliations. Crosses are God's means of drawing souls closer to Himself.

Fenelon


Richard Myers

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #58 on: November 03, 2005, 01:35:00 PM »
I don't know any ranchers that raise cattle and don't eat them. I am sure that the president eats beef on a regular basis. Buffalo is "special" for royalty. The president sadly is part of the world's royalty.

Back on topic....even the President of the United States does not understand the dangers assoociated with eating animals and their products. When politics allow the fox to guard the hen house then politicians can expect to be bit by their own foolishness. Presidents are not immune to Mad Cow Disease or Alzheimers.

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WendyForsyth

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Re: Is Our Food Safe?
« Reply #59 on: November 03, 2005, 03:38:00 PM »
Who better to know the dangers of mad cow disease? Maybe they know, especially the Brits should know, and I'm certain they don't want American Beef as it's widely known that foreigners look down on American testing standards, maybe they know and choose to avoid the poison themselves while making the big bucks off of the people.

The President could easily not eat American Beef while ordering something like Kobe Beef from Japan at great costs and which is under rigid guidelines.

I have no doubt that God considers you to be one of His friends; otherwise He would not trust you with so many crosses, sufferings and humiliations. Crosses are God's means of drawing souls closer to Himself.

Fenelon