Healthy Eggs: What We Knew in 1932
In the 1930s, scientists and food producers
were creating the first plans to take poultry off family farms
and raise them in confinement. To
enact their plans, they needed to create “feed rations” that
would keep the birds alive and productive even though they were
denied their natural diet of greens, seeds, and insects. It was
a time of trial and error.
In a 1993 experiment conducted
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, breeding hens were taken
off pasture and fed a wide variety of feed ingredients. When
the birds were fed a diet that was exclusively soy or corn or
wheat or cottonseed meal, the chickens didn’t lay eggs
or the chicks that developed from the eggs had a high rate of
mortality and disease.
But when birds were fed these same
inadequate diets and put back on pasture, their eggs were perfectly
normal. The pasture grasses and the bugs made up for whatever
was missing in each of the highly restrictive diets.
“The effect of diet on egg composition.” Journal
of Nutrition 6(3) 225-242. 1933.
How Spreadable is Your Butter?
Take a cube
of butter from your refrigerator, slice it with a knife, and spread
it on a slice of bread. Did it coat the bread evenly or did it
remain in hard lumps? Researchers have determined that the easier
butter spreads, the better it is for your health.
Why is this? The firmness of
butter depends on its ratio of saturated and unsaturated fat. At
refrigerator temperatures, saturated fat is hard and unsaturated
fat is soft, or even liquid. Therefore, butter that is relatively
easy to spread has less saturated, artery-clogging fat and more
(healthier) unsaturated fat.
In addition, a 2006 study shows that the softer the butter, the
more fresh pasture in the cow’s diet. Cows that get all their
nutrients from grass have the softest butterfat of all. Butter
from grass-fed cows also has more cancer-fighting CLA, vitamin
E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acids than butter from cows
raised in factory farms or that have limited access to pasture.
(For more information about the benefits
of dairy products from grass-fed cows, read Jo Robinson’s
essay, Super Healthy Milk.
To find a local farmer who raises cows on grass, go to our Eatwild
Directory of Farms and Ranches.)
“The
Linear Relationship between the Proportion of Fresh Grass in the
Cow Diet, Milk Fatty Acid Composition, and Butter Properties.” Journal
of Dairy Science, 2006. 89:1956–1969. [Note:
this study is available free of charge at the Journal
of Dairy Science website.]
Be a “Meat
and Spinach” or
a “Meat and Red Wine” Kind of Guy
 Eating red meat—but not white meat or
fish—is linked
with a moderately increased risk of colon cancer. Why is that?
Some experts believe that the amount of iron in the food, specifically,
a type of iron called “heme” iron, is part of the problem.
Red meat has considerably more heme iron than its paler counterparts.
Iron is essential for survival, but heme iron can irritate the
lining of the colon and set up the preconditions for cancer. Another
possible link with red meat and cancer is the amount of oxidized
fat in the meat. You create oxidized fat when you grill meat, sear
it, or cook it above medium rare.
Do you have to cut
back on grilled sirloin steak and lamb chops to lower your risk
of colon cancer? Perhaps not. Eating foods high in antioxidants along with
the meat could do the trick. Research shows that antioxidants have
the potential to neutralize the ill effects of both the iron and
the oxidized fat. For
example, a 2005 study showed that eating spinach along with red
meat eliminated all irritation of the colon. Now a 2008 study reveals
that drinking a glass of red wine with your meal could do the same
thing. It is likely that other foods high in antioxidants
will offer similar protection.
Does eating grass-fed meat also reduce your
risk of colon cancer? Meat
from pastured animals has more antioxidants than feedlot meat,
so it is a distinct possibility. To date, no one has studied this
hypothesis.
Gorelik, S., M. Ligumsky, et al.
(2008). "The Stomach as
a ‘Bioreactor’: When Red Meat Meets Red Wine." J
Agric Food Chem.
De Vogel, J., Denise Jonker-Termont
et al. (2005). “Green
vegetables, red meat and colon cancer: chlorophyll prevents the
cytotoxic and hyperproliferative effects of haem in rat colon.” Carcinogenesis.
Grass-fed
Beef Clearly Superior, Says New German and Canadian Study
Yet another study shows that grass-fed
meat is nutritionally superior to feedlot meat. This newest study
examined the differences in fat content between four breeds of
cattle that were either 1) raised on pasture or 2) given grain
and other feedstuff in a feedlot.
