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Re: Cynthia, that med student comment would have been around 1982 or 3.
That's surprising that students were aware of the growing (no pun intended) problem 25 years ago...
In any case, you ARE joking about the Chinese and consumer protection aren't you??? (Is it because they executed that official who took bribes and looked the other way???) OK, I got it! That WAS a joke...
posted by
Cynthia
on July 16, 2007 at 4:09 AM
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Cynthia, that med student comment would have been around 1982 or 3.
The last local meat operation here went under ten years ago. There's a meat store that sells product processed who knows where (maybe a mobile abattoir).
Temple Granson's writing about the cattle processing industry is illuminating to some degree. A news article on public radio earlier this year citing that there are only six "major meat processors" left in the U.S. mentions that, with their capacity and overhead, they aren't buying cattle or hogs by the dozen or score, but the hundreds. You get them in that sort of concentration and you are forced into using antibiotics to keep them all relatively healthy. I would wonder if such economies of scale and competition for market push litte guys into using hormones to bump up meat, egg and milk production?
Maybe the Chinese have the right idea about consumer protecion once fraud is detected.
posted by
majroj
on July 15, 2007 at 9:12 PM
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Re: Cynthia, why not?
Maj, What year would that have been??? Interesting question abuot pasturization... I have no idea, but I'm not a fan of "raw" foods...
I try to by meat, dairy and eggs that all indicate they were from animals that were not treated with growth hormones or antibiotics. I'm in New England, so in season, I try to buy produce locally grown. We have a strong, small farming tradition in Vermont, Maine and Western Massachusetts.
posted by
Cynthia
on July 14, 2007 at 4:42 AM
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Cynthia, why not?
When I was in nursing school I overheard med students talking about another student taking culture swaabs at equal intervals moving downwind from a feedlot in Omaha and finding antibiotic resistant bacteria closer to the lot, and decreasing as they moved away. It was nearly a decade later that anyibiotic resistant bacteria linked to feedlot practices were being "officially" recognized.
In theory, cooking denatures enzymes and hormones to varying degrees. I wonder if pasteurization does? And as for raw milk and "natural" cheeses/yogurt....
posted by
majroj
on July 12, 2007 at 7:20 AM
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Re: Cynthia, I smell a grant in this...
Maj, I bet there have been studies done but the food industry and agribusiness is keeping the findings supressed..
posted by
Cynthia
on July 12, 2007 at 5:21 AM
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Cynthia, I smell a grant in this...
I don't know about estrogens (and forget those anti-tofu Internet rants), but I wonder about hormones in dairy and meat. Maybe we as a nation aren't becoming so tall and/or buxom (versus us geezers)because we get so much protein, but because of traces of growth hormones; what about antibiotic traces?
posted by
majroj
on July 10, 2007 at 6:43 AM
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Re: Big fat frogs...Cynthia
Wow, Maj, the thought of a bullfrog eating a mouse...That's a surprise to me. Your thought about the relationship to fat and insecticides is an interesting one. That might be connected to our own obesity epidemic and not only in males...
posted by
Cynthia
on July 10, 2007 at 3:58 AM
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Big fat frogs...Cynthia
Lotsa food, not too many predators, slow currents.
Bullfrogs out here are introduced and actually eat the native frogs (along with insects, mice, and anything they can get into their mouth).
I don't know if the artificial estrogen-like chemiocals in insecticides etc would make for fatter male frogs. Phytoestrogens are supposed to in human males?
posted by
majroj
on July 9, 2007 at 1:01 PM
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Re: Works with cut and paste.
Maj, glad you took the time to visit frog land. We are actually far enough away- we live on the far side of the reservation, so we don't hear them. I was pleased to see them all looking so fat and healthy. It must mean they live in a healthy environment...
posted by
Cynthia
on July 8, 2007 at 7:49 AM
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Works with cut and paste.
Must be loud around there at night this time of year.
Reminds me of my grandfather's farm pond in Arkansas, except the tutrles were snappers, and there were snakes. Lots o snakes.
posted by
majroj
on July 8, 2007 at 7:15 AM
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