This is a photo of the kind of egg you don’t see at the supermarket or even hear about. Why? You’re not supposed to know about them. If you did, the industry knows how turned off you might become. Eggs like this are truly a “freak of nature,” that is, a product of man’s manipulation of nature. A far cry from the images and language of egg marketing huh? Farm fresh, pasture raised, cage free, free range, organic.
Officials at both companies expressed their shock and dismay over the footage recorded from its supplier, but are we really to believe that they don’t know how the factory egg farm industry operates? Critics say they know exactly how the industry operates since there are no laws protecting egg laying hens (the result of years of intensive lobbying), weak and ineffective food safety laws and, as this investigation reveals, and little or no enforcement by a paralyzed public health authority called the FDA. And they claim that their reaction was simply a knee jerk PR move that they hope will alleviate customer concerns.
Of course, virtually every report you’ll read on this in the mainstream media has the facts wrong. This isn’t about cucumbers being dangerous, because e.coli does not grow on cucumbers. E.coli is an intestinal strain of bacteria that only grows inside the guts of animals (and people). Thus, the source of all this e.coli is ANIMAL, not vegetable.
New research conducted by Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGRI) finds high levels of bacteria known to be resistant to multiple antibiotics in 136 samples derived from 26 US grocery stores in a 5 states. Recently Scientific American reported that about 70% or more of all antibiotics are administered to farm animals raised in intensely confined conditions on factory farms which are incubators of disease.
The Union of Concerned Scientists recently published the results of a survey they conducted with employees of both the FDA and USDA. To evaluate how well the government uses science to protect the food supply, UCS, working with researchers at Iowa State University, sent a 44-question survey to nearly 8,000 food safety employees at the FDA and USDA, which together oversee our food system. More than 1,700 employees responded. “The results reveal a food safety system where special interests and public officials all too often inhibit the ability of government scientists and inspectors to protect the food supply,” states the report.
On the heals of the largest egg recall in history in which over a half a billion eggs were recalled from the nation’s 2nd and 3rd largest egg producers, a Humane Society investigator releases truly disturbing video footage from a 28-day undercover investigation at Cal-Maine’s Texas facility which houses over a million birds. Cal-Maine is the largest producer of eggs in the U.S.with 26 million birds under its control.
70% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on industrial farms in healthy food animals that are making us resistant to them, according to a recent article in Scientific American. Learn what the FDA is doing to address the growing problem of antibiotics and their adverse side effects in humans and in our environment.
60 major food recalls this year so far and one of the largest ever just last month with eggs. A tougher food safety bill is up for a vote in Congress. Tell your Senators to pass the food safety bill when they return after Labor Day, and to support an amendment that bans the chemical BPA in childrens’ food and drink containers.
