More Reason to Grow Your Own Meat

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The following article is in today's paper:

Diseased meat passes government taste test: U.S. reclassified rules for cancerous carcasses

Washington: The federal agency overseeing food inspection is imposing new rules reclassifying as safe for human consumption animal carcasses with cancers, tumors and open sores. Federal meat inspectors and consumer groups are protesting the move to classify tumors and open sores as aesthetic problems, allowing the meat to get the government's seal of approval as a wholesome food product. Delmer Jones of Renlap, Ala., a federal food inspector for 41 years, said he was so revoled by the lowering of standards that he doesn't buy meat at the sumpermarket anymore because he doesn't trust that it is safe to eat. "I eat very little to no meat, but sardines and fish," said Jones, president of the National Joint Council of Meat Inspection Locals, a union of 7,000 inspectors nationwide. The union is battling related Agriculture Department plans to rely on scientific testing of samples to determine the wholesomeness of meat, rather than traditional item-by-item scrutiny by federal inspectors. The Agriculture Department began implementing the new policy as part of a pilot project in 24 slaughterhouses in October, and plans to expand the system nationwide, covering poultry, beef and prok. In 1998, the inspections and safety system reclassified an array of animal diseases as "defects that rarely or never present a direct public health risk." Among those are cancer; a pneumonia of poultry called airsacculitis; glandular swellings; sores; infectious arthritis; and diseases caused by intestinal worms. In the case of tumors, the guidelines stage: "remove localized lesion(s) and pass unaffected carcass portions." "They just cut off the areas," said Carol Blake, spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department's inspection and safety system. But Jones and consumer groups say production lines are moving so fast that they can't catch all the diseased carcasses and some end up on supermarket shelves.

I suspect if Delmer Jones saw how sardines and canned fish were processed he wouldn't eat them either. Same thing can probably be said for most processed foods. However, it is his ox being gored in that the new inspection system won't require as many inspectors, so he might be a bit biased in his views.

So you raise your own steer and take it to the area processor. Is that any better? There are three levels of inspections: federal for meats to be sold between states, state for in-state sale only and virtually none for a local processor who must mark all packages as not for resale. However, at least there you can probably see the conditions for yourself.

I'll leave this as an open question: How many of the forum participants would classified themselves (and their families) as: 1. Strict vegetarians. 2. Semi-strict vegetarians (eggs, milk products, fish, etc.) 3. Won't eat anything they down raise/grow themselves. 4. Not vegetarian, but just don't eat a lot of meats. 5. Supermarket is predominate source of food stocks. 6. Something other than one of the above.

I am a cattle farmer and would classify myself as a #4, and when I do it is mostly seafood or ham. However, every so often there ain't nothing like a nice thick steak.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 15, 2000

Answers

I'm a semi-vegetarian, I eat chicken fish and turkey maybe 3 times a week. We raise our chickens. I have environmental illness also called chemical poisoning. We also raise most of our veggies. don't have time to go into it now, but Ken, you'd be better off eating that thick steak. From a strict health point of view ham and seafood are the unhealthiest along with rabbit, squirrel and catfish. They're scavengers. Pigs don't sweat out the bad stuff and it doesn't all cook out either. They sure taste good, though. Gotta go tie up the tomato plants, they're huge and the storm did a number on them even though they were trellised.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.

Probably would rate our family as #6. We raise our own rabbits and chickens, but my husband hunts (p.c. term : harvests) deer and we do our own butchering of all animals. However, we will occasionally purchase pork/ham, and seafood, from the local grocery store. We eat beef very rarely, usually only when we go out. This fall, we will help our neighbor's parents butcher pigs, just to learn how, and then perhaps we'll look into raising our own pork. Thanks Ken (glad I wasn't eating when I read that one!):-)!!!!

Judi in CT

-- Judi (ddecaro@snet.net), July 15, 2000.


