tagged w/ Meat
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Sweden's approval of thrombin - a new so-called meat glue, has drawn criticism from consumer groups and politicians alike who fear that consumers stand to be misled.
"We do not want this at all - it is meat make-up," said Jan Bertoft at the Swedish Consumer's Association (Sveriges Konsumenter).
Thrombin is a coagulation protein which together with the fibrous protein fibrin can be used to develop a "meat glue" enzyme that can be used for sticking together different pieces of meat.
EU countries voted to approve the use of the enzyme on Monday.
Despite clear labelling of meat products, there remains a concern that consumers will be fooled as it is not clear from the appearance of the product whether it is constructed from different pieces of meat or not.
The additive can for example be used to put together small parts of pork tenderloin to make the product look like a whole fillet.
"The problem is that it looks like real meat. It is the dishonesty in it that makes us think that it is not okay," Bertoft said.
The approval of thrombin has also come in for criticism from some Swedish politicians.
"To use Thrombin in meat is a way of misleading consumers, to present something as better than it actually is," said Åsa Westlund, a Social Democrat MEP.
Westlund has been involved in the process to develop new EU legislation covering food additives which will come into force in the beginning of next year.
"If it had been in force today, then this would not have been allowed. That is my view," she said.
But Gunilla Henrysdotter at the Swedish National Food Administration (Livsmedelsverket) argues that it is not for certain that the new legislation would have rendered thrombin illegal.
"It would be approved in the future as well," she said.
The decision to approve thrombin was taken by a Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) on Monday. One country voted against and one abstained. All the other countries, including Sweden, voted in favour.
The most important issue raised by Sweden was the proper labelling of products containing thrombin, according to Evelyn Jansson-Elfberg at the Food Administration.
"There is no danger in eating it, but the risk is that the customer will pay an excessively high price. It is the misleading aspect of it all that we have reacted against," she said.
Sweden, and several other countries, have thus argued that thrombin should be classed as a food additive instead of a processing aid.
This line of reasoning was accepted and means that thrombin will only be able to be used in products in which its content its clearly declared.
The products will read "composite meat product."
Thrombin can be made from blood taken from either cows or pigs, and this information must also be clearly shown.
Products containing thrombin will not however be approved for use in commercial kitchens.
http://www.thelocal.se/24900/20100210/Sweden's approval of thrombin - a new so-called meat glue, has drawn criticism... more
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We eat flesh constantly, religiously/ and wickedly/ we chomp on KFC and Mickey D's delicious number 3's/
but you're the chicken, easily, if you can't watch a dvd of factories that murder animals compassion-free/
tragically we sometimes think our meat comes magically to stores and not from torture, as it does actually/
When we eat beef, how often do we question how each animal lived and suffered defeat?/
not that we ask how we farm our wheat, but there's no suffering to plants and trees /
compared to how we artificially force pigs to breed, as the mothers lose their will to breathe/
their babies bleed inconspicuously/ these animals live listlessly as the 'employees' kill freely/
it's really quite disturbing that it's all hidden behind such a thin curtain, yet most ignore on purpose, for certain/
there's more in store for a person who eats this perverted version of beef then losing sleep/
the industry pulls the wool over our eyes like sheep, as antibiotic-resistant bacteria creep into our teeth/
the future's bleak if this catastrophe continues to spread internationally, and intelligent animals lose sanctuary/
intelligent cannibals, humans, give thanks and bury furry/feathered friends down the hatch, with curry in a hurry/
saying grace saves face, bless the neck down of this animal race, but the head has no place on our plate/
we have no basis to rate the steak as great, because the cow was shipped from out of state with no name plate/
so the meat we make and bake, then eat, is fake/ because no one seeks the time to take our kind consumers to the factory line /
where death is blind and torture goes undefined/ think about your order next time you dine/We eat flesh constantly, religiously/ and wickedly/ we chomp on KFC and Mickey... more
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1. Eating a hamburger a day could increase a person's risk of dying by a third from cancer, heart disease, stroke and the list goes on.
This conclusion comes from the Meat Intake and Mortality study, a prospective (meaning in real time) study that looked at data from over half a million people in a ten-year period between 1995 and 2005. Men eating more than 4.8 ounces of red meat a day had a 30% increased risk of mortality over ten years compared to men eating just .7 ounces; women that ate 4.6 ounces had a 36% increased risk compared to women who ate just .6 ounces. Here's a good summary of the study...what do you think?
