Chickens are fed Arsenic and Prozac

[auroraglacialis]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/op...ml?_r=1&src=tp

It turns out that arsenic has routinely been fed to poultry (and sometimes hogs) because it reduces infections and makes flesh an appetizing shade of pink. There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them...

Happy eating...

The same study also found that one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac.

I guess, if I would be a chicken in China, I might want to get some Prozac as well to forget the arsenic in my food ...

[Fkeu'itan]

Awesome, another reason not to eat farmed meat.

[iron_jones]

Super chickens!

[Niri Te]

Why people who live a rural lifestyle in rural America raise their own meat. I eat hours old eggs EVERY DAY, bought from this nice Widow twelve miles down the road. She gets her pension check supplemented, by all of us buying her eggs, and we all enjoy organic, free range eggs.
Back in the sixties and seventies in the small towns in Bavaria, we could do the same thing, I don't know if such a thing is allowed any more over there, I left Germany for the last time in July of 1982.
The same thing in Samoa. There was this huge farmers market where most people bought their organic Vegetables and
fruits, as well as fresh, organic, chemical free meat, fowl, and fish. That is STILL going on in this planet's "Pandora", the Islands of the South Pacific.
Niri Te

[auroraglacialis]

AFAIK it still is possible to have chickens for oneself. I guess giving them away is also not a problem. I can imagine that selling them for money or on a larger scale may be different because at some point it is deemed commercial and usually at that point you have to fulfil a lot of regulations, registrations and other buerocratic nonsense. I dont know at what point this applies. For bees, it starts if one wants to sell honey, then one has to register and get a number as a beekeeper, which is unproblematic. But if one has more than I think 20 or 30 hives, one has to register as commercial beekeeper and then one has to deal with more buerocracy. So keep it small.

[Human No More]

Of course, it comes down to what it always does - quality standards in China are bad. Don't buy food from there. They have >1bn people, what do you think happens?

[Clarke]

There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them...

I wonder what happens if you tell people their chicken has arsenic in it if it doesn't really, and how this compares with arsenic unknowingly being there. I bet the result isn't the same.

[Cyvaris]

Originally Posted by Clarke

I wonder what happens if you tell people their chicken has arsenic in it if it doesn't really, and how this compares with arsenic unknowingly being there. I bet the result isn't the same.

Hey, hey none of that "logic" stuff here! I can TASTE arsenic!

[auroraglacialis]

Most of the samples were not from China but the US. And this is about two peer reviewed studies, one in a journal that we in our institute aspire to publish our studies in as well. Arsenic is one thing - but look at the article and on what other things are in there. Its not just Arsenic (in the US) and Prozac (in China) but also painkillers, antibiotics and much more. BTW, about 2/3 of the antibiotics produced are given to animals.

[Niri Te]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Most of the samples were not from China but the US. And this is about two peer reviewed studies, one in a journal that we in our institute aspire to publish our studies in as well. Arsenic is one thing - but look at the article and on what other things are in there. Its not just Arsenic (in the US) and Prozac (in China) but also painkillers, antibiotics and much more. BTW, about 2/3 of the antibiotics produced are given to animals.

And THIS is why there are now "Super bugs" that are IMMUNE to antibiotics.
Niri Te

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Niri Te

And THIS is why there are now "Super bugs" that are IMMUNE to antibiotics.
Niri Te

There are immunized bugs because evolution. They're pretty much inevitable once we started using antiobiotics, regardless of what we used them on.

[Human No More]

Yep. What causes them to survive isn't use, it's IMPROPER use. If a course is administered properly, none survive to gain partial resistance.

[Niri Te]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Yep. What causes them to survive isn't use, it's IMPROPER use. If a course is administered properly, none survive to gain partial resistance.

Thank you HNM, I was beginning to think that I was the only one that thought that way.
Niri Te

[auroraglacialis]

Yes - antibiotics are such a powerful tool but medics and industry are waisting it. It is like a sharp blade that gets blunt when it is used all too often. If you use it only when it is really needed, then it will last for a long time, but if you use it casually and without thinking every day on the slightest occasions, it will loose its edge soon and needs resharpening. With antibiotics sadly, the resharpening is not that easy and new antibiotics may be more harmful as older ones.
It totally makes sense to use them when a persons life or long term health is in peril, but to regularly feed them to animals as part of their diet or even to give them to people just because they may feel a little sick should not be a regular occurence.