There's No Such Thing As Hormone Free

Hormone meat pulled off shelves


• Wendy Hargreaves
• From: Sunday Herald Sun, Austrailia
• December 26, 2010 12:00AM


It is an Australian first that has sent shock waves through the meat industry.

Industry experts predict higher beef prices as more customers demand hormone-free meat, which makes up about half of all beef sold in Australia.

Farmers have used hormone growth promotants (HGPs) to speed up muscle growth in cattle for more than 30 years, backed by rigorous safety approval from health authorities.

But in a survey of 1000 people by Meat and Livestock Australia, leaked to the Sunday Herald Sun, almost half said they would consume less meat if it had added hormones, while 16 per cent would "never touch it again" and 15 per cent would "actively warn others".

Without the HGPs, industry experts said another two million head of cattle would be needed to make up a shortfall in meat, creating environmental problems.    Read More

The most common question we get as we talk to consumers is about hormones. Most media stories, like this one, fail to give readers all of the information they need in order to make a sound decision. All food has hormones in it. Both animal and plant-based foods contain hormones. Hormones are the chemical messengers that life depends on. Many plants actually contain higher levels of hormones than meat does. There is no such thing as hormone free food.



The difference in hormone levels from a 3 ounce piece of beef treated with a growth hormone versus one that wasn’t is one-half of a nanogram. That’s one-half of one-billionth of a gram. Compare that to the amount of estrogen in a birth control pill, which is in the neighborhood of 34,000 nanograms. You would have to eat nearly 5 million pounds of beef to equal the amount of hormones in a year’s supply of birth control pill.


It’s essential that we put things in context when we are having discussions like these.

Beat Stress, Eat a Steak!

Feeling stressed? Grill a steak, study suggests

BY PHILIP BRASHER & DAN PILLER • BUSINESS@DMREG.COM • DECEMBER 12, 2010
Des Moines Register

Red meat's image has tended to emphasize stereotypically aggressive male behavior, ranging from ancient barbarians to modern tailgaters.

But McGill University in Canada says its studies suggest otherwise: Meat has a calming effect on men.

Maybe men know what is best for them when they gravitate to the backyard grill.

"It wouldn't be advantageous to be aggressive anymore, because you would've already used your aggression to acquire the meat, and furthermore, you'd be surrounded by people who share ... your DNA," lead researcher Frank Kachanoff told the Montreal Gazette. "One of the basic principles in evolution is to want to preserve not only your DNA but also that of your next of kin."

How well the beef-is-calming notion takes hold remains to be seen. U.S. per capita consumption has dropped by about 25 percent in the last half-century.    Link

It’s hard to be stressed when you are about to enjoy a great steak!  Meat is an essential part of the balanced diet that we should all have.  Eliminating food groups from your diet is never a good idea and the science continues to suggest it.   

Balanced Diets Best

Vegetarians at risk of brain disorders

IANS, Oct 28, 2010, 02.36pm IST
TimesOfIndia.com

Vegetarians are at an early risk of mental disorder such as dementia and alzheimer's as they develop a Vitamin B-12 deficiency, doctors said here Wednesday.

Fish, shellfish, meat, eggs, milk and their by-products are some of the biggest sources of Vitamin B-12.

"Deficiency of Vitamin B-12 can reduce working capacity of the brain and result in progressive memory loss that has an impact on day to day activities," Praveen Gupta, consultant neurologist at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon, said in an Interview.

"Since majority of the Indian population is vegetarian and milk consumption has reduced considerably, they are more prone to early onset of dementia. Those who suffer from lactose intolerance are also at risk," Gupta explained.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), India had nearly 3.5 million alzheimer's and dementia patients in the year 2000.

"We see at least 30 patients under the age of 40 every month -- suffering from memory loss and other manifestations due to deficiency of vitamin B-12. Once diagnosed, these patients respond very well to vitamin B-12 supplements," Gupta added.    Read More

Eating a balanced diet that includes meat and dairy products has been proven time and again to be the best diet for people.  But diet alone doesn’t determine your health.  There’s a little thing called exercise that also plays an important factor.  Many critics of our food supply conveniently seem to forget that. 

Background on the PETA Rally

Some parents question PETA protest at Pa. school

- The Associated Press
October 13, 2010 9:32am EDT

• PITTSBURGH — Some parents are questioning a protest by People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals outside a Pittsburgh public school.

