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The Meatrix
Do YOU want to know what the Meatrix is? Take the red pill...and watch this video
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Industrial Farm Animals Consume 17 Percent of Wild-Caught Fish
Fish and pigs and chickens, oh my!
By Erik Hoffner, Guest Contributor
GRIST, June 27, 2008
SIX TIMES MORE FISH FED TO LIVESTOCK THAN TO HUMANS
According to the UBS Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C., despite rampant over-fishing and depletion of world fish populations, globally, we are now feeding 14 MILLIOIN TONS of edible wild-caught fish to factory farm animals, like pigs and chickens, each year. That amounts to over six times the amount of fish the entire U.S. population eats annually. Wild fish fed to animals on a massive scale include perfectly edible anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring, which are ground into a cheap fishmeal and sold for animal feed. In other words a protein source is being fed to animals on corporate farms with a 90% energy loss. Given the global food crisis and the over-harvesting of many of the ocean's commercial fish varieties, careful analysis of resource use by the global industrial food complex is becoming a life or death imperative.
Here's a guest post from Jennifer Jacquet of the Sea Around Us Project and the UBC Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C. ----- It is one thing to grind up wild fish to feed to farmed fish, but it is quite another to grind up these perfectly edible fish to feed factory-farmed pigs and poultry. After all, when is the last time you saw a chicken catch a fish?
In the not-so-distant past, pigs and chickens ate grass, some grains, and food scraps. Today, in the throes of a perverse industrial food system that favors cheap protein and quick growth (with often astonishing results such as Mad Cow disease), we now feed farm animals lots of small, tasty fish.
LOTS.
Each year we feed 14 million tons of wild-caught fish (including anchovies, sardines, mackerel, and herring) to pigs and chickens around the globe. That amounts to 17 percent of all the wild fish we catch. Pigs and chickens eat double the amount of fish that Japan consumes annually and six times more seafood than the entire U.S. population eats each year.
Is it efficient to feed these fish to pigs and chickens? Moreover, with rampant overfishing a global problem, is it ethical? This is not the same question of whether we should feed grains to cattle, which leads to an overall loss in energy but also a conversion of carbohydrates to protein. In the case of fishmeal fed to pigs and poultry, a perfectly edible (and rather scarce) protein source is being consumed and converted (with an energy loss of ~90 percent) by simply another protein source.
It's messed up.
What to do? In Peru, home to a large fishmeal industry, scientists and chefs came together to initiate a program to "discover the anchovy" and turn fishmeal into a meal of fish. But much of this program's success hinges on government action.
"We have the best oceanographer in the country at the Marine Research Institute and he insists we have to leave 5 million tonnes of anchovies in the water," explains Patricia Majluf, the architect of the Peruvian anchovy initiative. "The government also now insists on establishing the anchovy quota at the beginning of the season rather than the old way telling the fishermen when to stop, which led to lots of overfishing."
In places where government action is unlikely due to the mantra of free markets, it is more likely we would see some sort of awareness program, such as a seafood wallet card for pigs and chickens (who don't read).
"Better yet, we will tell pigs and chickens they can eat only what they catch," says Daniel Pauly, Director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.
Maybe we should feed pigs and poultry (literally) Michael Pollan's advice: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
And we should do the same. Fish and pigs and chickens, oh my! By Erik Hoffner, Guest Contributor GRIST, June 27, 2008 ... more -
Bad meat: Be informed!
"Beginning next month, consumers will be able to check an online list of stores that sold or stocked recalled meat. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) secretary Ed Shafer said the move is designed to prevent stores from continuing to sell tainted food and, also, alert consumers who might be at risk if they shopped at certain markets."
Finally! They should do this with other foods too, especially produce, which they also discuss briefly in the article. "Beginning next month, consumers will be able to check an online list of stores that sold or stocked recalled meat. U.S. Departme... more -
Down On Your Cluck?
Telly chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall loves chickens so much he raises his own, and became a shareholder in the supermarket Tesco in an attempt to get them to improve factory-farm conditions. Telly chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall loves chickens so much he raises his own, and became a shareholder in the supermarket Tesco in ... more
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Treading lighter with low-carbon diets
In honor of earth day, forgo meat for a day!
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Subtle nods to vegetarianism in Paul McCartney's "Nod Your Head" vi...
Paul McCartney's hard-rocking, head bobbing video features him wearing this PETA vegetarian T-shirt.
"I think the biggest change anyone could make in their own lifestyle would be to become a vegetarian," says Paul McCartney, who recently wrote a letter to the UK's Sunday Times about the environmental benefits of the diet. "The global meat industry and the land and water required to service it is one of the major contributors to global warming. So I would urge everyone to think about taking this simple step to help our precious environment and save it for the children of the future." Paul McCartney's hard-rocking, head bobbing video features him wearing this PETA vegetarian T-shirt. ... more -
Safeway to make purchasing decisions on meat and eggs based on animal welfare
In light of the recalled beef news, some major animal organizations (HSUS, PETA) are making real progress to move American businesses like Safeway away from the cruelest practices in animal agriculture. Wow! I'm impressed and hopeful. In light of the recalled beef news, some major animal organizations (HSUS, PETA) are making real progress to move American businesses ... more
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Factory farming
