Probably not a question one would be asked at the local Mickey D’s but you could be getting them with your burger, anyway. The following video came across my email today…more disturbing than interesting. Besides the steroids, anti-biotics, BGH they pump into our cattle, now it’s chocolate and sugar? Uh-huh…farmer Nissley says it’s a little but do we know for sure and, even if it is, how long will it be ‘a little’?
I’m a gnat’s posterior away from denying myself all red meats but admit to craving and enjoying a steak or a burger, a lamb chop, on occasion. Those occasions I buy organic when and where I can…organic range fed…as it’s supposed to be. Bad enough they drop the other junk in but M&M shells and ‘other’ by-products? Well, at least…so far…we aren’t getting plastics, collars, cremated and treated remains of euthanised peers to munch on as many of our canine companions are fed. Oh…you didn’t know this? Check it out…where it says animal ‘by-products’ on your 10 (or 50) pound bag of kibble…what do you think that is besides the ‘acceptable’ chicken feet, beaks etc.? (Rec. reading “Foods Pets Die For” by Ann Martin). In addition to that, did you know that…at least in PA, the one place I know for sure…there is no law against using remains of puppy mill dogs on growing farm fields? http://www.lcanimal.org/cmpgn/cmpgn_pasecret.htm We tout ourselves as the richest and greatest nation, lately we’ve been bombarded with the dire situation of obesity being one of our greatest health problems…and these things are not only what we…but our companion and farm animals…are ingesting? Isn’t this just as worrisome as the daily reports of starving nations?
In this video (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid452319854?bctid=1667996405) the second farmer does admit that his profits are non-existent to marginal but I loved his comment “It’s self-satisfaction”…his raising of free range cattle. I’m not a farmer but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand it’s a tough career choice…hard work and hard living with a struggle to make any sort of return but I also hear that farming, for many, is a way of life passed down through generations for the love of it. We could help the farmer such as number 2 by demanding better policy and procedure on what farmers bring to our tables. Buy a cheap cut of meat and that’s exactly what you get…cheap beef. The farmer may not agree it’s cheap to raise but your body will know in the price IT pays. You get what you pay for and, think about it…at least you know what is going into your body if you buy beef that is largely unmedicated and not fed by synthetics. Did you ever stop and consider that when you eat the purest meat possible you can cut down on health problems and health costs? I can’t prove it but somehow it makes sense. For how long have we heard and read that antibiotics are just not effective any longer and they are striving to come up with a stronger ‘model’…that even the super-antibiotics aren’t what they hoped they might be in fighting infections? Ever stop and consider that for the length of time such drugs have been pumped into and fed our livestock and the beef we eat, the milk we drink we have been building immunity to the drug? How can it NOT be possible, if not probable? A number of years ago we made a conscious decision to feed our domestic companions a much better…and yes, a bit more expensive…pet food. We have fifteen pets so that did increase our food bill for them by quite a bit. But as we suspected and expected, that’s been off-set by lower to no vet bills. Our dogs/cats don’t suffer food allergies (often evidenced by chewing/licking their paws, stomach upsets, hyper-activity etc. nor do they have diabetes, bad breath, ear or skin problems). Oddly enough, we did have one of our dogs to an emergency vet visit over the weekend, initially unsure if it was his heart or something he’d eaten that he ought not to have. The prognosis is that he is basically fine though a little overweight and a possible environmental allergy. This was our Pug…he was born a big pug to start with but with a change to a lower calory diet we can take care of the weight situation. The allergy…again, he’s a Pug; the have long soft palates which tend to cause problems under the best of situations and the pollens etc. will aggravate this. It is so unusual for any of our animals to show signs of so much as lethargy, let alone sickness, we panicked at the outset. Vet bill was $700. He did get wonderful care and treatment and, in fact, the vet has been more considerate, more conscientious about checking on him this week than my previous cardiologist was with me but who can afford such bills on a regular basis? We can’t and I’m glad that what we have chosen to do for our companion animals prevents such worry, for the most part. How then, can we not do this for ourselves? Our children? As a society we are being encouraged, if not trained, to ‘read the boxes, packets, packages…check the ingredients, eliminate the fats, the sugars, the salt (and hopefully the preservatives!) as we do our weekly shop but yet we never think to wonder how that chunk of roast, juicy steak or package of hamburger meat lived and ate before we tossed it into our shopping cart. So now we can go get a burger and eat dessert at the same time, not even knowing that we are……………..