A person in an elephant costume with a bloody forehead bandage handed out coloring books as students left Colfax Elementary School on Tuesday. The protest targets the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus coming to town next month.

Parent Sabrina Weihrauch says she generally supports PETA, but doesn't believe in demonstrating outside a school.

PETA spokeswoman Virginia Fort says the stunt "gently let children know" how circus animals are treated. The circus says its animals aren't mistreated.

Seventy-two-year-old Anne Myrick tried to shoo students away from the protest, telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "They're hustling little kids."   Link

This is pretty standard fare for PETA but I thought I’d let all of you know a little more about Virginia Fort. She is PETA’s full time paid protester. She travels across the country setting up these demonstrations. I was able to visit with her when they were in Rapid City last November. At that protest they were trying to convince people that all dairy cows are abused by the farmers that own them. In part of our discussions with Ms. Fort we asked her what should be done with all of the pasture land that cows are grazing on since they want animal agriculture eliminated. Her response was that we should farm it. Another rancher standing nearby asked if she really thought ripping up native prairie in a semi-arid climate was a good idea. She said we might as well since the cows are out there pooping on it anyhow. WHAT?? I asked her if I could video her saying that response again and she refused. Obviously this wouldn’t be the best use of the land but her idea is that if anything is “pooping” on the land it is being destroyed. That’s PETA mentality for you.



The other main point to take home from this is that there aren’t protests from local people taking place. PETA has to hire employees to do this for them. For the most part it’s the same few people at every PETA protest.

Misguided Woman Walks For Livestock

Woman to protest the treatment of farm animals with march


September 19, 2010 6:41 PM

Kari C. Barlow

Daily News

FORT WALTON BEACH — When Gina Lane drives by a fast-food joint, she doesn’t enjoy the aroma of crispy fried chicken or grilled hamburgers.

She’s too busy thinking about the chickens and cattle that were factory-farmed for the meat.

“I see these pictures of these animals right before they are slaughtered,” said Lane, a bus driver for Okaloosa Academy. “It’s horrible how they are treated.”

Passionate about animal rights and an advocate of the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, Lane keeps a shoebox full of pamphlets, buttons and stickers in her car that sport slogans such as “Pigs are friends, not food,” “Boycott veal!” and “Respect all life.”

She will take her cause to the street to celebrate World Farm Animals Day on Saturday, Oct. 2.  Read More

For many years, livestock producers thought no one would believe all the inaccurate stories and pictures taken out of context.  We’ve found out that ignoring it was a really bad idea and this story proves it.  This woman admits that she is doing this because she has seen pictures.  Not only that but she thinks that cows are put in crates!  These examples of the ignorance of animal rights activists are all too common today.  When we hesitate to tell our story this is what happens. 

Animal Rights Activists Protest 4-H Auction

Activists Protest Animal Auction

4H Club says it's not animal cruelty, it's farming

By SUSAN RIVERA
Updated 9:00 AM CDT, Tue, Aug 3, 2010

Protesters targeted an animal auction at the Lake County fair this weekend.

Several protestors showed up to this at the Wagner Farm in Glenview during a pig auction to draw attention to what they say is animal cruelty, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Since it was established in 2002 the 4H Clovers club – which on its Website boasts membership of “57 children from the ages of 8 to 18" – has generated some controversy. In part because the livestock sold are raised on Glenview Park District Land. But also because most animals sold at the auction are headed to the slaughterhouse.

One of the animals on the auction block was a pig named Buddy raised in part by 11-year-old Mata Stilp and her brother Hans, reported the Chicago Tribune.     Read More


Animal rights activists have been targeting 4-H more as of late. Any type of program that teaches young people about the how’s and why’s of raising livestock is certainly a threat to their misinformation campaign. Supporting programs like 4-H is more important than ever before. For many children, 4-H is their only exposure to agriculture. Taking advantage of these teaching opportunities is something we have to continue doing.

E.Coli Illnesses Significantly Drop

Beef industry keeps focus on safety improvements
High Plains Journal

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate of illness due to E. coli O157 significantly decreased in 2009. The 2009 E. coli illness rate is the lowest since 2004 and meets the Healthy People 2010 goal to cut the number of O157 illnesses in half.

