The Red Meat Scare: An In Depth Look At The Crisis In Our Food Supply
March 25th 2009 07:32
“All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
~ Mahatma Gandhi
In an age of uncertainty in the things that are beyond our control it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing we understand all the dangers that stare us in the face. While the evening news is content on playing with the fears of comfort, security and prosperity in the midst of a financial crisis it’s also important for us to look inward on the issues not being discussed in every day conversation.
Problems with the humanity of a people that is content with the consuming and control of the precious natural resources that spawned the sprawl of a society. Resources that go beyond renewable resources like air and water but delves into the mutation and scientific reconstruction of living and breathing creatures to make our lives more convenient. Conveniences that spawned terms like “The extra value meal” and filling our stomachs for less than five dollars.
The Fast Food industry is an easy target for this conversation but our problems with the food supply goes well beyond over a billion being served or a triple layered thick burger stocked full of growth hormones and fecal matter.
The target of this conversation should lay squarely on the culture that has been bread in the meat section of our super markets, the kitchens of the chain & fine dining restaurants as well as the ultimate decision for us to keep supporting the dynasties where the root of the problem exists.
The dynasties that would rather focus on bottom lines rather than the health and well being of their common man are the core reason for the rash of health problems and should not be misconstrued as a plague of over consumption.
Is it any coincidence that the most abused and over produced commodity in red meat is the public whipping child for heart disease, colon & breast cancer?
Did we as a society suddenly choose to over indulge in this commodity because of over abundance or is there a problem with the meat?
What’s changed in the decades of progress is transference from a society that relied on local production of food into a society that mixed food production with aspects of capitalism.
In its raw definition there is nothing wrong with a culture progressing past agricultural roots to promote technology and allow her people to do bigger and better things than to worry about where there next meal is coming from.
The problem isn’t with society progressing but rather when the ability to make food a commodity of mass production also fell into the pitfalls of thoughts into profit margins, dividends, supply and demand.
Making quality food was put on the back burner as efforts were put in place to make the animals bigger, leaner and tenderer. The conclusion was to pump each animal full of steroids and growth hormones to get more production from each animal and feed more people per slaughtered product.
When you look at the dynamic of this corporate decision and bundle it with the rise of cancer and our children reaching maturity at earlier year’s decade after decade one can’t help but put two and two together.
I have never been one to hold back scientific progress or to look at ways of shaking my fist at innovation but this situation is out of control. At this point of open understanding in society where everyone has the right to openly challenge government to find new ways of protecting us from corporate tyranny it absolutely amazes me how we can just say “oh well” and go about our daily lives supporting the system.
If you truly think about it the one’s making the most profit in a system like this are the companies who stream line their supply and demand. Feeding more people per animal will raise a higher profit for the company lowering the price on the back end to the fast food chain restaurant, consumer at the grocery store and will win a company a bid for a government contract. Government contracts that go into school lunch programs, feed our soldiers and the poor in soup kitchens across the nation.
The term “stream lining” goes well beyond the simple genetic breeding of the animal into a super beast but also into how the meat is handled from the farm, to the slaughterhouse and ultimately to your dinner plate.
In a time of economic crisis I understand that most of you will not even so much as flinch or will bury your head in the sand at the thought of animals living their lives out in cages in a system of slavery or living a life of nothing more than herding in kennels to live and die on special diets to keep them strong for the dinner plate.
The ultimate problem for me comes with the creation of a system to slaughter farm animals based on expediency rather than doing the job right. Expediency to kill the animal cut it up transport it to the store, restaurant or cafeteria as quickly as possible regardless of any safety standards to prevent fluids from the fecal area from spreading to the rest of the meat.
For those that want to reduce the animal rights issue into arguments of meat eaters against the rest of the world as archaic in thought I challenge you to compare the safety standards of the meat industry against that of the trained hunter who puts the time and care into respecting the animal he hunts and using all it’s parts for the benefit of feeding himself and his family.
It’s become to easy to separate the process of how our food gets to our dinner plates from the juicy steak thrown on the grill. The flashy commercials, glitz and glamour have made this a back parlor issue associated with radicals at animal testing clinics and red paint being thrown on those who wear fur.
This issue is too important for the future of the human race for us to confuse what’s happening with our food supply with a radical movement.
Animal Rights, Illegal Immigration, Salmonella Poisoning, Steroids, Growth Hormones, Money, Greed and man reaping what he sews are just a few of the things surrounding this all important issue and it affects each and every person reading this no matter the nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or creed.
In Old Testament religions we were given early warning signs of the things to come if we let the production of our food supply run amuck. The Jewish religion implemented kosher practices for their meat as a way to advance their society and prevent greed from ever polluting the supply.
As we sweep the problem under the rug after every outbreak and try to ignore what happened I’m beginning to think that maybe we need that doomsday scenario for us to wake up as a society.
I have a feeling that day is coming as we continue to ignore the slow changes and much like the impact our environment will have on our lives through a reaction to our own ignorance the very thing that nourishes us and supports our lives will also backlash if we don’t change our way of doing things.
Links, Sources & Other Reading:
Breast Cancer Risk Linked To Red Meat
How Eating Meat Can Spur Cancer Progression
How Eating Lots of Red Meat Can Raise Mortality Risk
Eating Red Meat Linked to Colon Cancer
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