Food, Inc.

[MaggieMae]

If you haven't seen this documentary yet, it's been airing on PBS under the P.O.V. series. The shocking information is enough for people of all political persuasions to demand some action.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

Keep in mind that some of the scenes are horrific, if you do happen to catch it on PBS or elsewhere. I still have an hour of it to watch, but these are just some of my observations that I jotted down:

Cattle are no longer being fed their natural diet of grass, but fed corn (which is the largest government subsidized industry, so why not, if they'll eat it). It is why beef from the supermarket does not have the texture or taste it once did even 10 years ago!

The products that you would never dream contain any agent from corn are enormous. Corn is in almost everything prepared, prepackaged and found on food shelfs.

Corn is high in fat with very little nutritional value, and plays a large part in the childhood obesity epidemic. One in three children born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; one in two in minority children.

Beef processors which make formed products (hamburgers for McDonalds, etc.) are now injecting an ammonia-based fill into each patty because ammonia kills e-coli. That was instituted after six outbreaks of e-coli traced to fast-food restaurants within an 8-year period.

In 1973, there were about 50,000 annual inspections of meat processing plants annually; today, with meat production up 300%, those inspectors number around 2,600 due to cutbacks.

Less than 1% of meat imported from other countries is inspected at all at port of entry.

SMITHFIELD (those yummy Easter hams?) CORPORATION is the largest slaughterhouse in the world, slaughtering 32,000 pigs per day (you don't want to know how). They abuse the animals before led to the kill floor, ignore sanitation requirements, and subject their workers to all kinds of disease because of the sanitation problem. Also, Smithfield will occasionally volunteer an offering of 15 illegal immigrants to ICE for deportation, which keeps the company under the radar for spot inspections by USDA.

This is the most disgusting information I've ever seen regarding what appears to be a free pass to endanger Americans, with the government just looking the other way.

 

[Zoom-boing]

If you haven't seen this documentary yet, it's been airing on PBS under the P.O.V. series. The shocking information is enough for people of all political persuasions to demand some action.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

Keep in mind that some of the scenes are horrific, if you do happen to catch it on PBS or elsewhere. I still have an hour of it to watch, but these are just some of my observations that I jotted down:

Cattle are no longer being fed their natural diet of grass, but fed corn (which is the largest government subsidized industry, so why not, if they'll eat it). It is why beef from the supermarket does not have the texture or taste it once did even 10 years ago!

The products that you would never dream contain any agent from corn are enormous. Corn is in almost everything prepared, prepackaged and found on food shelfs.

Corn is high in fat with very little nutritional value, and plays a large part in the childhood obesity epidemic. One in three children born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; one in two in minority children.

Beef processors which make formed products (hamburgers for McDonalds, etc.) are now injecting an ammonia-based fill into each patty because ammonia kills e-coli. That was instituted after six outbreaks of e-coli traced to fast-food restaurants within an 8-year period.

In 1973, there were about 50,000 annual inspections of meat processing plants annually; today, with meat production up 300%, those inspectors number around 2,600 due to cutbacks.

Less than 1% of meat imported from other countries is inspected at all at port of entry.

SMITHFIELD (those yummy Easter hams?) CORPORATION is the largest slaughterhouse in the world, slaughtering 32,000 pigs per day (you don't want to know how). They abuse the animals before led to the kill floor, ignore sanitation requirements, and subject their workers to all kinds of disease because of the sanitation problem. Also, Smithfield will occasionally volunteer an offering of 15 illegal immigrants to ICE for deportation, which keeps the company under the radar for spot inspections by USDA.

This is the most disgusting information I've ever seen regarding what appears to be a free pass to endanger Americans, with the government just looking the other way.

1st bold: Is this a bad thing? Killing e-coli seems to be a positive to me and I found this information on ammonia: (bottom of page 1 and most of page 2. it's a pdf file and I can't copy/paste from it) http://www.tfi.org/publications/HealthAmmoniaFINAL.pdf It also says that ammonia is an essential element for plant, animal and human life; the human body produces ammonia and is capable of clearing large amounts of ammonia from the body. How much ammonia do they inject? Enough to kill the e-coli but not too much for the body to process? Then I see no problem with it.

The 2nd bolded: If the government wants to grow itself bigger (and they are), why aren't they growing bigger in hiring more food inspectors? This doesn't make any sense. It says in 1973 they did 50,000 annual inspections but today have only around 2,600 inspectors. What do those numbers represent . . . inspections or inspectors?

The 3rd bold: WTF???

The 4th bold: This is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Animals should not be abused, sanitation procedures/requirements should be strictly followed, the workers should not be put in harms way via disease, the CEO's/management of Smithfields should be fined and jailed for hiring illegals and the illegals should be shipped back to their country of origin.

 

[eagleseven]

Already saw it. If you really liked it, I suggest you read:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455]Amazon.com: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (9781594201455): Michael Pollan: Books[/ame]


Written by one of the men who put together Food Inc, it might just change your life.

---

It changed mine.

 

[eagleseven]

The 3rd bold: WTF???

All of our meat is slaughtered in 13 (if memory serves) mega-slaughterhouses, which are highly mechanized.

