frankly, having raised livestock on a small farm, i'm appalled at the way livestock is generally treated, fed, and otherwise abused. when we bread pigs, we always had litters of over a dozen piglets, and they all lived, in commercial operations they never have that many born and many don't survive. the way animals are farmed and processed in this country is appalling in the extreme, our slaughter houses process animals over 10 times as fast as any european country. not because we are better at it, but because we are more sloppy which is how you get e-coli (from feces in the intestines) in beef here when it's unheard of in most parts of the world. same goes for chicken and turkey. we fed our animals properly and took good care of them, they were much healthier and much, much tastier when slaughtered. most people would be appalled if they saw the way commercial feedlots operate, the animals are always walking around in their own waste, forming a disgusting mud because they cram too many animals into a given space and don't move them from pen to pen often enough. as far as prions, fortunately it's a small problem, but it is being grossly ignored like most health threats that happen to require solutions that make an industry less profitable. it's short sightedness in the extreme, and greed in the extreme. if you exposed your dog or cat to the conditions under which livestock are commonly raised you'd be fined and jailed for animal cruelty. and most people don't seem to realize that animals that live in a stressful environment produce a lot of stress related hormones, that those hormones wind up in the meat, and the hormone systems tend to be preserved, i.e. most mammals use the same hormones for the same things, meaning you are in fact exposing your body to many of the harmful effects of stress when you eat meat from stressed animals. aside from the moral issues, this is just plain stupid! Russell McMahon wrote: > > Hopefully not too slow !!! :-( > > In US it is STILL legal and current practice to feed blood, excrement and > feathers from chickens to cattle. And legal to feed chickens by products > from cattle. So that .... > > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/politics/10cow.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position= > > Hopefully this will change very shortly. > But, even if they stopped feeding cattle by-products to chickens, how does > that make you feel about your beef ? :-) > > This page may or may not need a free registration to view. > If you are terminally averse to registering and REALLY want to see the page > contact me OFFLIST and I will send it to you. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different > ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details. -- proof that the U.S. media is now state controlled! Ask your' local tv station why the hell they aren't airing the news any more! Our system of government requires an informed public, with their eyes open. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.