2. Billions of extra health care spending can be attributed to our meat eating lifestyles.
This study was from 1992 and published in a 1995 issue of Preventive Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to research on preventive health measures. The researchers estimated the health costs of the nation's current omnivorous diet at $28.6 billion to $61.4 billion a year. This study was controversial, as the physicians that did the study are members of Physicians Committee for Responsbile Medicine, advocates of vegetarianism, and because it was an analysis - so they didn't totally control for all the other factors that may have attributed to subjects' higher medical costs besides meat eating. New York Times article is here. The figures are in 1992 dollars and would be higher today...but does the conclusion hold?
3. Eating meat spews more emissions than our cars, trains, and planes combined.
Seems fairly straightforward. Livestock emissions outweigh emissions from the entire transport sector. That's what the well-know UN study from 2004 concluded. While livestock's share of the carbon emission pie may be disputed a few percentage points back and forth, is there anyone that doubts they are ahead of transport?
4. Pound for pound beef production uses at least 100 times the water of say, lettuce.
We've reported on some of the water footprint figures from WaterFootprint.org, and that represent gallons of water per pound of food. Beef is a big one, that seem clear, but even WaterFootprint says that water used in beef production varies so widely that a range of figures is more accurate. Any iron-clad figures about average water involved in beef production that contradict this?
5. And, beef production emits nearly 100 times more greenhouse gas emissions than growing veggies.
Beef seems to be a climate bomb. In the figures from this report, attributed to Gidon Eshel, the total amount of CO2 associated with a calorie of beef would be 13.82,while the CO2 associated with a calorie of "veggies" would be .14 grams - nearly 100 times more. These figures aren't replicated in other data, however, which may make them suspect. Other figures from the Appropedia web site, originating from the Sopris Foundation, find only a factor of twenty difference in CO2 emissions between beef and veggies. Who is closer?
6. Meat and livestock cause twice the pollution of all industry combined.
This may be too much of a blanket statement...or maybe not. Jeremy Rivkin in Beyond Beef and David Pimental seem to be the two authors gathering the most data on livestock industry pollution, painting a picture of environmental devastation. What do you think?1. Eating a hamburger a day could increase a person's risk of dying by a third... more
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The most-basic human needs are being threatened by incompetent and/or corrupt agricultural practices.The most-basic human needs are being threatened by incompetent and/or corrupt... more
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Two died and 26 others became ill after apparently eating ground beef that might have been contaminated with E. coli bacteria, The Associated Press reported.
A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the AP that one person who died, an adult from New York, had several underlying health conditions.
The other previously reported death was in New Hampshire.
Health officials said Saturday the products were packaged between Sept. 15-16 and may have been labeled with sell-by dates from Sept. 19-28, according to The Associated Press.
The contaminated meat may be related to the recall of almost 546,000 pounds of ground beef in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts. That meat was sold by Fairbank Farms in Ashville, N.Y.Two died and 26 others became ill after apparently eating ground beef that might have... more
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Beef is not what’s for dinner if you are serving 6 billion people, much less so if you are serving 9 billion (where population is expected to level off, around 2050). Current meat production puts meat on the dinner table for far fewer than 6 billion people every night, as most people can’t afford it. Meat alone is responsible for about 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The land required to grow the feed and graze those animals that are allowed to graze, the water used at every stage of the process, and the complications of hormones and antibiotics make the kind of industrial meat production required to feed billions of omnivores one of the biggest threats to the global environment. Scale that up to meet current or future demand and you have a crisis.
We really should have started eating less meat years ago, but in the 20 years until 2002 (the most recent year the data is available from the World Resources Institute) meat consumption has grown in every region of the world except in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, where it has essentially remained stable (and in Africa very low). The Americas, with the United States, Canada, and Argentina in the lead, are the biggest meat eaters. The Europeans aren’t far behind. As countries get richer, they eat more meat, because it tastes good, and because they can. And some very big countries are getting richer right now, so the trend is clearly upwards.
http://www.good.is/post/seitan-the-other-green-meat/Beef is not what’s for dinner if you are serving 6 billion people, much less so... more
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WHACKO-TV traveled to the farms of upstate New York to capture the footage of a major breakup. While everyone is curious about Tiger and Elin, or Brad and Angelina's possible split, we were there live as the goofy guy with the Viking hat broke-up with his pig wife. You won't see this on the history channel.WHACKO-TV traveled to the farms of upstate New York to capture the footage of a major... more
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These extremely valuable substances help both mother and child healthy and safe by promoting blood flow, building tissues in the brain and other organs, fortifying the immune system, strengthening bones and teeth, allowing for better vitamin absorption, and numerous other benefits.
link: http://phlebotomytechnicianschools.com/?page_id=67These extremely valuable substances help both mother and child healthy and safe by... more
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eva2
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It doesn't matter whether you're a meat eater or a staunch vegetarian -- those who take two hours out of their schedule to check out South Korean writer-filmmaker Lim Woo-seong's first feature won't be disappointed. Weaving multiple themes throughout the main tale of a woman whose haunting dreams prompt her to become a vegetarian, this is one Sundance flick which will likely be talked about long beyond the festival's end.