"This is good news for beef producers and consumers alike," says Jeff Clausen, a beef producer from Carson, Iowa, and the beef industry's Beef Safety Committee chairman. "Anyone involved in the ongoing battle to improve food safety is gratified by the news that illnesses from E. coli O157 have declined. However, E. coli O157 is a tough, adaptable foe and our work is not done."

Through beef checkoff investments and widespread industry commitment, the beef industry continues to make strides toward reducing the incidence of E. coli O157 by implementing multiple interventions throughout the beef production chain.

For more information on the industry's beef safety efforts, visit BIFSCo.org. For more information about programs funded by your checkoff investment, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.

Link

Every year, producers are committing their own money to learn more about e. Coli and how best to reduce the chances for contamination. While research is determining new and better ways to handle O157, the time-tested advice of avoiding cross contamination in the kitchen and properly cooking all meat will still eliminate any chance of ever getting sick. Food safety is a team effort that we all need to be part of. ~Troy

Congressman Says Milk, Meat Unhealthy For Kids

Colorado congressman wants healthier school meals
By: DAN ELLIOTT Associated Press05/17/10 10:15 PM EDT

DENVER — More kids could get vegetarian meals and nondairy food and drink in the school cafeteria under a bill proposed by Colorado congressman Jared Polis.

"One of the things I've always been dismayed by is the nutritional value of the meals schools serve," Polis said Monday before promoting his Healthy School Meals Act at a suburban Denver charter school.

Polis, a Democrat, wants to give schools an incentive to offer more plant-based food. He estimated it would cost around $50 million a year but said he believes that would be more than offset in health care savings because fewer children would suffer from juvenile diabetes, heart disease and other conditions linked to obesity. Read More


Withholding meat and milk from our children is certainly not going to make them healthier. If we want our kids to be healthier we have to get back to the basics. They need to eat a balanced diet that includes meat and diary products, get plenty of exercise and cut down on the junk food. This congressman’s proposal is as ridiculous as it sounds. Besides that, I wonder if the parents and the congressman realize that the vegetarian option of macaroni and cheese they are promoting uses cheese which is made from milk, they very same milk that they want removed from the lunch program. Our kids do need to eat healthier, but telling them not to eat meat or drink milk won’t accomplish anything. ~ Troy

Spring is Here

It's been a few days since I posted on here. It seems that spring work with the cows has kept me busy for the past couple of days. It reminds me of the FFA t-shirt I saw today. It said "Bustin' ours to feed yours".

Feeding the world isn't an easy job. It's made even more difficult when we have armchair farmers and ranchers spreading misinformation about the incredible job we do in agriculture. Even though it can get discouraging, there are always reasons to be excited about the future of agriculture.

We are fortunate to have the truth on our side. Just this week, Celeste Settrini, president of the CA Women for Ag, saw something being said about meat production that wasn't right. EarthBound Farms, an organic vegetable growing operation, produced a youtube video that claimed eating meat was destroying the environment. Knowing that wasn't right, Celeste contacted EarthBound and asked if she could visit with them about the video. After her conversation with them, they decided to pull down the video.

Some people in our industry would have walked away after seeing the video thinking there's nothing they could do about it. The real leaders in the business of farming and ranching see things like that as an opportunity to share the truth and it's making a difference.

I hope everyone of you will take opportunities like this.

Grazing Cattle Reduce GHG Emissions From Land

Cows Found To Actually Reduce Nitrous Oxide
Posted on: Thursday, 8 April 2010, 15:20 CDT
RedOrbit.com

A new study found that cattle grazed on the grasslands of China actually helps reduce the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

Environmentalists have been urging people for years to stop eating meat because of the methane produced by cattle.

According to the Telegrpah, the researchers said this does not mean that producing livestock to eat is good for the environment in all countries. However, it can be better for global warming to let animals graze on grassland in certain circumstances.

Klaus Butterbach-Bahl of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany carried out the study in Inner Mongolia in China.

Butterbach-Bahl discovered that grassland produced more nitrous oxide during the spring when sheep or cattle have not been grazing. This is because microbes in the soil release nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas. Once the grass is long, snow settles keeping the microbes warm and providing water. However, when the grass is cut short by animals the ground freezes and the microbes die.

