Another ban on exporting food to a foreign country from the USA reinforces my own belief that consumers need to really investigate what they are eating. Commercially raised beef, chicken, and pork have been under fire for years. Now Russia is banning imports of poultry due to disease, drugs, and other contaminants.
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"The decision from Russia, the biggest foreign consumer of U.S. poultry, to ban imports from U.S. poultry companies, and the myriad other meat recalls that have occurred recently in the U.S., illustrate that the American meat supply is shockingly unsafe. Prior to Russia's ban, 19 poultry facilities ignored warnings from Russian inspectors concerned about excessive levels of antibiotics and arsenic found in their poultry. Far from the idyllic farms people envision, today's poultry factories crowd thousands of chickens and turkeys tightly into filthy warehouses, where they are given little space to move, made susceptible to disease, and fed antibiotics and arsenic to maximize growth and profitability. These factory farms treat both animals and consumers with complete disregard. The poultry industry's short sighted desire to prioritize profits over human safety and animal welfare has now backfired, opening America's factory farms to international scrutiny." |
This is another argument for subsistence living. Hunting, fishing and growing your own garden. But that is not always feasible. I am always willing to pay a little more for meat that is designated chemical free, free-range, steroid free, antibiotic free etc.
I'm seriously considering investing in my own little chicken house. Upside? Free range, chemical-free eggs and poultry. Great fertilizer for my garden Downside? Killing and gutting my own meat. I've done it, it isn't pleasant; but it would be far preferable to eating the commercially raised, disease-ridden, chemically loaded, and often rancid meat available at the grocery store.
In the meantime, we have local folks who sell clean eggs and meats. We're also investigating a co-op for locally grown produce - which is harder to find than I thought, since we are in an agricultural area.
QUOTE (FarSeer @ 2-Sep 08, 12:17 AM) |
We're also investigating a co-op for locally grown produce - which is harder to find than I thought, since we are in an agricultural area. |
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antibiotics and arsenic found in their poultry |
What is in my fridge. I can tell you there is a lot of sweet corn and some fresh grown veggies. The fruit is the hard thing to buy fresh. Oranges do not grow well up here. IN my freezer is a lot of beef and pork that was raised here in Iowa. We get our eggs from a local farmer who has a lot of chickens running around the yard. As long as we take a egg carton out to her we can get a lot of eggs in return.