MEAT STINKS, AS POSTER POINTS OUT

There's a hilarious brouhaha over a poster the London underground introduced, then withdrew, as part of an anti-smelly-food campaign: "The offending advertisement depicted a man on a subway train surrounded by salami, strings of sausages and Parma hams, above the words "Please don't eat smelly food." Hmmmmm. What do all of those "foods" have in common? But it wasn't the meat producers who complained, it was Guido Cerboni, economic affairs chief at the Italian embassy in London, who said the poster was "offensive and harmful to Italian products." Uh... Guido: Olive Oil? Pasta? These Italian products are in no way slurred by the poster. Get a grip. The real joke here is that the poster shows how disgusting meat is. Mustn't have that!

FLEXITARIAN OF THE MONTH

Much as I might parody the use of the term as though it represents an ideology, I got nothing against "flexitarianism," especially if it's a stop on the path to veganism, as will undoubtedly be the case for some. The good thing about it, of course, is that flexitarians buy vegetarian and vegan foods, increasing their market share and helping extend their reach. One vegan-food purveyor is David Lee, whose Field Roast Grain Meat Co. "turns out a growing line of flavorful, meat-like loafs, roasts, slices, patties and links made primarily from high-protein wheat-gluten flour, vegetables and seasonings." I've had one of these loafs and it was tasty. And he acknowledges that his average consumer is "the emerging 'flexitarian.' They eat tofu one night, meat the next."

As for Lee himself, "the enterprise reflects Lee's own vegetarianism, his rejection of animal farming as 'cruel and unethical' and his belief that all life has value." Great, except that "As for all those flexitarians, Lee says he is one. 'I really am a vegetarian, but I need to be honest and say I'm not hardcore. I don't buy meat myself, but if I go to your house and you serve meat, I'll eat it,' to avoid wasting food or embarrassing his host." Well, that's his choice, of course, but I believe the offical term for this eating plan is not so much "flexitarian" as "wuss."

DANGER: EXPLODING MYTHS

These two stories have next to nothing to do with each other except that their common hook is the "exploding" of a myth. In "New study explodes myth about vegetarian diet," we learn that PCRM has shown that "patients easily transition from a standard omnivorous diet to a low-fat, vegetarian diet that helps people lose weight, lower blood pressure, and otherwise improve their health." Meanwhile, across the pond, Fox myth 'exploded by study', assures the Guardian: "Urban foxes in Britain now number 33,000 and their country cousins 225,000, according to the most accurate estimate ever, says the University of Bristol. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 foxes are killed by hunting with dogs every year, with some 100,000 dying on the roads. Prof Harris said: 'This study found that fox numbers were more heavily influenced by habitat. This suggests that there is no reason to expect fox numbers to rise when hunting is banned.'" Interesting thing is, even though it's in quotes in the headline, no permutation of the word "explode" actually occurs in the article.
UPDATE 8/5: Reuters finally picks up the story: It's Not So Hard to Switch to a Vegan Diet: Report

STAR OF 'HAROLD & KUMAR' CAN'T STOMACH HAMBURGERS

In this cutesy promo piece we learn that one of the two stars of a movie whose entire supposed point is the quest for White Castle hamburgers actually can't stand the things and would not consume them even for his art. "Kal Penn on eating White Castle burgers: I'm a Vegetarian. Unfortunately White Castle doesn't make veggie burgers...I actually said, 'Look, if you have a spit bucket, I'll just take the bite and spit it out.' They said 'Don't you think that's kind of gross?' 'Well, yeah, but...' So, they made these soy patties and put them in the White Castle buns. They were the most delicious things.

BLAME CANADA

A Pennsylvania meat company voluntarily recalled 170,000 pounds - 85 tons - of hamburger containing Canadian beef prohibited for possible mad cow, the USDA said on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, our country says the error was entirely Canada's.
UPDATE 7/29: Meanwhile, it certainly wasn't the United States' fault that another 38 tons of beef in South Korea was destroyed because it mistakenly contained beef from the U.S. banned for - yes - mad cow. Those damn Koreans, why weren't they paying more attention? Or maybe it was the Mexicans' fault...
ALSO: RCALF says the Canada thing violated an injunction, and Tom Daschle wrings his hands over the whole matter.