He said the study turns assumptions about grazing goats and cattle around. Read More

Grass and the environment where it grows have a symbiotic relationship with the animals that consume it. That’s why the healthiest grasslands are those that are being grazed properly. Common sense, which is in short supply, would dictate that grazing has to be beneficial to everything involved or else it wouldn’t have survived this long. We continue to hear calls for grazing on public lands to be stopped. But people forget that the grass doesn’t care if a deer or a cow eats it, it just needs to be eaten for the everything to be healthy.

San Francisco Deciding on Meat-Free Mondays

Resolution would deem Mondays ‘meat-free’
By: Joshua Sabatini Examiner Staff Writer
April 6, 2010

Better think twice about eating meat on Monday. That’s about to become San Francisco’s official “meat-free” day.

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who says she has been a vegetarian for 40 years, introduced a resolution, titled Meat-Free Mondays, declaring every Monday to be Vegetarian Day or Veg Day.

The Board of Supervisors votes today on the legislation, which would “urge all restaurants, grocery stores and schools to offer a greater variety of plant-based options to improve the health of San Francisco residents and visitors and to increase the awareness of the impact a green diet would be on our planet.”

Going on a vegetarian diet is both good for one’s health and also the environment, the legislation says. Cutting back on eating meats “reduces serious ecological problems involved in livestock production” and “plant-based diets are good preventative medicine and could help reduce medical costs.” Read More

It’s almost too hard to believe, but I can’t make this stuff up. Apparently with no research or science to back up anything this woman is claiming, this Board of Supervisors is going to make this decision. The facts are that humans need to eat a balanced diet, every day, in order be as healthy as possible. It’s obvious that this woman has done nothing but read scary headlines in order to make her dietary decisions and now she’s going to spread that misinformation on to others as well.

UN Report Debunked Again

Eat Less Meat, Reduce Global Warming -- or Not
FOXNews.com

Reducing consumption of meat and dairy products might not have a major impact in combating global warming despite claims that link diets rich in animal products to production of greenhouse gases.

Save the planet, eat less meat ... right? That's what the U.N. said, anyway, but one scientist has a grade A beef with that claim.

The largely reported link between global warming and cattle farming -- propagated by a United Nations report on "Livestock's Long Shadow" -- was also largely inaccurate, explains one scientist.

In a presentation before the 239th national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Frank Mitloehner of the University of California said the misleading claims emanate from a 2006 U.N. report, which said that livestock was "responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions," describing the figure as "a larger share than transportation."

According to Mitloehner, the claim is inaccurate because the numbers for livestock were calculated differently from the transport figures.

In the report, the livestock emissions included gases produced by growing animal feed; animals' digestive emissions; and processing meat and milk into foods. But the transportation analysis factored in only emissions from fossil fuels burned while driving, and not all other transport-lifecycle related factors.

"This lopsided analysis is a classical apples-and-oranges analogy that truly confused the issue," he said. Read More

Since the UN report came out, we have been telling anyone who would listen that the claims of livestock destroying the planet weren’t accurate. Finally, as more of the claims about global warming continue to be debunked, so do the claims about the role of livestock. Livestock aren’t destroying the planet, they are feeding the planet. They are turning raw, human-indigestible products and turning them into an incredibly nutrient-dense consumable protein source. That’s the real story that needs to be told and celebrated. Every time I think about this incredible process it makes me proud to be part of it.

Affordable Nutrition

Cheap Foods That Are Good For You
Rebecca Ruiz, 03.16.10, 4:00 PM ET
Forbes.com

Every few months, the food cognoscenti start touting a new super food for its ability to ward off disease. Hot foods in recent years include wild salmon ($15 a pound and packed with omega-3 fatty acids), antioxidant-loaded leeks ($3 a bunch), and the exotic açaí and goji berries (as much as $20 and $40 per 16 ounces, respectively). These foods are packed with nutrients but can send your grocery bill into the stratosphere.

You can get all the nutrition you need for much less money if you shop carefully. A cup of cooked navy beans has a similar amount of protein as 3 ounces of salmon, and is loaded with more magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. One large orange has almost seven times the amount of vitamin C and more fiber than a cup of raw blueberries, at a small fraction the berries' price this time of year. A $3 bunch of dark green, leafy kale is a big nutritional improvement on watery iceberg lettuce--but broccoli has just as many nutrients at half the price.

