Lets take a long look into centuries of food industry practices. Practices which began innocently enough, but, in many instances have developed into a dark and dangerous business; endangering the planet and it’s inhabitants!
The food industry continually strives to cut costs and expenses in order to increase profit; they hypnotizie the population with their glossy color ads and their promise of miracle foods’; all the while their GREED seeps in a sea of muck! This will become very clear if you are brave enough to follow the slippery trail.
‘The Truth Will Set You Free’
While doing research into the ongoing Pet Food Recall tragedy and its continued impact to our pets, what seems most important is to pass on the information…hoping after you take a look, you will want change what you and your furry friends eat! When you discover a ‘truth’ it’s compelling. Truth. What you do with it is up to you! My advise is to take a deep look into the food industry before you make a decision. For me, the journey has taken some horrific and dangerous trails.
What’s Cooking?
From Rendering Plants to our dinner table! Do you even know what a ‘rendering plant’ is? Probably not. Here you go:
Rendering plants are like huge kitchens. What do they ‘cook up’? The stainless steel pot contains; dead animals, slaughterhouse wastes, supermarket rejects, pesticides via poisoned livestock, euthanasia drugs that were given to pets; some dead animals have flea collars containing organophosphate insecticide, fish oil laced with bootleg DDT, insecticide Dursban in the form of cattle insecticide patch, other chemicals leaked from antibiotics in livestock, heavy metals from pet ID tag and surgical pins and needles: all go into the ’stainless steel pot’. The mixture then goes into various products’ known as recycled meat, bone meal, and animal fat.
Rendering plants have different specialties. Some of the end product-label names are: meat meal, meat by-products, poultry meal, poultry by-products, fishmeal, fish oil, yellow grease, tallow, beef fat and chicken fat. Who buys the products from ‘rendering plants’? The livestock, poultry and pet food industries! They use it as feed additives.A 1991 USDA report states that approximately 7.9 billion pounds of meat, bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal was produced by rendering plants in 1983. Of that amount:
12 percent was used in beef cattle feed
34 percent was used in pet food
34 percent was used in poultry feed
20 percent was used in pig food
Scientific American cites a dramatic rise in the use of animal protein in commercial dairy feed since 1987. ‘The Power and Politics Behind What We Eat’ offers an intricate account of the cause of much of the disease to the inhabitants of our planet. Unfortunately, there are no labels to identify the above ingredients that have gone into our livestock and poultry feed…and passed onto humans.
One in four deaths is from cancer; given the livestock and poultry practice of feeding the products produced by rendering plants to livestock and poultry; and then we eat (well I don’t) the livestock and poultry: might there be a possible significant connection to cancer’?
Are there any labels on beef, poultry, or pork? Do you know how they were raised? What they eat? Are they stressed? Do you know if stress does anything to the quality of the meat? Do you care? Who has the time or wants to take the time to know this stuff? We put our trust in the United States Government to safeguard its people! To take the time to monitor and inspect what is meant no nourish us!
Warning from the Past and Present!
The Jungle (1906) is a novel by American author and socialist Upton Sinclair. It describes the life of a family of Lithuanian immigrants working in Chicago’s Union Stock Yards at the beginning of the 20th century.
Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin in September 1962. The book is widely credited with launching the environmentalism movement in the West.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001)is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry.
Chew on This is a book for younger readers by Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation) and Charles Wilson on the subject of fast food.
Amazing Discoveries reports, “Food borne illness is on the increase worldwide and in most cases animal products are implicated as the main source of infection.”
Food, Inc. Eating can be one dangerous business. Don’t take another bite till you see Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc ., an essential, indelible documentary that is …
Vote with your Dollars!
This is something you can do this very instant! Vote with your pocket book. Truly, this is the only language industry understands…that’s how we got ourselves into this tragic predicament; we bought into industries glossy color ads and their promise of miracle foods’. Read the labels. Ask questions.
MSNBC reports, “This year, retail sales of organic foods are expected to exceed $15 billion — with more than $32 billion projected by 2009. While the conventional food industry still dwarfs the organic sector with $550 billion in yearly sales, it is producing an unappetizing 2 to 3 percent annual growth rate, while the organic industry has savored several years of 17 to 20 percent growth.”
What does this growth say about ‘why’ people are buying more organic food? They are voting with their dollars; taking responsibility for the health and well being of their self, their furry friends and the environment!
Happy Trails!
This is GREAT Gail.
Alice, please consider writing the article on your furry feline BFF!