PILGRIM'S PRIDE PROBED

Here's news that I missed late last week: The USDA has sent an FSIS team to investigate the Pilgrim's Pride plant where workers were filmed abusing chickens, though the USDA insists there couldn't be any food-safety issue there. Nawwww. Spokesman Matt Baun said that "depending on the results of that investigation, we may share some of that information with the local authorities who are pursuing the animal abuse side of the situation," he said. The Reuters story continues that "some U.S. consumer groups have questioned whether the alleged animal abuse at the Pilgrim's Pride facility also could hint at lax food safety within the plant. But Baun said federal inspectors would catch any bruised carcasses." Oh, OK, great. Federal inspectors. Whew. EXCEPT... "Baun also confirmed that the Moorefield plant participates in a special USDA program that some consumer groups have criticized for handing too much inspection responsibility over to company employees." Ummmmm... WTF? And spelling out what I said on the first day, "Pilgrim's Pride workers were seen squeezing some chickens with such force 'that the birds expelled feces.' Consumer groups questioned whether that could have spread fecal contamination, a problem in poultry processing." Ya think?

Meanwhile, looking for any way to direct blame away from themselves, Pilgrim's Pride said Monday the surreptitious video taper should have reported findings earlier "so we could have taken immediate action." What a laff riot. Why didn't they take "immediate action" to monitor the kill floor back in 2002 when they caused the biggest meat recall in history?

Oh yeah, and speaking of which, more than 18 tons of cooked chicken is being recalled because it may be contaminated with, yes, listeria. The recall covers 14-pound boxes of "Tyson, Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Filet Fritters with Rib Meat, 3806" and 20-pound boxes of "Spare Time, Fully Cooked, Chicken Breast Fillet Fritters with Rib Meat, 3806." But when you go to the store, try to ask yourself, what will the next recall cover?

PLANT FOODS BEAT CANCER, SUPPLEMENTS

I would've included these in the last post, but those results were specific for women, while these are for everybody. New studies show that the risk of gut cancers can be reduced by eating fruits and vegetables. Onions, apples, celery and broccoli are all highlighted as being particularly beneficial. And antioxidants are best delivered through whole plant foods, not through supplements, another study found: "This study indicates that vegetables and fruits provide more antioxidant protection than supplements." Add this to the pile of pro-plant research.

WOMEN: AVOID ANIMAL PROTEIN

That's the conclusion of two unrelated studies that just came out. A 14-year study in Japan on 9,300 people found that women who ate one egg per day were 22 percent more likely to die than those who ate only a couple eggs a week - regardless of factors such as age, smoking habits and body weight. And those who ate two or more eggs a day showed a still higher death risk. Hmmmm. Also, "women who get a lot of their dietary protein from vegetables [rather than animal products] are at reduced risk for having their gallbladder removed. As reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers studied data from some 121,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study. Over 20 years of follow-up, 7831 women underwent gallbladder removal, also called cholecystectomy."

ANIMAL ABUSE A DANGER SIGNAL

There's another story like this about every week or so, pointing out that an individual's animal abuse is often an indicator for later criminal violence against people. This one is a little more pointed: "Animal abuse should be treated as a serious public health issue with far-reaching ramifications, rather than an unfortunate anomaly, a visiting US psychologist says." I bring it up because no one else seems to be tying this fact to the shocking allegations that former NBA star Jayson Williams shot and killed his pet Rottweiler "Zeus" after losing a $100 bet, then pointed the gun at the other bettor and threatened him. All of this occurred about six months before Williams shot and killed limousine driver Gus Christofi.

Here are the details: "Prosecutors said former New Jersey Nets player Dwayne Schintzius told detectives he had bet Williams $100 he could drag the attack-trained dog out of Williams' house without being bitten. When Schintzius made good on his claim, Williams got a shotgun and blasted the dog twice, once in the side and once in the head. When Schintzius and another houseguest ignored Williams' command to remove the dog's carcass, Williams reloaded the gun and pointed it at Schintzius, according to prosecutors. He allegedly threatened Schintzius that he would be next if the dog was not removed." Why is it so hard to understand that people who are hateful to animals are hateful people?