These are comparisons that Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington, has focused on in recent years. To help ordinary Americans who don't have unlimited budgets, Drewnowski has created an index ranking the most affordable healthy foods, ones that are packed with essential nutrients.

Drewnowski favors basic foods that are widely available year-round. His approach is the opposite of one taken by Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan, who has championed unprocessed, locally grown foods. “These foods give you maximum nutrition per dollar,” Drewnowski says.

Many items that rank high on his list, including milk, broccoli, beans, and tomato juice, won't surprise anyone. Others are a little more curious: Eggs make the cut despite their high cholesterol content because they are cheap and packed with protein and nutrients. Potatoes (skin on) also do well. And a few items on the index are jaw-dropping. If you believe Drewnowski, hamburger is a health food. He maintains that its high levels of protein and affordable price outweigh its huge saturated fat content. Read More

Common sense continues to show that eating a balanced diet which includes items such as meat, dairy and eggs is not only healthy but also affordable. As is typical, the reporter tries to plant a seed of doubt in everyone’s head, however no one can argue that these are very nutrient dense food. Think of them like tasty vitamins.

Conflicting Arguments Against Ag

Tofu can harm environment more than meat, finds WWF study
Ben Webster, Environment Editor
Feb 12, 2010
Times Online, UK

Becoming a vegetarian can do more harm to the environment than continuing to eat red meat, according to a study of the impacts of meat substitutes such as tofu.

The findings undermine claims by vegetarians that giving up meat automatically results in lower emissions and that less land is needed to produce food.

The study by Cranfield University, commissioned by the environmental group WWF, found that many meat substitutes were produced from soy, chickpeas and lentils that were grown overseas and imported into Britain.

It found that switching from beef and lamb reared in Britain to meat substitutes would result in more foreign land being cultivated and raise the risk of forests being destroyed to create farmland. Meat substitutes also tended to be highly processed and involved energy-intensive production methods. Read More

If you look at the attacks being launched against farmers and ranchers on any given day, you will notice that they always contradict each other. The Pollan led outcry against processed foods and modern agriculture contradicts with animal rights groups that urge the eating of tofu and other highly processed foods are designed to try replacing meat. I hear people say that my cows are destroying the environment simply because the prairie was meant to have a 1200 pound animal walking on it. Of course their solution to this problem is to re-introduce the American bison on my land. The fact of the matter is that farmers and ranchers have more interest than most in protecting the environment. If you want to see what’s really happening on the farms and ranches around you, just ask them, not a hypocritical fringe group.

Zac Brown Band Responds to PETA

Zac Brown Responds To PETA Challenge
2/10/2010 1:26 PM ET
RTT News

The Zac Brown Band have responded to an e-mail they received from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. After being challenged by the animal rights group to remove the animal products from its pre-show menu, the "Chicken Fried" hit makers made no apologies for their eating habits.

"Dear PETA -- Plants are living creatures too . . . Bacon had a mother, but so did Pickle. It takes life to support life -- welcome to the planet," the Grammy-winning group wrote on their Twitter page.

The 2010 Best New Artist winners apparently still plan on offering animal products at their pre-show rituals, where they welcome lucky fans backstage to "eat and greet" with the band.

The challenge from PETA came last week when the organization sent an open letter to country music website TheBoot.com that was addressed to the band, saying, "If PETA has its way, the 'Chicken Fried' singers will be hosting an all-vegan edition of their celebrated 'eat and greets' for fans." Link

I had heard last week that PETA contacted the Zac Brown Band concerning their “Chicken Fried” song. That didn’t surprise me much, but the band’s response was certainly refreshing. Amazingly, we can’t assume that country singers always support the country lifestyle and the farming and ranching that go with it. A big thanks to the Zac Brown Band, your music will sound even sweeter from now on.

Making Beef Even Safer

New methods aim to keep E. coli in beef lower all year
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

The dead of winter may not be the time when most people's thoughts turn toward the allure of a hamburger on the grill. But from a food safety standpoint, it's probably the safest time there is to eat ground beef.

"The theory is that animals are carrying higher levels of E. coli during the summer months, and sometimes they may overwhelm the systems in place to control pathogen contamination in (processing) plants," says James Marsden, a professor of food safety and security at Kansas State University.

Research has been focusing "on how to level out that curve," says Marsden, also senior science adviser to the North American Meat Processors Association.

