Animal-pharma: What's in My Meat?

I came upon this article and thought you would be interested. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/07/these-drugs-are-in-us-meat-but-not-on-the-label/ While it contains eye-opening information regarding drugs found within modern farmed meats, it misses a few opportunities for greater impact. While I encourage you to read the full article, I will cover key points and include helpful observations. 

There exist two types of farming; one is traditional farming as my Amish farmer practices. This is what most people imagine when they envision farm animals such as cows and chickens and goats on pasture in nature eating from a buffet of natural growing grasses, insects, seeds, etc. These small, typically family-run farms are rare and unfortunately, getter rarer.

The other form of farming is the “factory farm” or CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation). CAFOs supply well over 90% of the meat consumed in the U.S. CAFOs more resemble a factory than a farm. When it comes to raising chickens, except for the sign by the road you may never know what is held within the farm buildings. What lies within can be thousands of chickens per building at any given time. Other than signage, the only other clues would be the stench and the large industrial circulating fans running 24/7.

Part of the problem with CAFOs is the crowding of animals resulting in the deaths of millions of animals and poultry each year. Beyond being trampled to death, disease runs rampant within such a confined environment. To minimize the death and really the loss of revenue, a new industry worth billions of dollars has been created. 

It’s called “Animal-Pharma,” where we treat unhealthy animals with drugs. Rather than question why poor health is present in the first place (poor environment and inappropriate diet), the FDA, USDA and CAFOs follow the same general mentality as the allopathic medical system: treat the symptoms not the cause and rake in the cash. And there is a lot of money at play. The estimated animal-vaccine global market is estimated to be worth $7.2 billion in 2020.

The result is that Merck markets 49 vaccines for poultry alone. It also markets 25 vaccines for cattle diseases along with a full vaccine schedule for pigs. They even have vaccines for use in aquaculture.

Why this big push for vaccines? It's simple: antibiotics have stopped working. From overuse, the most common pathogens have developed resistance and are considered “superbugs”. I am sure you have heard about them invading a hospital near you. Pharma is pushing the vaccines as a replacement. 

There are benefits for encouraging vaccine usage, but it is more market driven than a concern for the welfare of the animals or the consumer. By vaccinating rather than using antibiotics, meat producers can now use “no antibiotics” on their packaging and in marketing. 

But just because you may read “no antibiotics” it may not mean what you think it does, especially in regards to chicken. There is a new method of antibiotic use where they inject the antibiotics “in-ovo”—that is, directly into the egg. If the antibiotics are given in-ovo, you can say that the chickens, from the eggs, are “antibiotic-free” because the chicken is not a chicken, legally speaking, until it hatches. Crazy, right? But if you understand their logic, the laws, regulations and rules start making a strange kind of sense, from a financial perspective. While I may not agree with it, and neither may you, it doesn’t matter because if it is legal, it is okay.

Another issue, is the heavy use of synthetic growth hormones within CAFOs. This is a problem for maximizing profit because Europe has banned most of the hormones so there is much less demand for exporting to Europe and similar-minded parts of the world. This is why you hear of increasing meat exports from the US being heavily touted in trade deals.

Many clients upon having travelled to Europe will come back and rave about the food, about how different it is. They may not understand why they like it so much or why their body felt better. But now you know at least some of the reasons: cleaner and healthier meat.

When we discuss growth hormones, animal-pharma has drugs which can alter hormone levels of testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and even growth hormones in the animals to allow them to grow faster so they can be turned around and processed and repackaged quicker.  The quicker the turnaround, the more profit to be made. 

The real health problem is that these altered levels of hormones are present in the meat that we consume. What are the ramifications of consuming such products over the course of a lifetime? What about children and adolescents that are hyper-sensitive to hormone imbalances? Is it a coincidence that the highest rates of breast cancer are observed in North America where hormone-treated meat consumption is highest? I don’t have the answer, but I know that altered hormone levels are a significant causal factor behind many diagnosable diseases and certain forms of cancer, breast cancer being one of them.

Most people don’t realize the life that farm animals lead. For the vast majority, it is not pleasant and in fact is incredibly unhealthy. While I knew about the use of antibiotics and to a degree vaccines, I did not realize the full extent. 

While some individuals would take the treatment of factory farmed animals (CAFOs) and present that as a reason to go vegan, I offer a less extreme option. I offer you to find yourself a real local farmer that raises animals the way nature intended. 

That is what I did and have been eating this way for well over a decade. I have an Amish farmer that provides incredibly healthy, nourishing animal products at very fair prices. Actually, it is darn cheap if you consider the price of cancer or many other chronic degenerative diseases versus supporting your health with real food. 

Here are my closing thoughts and key points.

• You can’t build health from unhealthy food. Animal products can’t be healthy unless they are raised the way nature intended. CAFOs go against nature, and the animal-pharma industry is a faulty solution for an inherently dysfunctional method of farming.

• Consider the outcome if you crammed a few thousand humans in a confined space with very little if any room to move around and were fed a diet entirely inappropriate for their metabolism. What do you think the outcome would be? Of course, disease, suffering and epidemics if left unaddressed. The unhealthy state is not from a lack of vaccines and antibiotics in their diet. 

• If you are interested in acquiring real farm food for yourself and family, you have options: If you live in or near Phoenixville, PA contact me and I can show you how you can join a “buyer’s club” and purchase food from my source. Or, you can visit www.localharvest.org or www.eatwild.com to find a real farmer near you.

• You may have a farmer’s market near you. But how do you tell if what they sell is truly real food? Here is a link to a very helpful guide that addresses that concern: https://www.cornucopia.org/research/farmers-market-guide/ . Here is a tip: real farmers are proud of what they do and the product they offer. Real farmers will gladly discuss farming and if you ask nicely, there is a great chance to be invited for a visit. 

Everyone should know where their food comes from. After all, the food you eat supplies the nutrition which drives cellular function and in turn your current state of health. If you don’t like your current health situation, eating food appropriate for your metabolism is the biggest and most impactful lifestyle change you could make.

What I covered in this article scratches the surface of the food industry in this country. If there is interest, I will write more on the topic, so I appreciate any feedback. Giving it some thought. The next step would be to help explain just what the marketing terms mean that are located on the farm products you purchase. 

While words are important, the definitions or meanings of those words are even more important. Vote with your dollars. Find yourself a real farmer, support them and your health, and spread the word to family and friends.