I would classify myself as 4, and my family as 6. We are cattle ranchers also, so we eat alot of beef. My husband and all three of my kids like to hunt, so we also eat elk and deer. We raise chickens for eggs, and next year would like to raise some to butcher. The kids also have 4-H hogs, and we were planning to get one for ourselves to raise and butcher, but they wanted $l00 for a weaner pig, way too much, so maybe next year. We are raising a big garden this year. I would be just as happy eating mostly vegetables with smaller amounts of meat, but my husband and kids like meat. I have three teenagers, the two boys are over six foot and work hard around the ranch haying, irrigating, and taking care of the livestock since my husband has to work out. So they like to eat ALOT. It's a good lifestyle, one that I hope they will be able to have when they have families of their own, if that is their choice.

-- Patti (trigger@mcn.net), July 15, 2000.

I think there is a difference in between #1 and#2....I am a strict vegetarian, but I am a lacto-ovo (milk & eggs) vegetarian. I don't eat anything that had a face or has dual entity parentage. Vegans don't eat any animal products at all. That gets really hard to keep together if you travel. It's hard enough just being a vegetarian in Texas.

When I was in high school in Wisconsin I toured the Oscar Mayer plant and that pretty much did it for me. I still had to help with the home meat processing of deer, and though I choose not to do it, I think hunting is excellent and people who eat meat, or anything for that matter, should definitely experience the entire process. Just my opinion.

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.


Cindy:

I would like to hear more of your comments. Pigs don't sweat, but then neither do cattle. An argument can be made their diet may be different. Most sea critters aren't scavangers, eating plankton or other sea citters, or even catfish. Yes, in the wild catfish are, but what you get in the supermarket is predominately farm raised on pelletized feed. Rabbits are predominately farm raised and may have never seen a fresh blade of grass. Squirrels I wouldn't classify as scavangers in that sense of the word.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 15, 2000.



Howdy! Number 4's around here. Two of my daughters won't touch any meat but shrimp and pepperoni(that is meat ...right?). Other daughter eats ANYTHING....wife and I eat pork, fish, chicken, but VERY little beef. Son is breast milk only so far (7 months). I am thinking of starting to raise rabbits and chickens for meat. We have chickens now for eggs only.

I have kept a folder of newspaper clipping for a while now about food recalls, e-coli and salmonella contaminations, ect...It's getting kinda full.

Here's some more lovely news about factory farms...Dec/Jan 1997 issue of MEN had an article titled.... "How safe is our meat"

Along with many other unsettling things it stated;

"90 % of factory chickens have leukosis (chicken cancer)"

"40 % of poultry is contaminated with salmonella"

"49 % of all animal feed is contaminated with salmonella due to the use of adding chicken processing waste and parts to feed for protein"

"The National Research Council listed beef as the food posing the second greatest cancer risk due to pesticide residues"

Store bought tomatoes were #1...lovely huh?

Going vegetarian has many other benefits......raising your own meats is a great idea too.....maybe I'll do one or the other before too long.

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), July 15, 2000.


Jason:

I don't understand the direct connection between beef and pesticide residue. Tomatoes, yes, but beef? Please educate me further as I don't subscribe to TMEN.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 15, 2000.


I would classify us as a reluctant 5 heading toward a 3. Right at the moment, until we move, we are stuck with the little we are producing here and the grocery store and farmers market. Unfortunately until we get this resolved things are unlikely to change.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), July 15, 2000.


Big meat eater here, but buy almost 100% organic/humanely raised. Until I can raise all my own, that will have to do. Ideally, I think pigs, beef, chicken that eat what they were originally intended to eat would be my preference. No grain or supplemented feed, just range to eat what they would eat had we not come along. Spent some time at the Lassater Farm web site (they sell grass fed beef) Interesting to note that grass fed beef has much more CLA (a fat burning substance) less saturated fat than grain fed beef. Made sense really, how many cows could reach the top of a wheat stalk to eat the grain? How much grain would actually grow where cattle roamed? They would have eaten it in the grass stage or trampled it no? Sue

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), July 15, 2000.