This is why, when there is an outbreak, the poisoned meat is all over the country. If one slaughterhouse is infected, millions of people will be affected.

These slaughterhouses also bribe Congress to keep the flow of illegal labor open, as most of the plant workers are Mexicans paid below minimum wage.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Hmmmmm....corn fed beef....yummy, delicious, tender succulent steaks.

Feed them MORE corn I say!

 

[RadiomanATL]

Hmmmmmmmm........

 

[eagleseven]

Hmmmmm....corn fed beef....yummy, delicious, tender succulent steaks.

Feed them MORE corn I say!

Don't come crying to me when you're on the shitter from food poisoning.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Hmmmmm....corn fed beef....yummy, delicious, tender succulent steaks.

Feed them MORE corn I say!

Don't come crying to me when you're on the shitter from food poisoning.

There's nothing better than eating a large delicious steak and taking a satisfying dump afterwards.

 

[eagleseven]

Don't come crying to me when you're on the shitter from food poisoning.

There's nothing better than eating a large delicious steak and taking a satisfying dump afterwards.

If you consider diarrhea satisfying, more power to ya.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Don't come crying to me when you're on the shitter from food poisoning.

There's nothing better than eating a large delicious steak and taking a satisfying dump afterwards.

If you consider diarrhea satisfying, more power to ya.

It's a small price to pay for one of the world's best foods.

I can live with the tradeoff.

 

[eagleseven]

If you consider diarrhea satisfying, more power to ya.

It's a small price to pay for one of the world's best foods.

I can live with the tradeoff.

Fair enough.

I'll sacrifice and take the grass-fed NY strip steak, thank you.

 

[RadiomanATL]

If you consider diarrhea satisfying, more power to ya.

It's a small price to pay for one of the world's best foods.

I can live with the tradeoff.

Fair enough.

I'll sacrifice and take the grass-fed NY strip steak, thank you.

Not nearly as good IMO.

Plus, I don't think simply feeding a cow corn is going to cause e-coli. e-coli can occur no matter what the bovine eats.

 

[eagleseven]

Plus, I don't think simply feeding a cow corn is going to cause e-coli. e-coli can occur no matter what the bovine eats.

Tis one of the issues discussed in the film, and in the book.

Corn, when processed in the cow's rumen, changes the acidity of the cow's digestive track, making it ideal for certain bacteria, such as E coli, to grow. In short, corn turns the cow's long digestive track into a pathogenic bacterial-sack.

When this sack is ruptured in the slaughterhouse, it splashes E coli juice all over the meat, which is why they must wash it all down with ammonia.

---

Grass does not change the acidity of the cow's digestive track, and so grass-fed beef does not carry the risk for contamination, nor does it need to be washed down with disinfectants.

 

[RadiomanATL]

Plus, I don't think simply feeding a cow corn is going to cause e-coli. e-coli can occur no matter what the bovine eats.

Tis one of the issues discussed in the film, and in the book.

Corn, when processed in the cow's rumen, changes the acidity of the cow's digestive track, making it ideal for certain bacteria, such as E coli, to grow. In short, corn turns the cow's long digestive track into a pathogenic bacterial-sack.

When this sack is ruptured in the slaughterhouse, it splashes E coli juice all over the meat, which is why they must wash it all down with ammonia.

---

Grass does not cause this effect to occur, and so grass-fed beef does not carry the risk for contamination, nor does it need to be washed down with disinfectants.

I like to gamble with my food.

 

[eagleseven]

I like to gamble with my food.

It is your right, as an American.

 

[uscitizen]

Genetically altered soybeans have cross pollenated with regualr soybeans and now Monsant is putting farmers out of business for raising their patented soy beans.

In a few years all soy beans seeds in the USA will come from Monsanto and be genetically altered.
There is currently only one source of regualr non patented soy bean seeds left and it is expected to end this year.
.

 

[MaggieMae]

Hmmmmm....corn fed beef....yummy, delicious, tender succulent steaks.

Feed them MORE corn I say!

It must be what you're used to. Beef doesn't taste nor is it as tender as it once was. AND, a grass fed diet by cattle automatically disposes of e.coli through the digestive process. But not anymore.

 

[MaggieMae]

Hmmmmmmmm........

Oh, it all LOOKS wonderful! Another thing they do is inject dye into meat (especially hamburger) to make it appear more yummy. Actually, it's not dye, but some process that eliminates the discoloring that occurs when raw beef is exposed to air.

 

[uscitizen]

Hmmmmm....corn fed beef....yummy, delicious, tender succulent steaks.

Feed them MORE corn I say!

It must be what you're used to. Beef doesn't taste nor is it as tender as it once was. AND, a grass fed diet by cattle automatically disposes of e.coli through the digestive process. But not anymore.

All my beef is grass fed. I raise it myself.
They get some corn and coy pellets in the winter, but mostly hay.

 

[MaggieMae]

Don't come crying to me when you're on the shitter from food poisoning.

There's nothing better than eating a large delicious steak and taking a satisfying dump afterwards.

If you consider diarrhea satisfying, more power to ya.

Well, animals have been known to eat their own shit, so...