As in previous research, the
results showed that meat from cattle raised on pasture had much
healthier fats. The researchers concluded that grass-fed meat
is “clearly superior” and “remarkably
beneficial.” They stated that grass-fed meat “should
be promoted as an important part of a healthy balanced diet.” Read
the study summary.
(Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry,
June 2008, 56:4775-4782.)
More Meat Packing Plants Charged with
Inhumane Treatment
The abuse of cattle at the Hallmark/Westmark
Meat Packing Company (see below) is not a rare event, according
to the USDA. The agency’s
recent audit revealed inhumane treatment in 4 out of 18 slaughter
plants.
One plant was cited for inadequate stunning,
which meant that some animals were conscious at slaughter. Another
got black marks for overuse of “hot shots,” electric stunning
devices used to control the cattle. Overcrowding and the use of
high-powered hoses earned demerits for two additional plants.
The audit was part of the heightened USDA surveillance of packing
plants following the Hallmark/Westmark abuses.
United Press International, April 9,
2008
The Grass-Fed Paradox
Grazing animals that eat their native
diet of grass have more polyunsaturated fat in their meat than
animals fed grain and other types of foodstuff. This is one of
the reasons that grass-fed meat is better for your health. But
polyunsaturated fats are prone to oxidation and oxidized meat
can have a rancid or “off” flavor,
and the meat spoils more quickly. It was long thought that grass-fed
meat would suffer this fate.
But new studies show that grass-fed meat is less likely to
oxidize than ordinary feedlot meat. Why? The answer is that there
are more antioxidants in grass than grain, and these protective
substances keep the polyunsaturated fat from oxidizing. When you
eat meat from a grass-fed cow, you are consuming more polyunsaturated
fat, more antioxidants, and the meat is less likely to spoil.
Mercier, Y., P. Gatellier, M. Renerre
(2004). "Lipid and
protein oxidation in vitro, and antioxidant potential in meat from
Charolais cows finished on pasture or mixed diet." Meat
Science 66: 467-473.
Hallmark Animal Abuse Update
On February 4th, the USDA suspended operations
at the Hallmark Packing Plant in Chino, California, the plant
that has been accused of abusing sick and injured dairy cattle.
(For more information, see posting directly below.)
Meat from the Hallmark plant supplied
meat for the National School Lunch Program, the Emergency Food
Assistance Program and the Food Distribution Program on Indian
Reservations.
Suspending operations at Hallmark is not going
to stop similar abuse at other slaughter facilities. Clearly, the
present safeguards are inadequate. You can express your concern
by emailing your government representatives. (Go to www.congress.org for
a quick and easy way to find the names of your representatives
and their email links. Enter your zip
code in the box in the upper left hand side of the page.)
In your emails, refer to the “Hallmark
Animal Abuse.”
Caught on Film
On January 30th, the Humane
Society of the United States released a video showing extreme animal cruelty at the Hallmark
Meat Packing Co. in Chino, California. Among other atrocities,
the video shows sick and injured cattle being shoved by forklifts,
kicked in the head, and shocked with electric probes in an effort
to get them to stand up.
“Downer” cattle—those
that are too sick or lame to walk—have been banned from human
consumption since 2003. A Swiss study found that downer cattle
are 49 to 58 times more likely to have mad cow disease (BSE) than
ambulatory animals. Apparently, the workers were attempting to
get around this ruling by forcing the animals to stand up. Click
here to see a portion of the video. Warning: the video shows
extreme abuse.
Humane Slaughter
Ranchers who raise their cattle on grass from
birth to market do not send their animals to large slaughter houses
such as the Hallmark Meat Packing Company where extreme cases of
abuse were recently documented. (See post directly above.) Instead,
they slaughter the animals on the farm or take them to small, independent
slaughter facilities.
Ranchers who drive their grass-fed cattle
to an abattoir go to great lengths to keep the animals calm.
Some bring along cattle that are not earmarked for slaughter
to give the animals the comfort of being with their herd mates.
Many ranchers watch the entire slaughter process to ensure that
their animals are being treated humanely every step of the way.
Some ranchers practice “field slaughter.” In
this case, they approach the animal out on the pasture, making
sure not to trigger alarm. Then they kill it with a bullet to the
head. The animal dies instantly and has no opportunity to experience
pain. Other ranchers contract with a specially designed mobile
slaughter facility that comes to the farm and manages the entire
process from killing the animals to preparing the carcass for the
aging process.
