Letter to the Editor
Wean from meat
Published Monday, August 11, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!Aug. 6, 2008
To the editor:
The Food and Drug Administration’s hunt for sources of the recent salmonella outbreak reminds me of the antics of the comical Inspector Closeau of Pink Panther fame. First, they traced it to tomatoes, inflicting $250 million in frivolous damages on that harmless industry. Then it was the jalapeño peppers. Now it’s the serrano peppers. In prior years, they blamed lettuce and spinach. Yet, most students of biology 101 know that salmonella enteritis is an intestinal organism, and most produce are just not endowed with intestines.
The actual source of salmonella is the intestines of billions of animals raised for food each year in the U.S. Their feces, with their nasty guests, invariably end up in our lakes, rivers, streams and, most pertinently, in the irrigation water used to grow otherwise healthful produce.
The ultimate solution to salmonella food poisoning and a host of chronic killer diseases associated with meat consumption is to gradually wean ourselves away from the meat habit. In the meantime, state agriculture departments could make sure that factory farms, their feces, and the streams that carry them are kept far away from fields that grow people food, including, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and yes, even serrano peppers.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Wean from meat,think i'll just take my chances.
uh-huh...whatever....
until my canine teeth disappear I will be enjoying meat, thank you
I could go for a nice juicy steak right now. Please go back to the lower 48. You aren't worthy of the title "Alaskan."
Mmmmmmm steak
1 more vote for, Mmmmm STEAK!
It takes months or years for the various agencies to track down terrorist cells and a couple weeks for the F.D.A. to find a microscopic organism--they should be put in charge of homeland security
What do you call an Alaskan who can not hunt? A vegetarian
Out of respect for the annual death count of those who eat tainted vegetables, I would remind the author that he doesn't seem to know "jack" about food-borne illnesses.
Um....why do you think we have canine teeth? Man is supposed to eat meat. Ancient societies weren't called gatherers - they were hunter-gatherers.
That's great that you don't eat meat, but it's absolutely none of your business what I eat. Or wear - I have a beautiful fur coat. (Talk about green - no pollution and a renewable resource.)
Off to put my buffalo steaks in some marinade...
In the ideal utopian world, the citizens will walk or bike everywhere, heat our hovels with dung, and exist on a plant diet. It is for your own good, and the good of the planet, comrade.
Only the upper class elite will be allowed motorized transportation, modern heat sources, and the luxury of eating meat. Like Al Gore. Who flies aroung in a private jet, has a fleet of gas guzzlers, a huge energy sucking mansion, and eats large animals for breakfast.
it seems to me that we should be weaning ourselves from vegetables instead.
I am a big fan of beef and pork, but recently I stumbled across a website reveiling some major meat producers under hidden cameras with footage of workers using cruel methods to put animals down at their plants. I am NOT going to stop eating beef or pork but would like to see more humane ways to deliver their products. I'm sure their waste practices are just as bad... I am not against Vegeterians, I just don't need anyone telling me to start being one.. here is the website.. hope you have a strong stomach. you make your own opinion.
http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty....
J-
If we're not suppose to eat animals, why are they made of meat?
To each his own,But do not tell me want to do! Eat your Veggies and leave me along, OK!
My 17 year old daughter was grabbing some hamburger meat at Fred Meyers yesterday and some quack pot chick came up to her and read her the riot act about what was in beef and trashing the FDA, etc. I mean, come on! Seriously ... are we getting to the point where we're approaching children in grocery stores now? Why do people in this country forget that along with having their own rights ... others get to choose theirs as well? I will agree with Iggy68, however. Some of the footage taken at slaughter houses is just unbelievable.
Save a cow - EAT MOOSE! Best durn stuff this side of the border. Oh and isn't the protein in meat supposed to be the reason humans have intelligence?
The solution is not to stop eating meat. Meat was given to us to eat. Our bodies, our teeth, are designed to eat meat. Additionally, most of the germs you are hearing about now, that cause severe disease, are either new germs or are mutated germs. This is why we could eat raw hamburger and raw eggs as kids....the same pathogens were not there and not in the same numbers.
Agribusinesses create the perfect environment for breeding harmful germs. Including:
a) low doses of antibiotics (which grows "resistant" germs)
b) overcrowded living conditions where the animals spend their time in their own excrement
c)stressing the animals with poor transportation techniques (which causes a reduced immune system-they get sick on the trip)
d)feeding items that the animals were not made to eat, such as feeding herbivores meat products (mad cow), feeding cows corn (e coli 157 thrives in the gut of a corn fed cow), etc.
e)use inexpensive labor that is not well skilled on cleanliness
f)are not careful in the cleaning of the fruit and vegetables
g)use unclean water to irrigate crops
h)import food from countries where the standard of cleanliness is GREATLY reduced compared to our own. This was the problem recently.