A real good substitute for "store bought meat" is raod kill. I have placed my name and phone number on the list kept by the sheriff's office in my county, to go out and pick up road killed deer. It is said that there are more deer than people in my county. At any rate I do manage to pick up about three deer a year to put in the freezer, with the blessing of the local sheriff, and from time to time I actually get a "thank you" for my public service...Hmmmm... I guess that makes me a scavanger...ED COPP

-- Ed Copp (edcopp@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.


Ken, I'll recommend a couple of books that can explain it much better than I can. The book of "Leviticus" and also "What the Bible Says About Healthy Living" By Rex Russell, M.D. There are other good books on this subject-Christian and non-Christian. A health food store could make recommendations. Aside from all this, do you know how hard it is to find healthy food in this country? Not just meat. Food that hasn't been altered in some way is hard to come by. There's at least three other ladies on this forum that have my chemical problem. Actually many people are affected by it, they just don't know it. Most people don't know what real food tastes like, where it comes from or how to prepare it properly. How many people really cook? People are too busy, so they eat out and usually fast food.-all that salt! I used to work in a produce market; kids would buy unripened fruit and eat it right away. Yuck, no wonder they don't like good food. Next time you're at the grocery store, check out what people are buying, see how much REAL FOOD is in their cart. Gotta go, my husband's calling me.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 15, 2000.

# 4's here, although we have meat at almost every meal, beef, pork or chicken , in that order. We have a large garden and can all of it for a year around supply. The grocery store still gets it share of our money though. Ken , did I read in another post , that your farm is in WV? Rob Clarksburg, WV

-- Rob Shipe (RShipe1046@aol.com), July 15, 2000.

Sadly we are number 5, after reading this post I don't want to eat anything!!! I have a real delema (sp?), with meat. I love to eat it, but the prospect of killing it is abhorent. I know that makes me some kind of hypocrite, but I don't know what to do about it. I'm going to have a big glass of untreated well water and go to bed. Tina

-- tina shrout (clia88@newmexico.com), July 16, 2000.

We're #4 with leanings towards #2.

Has anyone checked on kosher meats? I understand they are kept and handled in much better ways than 'regular' cattle. And their 'demise' is much better (I'll let you decide how to read that...). Would kosher beef be an 'in between' choice... ?

J

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), July 17, 2000.


We are between a #1 & # 2 as we don't eat meat--but we do eat some dairy products, & eggs--but from natural sorces & not with chemicals. Our chickens free range & get no chemicals--as do our other ducks & geese--which we will eat their eggs, when there are eggs. My Grandsons say, Grandma doesn't eat anything with little faces! We are not vegans, but have really cut back on our dairy products--use more soy, etc. I started, when I lost my immune system--& this diet REALLY HELPED! I'm allergic to all forms of chemicals--so I try to stay away from all I can. Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), July 17, 2000.


J:

Yes, kosher meats would be a much better alternative; however, unless you live in a Jewish neighborhood I doubt there are regularly available. Does anyone know of a reasonable web source?

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 17, 2000.


We eat a lot of meat (on a low-carb diet -- much more healthy than the government-sponsored food pyramid). Right now it is mostly coming from the store, but we intend to start raising all our own meat again as soon as possible. And it will all be grass-fed, no grain, except for chickens needing some. By the way, fat does not make you fat, carbohydrates do. So eating meat doesn't hurt anything!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 17, 2000.

Tina, have you ever thought of buying your meat thrue 4h ? we just bought 1/2 of a pig, we know it was raised humanly , helps kids saving for college and it cost us 3.00 a pound but we get to right off 2.50 per pound on taxs so it ends up costing us 50 cents a pound and we dont see animal execpt wrapped in freezer wrap.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 18, 2000.

