I stopped buying supermarket eggs when I learned that even organic and free range eggs don’t come from happy chickens and that free ranging means that a chicken could go outside 15 minutes per day.
From How drugs pumped into supermarket chickens pose a terrifying threat to our health
Every second of every day, somewhere in the world the same scene unfolds.
A batch of several hundred eggs, precisely arranged in uniform rows, moves along a conveyor belt, coming to a halt beneath a machine linked to a jumble of tubes.
Once in position, the machine robotically lowers itself and then simultaneously punctures each egg with a rack of hypodermic needles.
Danger: Drugs being pumped into supermarket chickens are posing a threat to our health
Through these needles, a mix of vaccines and antibiotics is injected into the egg — and so into the unborn chick inside, which three days later will hatch out. If the scene sounds like something from a science-fiction film, then that is hardly a surprise. Today, large-scale poultry production has precious little to do with green fields and ruddy-cheeked farmers.
Every year, more than 40 billion chickens are slaughtered worldwide for meat, the vast majority of them intensively factory-farmed. The bottom line is profit. All that matters is the volume in which these animals, bred to hit their genetically-modified slaughter weights within 35 days of hatching, can be churned out.
… Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388444/How-drugs-pumped-supermarket-chickens-pose-terrifying-threat-health.html#ixzz2l9gysAqL
I was surprised to read this because European countries generally have much better food safety and animal protection laws.
So I just signed the Consumers Union petition:
… With the vast majority of our nation’s antibiotics going to food animals, so they can grow faster and survive cramped, filthy feedlots, there is a solution if we start taking action now.
Watch our short video. And ask friends and family to join you in taking action by forwarding them this link.
I looked for more info on CU’s position on antibiotics and I am pleasantly surprised by a number of articles on the overuse of anitbiotics:
https://consumersunion.org/?s=antibiotics
I also noticed that CU works hard for GMO labeling and if I was in the market for “stuff”, I’d definitely subscribe again.
I sure hope they’ll ban the use of antibiotics on healthy animals. Of course that would seriously impact on animal food production and RAISE THE COST.
All animal products SHOULD be a lot more expensive.
It takes a lot of time and money to raise food animals the way I’d like to see it done. Hopefully we’ll get some more land next year so we’ll have space for chickens.
When I grew up, we usually had a roast or chicken on Sunday and occasionally some sausage for supper during the week and we definitely didn’t eat meat every day. Now conventional meat is so cheap, you could eat it three times a day.
The only meat I currently buy is organic grass fed ground beef, I think from Australia, about $6/lb on sale since September until early 2014 at Safeway. I think that’s a fair price and I just wish they’d carry steaks.
Speaking of which, CU also addresses Trader Joe’s: CU: Trader Joe’s stop selling meat on antibiotics
… While most grocery stores, including Trader Joe’s, carry some no-antibiotic meat and poultry, Whole Foods is the only store that sells these products exclusively, according to a Consumer Reports investigation. The campaign is targeting Trader Joe’s because it already offers some chicken and beef raised without antibiotics, although no pork. Eighty percent of its products are private label, which means it has direct control over its suppliers. In recent years, the grocer has made a commitment to other sustainable purchasing practices, such as only carrying eggs from cage-free hens and sourcing its private label products with non-genetically modified ingredients.
On my last two trips to Las Vegas I skipped Trador Joe’s. The one thing I’d really like is an organic steak and especially pork chops. I can’t even remember the last time I had a pork chop.
And I didn’t even know about this:
This is just crazy.
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