The solutions to the problem:
a)agribusiness MUST be held accountable
b)politicians MUST not bend to agribusiness lobbies
c)eat locally as much as possible (food grown in AK, the US, etc)
d)write the producers, vote with your wallet
e)eat grass fed or grass finished beef. This almost totally reduces the e coli in the animal
f)support local, small farmers
g)grow your own
We get meat from a local farm that does not use hormones and that grass finishes their beef. We also hunt. We do not buy vegetables from the store that we do not cook--even washing is not sufficient, as plants take the germs up into their stems. We only buy fruit that is from the US (though sometimes canada), except bananas, and we wash it in mild bleach solution and/or peel it. We use only pasteurized egg products, as the salmonella is INSIDE the shell.
We do not have the safest food supply in the world any more because our food supply is as safe as the countries we IMPORT food from. Other countries have eliminated salmonella, but we will not because of politics.
An excellent read of why we have these problems can be found here at "birdflubookdotcom". It is written by Dr. Gregor who is Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. Please do not let the word "bird flu" keep you from reading it....most of the book is actually about how agribusiness has made the food unsafe. If you want to know why we are getting sick, this book will tell you.
I like hotdogs made with good ole fashion slaughter house left overs.
(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
Me-I think a steak is in order for supper-bbq...mmmmm, nothing better than a BIG juicy steak w/a SMALL side of veggies. Lsmith-there are far to many "quackpots" out there. Lol-i was given the riot act as well by somebody.
couple more weeks to moose hunting season!!!
dang archer.... i think it is our fault agribusiness does those practices because we demand that our food only cost so much. it only takes one business to use those questionable methods to force all the others to follow suit because their product would be much cheaper. if all these businesses are forced to use better meat production standards then our food costs are going to go way up. now who is going to vote for a politician that is going to support food costs going up?
go easy on the author... he isn't trying to force us to give up meat. he is just suggesting that we wean ourselves from a habit. which is silly because eating meat (food) isn't a habit. meat is an integral part of an overall healthy diet.
(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
Actually a tidbit of trivia: I read somewhere once (and I don't remember where, so don't even ask) that man's teeth are not evolved to tear and chew meat — hence the lack of a complete set of canine teeth in the human mouth. Man's teeth evolved over thousands of years to chew and grind grains.
Now, by no means am I promoting giving up meat; I love me some bacon and pork chops way too much to go without, but I thought I'd just throw that out there.
So why do we have canines, then? Not being snarky, just curious.... I was taught (MANY yrs ago) that our teeth were designed for both meat and grains....
polarmark: "it seems to me that we should be weaning ourselves from vegetables instead."
Now THAT is a logic-based comment!
ACman: "If we're not suppose to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"
Love it! Too funny.
Had a yummy organic steak for dinner last night with Alaskan grown veggies (some grown by me) as a side. Best of both worlds! =)
Prime rib is my favorite! Very juicy!
It's not a logical argument that if we stop eating meat then those animals will stop defecating in the water that irrigates the plants. Do you really think that that which comes out of the back half of the cow depends on what we plan to do with that cow??? It's gonna poop whether it's headed for retirement in the fields or my dinner table.
My bible tells me, "Go, Kill and eat." Seems pretty straight forward to me.
If I get an airborne virus, should I ween myself off air? Not likely.
Sorry folks,
Hate to disappoint you but it will be impossible for the 9 billion people who will be inhabiting this planet by the year 2050 to all eat meat.
>>So why do we have canines, then? Not being snarky, just curious.... I was taught (MANY yrs ago) that our teeth were designed for both meat and grains....<<
Umm, we don't. Canines are pointed. At least, *I* don't have any pointed teeth. BUT I do love meat. Any kind. *Great*, now I'm thinking about Big Daddy's....
-jen
Ever wonder why we are gettin SOOOOO fat. My grandparents and parents ate meat and other items that are now betting said are unheathy. They were made unheathy when man started screwing around with Mother Nature, to include our fruits and veggies.
Yes, coffeediva, you DO have canine teeth. The degree to which they are pointed varies from person to person, much like the size of your ears and shape of your nose.