I could'nt help but be drawn to your post. I just got done looking up alot of sites and articles on our meat supply. I was shocked and saddened by what i found, and if just half of what I read is true, we are all too trusting of the USDA looking after us. The USDA cannot order a recall on contaminated meat, it's strickly volentary by the co. The U.S. only tests about 2% of there downer cows while Japan test 100% of there cows for mad cow. An insider in the USDA spoke to United Press International and said "Most agency veternarians know mad cow is prevalent and epidemic (in U.S. herds). We're not talking about one or two cases . The USDA has such a cohesive relationship with industry... that it wants to protect the $70 billion beef industry than the consumer," In 1998 the USDA reclassified a number of animal diseases as part of a pilot project, allowing them in meat as long as lesions are cut away. The USDA claims that cancer, airsacculitis ( poultry pneumonia), lymphomas, sores, infectious arthritis, and illness caused by intestinal worms, rarely if ever, present a public health risk. It's common for a dead or diseased animal to be rushed to slaughter in order for the rancher to optimize his returns. Con Agra had the second largest recall of e-coli tainted beef in history. Con Agra intercepted 20 tons of the e-coli meat from it's Greenley plant that was headed to become hamburgers for a fast food chain. The meat was relabled "For Cooking Purposes Only", and shipped to International Home Foods, a Con Agra co. in Pa. IHF brands include Chef Boyardee, Libby's canned meats, and Pam cooking spray. It ens up in canned chili, meat spag. sauce, beef ravoli ,pet food or in a t.v. dinner.That a consumer might buy a meal containing recalled meat is legal and wholesome according to the USDA. Cooking will render any pathogen harmless, they say. This is common practice for contaminated meat even if it's found in the factory before it's shipped out. Just cook it and it's fine. It has poop in it, but now it's clean poop. They do the same for milk. The cow is drugged into producing about 100 lbs. of milk a day,which is 10 times the natural amount. Because of this constant milking the cows get mastitis of the udders, which 9is an infection. When the milking machine is hooked up the pus ends up in the milk along with e-coli from living in their own waste. When the milk is pasturized it's killed,so it's clean pus. to call the animals abused is too kind, their tortured. The Animal Welfare Act like so many other org.'s do not apply to animals for food. Thousands of cows are butchered alive . The worker has a hard time keeping pace with 300-350 cows per hour, so he doesn't always stun the cow in the head completely , so the cow goes down the line fully conscience, awake, eyes wide open in complete terror, kicking, while it's buthered alive piece by piece.The same happens to chickens, their supposed to slit their necks to bleed out. But it doens't always happen. The chicken is thrown into a large vat of scalding water and he kicks,flops, screams, wings flailing about and their eyeballs pop out while they drown to death. This is very common. I could go on and on.about this subject, it's just disturbing to think about. I had a book called "101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegaterian" it was very enlightening. I also was on some sites called:
www.factoryfarming.com,
www.organicconsumers.org,www.notinmyfood.org. and many many more. I will never look at meat the same way again. I am now in the process of looking for an organic farm near me, because my husband is still going to want to eat meat. But it won't be from the store. I'm also going to look into making some veg. meals a couple times a week.We really can't be too trusting that someone is looking out for our welfare just start looking yourself. Sorry this was so long, but I just started looking myself and it's all I can think about now.