Typically, a grass-based ranch has fewer than 150 animals, and
the owners can identify each animal by sight. Their goal is to
make sure all the animals are well fed and cared for and do not
experience unnecessary stress at any time of their lives.
To find a pasture-based rancher in your area, click
here. Ask
the farmers about their slaughtering protocol.
Read Jo Robinson’s Article in
Mother Earth News
The February/March issue of “Mother
Earth News” features a persuasive
article about unsavory feedlot practices written by Eatwild.com’s creator,
Jo Robinson.
Read “What
You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat” online,
or purchase the magazine at a newsstand. You may also
e-mail
hhunt@motherearthnews.com for
an electronic copy of the article as a pdf file complete with
illustrations. Individuals may print up to 300 copies of the
article for distribution.
Eatwild.com Logs
Over 3.25 Million Visits
As we begin the New Year, eatwild.com
has logged over 3.25 million visits. Most of our visitors have
been from the United States, but a growing number are from countries
as far-flung as Iceland and South Africa. There is a growing interest
worldwide in raising animals humanely on food that approximates
their native diets in a manner that protects the environment and
supports local farmers. Go Grass!
The USDA Proposes a “Naturally Raised” Label
On November 28, 2007 the USDA published
a new standard for the label, “Naturally Raised.” According to the proposed
standard, meat, eggs and dairy products are “naturally raised” if
they come from an animal that: 1) was not treated with antibiotics,
hormones or other growth promoters; and 2) was not fed by-products
from mammals or poultry. According to USDA research, many consumers
object to these practices, which are commonplace throughout the
United States.
We find the proposed label misleading.
A package of “Naturally
Raised” steak as defined by the USDA could come from a cow
that was confined in a feedlot for six months; fattened on GMO
corn, candy and stale pastry; and was forced to stand knee-deep
in its own manure.
We prefer a more wordy but accurate label: “Raised without
Antibiotics, Hormones, or By-Products from Mammals or Poultry.” Such
a label would help consumers avoid unwanted chemicals and practices
but not imply that the animal was raised under natural conditions.
You can comment on the proposed label
until January 28, 2008. To
read more about the label or register your comments follow this
link.
Keep ‘Em
Moving to Reduce Greenhouse Gasses
All ruminants—including cattle, sheep, bison, and goats—belch
up a significant amount of methane gas as they digest their grass-based
diet. Methane gas is a potent contributor to global warming, so
reducing methane production is an important step in protecting
the environment.
Animal scientists have discovered that
dividing pasture land into separate areas or “paddocks” and carefully managing
the movement of cattle through those paddocks produces the highest
quality grasses. Cattle that graze on this succulent grass produce
as much as 20 percent less methane. This style of ranching is called “Management
Intensive Grazing” or MiG, and it’s practiced by most
of the ranchers on eatwild.com.
DeRamus, H. A., T. C. Clement, D. D. Giampola, and P. C. Dickison. "Methane
Emissions of Beef Cattle on Forages: Efficiency of Grazing Management
Systems." J Environ Qual 32, no. 1 (2003): 269-77.
Long-Lived Cows Reduce Global Warming
Bossy has a short lifespan when she is
raised in a confinement dairy, which is the way most cows are
raised today. She provides a very high volume of milk, partly due
to hormone injections and a high-grain diet, but she lasts for
only 2-3 years. Then infertility,
disease, physical problems, or inflammation end her milking career,
and she is sold at auction for hamburger.
Cows raised on grass are healthier and more fertile, making them
good milk producers for up to twelve years. These long-lived and
more contented cows may reduce greenhouse gas production (methane)
between 10 and 11 percent according to a British Study.
Garnsworthy, P.C., The environmental impact
of fertility in dairy cows: a modeling
approach to predict methane and ammonia emissions, Animal Feed
Science & Technology, 2004. 112: 211-223.
What
Do the Russians Know That We Don’t
Know?
Effective November 1, 2007, Russians
will no longer import poultry products from 17 U.S. processing
plants. The reason? The
plants don’t measure up to their health and safety standards.
This summer, the Russian Federation Veterinary
and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service audited dozens of facilities
around the country and found that the following plants failed to
meet their minimal standards:
- Choctaw Maid Farms, Forest, MS.