IF ANIMAL CIRCUSES ARE BANNED, IT MUST BE BELGIUM

It may be too close to call this one, but there's a move afoot to ban wild-animal acts in circuses across Belgium. Not surprisingly, the circus owners are raisin' a hoot & holler with the same appeals to "tradition" as we hear over here. The story notes that "seventy communes in Belgium have already outlawed the presence of wild animals in circuses on their territory." Not having any idea how Belgium is divided up or how many communes, which seem to be equivalent to counties, the country as a whole contains, I can only say that sounds like a good start.

UPDATE 8/4: The ban is rescinded as overreaching the authority of the animal welfare minister's office. It will be interesting to watch this develop, as "the Conseil D'Etat has organised a series of meetings with circus representatives in August and September. Witmeur said they would seek to find 'a compromise suitable for all' but that conditions for circus animals would have to improve. 'We need to make a lot of progress for their well-being,' he said." We'll have to wait and see what that means in reality...

BACK FROM SUMMERFEST

OK, I'm back. If any of you were wondering about the post that said "Blogging from Summerfest," that was created during a demo on blogging. I've deleted it. Now on to the news that's been piling up.

SUMMERFEST

Headin' out to Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown later this morning. See you if you're there, and if not, you'll just have to wait till I get back - unless I find time to blog from there somehow.

 FOOD LABELS WILL SPELL OUT MILK PRODUCTS

The Food Allergy Labeling Bill passed, which means being vegan (or eating carefully in general) just got a little easier, in that you don't have to memorize every possible variant of milk product when reading labels. Foodmakers will be required to list any of the eight most common food allergens: wheat, milk, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, or eggs. It's not just to make more work for people, but eliminating a deadly product-labeling loophole. "David Parkinson, 14, said he was caught by that loophole once drinking a smoothie that did not list milk as an ingredient, but included it as a stabilizer. The company did not think it was enough to cause a reaction, 'but four hours later I found myself in the hospital,' he said.

KFC BUYS FROM ANIMAL ABUSERS

It's long been alleged, and pretty much understood, but now it's breathtakingly clear that KFC's suppliers are involved in animal cruelty. And yes, that's above and beyond the standard cruelty inherent in factory farming and slaughtering. Video footage shows "slaughterhouse workers for one supplier jumping up and down on live chickens, drop-kicking them like footballs and slamming them into walls, apparently for fun." One KFC advisor said the tape "contains some of the worst scenes of animal cruelty that I have ever witnessed," reports The New York Times. "Prominent veterinarians, including those on the company's animal welfare advisory board, called for shutting the plant and dismissing or prosecuting its managers." But KFC, unsurprisingly, is sticking to other "tough" measures: "[T]hey said they would seek dismissal of the workers, inspect the slaughterhouse more often and end their relationship if the cruelty was repeated." Right, if the cruelty is repeated - and videotaped and sent to the New York Times - again. Meanwhile, for anyone who feels they need to see it, the footage will be available at kentuckyfriedcruelty.com.

The tape was taken surreptitiously by a PETA investigator who worked from October 2003 to May 2004 at a Pilgrim's Pride plant that won KFC's "Supplier of the Year" award in 1997. The undercover told the Times that he saw "hundreds" of acts of cruelty, including workers tearing beaks off, ripping a bird's head off to write graffiti in blood, spitting tobacco juice into birds' mouths, plucking feathers to "make it snow," suffocating a chicken by tying a latex glove over its head, and squeezing birds like water balloons to spray feces over other birds. Hmmmmm... First thought: Wasn't this "isolated event" that happened to be caught on tape the same thing that Virgil Butler talked about workers doing at his Tyson plant several states away? And Second Thought: Spraying feces over other birds sounds like a good recipe for listeria. Wonder if Pilgrim's Pride was ever... oh, that's right, they only caused the biggest freaking recall in U.S. history over their deadly listeria-packed poultry products.
In other words: Once again, cruelty to animals isn't just bad for the animals - it's bad for everybody.
UPDATE 7/21: Pilgrim's Pride says they've fired 11 of the people involved in the abuse. It's a good start, anyway. Also: HSUS demands Congressional hearings. Good luck with that one.