We're working on being a # 3. Should be 100% self grown next year on veggies. Fruit trees and berry patches are still too immature, so I still need to buy locally or forage (we do forage aggressively when we can). We eat beef my friend grows - pasture fed, with home grown and ground corn to supplement - no hormones or anything. And this fall / winter the chicken coop gets built. A dairy goat is in the far future.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 18, 2000.

Ken, in that book I mentioned earlier, it says there are 8,000 chemical additives that can be added to our food, legally. Some may be o.k. but most aren't. At the Jay-C store, there's a list of produce that they spray stuff of to make a longer "shelf life" Some of it is from petroleum and some from some sort of shellac and some from natural sources. I'll have to read it again. Like I said earlier, it's hard to find real food.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 19, 2000.

Kathy, no I had not thought of 4-h as a source for meat. I'll have to check into that. Could you explain more on how you "write off" part of the meat price?

-- Tina (clia88@newmexico.com), July 20, 2000.

we produce most of our food price and taste have always been inportant factors when i eat out (very rare)i avoid beef commercial beef taste spoiled to me chicken is tasteless and pork taste rancid,purchased produce has a musty /moldy taste to me ,but i grew up on good country produce and fresh range fed beef and chicken so i know how they should taste love making homemode sausages ,i have butchered out a few downer cows for hamberger but! i knew why they went down and they were Not sick just ingured

-- george Darby (windwillow@fuse.net), July 20, 2000.

Tina, check with your tax advisor, but it works like this: 4-H is a non profit organization, so the portion of the meat price you pay over market price on the day you bid at auction is deductible. For instance, let's say the day of the 4-H auction, market price for pork in your area is .49 per pound. You bid on the 4-Her's pig and you win at 3.00 per pound. The amount you can deduct as a contribution to a non profit organization is 2.51 per pound times the auction weight of the pig (generally "auction weight is 10 - 15 pounds less than actual weight due to gain/loss between weigh in and auction, and usually some "waste" weight). Three downsides: first, you pay for the weight of the WHOLE pig, and you get less then that back. Second, you have to have 3.00 (or whatever)per pound to spend, as the write off comes at the end of the year. Third, you have to have the freezer space...BUT even with the weight you lose it's MUCH cheaper than buying the meat retail, the animal is hand raised, and VERY high quality (comparitively speaking), and it is definitely worth finding space for. 4-H (and FFA) raise all types of market animal, so you can do this with beef, swine, lamb, goat, turkey, etc... Find someone to split the carcass (and the cost) two or three ways, and you've got a great deal. It's truely a win/win. You get high quality, inexpensive meat and a tax write off, and the kid gets a nice chunk of cash for college (or whatever).

-- Kathy H (saddlebronc@msn.com), July 21, 2000.

We'd have to be classified as "other". We eat mostly venison,bear, grouse,squirrels (when they get too numerous), and our own chicken, and ducks. I wish we had time to fish because we are in prime fishing country. Last year my mother wanted beef so we bought a half from a farmer we know. What I spend money on in the store are fresh vegetables in winter and fruits that we can't grow here. Each year I try to produce more of our own food.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), July 21, 2000.

We mostly eat what we raised ourselves, and even so I try to sneak in a meatless meal here and there, my husband is definitly a meateater. Our beef , pork , lamb and kid is grain-supplemented, but we buy our grain at a local grainmill and they buy local grain.I'm sure that some of that grain has been chemically fertilized, but I can live with that, because there is no way , we will be able to raise our own grain, for a very long time. To all you guys, who fish and hunt, we regularly get warnings around here ( and this is northern Maine, pretty clean, compared to other places) not to eat a to high amount of trout, and other things you might catch or hunt, becaus the heavy metal and pesticide levels can be very high. Just last year they told people around here not to give trout to small children. Aside of that, we have our own milk and eggs, and I make cheese and butter here and there, but not enough to last us all year like the meat does. I grow quiet a bit of our own vegetables, but still have a ways to go to do it all on our own.

Karin

-- karin morey (wind_crest@hotmail.com), July 21, 2000.


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