So industry and researchers are turning their sights to new technologies being deployed on the farm, the feedlot and at the slaughterhouse to knock E. coli O157:H7 down to winter levels all year round.

There's an unconventional mix at the forefront of this fight: bacteria-eating viruses, a paper-bleaching chemical, vaccines and a kind of yogurt for cattle. Read More

I am proud of the fact that I am in involved in the first step of getting high quality beef to the consumer’s plate. Along with that, I am also concerned about keeping our food supply as safe as possible. No matter what type of food you are talking about, all of us need to take precautions to ensure it’s safe to eat. Farmers and ranchers who raise cattle have contributed tens of millions of dollars of their own money over that last several years to find even better ways to ensure beef is safe to eat. We have the safest food supply in the world, but that’s not good enough for us, we want to make it even better. I want to thank this reporter for providing a straight-forward, informational piece highlighting these efforts. It just goes to show that it is possible for reporters to educate people about agriculture and food production without having to scare them out of eating.

Red Meat Production Proven Efficient and Safe

Red meat production proven efficient and safe
ROD SMITH
31 Jan, 2010 04:00 AM

ANIMALS need to be produced in a smarter manner - not in fewer numbers - to address environmental issues related to climate change, according to Frank Mitloehner, an associate professor and air quality specialist at the University of California-Davis.

Decreasing meat and milk production will only result in more hunger in poor countries - not a cleaner or cooler environment, he said in response to critics of meat and milk production who blame livestock for significant global warming.

Mitloehner said these critics fail to understand the relationship among animal and food production, animal digestion, human activities and atmospheric chemistry.

He traced much of this lack of understanding to two sentences in a 2006 United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, which stated that the "livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in carbon dioxide equivalents. This is higher than transport."

He said findings in the US show that livestock production accounts for only 2.8pc of emissions in the US, while transportation accounts for 26pc.

In addition to being efficiently produced, environmentally sustainable and safe, meat might well be behind the reason people live longer lives than any other primate, according to biologist Caleb Finch at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Cal.

Apes and chimpanzees are genetically similar to humans but rarely live more than 50 years, and it is possible that genetic changes that allow people to live longer are attributable to eating a more carnivorous diet than apes and chimps, he told the LiveScience program on TechMediaNetwork. Read More

When we look at the facts concerning meat production, the undeniable benefits become quite clear. Whether it’s human nutrition or the environment, livestock play an important role that can’t be replaced. Our task as producers of this essential product is to share this information with consumers. Not only does this give you a chance to introduce yourself and give the consumer a chance to meet a farmer, but it also gives them exactly what they want and that is to hear a real farmer or rancher explain what they do and show them how much they care about their livestock. I love sharing information like this because every time you do, you see the lightbulb flip on in the minds of consumers. It suddenly makes sense and they can really gain an appreciation for where their food comes from. ~Troy

Something Dies For A Vegan Meal Too

Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too
By NATALIE ANGIER
Published: December 21, 2009

I stopped eating pork about eight years ago, after a scientist happened to mention that the animal whose teeth most closely resemble our own is the pig. Unable to shake the image of a perky little pig flashing me a brilliant George Clooney smile, I decided it was easier to forgo the Christmas ham. A couple of years later, I gave up on all mammalian meat, period. I still eat fish and poultry, however and pour eggnog in my coffee. My dietary decisions are arbitrary and inconsistent, and when friends ask why I’m willing to try the duck but not the lamb, I don’t have a good answer. Food choices are often like that: difficult to articulate yet strongly held. And lately, debates over food choices have flared with particular vehemence.


In his new book, “Eating Animals,” the novelist Jonathan Safran Foer describes his gradual transformation from omnivorous, oblivious slacker who “waffled among any number of diets” to “committed vegetarian.” Last month, Gary Steiner, a philosopher at Bucknell University, argued on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times that people should strive to be “strict ethical vegans” like himself, avoiding all products derived from animals, including wool and silk. Killing animals for human food and finery is nothing less than “outright murder,” he said, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “eternal Treblinka.”