SCIENCE: VEGETARIANS ARE SMARTER

Heh. Just applying the same logic to headline writing as those stories on calcium studies that wind up headlined "Drink More Milk!" or studies on Omega-3s that say "You Must Eat Fish For Your Heart." The truth behind this one is not quite so sexy, but it's still worth noting: "Eating vegetables like broccoli and spinach may help older women retain some memory abilities later on, while avoiding obesity in middle age lowers the risk of later Alzheimer's disease in both sexes, new studies suggest." In other words, even if veggies won't make you smarter now, they'll help stop you from getting stupider earlier.

RAT-CHEWED AND FECES-CONTAMINATED - BUT A BARGAIN!

Several Los Angeles companies and 10 people were charged with violating federal food safety laws by selling tons of contaminated meat, shipping tainted cheese and importing animal parts that might carry the poultry-killing Exotic Newcastle Disease. As to the first charge: Leonard Meat Co. of Vernon was accused Thursday of selling rat-chewed and feces-contaminated meat in 2001. Federal inspectors seized 13,000 pounds of meat in that case alone, but there's more about the other violations. I'll only point out here that meat and its by-products, by virtue of being, well, dead, are singularly suited for these kinds of contamination.

EXPERTS: AMERICANS NEED TO ADOPT PLANT-BASED DIET

"Despite warnings from the government, health groups and doctors, more than 70 percent of Americans still eat too much meat and fat and too few vegetables, cancer researchers said on Thursday. They published a survey showing 72 percent of Americans still centered their meals around animal fats, leaving little room for the vegetables that prevent not only cancer but heart disease and perhaps a range of other diseases, too." The Reuters story sums it up with a scientist's quote: "This survey shows that Americans have got the proportions of food on their plates reversed. ... Most are cutting themselves off from the protection afforded by the vitamins, minerals and cancer-fighting phytochemicals found in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans." The article also reminds us that "The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and many other groups routinely advise Americans to eat a plant-based diet."

LATEST MAD COW STRATEGIES

You really have to hand it to the USDA for their brilliant management of the Mad Cow crisis. I'm not kidding. I don't mean the actual threat to public health, of course, but the threat to the meat industry. They're all over that. The latest move was to release a flurry of findings and hype related to several different aspects of the situation so that overworked journalists would have a hard time sorting it out, or finding out which nugget was front-page news.

I'd nominate this one: "The United States is neglecting to test the majority of cattle most at risk of having mad cow disease." Reuters cites USDA investigators saying that the agency "was not testing adult cattle that died on the farm and had failed to test hundreds of cattle condemned due to possible central nervous system disorder -- a symptom of mad cow disease and many other diseases." More specifically, "the USDA failed to test 518 of the 680 cattle condemned at slaughter for central nervous system symptoms between fiscal 2002 and 2004." Hmmmm. Wonder why they didn't think to test those other 518?

While that was coming through, the USDA's Inspector General, Phyllis K. Fong, gave the final word on the famous so-called-Downer Cow issue, and good for her that no one was paying attention, because this smells exactly like an overcrowded feedlot: "Agriculture Department officials did not intentionally falsify records of a Washington state cow found to be infected with mad cow disease," she said, but added that "two weeks after a USDA veterinarian inspected the animal last December and declared it an ailing 'downer,' he took the unusual step of updating and annotating the records after being queried by Agriculture Department officials." Huh. Yeah, that is a little odd. But no explanation as to why this happened. "She also said he failed to place a required ear tag on the animal." Wow. What a coincidence, right? That this one animal happened to miss out on ear tagging? But it gets sillier: "The man who made the ["no downer"] allegation, Fong said, appeared to be mistaken about which animal turned out to be infected." Oh, really? Funny how the next sentence mentions that "five people at either the slaughterhouse or the dairy farm from which it came saw the cow walking the day it was slaughtered." So not only was Dave Louthan "mistaken," there was some kind of mass hallucination going on that day. And the crowning note: "Fong did not come to any independent conclusion about whether the infected animal was a downer." Of course not - because it's not as if that was a central issue to this entire investigation. Jesus. We all know that if they'd been able to back it up, they would certainly have come to the "conclusion" that it was a downer. The fact that they're trying to weasel out of the whole argument almost proves Louthan and Ellestad were right.

