The Meaty Truth (11 page)

Let’s look at Prairie Grove in Washington County, Arkansas, home of the poultry giant, Tyson, and its “100 percent All Natural” and “Kid Tested, Kid Approved” chicken. Prairie Grove is surrounded by chicken-factory farms where farmland is regularly spread with arsenic-laden litter. Prairie Grove’s cancer rate is fifty times higher than the national average.
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Similarly, in the Delmarva Peninsula that contains some of the biggest chicken-producing states, the cancer rates are alarmingly high, especially among young children. Why are the cancer rates so high? Arsenic doesn’t just magically disappear once it is given to animals. It is either excreted in the manure that then makes its way into our environment or remains in the chicken that winds up on our grocery-store shelves. The air filters in the homes tested in Prairie Grove found arsenic levels exceeding even those in the soil outside. More than 350,000 tons of arsenic is applied to our land every year.
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Clearly, arsenic in chicken production does have human-health effects.

Unlike the FDA, Johns Hopkins researchers undertook a landmark study in 2004 and 2013 to see if there was in fact arsenic residue in our meat.
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The researchers tested not just the livers but the actual animal tissue, which is what consumers eat. They found arsenic residue in meat purchased from grocery stores across the nation.

Let’s look at the findings from the most recent study that tested chicken, conducted in 2010 and 2011. The researchers compared organic chicken raised without arsenic and those they call “conventional,” or what most people consume. They found that conventional chicken products had higher levels of arsenic in general and especially inorganic arsenic. Seventy percent of the samples contained inorganic arsenic that exceeded the FDA limits.
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A bucket of fried chicken contained about fifty times the allowable arsenic than the “allowable” levels in a glass of water.

Although roxarsone is organic arsenic and supposedly less dangerous, these studies show that some of the arsenic is converted into the inorganic, toxic form from the bacteria inside chickens’ guts. The EPA found that 65 percent of the arsenic in chicken meat converts to the inorganic form.
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The organic arsenic also changes to inorganic when it is excreted in the waste and then distributed onto the field as part of the fertilizer.

While many other studies have shown the levels of arsenic to be below the FDA limits, no exposure to arsenic is good exposure. Arsenic is linked to a variety of health problems, namely cancer, but also cognitive defects; cardiovascular, immune, and endocrine problems; partial paralysis; miscarriages; and type 2 diabetes.
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Why are we allowing an unnecessary public-health threat when we can choose to eliminate the problem?

The FDA suspended roxarsone in 2011 after these findings showed the level of poisonous, inorganic arsenic in chickens, but it never banned the drug. Finally, in 2013, the FDA ordered three of the four drugs to be removed from the market. The makers Zoetis and Fleming, subsidies of Pfizer, voluntarily pulled these three drugs in 2011 after the findings of inorganic arsenic. Why the FDA has been dragging its feet when it comes to with drawing arsenic in the animal’s feed that remains in our food is a mystery. Even the makers of the drugs pulled them from the market before
the FDA did.
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It has taken the FDA over fifty years to act somewhat in the public interest. One version of organic arsenic, nitrasone, which is mainly used in turkeys, is still on the market.
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This could be a reason to rethink our Thanksgiving menu.

Americans eat more chicken and poultry than any other type of meat—about eighty-three pounds per American in 2011.
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Chicken is marketed as the “healthiest” and leanest meat. Somehow eating arsenic doesn’t translate to health. This practice is beyond irresponsible. We should never let ourselves or corporations play chicken with our health.

Deadly Dioxins

Although not added to our food products, the presence of dioxins in our food is not new. Since 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared dioxins a serious health threat and some of the most deadly and harmful chemicals known to science. Dioxins are a group of chemicals in our environment that are formed from the by-product of processes such as herbicide manufacturing. However, what most people don’t know is that today between 93 percent and 96 percent of human exposure to dioxins comes from eating meat and dairy products. Twenty-three percent of dioxin exposure comes from milk and dairy alone. The highest levels of dioxins are found in beef products, then dairy, milk, chicken, pork, fish, and eggs.
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Dioxins are known for causing health problems, such as cancer, damage to the immune system, and developmental problems as in birth defects as well as fertility issues, endometriosis, diabetes, lung and respiratory problems, skin disorders, and for men, lowered testosterone levels.

Humans are particularly susceptible to high concentrations of dioxins because the chemicals bioaccumulate in animals’ fat up the food chain. The animals can be exposed to dioxins through the pesticides and herbicides in their feed as well as pollutants in factory farms. Dioxins are fat soluble, meaning they are stored in the fatty tissue of the animals. Similarly, the dioxins accumulate in our fat. Problematically, men have no mechanism for getting rid of dioxins, and the only way women can lower
their level of dioxins is by passing on the toxins to their babies either via umbilical cords or through breastfeeding. Obviously, these aren’t great options, as this sets up your child for health problems. Studies indicate that many babies are born already pre-polluted with carcinogens from their umbilical cords.

Although the FDA loves to set acceptable thresholds and tolerance limits on toxins, the EPA confirms that there is no safe level of exposure. More worrisome, there is no safe threshold below which dioxins will not cause cancer. What this means, friends, is that
any exposure can instigate cancer growth
. In July 2002, a study found a direct association between dioxin exposure and increased risk of breast cancer. As dioxins are by-products and not intentionally manufactured, many organizations collectively agree that dioxin exposure can best be avoided by not eating meat and dairy products.
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It really is that simple.

