Food freedoms

[How do I start this? Introduce myself? Give a formal into like on a paper? heh]

Bethany here.....if you know me well at all, you know that food and health and such are some of my major preoccupations.

I've always eaten healthily, it runs in the family so to speak. But I only really embraced what almost has to be called a worldview of health when I was about 13. That was when I started getting "political": which I use as a collective term for various general opinions and thoughts classified in my head under keywords as follows:organic, Monsanto, Ron Paul, The Presidensity, food, farms, feedlots, alternative medicine, methylparaben in shampoo, preparedness, Campaign for Liberty, the Constitution, survivalism, doomsteading, Countryside magazine, vaccinations, 2nd Amendment rights, and other hot topics which most people would not call politics at all!

But food. How food is raised, marketed and consumed is a process that I could talk about for way too long.

Freedom of choice (in labeling)
If you are not free to choose your own food, you can't call yourself free.
Labeling.....some states have attempted [and succeeded in PA, I think] to make it illegal for farmers to label their milk as being free of the artificial growth hormone rBGH. The reason? Monsanto company [which makes rBGH] says "it would instill fear in consumers about the safety of rBGH" [in non-labeled milk].
(rBGH is being to some extent discontinued, mostly because it makes the milk cows sick. Dairy cows are already taxed to the limit to produce as much milk as possible; rBGH causes even higher production and a lot of symptoms including mastitis and foot problems and death.)

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not required to be labeled, even though polls have shown that a majority of the population wants labeling. GMOs have not been sufficiently tested over long periods of time [many diseases take repeated, long-term exposure]. There have been a number of tests that show health problems in animals fed GMOs. Yet, they are in an estimated 60% of all processed food today; without being labeled.


Humane treatment of animals
I'm not even going to approach the question of vegetarianism, except to say that I would be a vegetarian if I didn't have access to free-range meats and such; for both humane and health reasons.

The laying hen, like the dairy cow, is bred and fed to produce the greatest amount of eggs possible. This stresses their bodies--most die of "cage-fatigue" which is calcium deficiency--eggshells demand calcium and it will come out of the bones eventually.

I think you've all seen pictures of the tiny crates they are raised in.

Broiler chickens' lives are mercifully shorter. Much shorter, in some cases: apparently a sizeable number die each day in large-scale chicken farms.

The feedlot steer cannot be said to be "happy" but at least it has room to walk about. The danger there is to the consumer.

Health and safety
Food recalls are becoming more common every year, mostly because farms are tending to get bigger. One contaminated piece of meat will get spread at large. [Nice little tidbit of info here: a single hamburger can contain meat from up to 100 different cows.]
E. coli is the largest threat from beef.

Last spring I practically got my thesis in free-range and pasture theory so excuse me if I prattle on for a bit :)

The rumen [stomach] of a grass-fed cow is naturally not very acidic. Cow bacteria, therefore, are not very resistant to the acid in humans' stomachs. Hence, bacterial contamination is not a threat to people.
Grain-fed cows, on the other hand [and all mainstream beef is grain-fed] have much more acidic rumens. The first thing I learned when researching the care and feeding of ruminant animals like cows and goats is: be careful with grain! Over-eating grain causes the rumen to become rapidly acidic, causing acidosis and death. Low-level acidosis [as in beef cattle] causes general unhealth which must be remedied with low levels of antibiotics. And low levels of antibiotics create resistant bacteria. Vicious cycle, hmm?
But oh yes: acid-resistant bacteria are, you guessed it, capable of making people sick.


The meat-packing industry
If you want the real goods on the slaughter-house industry, go read The Jungle.
Oh whoops, excuse me.....that was last century. Nowadays it's Fast Food Nation.
It can be neatly summed up with Eric Schlosser of FFN's memorable statement, "There is [crap] in the meat."

The whole idea of food production is not mainly "prevent contamination" but instead "kill the contamination". Hence pasteurized milk, irradiated produce, and meat cooking minimums.

The raw milk conflict
I live in a state where it is illegal to sell milk that has not been cooked. You can debate all you want on the safety and health of pasteurization but the fact remains that I should be allowed to buy the food I want to.
I have a source [fairly mainstream, at that] for raw goats' milk, and drink it all the time. I don't know if there's a special clause for goats' milk or not, I don't think so. I think it's only a matter of time before that little spot on the shelf is bare.

Raw milk is a question-mark because it has made people sick. My only concern would be tuberculosis, which cows have to be tested for anyway, and goats are immune to.

It is just as "clean" as past. milk when it comes out of the cow....cleaner, in fact, because you have to be a lot more careful if you aren't going to kill the bacteria later on. But of course if you aren't careful with it, it will be dangerous. And it should be labeled with the usual cautions. And I should be able to buy it.


Conclusions: There is a delicate balance between too much restriction and too little. You have the right to know what you are eating: whether it has artificial hormones or GMOs, whether it's organic, local, grass-fed, whatever.
Please comment, ask questions, whatever. I love to talk about this sort of stuff!!