But before we cede the entire moral penthouse to “committed vegetarians” and “strong ethical vegans,” we might consider that plants no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my Christmas clay pot. This is not meant as a trite argument or a chuckled aside. Plants are lively and seek to keep it that way. The more that scientists learn about the complexity of plants — their keen sensitivity to the environment, the speed with which they react to changes in the environment, and the extraordinary number of tricks that plants will rally to fight off attackers and solicit help from afar — the more impressed researchers become, and the less easily we can dismiss plants as so much fiberfill backdrop, passive sunlight collectors on which deer, antelope and vegans can conveniently graze. It’s time for a green revolution, a reseeding of our stubborn animal minds.

“Plants are not static or silly,” said Monika Hilker of the Institute of Biology at the Free University of Berlin. “They respond to tactile cues, they recognize different wavelengths of light, they listen to chemical signals, they can even talk” through chemical signals. Touch, sight, hearing, speech. “These are sensory modalities and abilities we normally think of as only being in animals,” Dr. Hilker said. Read More

When vegetarians or vegans try telling you that nothing had to die for their meal, you might mention that everything they will ever eat was once alive and then died. It drives them nuts when you do it, but that’s usually the case when logic is applied against an emotional argument. More than likely, they will use the tired argument that plants don’t have a central nervous system. It might not be like ours, but they can and do respond to stimuli. I have been accused of speciesism because I choose to eat meat, but a vegan diet isn’t any different. ~Troy

New Uses For Livestock Products

Waste not, want not: Companies find uses for leftover animal parts
By Greg Latshaw, USA TODAY

A growing number of companies are turning their attention to creating renewable products — such as adhesives and plastics — from the animal parts that can't be sold on supermarket shelves.

From plastics made from feather protein to diesel fuel made from fat to organic fertilizer made from poultry litter, the USA's top meat producers are developing new uses and markets for the animal parts that humans won't eat, says Tom Cook, president of the National Renderers Association in Alexandria, Va.

For years, those parts have ended up in cosmetics, soap, pet food and animal feed. Now, meat companies are putting more resources into sustainability programs, says Paul Rutledge of the American Meat Institute's sustainability committee.

At Clemson University, such products are being tested at the South Carolina school's Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center, says center Director Annel Greene.

Greene says there are a number of uses for the leftover materials that have yet to be discovered. "It's fascinating to see everything that can be done," Greene says. Read More

Most people may not realize it, but we get so much more than just meat from our livestock. Virtually nothing is wasted and even more and better uses are being discovered. Livestock play an integral part in our lives. That’s why it is so reckless for people to advocate eliminating animal agriculture. The fail to account for all the things other than food that we need them for, especially things like life-saving medicines.

Another Reckless Vegan Advocate

Drop That Burger
Matthew Herper, 11.12.09, 12:20 PM EST
Forbes Magazine dated November 30, 2009
Biotech whiz Pat Brown makes the global-warming case against animal farming.

Patrick O. Brown, a Stanford University biochemist, has changed science twice by giving stuff away. In the early 1990s Brown invented the DNA microarray, a tool that measures how cells make use of their DNA; he then showed researchers how to make their own, transforming genetic research. In 2000 he was one of three scientists who launched a free, online scientific journal called the Public Library of Science (PLOS); it has already broken the stranglehold of $200-a-year scientific publications like Science and Nature.

Now he is tackling an even bigger foe. Over the next 18 months Brown, 55, will take a break from his normal scientific work (finding out how a small number of genes are translated into a much larger number of proteins) in order to change the way the world farms and eats. He wants to put an end to animal farming, or at least put a significant dent in our global hunger for cows, pigs and chickens.

Brown, who has been a vegetarian for more than 30 years and a vegan for 5, notes that while livestock accounts for only 9% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions, it accounts for 37% of human-caused methane (most of it emanating from the animals' digestive systems) and 65% of human-caused nitrous oxide, according to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Both are far better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, meaning that cows, chickens and their ilk have a larger greenhouse effect than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world.

The green cognoscenti are choosing animal husbandry as their new enemy. Read More

I don’t know why it’s so hard for such smart people to understand the fact that forcing a vegetarian only diet on society would be a much bigger environmental and social disaster than the one they perceive we have today. Turning your back on the resources of 3/4 of the land mass of the world that is currently used for grazing would spell doom. Not only would there not be enough food for everyone to eat, but it would also force us to try farming on land that isn’t suitable for that type of activity. Cattle turn an un-usable natural resource into something that can sustain human life. Not to mention the valuable nutrients they produce that we use to fertilize crops.