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/01/22/2010-sundance-film-festival-preview-vegetarian/It doesn't matter whether you're a meat eater or a staunch vegetarian --... more
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A CAMPAIGN that portrays single middle-aged women as cougars who prowl bars looking for sex with young men has landed Air New Zealand in hot water.
The country's national carrier was already causing turbulence with its latest uniform range, which critics said made women look like drag queens in Russian military garb.
Now they've ruffled the feathers of women's rights groups and rape prevention organisations with a risque online promotion portraying the mating habits of the mature single woman.
In the Discovery Channel-style documentary clip complete with David Attenborough-esque voiceover, a so-called cougar is shown "starving itself on sparse vegetation during the day then hunting large slabs of meat at night" by stalking a young man at a bar.
Despite the man's attempts to ward off the woman's advances, the cougar has "not tasted fresh meat for days" and drags her prey to an inner-city apartment.
In the ad, the women, aged in their 30s, 40s and 50s, routinely prey on men in their 20s, many who "pretend to be gay" to avoid them, says the voiceover.
The promotion encourages women 35-plus to send in photographs of themselves out on the town with their "cougar mates" to go in the draw for a deal including a flight and ticket to a sporting event.
New Zealand's Rape Prevention Education has labelled the ad appalling, disgusting and degrading to women.
"We have also had complaints from male survivors who have been raped by women and they are very distressed that their situation is being laughed at and made out to be humorous," director Kim McGregor said.
An airline spokeswoman said the campaign was supposed to be "light-hearted" but some older women had "taken a bit of offence to it".
"(They) felt it was an unfair kind of blanket comment," she said.
Many didn't, however, with 60 women signing up to go in to win flights, tickets and cougar costumes to attract the attention of young males.A CAMPAIGN that portrays single middle-aged women as cougars who prowl bars looking... more
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When you became a vegetarian, you quickly learned it wasn’t just about skipping pepperoni on that pizza. You had to start scanning labels for ingredients like capric acid, tallow, rennet, glycerin, whey, suet, stereate and emulsifiers – because eating animal fat by any other name would be just as carnivorous. What you may not know is that plenty of common foods widely considered to be veg-friendly (or perhaps we should say veg-adjacent) actually contain animal fat, not just dairy fat. That means flesh. Read on to learn more.
Ice Cream
Ice cream is the one comfort food that temporarily heals all wounds. Unfortunately, you may be noshing on Bessie under all that chocolate sauce. Many brands of ice cream contain capric acid, a fatty acid that’s obtained from animal fats. Check the label!
Chocolate
I hate to break it to you – I really do – but that chocolate sauce you pour over your sundaes may not be any better than the ice cream underneath it. Emulsifiers are present in chocolate, which may or may not be derived from animal fat. The problem is that most labels don’t specify the difference, so you’re better off sticking to ones that do.
Cheese
Animal rennet is used in the production of many different kinds of cheese. What is animal rennet, you ask? It’s a coagulating enzyme that’s extracted from a freshly-slaughtered calf’s stomach. But, that doesn’t mean you have to struggle through a life without cheese. Just buy vegetarian cheese instead, which substitutes microbial or fungal enzymes for animal rennet.
Pastries
Have you ever seen a pork tart behind the glass at your local café? You might want to take a closer look. Many pastries are prepared using lard, which is rendered fat from a pig’s abdomen or kidneys. Similar baked goods may also contain capric acid.
Chewing Gum
More at the link above:When you became a vegetarian, you quickly learned it wasn’t just about skipping... more
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The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine flu. Billions could die in a deadly flu pandemic, the likes of which we have never seen. -- Greger very clearly delineates how a virus begins, mutates, and becomes dangerous. As with so many problems we are seeing lately -- environmental or health -- factory farmed meat seems to be a big part of the cause. -- -- Studies have shown that measures as simple as providing straw for pigs so they don't have the immune-crippling stress of living on bare concrete their whole lives can significantly cut down on swine flu transmission rates. Such a minimal act--providing straw--yet we often deny these animals even this modicum of mercy, both to their detriment and, potentially, to ours as well. --- --- The American Public Health Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the world, has called for a moratorium on factory farms. In fact the APHA journal, the American Journal of Public Health, published an editorial going beyond just calling for an end to factory farms. --- --- It questioned the prudence of raising so many animals in the first place: "It is curious...that changing the way humans treat animals--most basically, ceasing to eat them or, at the very least, radically limiting the quantity of them that are eaten -- is largely off the radar as a significant preventive measure. -- Such a change, if sufficiently adopted or imposed, could still reduce the chances of the much-feared influenza epidemic. It would be even more likely to prevent unknown future diseases that, in the absence of this change, may result from farming animals intensively and from killing them for food. Yet humanity does not consider this option.... --- Those who consume animals not only harm those animals and endanger themselves, but they also threaten the well-being of other humans who currently or will later inhabit the planet.... -- It is time for humans to remove their heads from the sand and recognize the risk to themselves that can arise from their maltreatment of other species."