- Sanderson Farms, Hazlehurst, MS.
- Sanderson Farms, Collins, MS.
- Mountaire Farms, Selbyville, DE.
- Tyson Foods, Carthage, MS.
- Fieldale Farms, Murrayville, GA.
- Nordic, Atlanta, GA.
- Peco Foods, Bay Springs, MS.
- Sylvest Farms, Montgomery, AL.
- Tyson Foods, Clarksville, AR.
- Americold Logistics, Montgomery, AL.
- Americold Logistics, Charlotte, NC.
- Millard Refrigerated Service, Richland, MS.
- Stanford Refrigerated Warehouses, Macon, GA.
- Greko, Cumming, GA.
- Simmons Foods, Siloam Springs, AR.
The USDA is investigating the Russian claims.
Do you know where your poultry comes from?
Ask your store manager.
(Alicia Karapetian. Poultry
News, 10/19/07. www.meatingplace.com)
Huge Recall of Feedlot Hamburger
The Topps Meat Company recalled 27.1
million pounds of hamburger on October 1st due to possible contamination
with dangerous E. coli bacteria. The E. coli outbreak, the second
largest in history, covers an eight state area. To date, there
are a number of confirmed illnesses and more than 20 people suspected
of having been sickened
by the meat.
Nine brands of meat are involved. If you have any hamburger in
your freezer with a sell-by date between Sept. 25, 2007 and Sept.
25, 2008 and a package number of 9748, throw it away.
Large meat companies such as Topps combine
meat from hundreds of cows in one giant vat of hamburger.
The bacteria is so virulent that E. coli from a single animal
can contaminate the entire batch. Then, if the equipment is not
thoroughly cleaned, traces of bacteria can contaminate all the
batches processed that day. In this case, government inspectors
investigating the case saw sanitation problems that led to the
ban of meat processed over a prolonged period of time.
Free Range Eggs Nutritionally Superior
As it turns out, all those choices of eggs
at your supermarket aren't providing you much of a choice at all.
Recent tests conducted by Mother
Earth News magazine
have shown once again that eggs from chickens that range freely
on pasture provide clear nutritional benefits over eggs from confinement
operations.
Mother Earth News collected samples
from 14 pastured flocks across the country and
had them tested at an accredited laboratory. The results were compared
to official US Department of Agriculture data for commercial eggs.
Results showed the pastured eggs contained an amazing:
- 1/3 less cholesterol
than commercial eggs
- 1/4 less saturated fat
- 2/3 more vitamin
A
- 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
- 7 times more beta carotene
Full results of the tests are available in
the October/November 2007 issue of
Mother Earth News, or on their website at
http://www.MotherEarthNews.com/eggs.
Check Eatwild's Pastured
Products Directory to find free-range eggs near you.
Hold the Heat. Get more Calcium.
You absorb more calcium when you eat
raw milk yogurt, according to a new study in the Journal of American
College of Nutrition.
Forty adult volunteers alternated between
eating raw and pasteurized yogurt. The researchers reported that “circulating calcium
markedly increased one hour after the fresh yogurt intake, while
no changes were detected after the pasteurized [yogurt.]” This
was true for people who had no difficulty digesting milk and those
who were lactose intolerant.
To find a supplier of raw milk yogurt,
enter the word “yogurt” in the Search Site in
the left margin of this page.
Journal of the American
College of Nutrition,
Vol. 26, No.3, 288-294. 2007
Corn
Prices Too High?
Feed the Animals Candy Instead
The growing use of corn for fuel has doubled
the price of corn for animal feed. Typically, corn comprises about
70 percent of the diet of animals raised in confinement. To offset
the spiking cost of corn, many feedlot managers are replacing some
of the corn with candy and other “junk food” that has
been declared unfit for human consumption.
According to an article
in The Wall Street Journal, this sugary, fatty fare includes banana
chips, yogurt-covered raisin, cookies, licorice, cheese curls,
frosted wheat cereal, Tater Tots, Kit Kat bars, uncooked French
fries, pretzels and chocolate bars. One feedlot operator from Idaho
confesses that he feeds his cattle a 100 percent “by-product” meal.
Grass, the native diet of grazing animals,
is a rich source of protein, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Has anyone measured the nutritional value of meat from junk-food-fed
cows? Candy may be cheap, but it’s cheating consumers out of meat’s
natural nutrition. Consider grass-fed, instead.
