SALMONELLA'S GOOD FOR YOU!

As told by Eric Schlosser, Supreme Beef stopped just short of saying that in their argument that salmonella - "spread primarily by fecal material," as the author notes - is a "naturally occurring organism," so it shouldn't be prohibited by the USDA. And as we know, even when it is, the USDA does absolutely squat to punish the bozos who are selling feces to the American public under the name "meat," which is why the majority of meat on grocery store shelves and America's tables is salmonella-infected. Some critics pretend that this is much ado about nothing - "everything's bad for you" or "just cook it enough and you're fine" or "stop trying to ruin our fun!" But this is no academic concern: Government data links contaminated food to more than 76 million U.S. illnesses and 5,000 deaths every year, and the vast majority of that contamination is from animal feces. In other words, greedy creeps and their "keep the line moving" profit mentality kill over a dozen U.S. citizens every single day. Think about it. Here's another victim who obviously wasn't fully informed that he was eating crap in his restaurant meal, and who won't take much solace in the fact that salmonella is "naturally occurring."

I'LL JUST SWITCH TO CHICKEN...

I love it when people say to me, "I don't eat any red meat. Just chicken and fish." We'll leave the fish question for later. But here, courtesy of Don Russell, is some background on your bird...

HOW ABOUT THE 'NATURAL' ALTERNATIVE?

Food for thought - for all those who say "there's no problem with eating meat, as long as it isn't produced through horrendous hormone- and antibiotic-laced 'factory farm' techniques..."

Uh huh. Tell that to this guy.

MEAT PRODUCTION CREATES INVUNERABLE DISEASES

As if everything else stupid and evil about it weren't enough, it is now invontrovertably proven, as has been conjectured for years, that the overuse of antibiotics in meat production is helping to create drug-resistant bacteria that may kill us all one day. But the taste of that "juicy" burger makes it all worthwhile. (This is the last link from June or before that I'll indulge in.)

DAIRY QUEEN TO SELL IRRADIATED BURGERS

Unfortunately, nuking the (feces in the) ground beef will not help in the matter of where that guy's hands just were.

SNOW JOB

A run-of-the-mill story, really - people consumng some animal product that has feces in it and getting violently ill - but I wanted to take the moment to note the way this is all explained and described. A quick key:
"campylobacter" = disease caused by feces
"to kill bacteria" = to kill bacteria from feces
and
"listeria, e.coli, salmonella" etc. = diseases caused by feces
"Pasteurize" = cook feces
"Irradiate" = cook feces
It just amuses me, in a darkly comic way, how many words we have for feces in our food. We're like the eskimos and snow. Only this ain't snow, folks.

"IF WE WERE TRULY BASING THIS ONLY ON SCIENCE, WE WOULD TELL PEOPLE TO BECOME VEGETARIANS"

This is a beaut!
REUTERS: The report reviews scientific findings on trans-fats and finds that eating any at all raises levels of low-density lipoprotein -- the so-called bad cholesterol. Therefore, if a limit were to be set, it should be zero. Eric Rimm, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health said the panel, made up of nutritionists, biochemists, pediatricians and others, decided not to do that.
[Here comes the punch line...ready?]
"We can't tell people to stop eating all meat and all dairy products," he said.
[But wait - here's the capper!!]
"Well, we could tell people to become vegetarians," he added. "If we were truly basing this only on science, we would, but it is a bit extreme."

That's right, folks, if this scientific report were only based on science, people would be advised to become vegetarian. But since that's a "bit extreme," let's ignore the science and throw our hands up in the air.

GOT CHUBS?

If so, you better go HERE and see whether they came from Conagra.

NYT: MEAT INSPECTION SYSTEM DOESN'T WORK

This could've been the first post, but I didn't want to start with one that required registration. Anyway, it's the latest installment in a 100-year-old trend: Authorities are shocked, shocked, that meat contaminated with feces and the bacteria that come from feces is routinely, consistently reaching consumers ... yet nothing happens to ameliorate the situation. Not only that, it's getting worse, according to this latest GAO report. From the story: "The tradition at U.S.D.A. is you do everything possible to avoid closing a plant because the U.S.D.A.'s mandate from Congress is to promote consumption and production of agricultural projects," Carol Foreman said. "But there is a conflict of interest between that and public health, and protection of public health always comes in second."

EARTH CAN'T SUSTAIN WESTERN LIFESTYLE

OK, here's a good starting point. An international conservation group has determined that The Earth Will Expire by 2050 if we continue to spread the first-world culture to the third world. There are a lot of variables between those cultures, but one is clear: We eat a ton more meat than they do. This consumes not only lives of animals, but land, water, air and oil in much greater proportions than does eating plants. Meat-eating, in other words, is one of the biggest threats to our planet.

Which is better for you - food that's plant-based or food that's corpse-based? This blog will make the case that we do our bodies and our planet more harm than good by consuming corpses. News stories that support this contention will be linked, while those that don't will be ignored ... unless someone asks me to post something in particular. In that case it will be posted, though probably not without commentary.