Meanwhile, Steve Mitchell continues to plug away, scaring up interesting documents showing that the USDA in 2002 advised against the very test it's now using, specifically because of the danger of "false positives." But Mitchell's sources argue for a PR strategy even more brilliant than I'd suspected:

"By releasing preliminary positives -- or inconclusives, as the USDA has deemed them -- that are later ruled negative, the agency could desensitize markets, consumers and foreign trading partners to real positive cases when and if they occur, the sources said. 'Bio-Rad was approved as a way of getting people used to a possible case if there ever was one,' a veterinarian with expertise in mad cow disease told UPI. 'They (USDA officials) know it has a high false positive rate ... The more inconclusives they have, the easier it is to "mix something up" and have all negative tests,' said the veterinarian, who requested anonymity. The veterinarian's comments were echoed by other experts in this field, who also declined to be named.

USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick did not respond to UPI's question of whether this was the agency's intended strategy. However, John Clifford, USDA's chief veterinary officer, acknowledged at a recent news conference that release of the inconclusive results could have that effect. 'We want to minimize the impacts upon the markets,' Clifford said. 'We feel like that after we get this information out there a couple of times that hopefully it will continue to minimize that impact.'

Quick insisted the agency's statement was not intended to recommend against the Bio-Rad test. Instead, she said, it was meant to recommend that countries not simply rely on rapid screening tests as a way to confirm a case of mad cow disease. No other testing experts UPI contacted interpreted the statement that way and Quick, who acknowledged she was not familiar with the technical details of the tests, declined to make Clifford or other USDA officials available to discuss the issue or offer clarification.

The USDA's decision not to release the samples from the two inconclusives for verification by outside labs has also come under question. The agency used a test called immunohistochemistry, or IHC, to determine the animals were not infected with mad cow, but experts said this is not always a foolproof test and it can miss cases. Markus Moser, Prionics' chief executive officer and a molecular biologist, noted that Germany was considered BSE-free when using the IHC test. When officials there began using the Prionics rapid test in 2000, he said, they found several cases and so far have detected more than 300 infected animals.

Stuart Wilson, Microsens' scientific director and a molecular pathologist, noted in a document he recently prepared on false positives that there have been instances when Bio-Rad was used more than a few months before the animal developed symptoms and they were found correctly to be positive, but IHC incorrectly ruled them negative.

In other words, in addition to all the other crazy chicanery, the test that overturned the false positives might well have been wrong. I'd think something like that would at least make page 2 or 3, no?

JUST CALL IT ENDO-MEAT-RIOSIS

A new study from the University of Milan found that women who eat more meat are at higher risk for endometriosis, which causes pain and can leave you unable to bear children. Just one more to add to the pile of reasons to kick meat out of your lifestyle.

BAD CHOLESTEROL NOW WORSE

A new panel has said that 21 million Americans at high risk for heart attacks need to have even lower levels of "bad" cholesterol than they'd been previously told. The new goal is to get their LDL cholesterol below 70 milligrams per deciliter. The old goal was 100. The Chicago Sun Times notes that "Patients with high LDL cholesterol should exercise, lose weight if overweight and eat a low-saturated fat diet, said Dr. Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina, a member of the guidelines panel. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals. A heart healthy diet should include plenty of fiber from such sources as legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables." Although it fails to mention the clearest food link to cholesterol, namely cholesterol in food (it's only in animal products), at least this article mentions the rather obvious importance of diet - unlike the USA Today version, headlined Doctors now want your cholesterol even lower, but how? Gee, that's right, how? No mention whatsoever of diet, only drugs, which leads credence to the reports that this whole study was drug-company driven. (Aren't they all?)