On Food Safety, oh boy…
Hold me back, because this is infuriating.
After Delays, a Vaccine to Counter Bad Beef is Tested
(which is FABULOUS JUICE FOR MY FOOD POLICY ADVOCACY PORTFOLIO! haha! that and i can write about it here before i send in an angry letter to the editor of NYT. ;)
yup, just like last night, when jlo’s hungry for change, or for food, she gets a lil cranky…watch out now.)
- Food safety should be a number one concern, but not to the detriment of the animal’s health. We must first take a look at how the animal is raised, why it is sick, and prevent these problems from reaching our plate and consequently from our own hospitals and health care system.
- “The incentive for the vaccine is it’s going to benefit the packer who is vulnerable to recalls and lawsuits,” said Ronald F. Eustis, executive director of the Minnesota Beef Promotion and Research Council, a trade group that represents farmers and feedlot owners. – SO Greeeattt, pharm companies helping agribusiness with the “intention” of food safety. I wonder who’s going to benefit from that little partnership…how transparent, for the first time. Grrr.
- This is more evidence of the need to fix the system, but the Band-aid-ing effect of people not knowing how to spend their money wisely, amongst the ones who have the power — If the cows were eating grass, they would be healthier and produce the correct stomach acids to break down the natural E. Coli common in most poop. Whereas, now we’re at risk of creating more superbugs that are resistant to vaccines that are becoming more and more powerful versions of themselves. (come on, isn’t this biology 101?)
- At an estimated $10/animal for the cost of 3 O157:H7 E.Coli vaccines, that’s a lot of money once again coming out of the pockets of our farmers, who will be paying pharmaceutical companies to topically treat the problem, instead of PREVENT it. That would bring their profit margin down from $25 – $35/animal to $15 – 25, which would force feedlot owners and producers to look for cheaper alternatives and ways to cut costs down in ways that would not necessarily have health conscious intentions for the public they are feeding. Isn’t this where we get into the sticky situation of subsidized CORN and SOY as CHEAP FEED?! HOW ARE WE OVERLOOKING THAT ENTIRE ARGUMENT?!
- Money thrown into surface level system changes will only increase our overall healthcare cost of the animals, and subsequently of human health that is consuming these animals who are all pumped up on drugs. Whereas money should be spent to change the way beef is raised, to grow grass as feed, and to clean the animals before they go into slaughterhouses to decrease the chances of their fecal matter touching the raw flesh, and thus contaminating the meat. Aren’t we all done with eating SICK ANIMALS? isn’t that sick? If you want to “fix” this problem, industry, there need to be funding in research that doesn’t pad the pockets of agribusiness. Probable solutions to safeguarding the food we eat are in the works… Let’s start with PREVENTION & LIFESTYLE
instead of instant gratification of treatments that take away the symptoms, but don’t solve shit.
and with E.coli, that’s as literal as I can get.
…. how Asian of me today. I have my opinions about western medicine. (Can you tell?) and it’s a shift in methodology here people.
koombaiya – we need to fix the problem. it’s starring us in the face masked as a “burger”.
xoxo Safe Eating Today, J xoxo
