meat is murder

The title says it all. Another day, another article, another link between meat and cancer. We don’t know how this article from the BBC (and seemingly every other news outlet in the world) passed by MeatIsMurder Towers. This time parents are being asked to help fight the cancer-meat axis with their kids’ packed lunches.
It’s true the article goes on to talk about substituting the processed meats for chicken, fish or dairy, but a quick scan of this site will tell you the health warnings that we also regularly see about these corpse products.

Parents have been urged not to put ham and other smoked, salted or cured meat into their children’s lunchboxes to help them reduce the risk of cancer.

The World Cancer Research Fund said parents should act now to stop their children developing a taste for processed meat.

Eating too much over decades can raise the risk of bowel cancer, they said.

Link to original article at the BBC

The meatismurder admin team have been avoiding writing a post about swine flu. The story is so massive it doesn’t need reporting here - even the man on the moom must now be aware of events. However perhaps it does. The mainstream media have been focusing on the human tragedy whilst straying away from the obvious…the inevitable hand of humans in causing the problem.
Oddly however the job has been done for us. No less than the Times have an online article that talks about mass-production farms, poor animal husbandry, and low genetic variation as the contributing factors of the outbreak.

There is a tendency to see a flu outbreak, like the plagues of old, as an unstoppable natural event, a scourge visited on Man from above. But there is nothing natural about this form of disease: indeed, it stems from an abuse of nature.

Vast modern pig farms, like the huge poultry plants across the globe, are ideal incubators of disease, and many scientists believe that viral mutation can be directly linked to intensive modern agricultural techniques. With enfeebled animals packed into confined spaces, pathogens spread easily, creating new and virulent strains that may be passed on to humans. When dense populations of factory-farmed animals exist alongside crowded human habitations, the potential for disaster is vastly greater.

The stress of such vile living conditions makes mass-produced animals more vulnerable to contagion, while the concentration on a few, high-yield breeds has led to genetic erosion and weakened immunity. We have created an environment in which a mild virus can evolve rapidly into a much more pathogenic and contagious form.

Please read the article.

A big event like the Superbowl usually attracts a lot of attention, that goes without saying - but this year there has been some attention diverted to the meat industry courtesy of Peta and The Cancer Project. The focus hasn’t been on the ethical arguments for vegetarianism but rather on the health benefits of not eating body.

Welcome to the ad which was banned by American TV Network NBC due to concerns over “rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin,” a woman “screwing herself with broccoli” and more. Sounds impossible to resist, don’t you think? But alas, the saucy video was deemed too hot for the bigwigs at the Super Bowl (that’s huge ‘n’ hunky men playing American football to you and me), so we’re bringing it you ourselves! Hold onto your seats, gents…

Other viewing options

If you want to last all night long, you should know that high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancers or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence. So yep, ditching the meat and dairy and going vegetarian can give you better sex. And who wouldn’t want that? I can just hear the stampede to the veggie section of Asda now…

Also in the ‘Superbowl Food Wars’ have been The Cancer Project (..who have interesting articles about for example, dairy and the links to cancer) with their article about the 5 worst Superbowl party foods - all of which are meat or meat & dairy.

Cancer Project dietitians found that most popular items offered for takeout or delivery on Super Bowl Sunday are high in fat, saturated fat, calories, sodium, and cholesterol. Many items also include processed meats or grilled meats, which are linked to increased cancer risk. The five most unhealthful takeout or delivery items are ranked from worst to least bad.

Rank	The Five Worst Super Bowl Party Foods	Fast-Food Restaurant
1	Deep Dish MeatZZa Feast	Domino’s Pizza
2	The Meats Pan Crust Pizza	Papa John’s
3	Creamy Chicken Alfredo Baked Tuscani Pasta	Pizza Hut
4	Tuna Melt	Quiznos
5	Honey BBQ Wings	KFC

Just to keep readers up to date on the ongoing issues surrounding breast feeding please see the story below from the BBC which relates to an attempt to make formula milk healthier for (human) babies. Obviously though of course not healthier for the calves for which the milk was originally intended. - see milkmyths

All the mothers in the trial - a new study, called PATCH - will be encouraged to breastfeed, but those who decide to use formula before four months will either be offered the new hypoallergenic milk or a placebo.

Paediatrician Dr Bob Boyle said the international trial hopes to recruit about 1,200 pregnant women in total - 50 of these at St Mary’s.

“Basically the PATCH study is trying to find the next best way to feed infants apart from breastfeeding and how to control allergies,” he said.

“We know that a significant proportion of women do introduce formula within the first few months of life in this part of the world and we believe this increases the risk of allergic symptoms, compared to exclusive breastfeeding.

“So we are trying to find a formula that will reduce the negative impact of introducing formula early.

“We are not suggesting that this formula might be better than breast milk and we are making that quite clear in the study.”

Dr Boyle said eczema often does not develop until the second year of life - but about 70% of cases become apparent by the time a child is 18 months old.

For that reason, the study will follow up the children taking part in the study regularly until they reach 18 months.

However, the team believe it is the first few months of feeding that are likely to be crucial.

