topic Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics in Community Chat

💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

newziesuzie — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:25:10 GMT

I saw this on my Consumer Reports

email news letter and thought it might

be interesting to share. It's too long

to copy / paste here and too much

to summarize:

ARTICLE: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/perdue-antibiotic-free-chicken-meat-resistance?EXTKEY=NG0S01606&utm_source=acxiom&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160616_nsltr_greenerchoices

"An investigative article on the use of antibiotics in poultry farming"

"How Factory Farms Play Chicken With Antibiotics

And the inside story of one company confronting its role in

creating dangerous superbugs."

From the article:

"......Currently, livestock operations burn through about 70 percent of the "medically important" antibiotics used in the nation—the ones people need when an infection strikes.

Microbes that have evolved to withstand antibiotics now sicken 2 million Americans each year and kill 23,000 others—more than homicide.

Even though public health authorities from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long pointed to the meat industry's reliance on antibiotics as a major culprit in human resistance to the drugs, the FDA has never reined in their use......"

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

software — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:33:48 GMT

One of the reasons antibiotics are needed is because the birds are packed in the chicken houses like sardines.

Free range is healthier.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

bri20 — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:35:45 GMT

I only buy antibiotic free chicken. My butcher carries it

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

hckynut — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:38:25 GMT

I have not eaten fowl/meat or fish since the mid 1970' s.

hckynut(john)

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

newziesuzie — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:52:23 GMT

This part surprised me:

".....And the worst part is that antibiotic use in factory farms isn't mostly a matter of keeping animals healthy.

In 1950, a pharmaceutical company called American Cyanamid—now part of Pfizer—wanted to see if giving chickens vitamin B-12 made them fatter, so it ran some experiments.

The idea seemed to work.

But the researchers soon discovered

it wasn't the vitamin that had fattened

the birds; it was traces of an antibiotic

called aureomycin.

(B-12 can be a byproduct of aureomycin production; the vitamin researchers used had come from making the antibiotic.)

This discovery revolutionized meat production.

Adding a dash of antibiotics to feed and water rations magically made birds, pigs, and cows grow plumper, saving on feed costs and slashing the time it took to get animals to slaughter.

In 1977, the General Accounting Office reported that "the use of antibiotics in animal feeds increased approximately sixfold" between 1960 and 1970. "Almost 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys, about 90 percent of the swine and veal calves, and about 60 percent of the cattle raised in the United States during 1970 received antibiotics in their feed......."

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

bebe777 — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 20:59:32 GMT

@newziesuzie, thanks so much for sharing this because it's so important.

Factory farming is essentially threatening the long term efficacy of essential antibiotics that are needed to quite literally save lives. -- It just amazes me that the FDA is playing so fast and loose with quite literally our health.

And yes, I realize that with all the Washington politics... that it's far more complicated than just placing the blame with the FDA... there are many players behind these decisions.

I started eating organic about ten years ago, and added "grass raised" animals to my requirements about seven years ago. -- Over the decades, I've sometimes gone the vegetarian route but eventually realized that my body did better with some meat in my diet. -- I purchase my meat locally from greenfarm markets.

-- bebe

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

chrystaltree — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:45:00 GMT

Nothing new about that, they've been saying that for many years now and nothing has changed.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

allaries — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:48:30 GMT

Hckynut, have you seen the documentary, Food Inc.? That did it for me and I will not ear those things u mentioned either.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

allaries — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:49:27 GMT

I meant eat!

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

newziesuzie — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:09:57 GMT

@chrystaltree wrote:
Nothing new about that, they've been saying that for many years now and nothing has changed.

If you read the article

youll see yes there are new things

being done which is why

I posted the article @chrystaltree.

😊

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

Plaid Pants2 — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 21:55:58 GMT

When I was little, my family had truly free-range chickens. By that, I mean, they were allowed outside of the coop, to eat all the bugs that they wanted. Of course, we also had chicken feed for them.

Their eggs were so delicious!

The yolks were a deep, dark orange, and not the pale yellow that you find in super market eggs.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

chrystaltree — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:10:03 GMT

@newziesuzie wrote:
@chrystaltree wrote:
Nothing new about that, they've been saying that for many years now and nothing has changed.