After acknowledging that dioxins are known carcinogens, it would seem that the EPA would act expeditiously to monitor our exposure and set regulations. However, the EPA has consecutively and continuously missed its own deadlines for releasing its newest study on dioxins. In the meantime, the Dairy Association and National Chicken Council, among other pharmaceutical and Big Ag groups, are vehemently lobbying against releasing the report. They have repeatedly urged the White House to block the EPA study.
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Even the FDA urges consumers not to “avoid any particular foods because of dioxins.”
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Did the FDA miss the memo stating dioxins are cancer causing and most of our exposure comes from milk and meat products?

We should be allowed access to information on toxins that could lead to a potentially fatal illness and be told the warnings associated with eating animal products. Big Ag and many drug manufacturers would rather distort the truth about the dangers of dioxins in our meat and dairy products than stand to lose profits. This is shameful when we know that dioxins are referred to as “the most toxic chemicals known to science.”
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We are hoping the EPA doesn’t cave to industry dollars and interests but rather takes a stand and lives up to the “protection” part of its title.

False Security Propaganda

The FDA proclaims that “the US food supply is among the safest and most nutritious in the world.”
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Knowing the amount of toxic chemicals in our food and the government’s push to continue to use unsafe chemicals, it seems quite a stretch to use the words “safest” and “most nutritious” in connection with our food system. America, this is why our food system is broken. We have agencies promoting a false sense of safety and security. Realistically, our food system falls very short of this idealistic statement. It’s time we take our food system into our own hands and push the government to live up to this sentiment.

Know your Sh!t Solutions:

1) Read nutritional labels. If you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t buy the food products.

2) Be aware that all the ingredients may not be listed, so eat at your own risk. Anything that says “natural” or “artificial” flavoring is probably not something you should be ingesting. Think bleach and rocket fuel.

3) Buy organic as much as possible.

4) Don’t play around with your health. You only have one body, and you have to treat it right. Avoid all animal products, especially factory-farmed products, as much as possible.

CHAPTER 5

A Hamburger Seasoned with Feces, Please!

W
e are getting more than just fries with our meals. We are eating sh!t. We are not talking about just unhealthy food but actual, animal feces. As former USDA meat-inspector David Carney aptly stated, “We used to trim the sh!t off the meat . . . then we washed the sh!t off the meat . . . now the consumer eats the sh!t off the meat.”
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Although most Americans don’t think about eating feces in their food, eating sh!t is a well-known national problem. Most of us have heard of
salmonella, E. coli,
and the less well-known
Campylobacter
and
Listeria.
These names don’t scare us because they are so often thrown around with the high level of outbreaks and recalls each year. Even restaurant menus warn us about the potential for disease by emphasizing the necessity of cooking meat to a desired temperature to avoid foodborne illnesses.

Most of us think of
salmonella
and
E. coli
as just some stomach bugs, but we are not aware that these are the actual scientific names for the bacteria in
animal feces. Every time you see
E. coli
,
salmonella
, or
Campylobacter,
read it as animal sh!t. This is why we get sick from eating raw cookie dough or spinach that has been doused with animal crap from factory farms. Disgusting but true: our food is tainted with animal feces that comes from our sloppy-but-accepted farming conditions and laser-fast slaughtering practices that have little oversight from government agencies.

Researchers at the University of Maryland randomly sampled two hundred packages of ground meat in Washington, D.C.-area grocery stores. The researchers found that 6 percent of beef, 35 percent of chicken, 24 percent of turkey, and 16 percent of pork were contaminated with
salmonella
. Eighty-four percent of these
salmonella
strains were antibiotic resistant.
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Shockingly, the most recent Consumer Reports study made headlines as it found 97 percent of chicken sold in retail-grocery stores were contaminated with
salmonella
—half of which contained multi-resistant strains to antibiotics.

The food industry and agribusiness try to disassociate
E. coli
and
salmonella
from its true identity by using their scientific names. The industry is trying to make conversation about feces in your meat seem normal and commonplace. We should not be making light of this problem. We can all agree there is nothing normal about eating sh!t. Even more egregious is that the industry tries to pass the blame for foodborne illness onto the consumer for not cooking the meat at high temperatures. According to one industry spokesperson,

“The consumer has the most responsibility but refuses to accept it. Raw meats are not idiot-proof. They can be mishandled and when they are, it’s like handling a hand grenade. If you pull the pin, somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Firstly, why is it okay to sell potential food grenades in our grocery stores? Admitting that these foods are potentially dangerous makes the blame-the-victim response completely unfair. Even Patricia Griffin, the Chief of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the Centers for Disease Control, had a problem with this industry attitude, stating, “Is it
reasonable that if a consumer undercooks a hamburger . . . their three-year-old dies?” Tell that to all the mothers and fathers who have lost their children to burgers that were not cooked at perfect temperatures.

However, this blame game is more than unfair—it is also completely wrong. Researchers found that infants and toddlers sitting near raw meat in grocery carts had an increased risk of
salmonella
or
Campylobacter
infection.
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Studies looking at the direct correlation between drug-resistant urinary tract infections and consuming contaminated chicken found that one doesn’t even have to eat the chicken to become contaminated.
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That’s right. Merely handling the contaminated chicken was enough to cause infection. It seems like the meat industry is a little too quick to place blame on the consumer. If just being in the proximity of raw meat increases our infection chances, then how is cooking going to help?

So what happens when we cook chicken? Studies found that when we brought chicken into our homes and cooked with it, fecal contamination was found on everything from utensils to countertops and aprons. Remarkably, even after everything was bleached and washed thoroughly, antibiotic-resistant pathogens were still alive and well. A University of Arizona study confirmed that in an omnivore’s house, the kitchen sink is dirtier than the toilet bowl, meaning there is more crap in our kitchen than where we go to take a crap. Really, think about that again. Our meat is more tainted than a toilet bowl.