“With Corn
Prices Rising, Pigs Switch to Fatty Snacks” Lauren Etter,
Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2007.
Pizza Dough and Tetracycline
In an interview with a former manager
of a cattle feedlot, Eatwild has learned of an extreme example
of raising cattle on junk food. In this particular feedlot, the
cattle were fattened on stale pizza crust that the owners purchased
from a wholesale bakery for only a penny a pound.
The pizza dough was then mixed with powdered
tetracycline, an antibiotic that is not approved for use in cattle
because it is important for human medicine. Adding low (subtherapeutic) levels of
antibiotics make cattle eat more and gain weight more rapidly.
On this junk food and drug diet, the cattle
put on as much as four pounds a day, a remarkable rate of growth.
The end result was more money for the feedlot, more abuse of medications
that are important for human medicine, and more meat of questionable
quality for an unsuspecting public.
The degree to which American cattle are being
fed junk food and off-label drugs is not known.
Farm Milk Linked with Lower Rate of Asthma and Allergies
A large
European study of nearly 15,000 children revealed that drinking
farm milk rather than commercial milk is linked with a lower risk
of asthma and allergies.
Children who drank farm milk at any time
of their lives had a 26% lower risk of asthma, 33% lower risk of
pollen sensitivity, and a remarkable 57% lower risk of food allergies.
This was true for children who lived on a farm and those who lived
in the city and drank farm milk.
It was not clear from the study
whether the reduction in risk was due to the fact that the milk
was unpasteurized or the fact that the farm milk came from grazing
cows. Milk from cows raised on pasture has more omega-3 fatty acids,
antioxidants, and other nutrients that may reduce the risk of allergies.
Clinical and Experimental Allergy. Volume
37, pages 661-670. 2006
Cheap Meat: An Accident Waiting
to Happen
The latest fiasco in the U.S.
livestock industry is that 20 million chickens, thousands of hogs,
and an unknown number of farmed fish have been raised on feed contaminated
with melamine, the chemical that made headline news when it got
into pet food and sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs.
According to the USDA, meat from hogs and chickens fed melamine
has already entered our food supply.
How did this happen? The story
begins in China. Melamine is an inexpensive by-product of the coal
industry. In a deceptive practice, Chinese producers have been
mixing melamine with certain feed ingredients in order to inflate
their protein content. (Melamine is not a protein and has no food
value, but it mimics protein on standardized laboratory tests.)
Melamine costs less than true sources of protein, so the manufacturers
make more money.
The story continues in the United
States. In order to lower the cost of production, U.S. pet food
manufacturers have been importing cheap protein meal from China.
Unbeknownst to the manufacturers, recent shipments have been spiked
with melamine. As a result, thousands of pets became sick
or died.
Now we get to the pigs, chickens,
and fish. A common cost-cutting practice in the livestock industry
is to supplement animal feed with floor sweepings and other remnants
from pet food plants. The sweepings contain enough meal to offer
some nutritional value. But recently, the sweepings have also been
laced with melamine. In this serpentine fashion, a toxic chemical
that was first added to pet food found its way to our very own
tables.
The USDA does not foresee any
health consequences from eating melamine-spiced pork, poultry,
and fish. Hopefully, this will prove to be true. But as long as
we feed our animals on a “least-cost” basis, we risk a host of problems,
ranging from minor contamination with an industrial chemical to
mad cow disease. The solution is to raise our livestock on their
native diets or on quality ingredients that match their original
diets as closely as possible. We are what our animals eat.
Federal Ruling
To Allow Meatpackers to Test for Mad Cow Disease
A federal judge ruled on March
29, 2007 that the government must allow meatpackers to test their
meat for Mad Cow Disease.
The ruling came in a
case brought to the courts by Creekstone Farms, which
raises cattle in Kentucky and has a processing plant in Kansas.
Creekstone wanted to test all of its animals for the disease in
order to open up sales in Japan and other strict markets,
but was threatened with prosecution by the Agricultural Department
if they did so.
The Agriculture Department currently
regulates the tests, which it administers to about 1% of all slaughtered
cows. Many large meat processors opposed the increase in testing
because they feared that market pressure would force them to test
all their cows as well.
The federal district court judge
put the order on hold until June 1st when the ruling
will take affect unless the government appeals.
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