Last week I attempted to do an update with regard to the Pet Food Recall and got side tracked: Pet Food Recall: Trail of Tears, which gives a heart wrenching account of the loss of my Golden Retriever, Annie Oakley. Today, I wanted to get an update on China’s baby milk poisoning and landed on ‘Police arrest underground gang ‘poisoning baby milk for profit’. The contamination has led to China’s worst food safety crisis.
This week, I’m taking 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; bringing disease and death to the planets inhabitants!
The Truth Will Sit You Free!
There are hundreds of reports and stories about the ongoing Pet Food Recall and its continued impact to our pets. What seems most important after reading these reports is to pass on what I’ve learned and to keep linking together with others who have similar concerns; doing so gives more credibility and a more effective means of convincing people to change what they and their furry friends eat!
The sense to be made of the Pet Food Recall and the ongoing tragedy is not something most people want to know. Knowing means you find a truth. What you do with the truth is what counts. My advise is to take a journey. Take time to take a deep look into the Pet Food Recall before you make any decision. For me, the journey has taken some horrific and outrageous trails.
Rocky and Dirty Trails
The food industry trail is rocky and sometimes dark and dirty.
From Rendering Plants to our dinner table! Ever thought about what a job looks like at a rendering plant or slaughterhouse facility? Probably not.
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.
I knew there was a process, but didn’t know what it was called. Rendering plants have different specialties. Some 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.
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.
If these truths don’t set you free, I can’t imagine what could. My previous post on ‘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. With cancer as rampant as it is: one in four deaths is from cancer.
Given the rendering plant practice: approximately 7.9 billion pounds of meat, bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal produced by rendering plants goes into livestock and poultry feed and then we eat the livestock and poultry: might there be a possible connection to ‘what causes cancer’?
Change: How Difficult?
Extremely difficult! Don’t believe everything I say. Take time to read each of the links I’ve placed in this post. Each link tells a different story, but have a similar ending.
Even when answers are made clear…industry can justify anything. Reading and defining the fine print on labels takes time. Who has the time? Who wants to take the time? Isn’t that what we pay our tax dollars to do? 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 its people.
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.”
There are simple and direct answers
to what seem like a mountain of complicated and controversial catastrophic ingredients. Every company strives to cut costs and expenses in order to increase profit. GREED seeps in a sea of muck! This will become very clear if you are brave enough to follow the slippery trail.
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.
Currently I’m feeding Pieper ‘Wellness’ dog food. I’m still reading and trying to understand their label and hoping there is nothing harmful. I want to believe what they say: “Live Well, Eat Well and Be Well!” Wellness is manufactured by Old Mother Hubbard. They say they would ‘love to hear from me’. I do have questions. What is their source of Chicken Meal? Old Mother Hubbard says they use ‘ethoxyquin-free protein sources’. What does that mean?
I’m buying more organic food for myself…and believe I will move in that direction for Pieper. The organic industry is a realistic approach to many of my concerns about the health of Pieper, myself and the environment.
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? I have good idea, but will speak more about that next time.
Happy Trails!
Great site! We have two cats, two dogs (English bulldogs), two rabbits and a tortoise and our animals are more our children than they are “pets”. It’s great to read the stories you post about how animals give back to humans in so many ways.
And thanks for reading US Recall News. In case you missed it, here is a story that might be of interest to you:
http://www.usrecallnews.com/2008/10/warning-pimple-ball-dog-toy-by-four-paws.html
Kind regards,
Everett Sizemore
Editor, US Recall News
Everett, thanks so much for taking time to comment on my post. You certainly have an ‘animal house’; how terrific! I’m a bit of a recluse with regard to humans, as I find ‘animals’ most of the time much more honest and forthcoming. Writing of course is not a social hobby. so when someone finds their way here, I’m elated!
I will follow the link you provided.
Please come back again!
Hello Gail,
I’ll certainly come back again. And thanks for the link!
Uneblevialbe how well-written and informative this was.
Thanks Arry. Hope you’ll Subscribe and come back. It’s an exciting and challenging time and there is much to look into and concern ourselves with. Finding answers and asking the right questions. Always a challenge.
I simply want to tell you that I’m all new to blogging and seriously enjoyed this website. Likely I’m planning to bookmark your website . You definitely have really good articles. Cheers for revealing your webpage.
Thank you so much. I’ve had difficulty in being notified of comments. Please accept my apology for taking so long to reply. I’m revamping my site. Please take another look and let me know what you think. Thank you, Gail
What’s up, I check your new stuff like every week.
Your humoristic style is witty, keep it up!
Forgive the intrusion after these years. I’m still writing. Have a book planned. Have a new ‘Header’ and revamping my site. Thanks for your support. Hope you’ll want to check http://thewayofanimals.com/conservation-pledge-vs-pledge-of-allegiance/
Thank you,
Gail
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I think my hardest day of the week is Mondays when I have to leave my little girl and go to work. I only work 3 days a week but Monday is the start of those three days when I have to leave her with the nanny and I just can’t stand it. Thursdays are my favorite day because that’s the start of our four days together. Congrats on your book — it looks great!