Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Food choices are slim pickings
USDA Approves Horse Slaughterhouse
from http://www.naturalnews.com Tuesday, July 2, 2013 (NaturalNews)
The next burger you bite into might be a horsemeat
burger, thanks to the U.S. government approving horse slaughterhouses to
produce meat for human consumption. Valley Meat Co in Roswell, New
Mexico, is being green-lighted by the USDA, which will routinely send
inspectors to make sure it is slaughtering horses and processing horse
meat in a “clean” way.
Additional horse meat plants are expected to be approved by the USDA
in Missouri and Iowa. While horse meat can’t legally be sold in the USA
for human consumption, it can be used in pet food. It may also turn up
in the U.S. food supply despite its legal status because it can be sold
to Mexico for human consumption, then re-labeled and shipped back into
the USA for use as a low-cost meat filler. Horse meat has already been
identified in a scandalous food operation in Europe, where meatballs
sold throughout European grocery stores were found to be made with horse meat.
Under the Obama administration, horse slaughterhouses became legal again
Horse meat slaughterhouses were banned during the Bush administration, but under President Obama, the ban expired (in 2011), allowing horse meat slaughterhouses to restart operations. Obama says he wants Congress to ban horse meat slaughterhouses in the USA, but then again, Obama says a lot of things he doesn’t actually intend to make a reality (closing of Guantanamo, labeling GMOs, making health care free, reducing the budget deficit, etc.).
The USDA says, “it was required by law to issue the grant of inspection because Valley Meat met all federal requirements,” reports Reuters, which also says that 130,000 horses are slaughtered each year in Canada and Mexico.
U.S. companies want a piece of that business, it seems, because horses can be acquired for virtually free.
Where horses really come from for meat productionHorse meat slaughterhouses were banned during the Bush administration, but under President Obama, the ban expired (in 2011), allowing horse meat slaughterhouses to restart operations. Obama says he wants Congress to ban horse meat slaughterhouses in the USA, but then again, Obama says a lot of things he doesn’t actually intend to make a reality (closing of Guantanamo, labeling GMOs, making health care free, reducing the budget deficit, etc.).
The USDA says, “it was required by law to issue the grant of inspection because Valley Meat met all federal requirements,” reports Reuters, which also says that 130,000 horses are slaughtered each year in Canada and Mexico.
U.S. companies want a piece of that business, it seems, because horses can be acquired for virtually free.
So here’s the scary part of this article for those who might be a little squeamish: Most of this horse meat comes from horse owners who decide to have their horses killed for a variety of reasons: illness, injury, or simply economic reasons such as not affording to keep them fed and cared for.
Instead of having the courage to give their own horse a dignified death — i.e. having the vet administer a lethal injection, saying a prayer and burying it on the land it enjoyed — many owners call the slaughterhouse to have the horse hauled away and subjected to a terrifying, gruesome death in a meat packing plant, surrounded by other screaming horses who are in the process of being murdered.
Horse slaughterhouses are therefore able to purchase these horses for a dollar amount that’s far below the actual cost to raise a horse. The horses are transported to the slaughterhouse facility (which is actually the largest cost of the entire thing due to fuel prices) and then their throats are slit to begin the “processing” of the meat.
Yep, Becky’s little pony that she grew up with as a teenage girl ends up bleeding out on the floor of a horse slaughterhouse in New Mexico. When expensive family pets are no longer needed, they’re just sold off for meat.
Keep that in mind if you’re considering buying a horse for your teen daughter or granddaughter. What will happen to that horse once your daughter loses interest in raising horses after discovering that raising a horse requires a tremendous amount of physical labor?
If you’re a horse owner, be a responsible one. Don’t let your horse get slaughtered for food. Because if you do, you not only cause your horse to experience a terrifying ending; you also may end up eating your horse the next time you whip up some spaghetti and meatballs. •
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Flashback: USDA ‘Doesn’t Know’ if You Are Eating Cloned Meat
Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
April 9, 2012
It may come as a surprise, but you may be consuming cloned meat on a regular basis. In fact, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (head of the USDA) says that he has no idea whether or not cloned meat has been sold inside the United States — or even how much. But instead of investigating or setting up parameters, the USDA asserts that it is safe in their view so there is no cause for alarm. It is currently forbidden by the agency itself for any producer to distribute or sell cloned meat.
The news came back in August of 2010, when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack went on record saying that he really doesn’t know whether or not cloned meat is being put on dinner tables nationwide. The announcement was made after the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency told consumers that meat from descendants of cloned animals had already entered the food supply. Of course the agency made the statements a year after the cloned products leaked into the food chain. Still, just like the USDA, the UK’s FSA stated that they believe cloned meat poses no risk, so citizens should not panic. The reason? They say that cloned meat has ‘ no substantial difference’ to traditional meat, and therefore it is safe.
The statements echo those of Monsanto, whose genetically modified creations have been linked to everything from organ damage to toxicity-induced cell death.
Here’s what Tom Vilsack’s response is to whether or not cloned meat is being sold in United States stores and subsequently being eaten by citizens:
“I can’t say today that I can answer your question in an affirmative or negative way. I don’t know. What I do know is that we know all the research, all of the review of this is suggested that this is safe,” Vilsack said to reporters.Conventional meat packing industries and suppliers often utilize disturbing growth techniques with zero regard for the welfare of the animals and thttp://www.infowars.com/wp-admin/post-new.phphe consumer. It is not to believe that cloned meat would slip into this chaotic process and be passed off as traditional meat. In order to avoid the threat of not only cloned meat but a copious amount of antibiotics (that you will soon be eating), you should search for high quality meat sources that utilize grass as a main feed source. The antibiotic problem is so pervasive, in fact, that a judge recently ordered the FDA to remove antibiotics from animal feed in order to halt the production of super viruses. •
This article first appeared at NaturalSociety, uncovering what’s really on your plate and in your environment.
This article was posted: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 10:51 am
# posted by Missygirl : 12:38 PM
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