Scary

Let me first say that I am not attacking anyone or their food preferences, this is just my opinion.

As bad as the situation with the economy is and while that is scary to think about what is going to happen in the near future, this book actually opened my eyes to something that scares me even more.
This book has brought me closer to-
1- becoming a vegetarian
2- wanting to move to a small, rural farm where I can grow all my own food and if buying meat or poultry, know exactly where it comes from, what the animals were fed, how they were treated and slaughtered
3-never eat out again (fast food that is)
4- being even more skeptical of big business and ethics
etc, etc, etc,

I mean it is really scary. Maybe you are like my dear husband, who doesn't think it matters and you can't really worry about all this stuff, but it matters to me.

Small rural towns that used to support small farmers are being turned into slums. How does it happen you ask? "IBP was a trailblazer in recruiting migrant labor. The company was among the first to recognize that recent immigrants would work for lower wages then American citizens and would be more reluctant to join unions." This company actually recruits in poor communities, hires buses to import workers from across the border, and recruits refugees and asylum-seekers. "Poor workers without health insurance drive up local medical costs. Drug dealers prey on recent immigrants and the large, transient populations usually bring more crime. " These huge companies take their businesses to states where they get special tax breaks and they can do whatever they want.

Basically the workers at meatpacking plants get no benefits, no vacation, work in dangerous conditions, not to mention utterly digusting surroundings, and when they are injured the doctors lie to them and send them back to work or they get fired. I mean that is no way to treat humans. What is even more disturbing is they way the animals are treated. It literally makes me sick, not to mention the digusting way that they animals are fed, given hormones, etc. I could go on for hours, but you probably don't care, and that is fine. But an interesting point is that we feed cows all this grain and ground up animal remains, when there are so many humans in the world that are starving. A cow is meant to eat grass, not other dead animals. "They're designed to eat grass, and maybe, grain, I mean they have four stomachs for a reason- to eat products that have a high cellulose content. They are not designed to eat other animals."- Steven P. Bjerklie- former editor of the trade journal Meat & Poultry

"For years some of the most questionable ground beef in the United States was purchased by the USDA- and then distributed to school cafeterias throughout the country. THe USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements. The cheapest ground beef was not only the most likely to contain pieces of spinal cord, bone, and gristle left behind by Automated Meat Recovery Systems ( contraptions that squeeze the last shreds of meat off bones)," but also the most likely to be made from sick animals, etc

"Anyone who brings raw ground beef into his or her kitchen today must regard it as a potential biohazard, one that may carry as extremely dangerous microbe, infectious at an extremely low dose. The current high levels of ground beef contamination, combined with the even higher levels of poultry contamination, have led to some bizarre findings. A microbiologist at the University of Arizona discovered far more fecal bacteria on the average American kitchen sink than on the average American toilet seat. "You'd be better off eating a carrot stick that fell in your toilet than one that fell in your sink"- Charles Gerba"

There is so much more that I could say about this book and food safety, health, and etc, but I try to keep this a family oriented blog without too much ranting and raving from me.

The more I think about it, the more I think that maybe people 100 years ago really did have a better way of life. The family worked together for everything that they had. No electronics or distractions, just hard work and the self-worth and satisfaction that comes along with it. Sure they didn't have the medical knowledge and technology we have now, but they also didn't have half the health problems we have now due to our horrible diets, processed foods, lack of physical activity etc.

I ran into someone today who saw me holding this book and they said "Don't you ever read anything that doesn't make you think?" Occasionally yes, but lately, not so much. Well, there was Twilight, but don't even get me started on that.

So there is my tangent for the day. I completely understand if you don't care or comment, this is just what I am thinking today.