(click on the link to access the link to the full article)The chicken and pork industries have wrought unprecedented changes in bird and swine... more
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You're not going to believe what you've been eating the last few years (thanks, Bush! thanks meat industry lobbyists!) when you eat a McDonald's burger (or the hamburger patties in kids' school lunches) or buy conventional ground meat at your supermarket:
According to today's New York Times, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations."
This "nasty pink slime," as one FDA microbiologist called it, is now wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat, and then treated with AMMONIA to "retard spoilage," and turned into "a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips".
Thus saving THREE CENTS a pound off production costs. And making the company, Beef Products Inc., a fortune. $440 million/year in revenue. Ain't that something?
* jennifer poole's diary :: ::
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And to emphasize: this pink slime isn't just in fast food burgers or free lunches for poor kids:
With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.
Bush's U.S.D.A. also allowed these "innovators" to get away with listing the ammonia as "a processing agent" instead of by name. And they also OKd the processing method -- and later exempted the hamburger from routine testing of meat sold to the general public -- strictly based on the company's claims of safety, which were not backed by any independent testing.
Because the ammonia taste was so bad ("It was frozen, but you could still smell ammonia," said Dr. Charles Tant, a Georgia agriculture department official. "I’ve never seen anything like it.") the company started using a less alkaline ammonia treatment, and now we know -- thanks to testing done for the school lunch program -- that the nasty stuff isn't even reliably killing the pathogens.
I've been thinking about an action item on this issue, and I've got three ideas: a. write Michelle Obama through this web form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/... or snail mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500; 2. print out the NY Times article and give it to the manager of your local supermarket, and ask them if they sell any kind of ground beef that doesn't contain this "pink slime" or if their butchers will grind meat fresh for you; 3. just stop buying the damned stuff altogether.
(more @ link)
Same story another source; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&emYou're not going to believe what you've been eating the last few years... more
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Oklahoma company begins voluntary recall of 248,000 pounds of beef products.
Cluster of illnesses involving E. coli bacteria reported in a half-dozen states.
States include Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.Oklahoma company begins voluntary recall of 248,000 pounds of beef products.... more
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DECEMBER 8--Meet Elsie Egan. The Florida woman, 53, is facing a felony domestic abuse charge for allegedly striking her boyfriend several times in the head with a raw steak, according to police. Egan, pictured in the below mug shot, was busted last night after a confrontation in the Dunnellon home she shares with Peter Schabhuttl. The 49-year-old Schabhuttl is described in a Marion County Sheriff's Office report as disabled and terminally ill with cancer. He told cops that Egan, his live-in girlfriend of 16 years, struck him "on top of his head with an uncooked steak (approximately 10-16 oz.)" after they quarreled about bread to be consumed at dinner. Schabhuttl wanted a roll. Egan, however, wanted him to eat sliced bread. "He said that when he refused, she attacked him with the steak," reported Deputy Carmen Gallup, who noted observing slight redness on Schabhuttl's right cheek and the crown of his head. While Egan denied wielding the steak, she admitted slapping Schabhuttl several times "so that he can learn."
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/1208091steak1.htmlDECEMBER 8--Meet Elsie Egan. The Florida woman, 53, is facing a felony domestic abuse... more
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Humanity's rapidly increasing appetite for meat is fast becoming a matter of global consequence. Paul Roberts on the science, and morality, of our planet's modern palate.Humanity's rapidly increasing appetite for meat is fast becoming a matter of... more
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Whether you are making lunch for work, school or a summer picnic, knowing what food to pack and how to prepare it can be the difference between enjoying your day or going home sick. From recent peanut butter and pistachio nut recalls to E. coli outbreaks associated with hamburger patties, people are increasingly concerned about the safety of the food they eat. Many illnesses can be prevented with proper food preparation and a clean kitchen.Whether you are making lunch for work, school or a summer picnic, knowing what food to... more
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For all of those who hate Thanksgiving.......read this and know you aren't the only turkey Scrooge's in town. For those of you who love it........well.........you can "cluck, cluck" at this article.For all of those who hate Thanksgiving.......read this and know you aren't the... more
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