The new formula contains prebiotics, natural compounds found in breast milk that encourage healthy bacteria to develop in the gut and help prevent allergies.

It also contains pre-digested proteins, rather than whole proteins, which are broken down into smaller pieces, making them easier to digest.

John Collard, clinical director of Allergy UK, welcomed the research.

“It is well established that exclusive breastfeeding for four to six months reduces the risk of allergy and this should be the aim,” he said.

“However, not every mum is able to breastfeed and using normal formula feeds can increase the chances of allergy developing in children from allergic families.

“We welcome any research into formula milks which could be used to follow on from breastfeeding, or in place of it, and which could reduce the risk of allergy in these children.”

Story from:
news.bbc.co.uk
© BBC MMVIII

A new study shows risks to humans of lead poisoning from eating animals shot with lead bullets. The meatismurder admin team also believe that being shot with lead bullets isn’t too good for the individuals being shot either.

People who eat animals killed with lead bullets need to be concerned about lead poisoning, according to a conservation organization working to convince game hunters to switch to copper ammunition.class=”storydetail”>

Opponents, however, argue that the group’s agenda — to get the lead out of commercial ammo — rather than hard science, is the driving force behind the results of a recent study. Participating scientists say it provides proof that lead-based ammunition poses health risks not only for animals, but for people.

The Peregrine Fund, a Boise, Idaho-based conservation group that works to protect birds of prey, conducted the study in concert with scientists from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in which researchers examined professionally processed meat from hunter-killed deer in Wyoming.

Eighty percent of the deer killed by high-velocity lead-based ammunition produced at least some meat with metal fragments or metal “dust” in it, and 92 percent of the metal found was lead, according to the leaders of the project who presented their findings Tuesday at a conference in Boise. Separately, the North Dakota Health Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are planning to test nearly 700 people who eat wild game killed with lead bullets, to determine if there are any health risks.

The suggestion that lead bullets could make venison unsafe for humans has prompted outrage from pro-hunting groups such as Safari Club International of Somerset, N.J., and the Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry group, after North Dakota and Minnesota in March and April instructed food banks there to pull hunter-donated venison from their shelves.

“This is one more piece of evidence that points to lead bullets as a source of contamination in our environment,” Rick Watson, vice president of the Peregrine Fund, said in a statement ahead of a presentation of the study.

The study released Tuesday comes after a Peregrine Fund board member, Dr. William Cornatzer, previously did CT scans of about 100 packets of venison that had been donated to food banks by hunters. He found 60 percent had multiple lead fragments.

Lawrence Keane, a National Shooting Sports Foundation spokesman, said he hasn’t seen the latest study. But he said initial evidence supplied by Cornatzer, a dermatologist and professor at the University of North Dakota medical school, didn’t justify a policy change or destruction of venison. Groups, including Safari Club, gave nearly 1 million pounds of venison in 2007 to food banks as part of their humanitarian efforts.

“The Peregrine Fund is an advocacy group and has an agenda,” Keane said. “We have serious questions with the so-called science by the dermatologist. It’s my understanding there’s not a single reported case that the CDC is aware of, of anyone having elevated blood lead levels from eating game harvested with lead ammunition.”

Lead poisoning has been linked to learning disabilities, behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma and death. There is no safe level of lead in blood.

Remainder of story at Jackson Hole Star Tribune

Another occassion where we learn that those in the meat industry are perhaps not always entirely trustworthy. Who would have thought that those involved in murder for a living can sometimes be moved to other slips of moral fibre.

WASHINGTON — The president of a slaughterhouse at the heart of the largest meat recall denied under oath on Wednesday, but then grudgingly admitted, that his company had apparently introduced sick cows into the hamburger supply.

He then tried to minimize the significance.

The executive, Steve Mendell of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, Calif., said, “I was shocked. I was horrified. I was sickened,” by video that showed employees kicking or using electric prods on “downer” cattle that were too sick to walk, jabbing one in the eye with a baton and using forklifts to push animals around.

The video was taken by an undercover investigator from the Humane Society of the United States. One tape showed a worker using a garden hose to try to squirt water up the nose of a downed cow, a technique that Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who conducted the hearing where Mr. Mendell testified, referred to as waterboarding.

Testifying before the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Mendell, who appeared only after being subpoenaed, assured lawmakers that despite his lack of knowledge about conditions at the plant, sick animals were not slaughtered for food, so no safety issue existed.

But Mr. Mendell retracted the statement when shown a second video in which a “downer” cow was shocked and abused by workers trying to move it to the “kill box,” then finally shot with a bolt gun and dragged by a chain to the processing area.

When Mr. Mendell told the committee he was unaware of the abuses, Mr. Stupak asked him, “What’s your curiosity, as president and C.E.O. of the company you’re responsible for?”

Mr. Mendell replied that after he had seen the first video, he concluded that “it was a regulatory violation, for sure, it was inhumane treatment, for sure,” but that he did not believe it was a food safety issue until he saw the second video on Wednesday.

Mr. Stupak asked if one could conclude from the video that the cow dragged into the killing area had gone into the food supply.

“That would be logical, sir,” Mr. Mendell replied.

Article continues at nytimes.com