Yes if you read the article
youll see there are new things
being done which is why
I posted the article @chrystaltree.
😊

That's what I get for not reading the article. But, truthfully, it was too long to read.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

Irshgrl31201 — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:22:43 GMT

This is exactly why we get all of our meat from private farmers around here. We get our chickens and eggs from a great little farm. They walk around outside (or inside if they prefer) and have plenty of room. I can't eat eggs from a grocery store anymore, they taste weird to me. The chickens I get aren't huge either. They aren't "Chernobyl Chickens" as I call them. Chicken breasts aren't supposed to be so big that you have to cut them in half. We get our pork and beef from separate local farmers too. They all encourage you to walk around and see where and how they live. They are more expensive. Yes, they definitely are. When I was younger, I could not have afforded to get our meats from places like this so we ate supermarket meat. Now I am older and can afford this so I definitely take advantage of it and I think that the more people that do, other food manufacturers will take notice and maybe change some of these procedures. You are even seeing it now as many want you to know they have stopped using antibiotics and other stuff. I am already seeing a difference because for so long how our food was produced and its living conditions were so secretive. Now they are coming to light.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

newziesuzie — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:37:41 GMT

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

Lucky Charm — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:43:22 GMT

@allaries wrote:
Hckynut, have you seen the documentary, Food Inc.? That did it for me and I will not ear those things u mentioned either.

I stopped eating meat back when the Nightly News showed cows toppling over from Mad Cow disease.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

Irshgrl31201 — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:50:07 GMT

@Plaid Pants2 wrote:
When I was little, my family had truly free-range chickens. By that, I mean, they were allowed outside of the coop, to eat all the bugs that they wanted. Of course, we also had chicken feed for them.

Their eggs were so delicious!

The yolks were a deep, dark orange, and not the pale yellow that you find in super market eggs.

Yes, the term free range according to chicken manufacturers doesn't mean what we think it means. When that term is used people think they are able to walk around outside and it doesn't necessarily mean that at all. People need to look for the term "pastured" to find more of what they had in mind when the term "free range" is used.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

silkyk — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 14:14:37 GMT

@newziesuzie wrote:

I saw this on my Consumer Reports
email news letter and thought it might
be interesting to share. It's too long
to copy / paste here and too much
to summarize:

ARTICLE: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/perdue-antibiotic-free-chicken-meat-resistance?EXTKEY=NG0S01606&utm_source=acxiom&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160616_nsltr_greenerchoices

::
::

"An investigative article on the use of antibiotics in poultry farming"

"How Factory Farms Play Chicken With Antibiotics

And the inside story of one company confronting its role in
creating dangerous superbugs."

From the article:

"......Currently, livestock operations burn through about 70 percent of the "medically important" antibiotics used in the nation—the ones people need when an infection strikes.

Microbes that have evolved to withstand antibiotics now sicken 2 million Americans each year and kill 23,000 others—more than homicide.

Even though public health authorities from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long pointed to the meat industry's reliance on antibiotics as a major culprit in human resistance to the drugs, the FDA has never reined in their use......"

This is why we have our own chickens...and they lay pretty "easter" colored eggs. They taste sooooooooooooo much better! Love my hens!

This is what their eggs look like.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

Marcail0825 — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 16:44:22 GMT

I've been reading about Perdue Farms. They're clearly leading the way. Kudos to them! Interesting thread and article @newziesuzie.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

stazgirl — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:17:48 GMT

BEAUTIFUL colors!!! I never knew chickens layed blue eggs.

Re: 💊🐔💉How Factory Farms Play Chicken W/Antibiotics

silkyk — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 14:57:52 GMT

@stazgirl wrote:
BEAUTIFUL colors!!! I never knew chickens layed blue eggs.

The chickens are called "Easter Eggers" and they do lay pink, green,aqua and blue eggs. Easter Eggers vary widely in color and conformation, and are exceptionally friendly and hardy. Since they are usually quite friendly to children and humans in general, they are a great choice for a family flock. We've had lots of chickens but these are my favorite ladies. Everyday when I gather the eggs I never know what i'm gonna get.