Food Production

Dave Noisy reports that incidents of mad cow disease in the USA testing are likely to decline… if only because several testing centres are shutting down. The state of Washington, for instance, won’t have a local lab as of March 1. While other facilities further away could theoretically take up the slack, this is a part of the USDA’s plan to scale down testing by abuot 90%. Oh, and the plan to introduce a mandatory tracking program so cows can be traced back through multiple moves and sales in the event of an outbreak? That’s going to become a voluntary program. It’s funny how the government never makes, say, income taxes voluntary or self-regulating, but issues of consumer safety tend to be delegated freely. Link.

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If you drink milk but worry about additional hormones, how do you feel about additional black market hormones? As VegBow reports, while thefts have declined with overall usage of bovine growth hormone, there’s still a market out there that commands top dollar for the drug – in one recent incident, three thieves made off with $30,000 worth of syringes. Interestingly, some people are speculating that thefts might be going unreported, since farmers might not want to draw attention to the fact that they use the stuff in the first place. On the other end of the equation, if someone’s selling, that means others are buying, and that’s another transaction that a farmer doesn’t want anyone to know about. If this stuff’s so nifty, why do you suppose farmers are so ashamed? Link.

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AimeeLeigh79 sent in a story about growing labour unrest at Tyson Foods’ slaughterhouses, where workplace accidents occur about once every day. While slaughterhouse accident rates have fallen over the past few years, they’re still around double those of other industries, and when you read about things like Tyson’s alleged policy of not paying people for the time spent putting on their safety equipment, it becomes easier to understand why. Some of the more vocal workers are claiming that Tyson feels that they are drawing on an endless supply of immigrant workers and have no incentive to change things, so they’re renewing the call for a union. Of course, even if a union could bring about safer conditions, it’d also likely increase the cost of meat. If, according to meat vendors, consumers aren’t willing to pay a few pennies more for increased safety testing of the product, which directly affects them, how likely are they to support a price increase that might save the lives of a few workers? Link.

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So I just read Dave Noisy‘s latest submission about the 10th mad cow disease-infected animal to be found in Canada, and I’ve got to wonder – if we “found” our first one in 2003, and we’re now up to 10, with 5 found just last year, is the increase due to a) officials getting more relaxed about reporting the disease in the first place instead of following the “shoot, shovel, and shut up” approach recommended by formaer Alberta premier Ralph Klein, b) it’s actually getting worse, or c) increased testing. To be sure, testing has gone up, with between 50 and 60,000 cow corpses tested each year, but if 5 were found in 55,420 tests in 2006, that’s 1 in every 10,000, and let’s say that there were between 3 and 4 million cows slaughtered last year (couldn’t find a 2006 stat, but 3.7 million in 2005). So… what can we extrapolate about the beef counter at the local grocery? Link.

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Several users have sent in the story about North Korea and the giant bunny rabbits, but the latest from Falling is worth talking about for several reasons. First, some background: some guy has been breeding rabbits for 47 years and he’s developed a line that grows to over 10 kilograms (22 pounds). Meanwhile, North Korea is dealing with a food shortage. Sadly, someone figured that the obvious solution was to import some of these rabbits for use as food. Now, lets take a look at the article. Right off the bat, they’re not large rabbits, they’re “monster” rabbits because nobody wants to eat a cute and cuddly bunny wabbit. Frankly, I can’t believe they managed to use the words “rabbit” and “meat” in the same sentence. Secondly, there’s more than one reference to a likely flaw in the plan: North Korea has a food shortage, and rabbits eat… food. One of these rabbits can feed 8 people, but I’m guessing that the crops would do a much better job. Even the breeder admits that the rabbits “cost a lot to feed,” and he normally sells the animals for 200 to 250 Euros. North Korea is getting a special deal of 80 Euros, and while the perceived value of the animals is their ability to breed like, well, rabbits, if this deal was made as a humanitarian gesture to cover basic costs, this isn’t going to do a lot to solve the hunger problem. In the meantime, hey, rest of the world: rabbits are meat. Take a look around you today and think about other things that become meat. Isn’t it time for a change? Link.

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Spike sends word that a farmer in Jersey got a bit worried a while back when his cows started producing pink milk, but it turns out the cause was the carrots he’d recently started feeding them. This was confirmed when he switched to white carrots, which returned the milk to its usual colour. Thankfully for the farmers, most feed doesn’t incluence the colour of milk, because it might remind people of that food chain thing – over the years I’ve seen reports from this highly controlled industry of cattle feed ranging from chocolates, candy, and beer wort to chicken droppings and cement dust. If the colour of a carrot can influence the final product, what do you suppose might be happening with the other stuff? Link.

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Susie wrote in to let me know about a SuperVegan series she’s been working on about the New York City trans fat ban: while we’re all aquiver over the possibility of nationwide food chains changing their recipes, Susie notes that Tofutti is also going to be a target. I thought Toronto rocked, but I can’t imagine a bagel place selling Tofutti cream cheese. Apparently there is a non-hydrogenated version available, but just as other food manufacturers have claimed about their products, it’s not as good. Link.

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frank language notes that the number one food product that’s stolen from grocery stores isn’t tofu or lentils – it’s meat. While some of this is no doubt due to the fact that there are, statistically, more meat eaters in the world and thus presumably more meat-stealers, you’d think the news would make vegans an attractive market for grocery chains. So how about it, insert your local grocery chain name here? Would it kill you to stock a few more vegan products or maybe list the ingredients for your bakery items? Link.

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Magic Stones sends word that Maritime Canada is spending some of my tax money (well, my tax IOUs, anyway) to research ways to make beef that’s more appealing to consumers. Somehow I doubt my preferences will be reflected in the testing, which will focus on feed variations, environmental parameters, and genetic analysis to determine how best to raise animals that will produce parts that look good on styrofoam trays. As feedlots continue to consolidate, it’ll be interesting to see what effects changing consumer preferences have on the bottom line, as it becomes more and more expensive to make changes on what can only become a more massive scale. Link.

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