By Howard Lyman Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty(40) Billion pounds of dead animals a year in the U.S. In addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets -the six or seven Million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. When the gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked together, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top is used for Cosmetics, Lubricants, Soaps, Candles, and Waxes.

The heavier protein material including a quarter of which consists of fecal material is dried into powder. The powder is used as an additive to almost ALL Pet food as well as to Livestock feed. Farmers call it "protein concentrates." If you are a Meat eater, it is the food of your food . The Plain Truth From The Cattlerancher Who Won't Eat Meat By Howard Lyman with Glen Merzer I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer and cattle rancher. I grew up on a dairy farm in Montana, & I ran a feedlot operation there for 20 years. I know firsthand how cattle are raised and how meat is produced in this country. Today I am president of the International Vegetarian Union.

Sure, I used to enjoy my steaks as much as the next guy. But if you knew what I know about what goes into them and what they can do to you, you'd probably be a vegetarian like me. And believe it or not, as a pure vegetarian now who consumes no animal products at all, I can tell you that these days I enjoy eating more than ever. If you're a meat-eater in America, you have a right to know that you have something in common with most of the cows you've eaten. They've eaten meat, too.

When a cow is slaughtered, about half of it by weight is not eaten by humans: the intestines and their contents, the head, hooves, and horns, as well as bones and blood. These are dumped into giant grinders at rendering plants, as are the entire bodies of cows and other farm animals known to be diseased. Rendering is a $2.4 billion-a-year industry, processing forty billion pounds of dead animals a year. There is simply no such thing in America as an animal too ravaged by disease, too cancerous, or too putrid to be welcomed by the embracing arms of the renderer.

Another staple of the renderer's diet, in addition to farm animals, is euthanized pets-the six or seven million dogs and cats that are killed in animal shelters every year. The city of Los Angeles alone, for example, sends some two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a rendering plant every month. Added to the blend are the euthanized catch of animal control agencies, and roadkill. (Roadkill is not collected daily, and in the summer, the better roadkill collection crews can generally smell it before they can see it.)

When the gruesome mix is ground and steam-cooked, the lighter, fatty material floating to the top gets refined for use in such products as cosmetics, lubricants, soaps, candles, and waxes. The heavier protein material is dried and pulverized into a brown powder-about a quarter of which consists of fecal material. The powder is used as an additive to almost ALL pet food as well as to livestock feed. Farmers call it "protein concentrates." In 1995, five million tons of processed slaughterhouse leftovers were sold for animal feed in the United States. I used to feed tons of the stuff to my own livestock. It never concerned me that I was feeding cattle to cattle.

In August 1997, in response to growing concern about the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (or Mad Cow disease), the FDA issued a new regulation that bans the feeding of ruminant protein (protein from cud-chewing animals) to ruminants; therefore, to the extent that the regulation is actually enforced, cattle are no longer quite the cannibals that we had made them into. They are no longer eating solid parts of other cattle, or sheep, or goats.

They still munch, however, on ground-up dead horses, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as blood and fecal matter of their own species and that of chickens. About 75 percent of the ninety million beef cattle in America are routinely given feed that has been "enriched" with rendered animal parts. The use of animal excrement in feed is common as well, as livestock operators have found it to be an efficient way of disposing of a portion of the 1.6 million tons of livestock wastes generated annually by their industry.

In Arkansas, for example, the average farm feeds over fifty tons of chicken litter to cattle every year. One Arkansas cattle farmer was quoted in U.S. News & World Report as having recently purchased 745 tons of litter collected from the floors of local chicken-raising operations. After mixing it with small amounts of soybean bran, he then feeds it to his eight hundred head of cattle, making them, in his words, "FAT AS BUTTERBALLS." He explained, "If I didn't have chicken litter, I'd have to sell half my heard. Other feeds are too expensive." If you are a meat-eater, understand that this is the food of your food.

We don't know all there is to know about the extent to which the consumption of diseased or unhealthy animals causes diseases in humans, but we do know that some diseases-rabies, for example-are transmitted from the host animal to humans. We know that the common food poisonings brought on by such organisms as the prevalent E. Coli bacteria, which results from fecal contamination of food, causes the death of nine thousand Americans a year and that about 80 percent of food poisonings come from tainted meat. And now we can also be virtually certain, from the tragedy that has already afflicted Britain, that Mad Cow disease can "jump species" and give rise to a new variant of the always fatal, brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

For all too many humans, the first decision they consciously make about their health is the stark one between by-pass surgery and angioplasty, or between chemotherapy and radiation. In reality, however, we knowingly make choices every day that can either lead us toward these grim options, or else toward happier ones. We do so, of course, every time we decide what fuel to put in our bodies.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

Answers

Mad Cow Measures Fail To Cover Meat Pies And Hamburgers By Elizabeth Piper http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001219/hl/ madcow_food_1.html 12-20-00

LONDON (Reuters) - Shops in Britain may still be selling pies and burgers made from meat tainted by mad cow disease due to loopholes in measures aimed at keeping BSE out of the food chain, a government adviser said on Tuesday. Harriet Kimbell, a member of the government's advisory committee on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), said restrictions fell short of halting all imports of meat from older cattle, which are more likely to have the brain disease.

``There could be processed meat over 30 months old in this country being sold quite legally. Yes, I think it's highly likely don't you?'' Kimbell told a news conference. ``There is a legal loophole...It is illegal to import fresh meat over 30 months, but it is not illegal for an English manufacturer to drive his own lorry to...Europe and buy fresh meat (over 30 months) and make it into meat products.'' She said it was also not illegal to import pies or processed foods made with meat over 30 months old from countries with BSE. ``It is an anomaly. If we think there shouldn't be meat eaten over 30 months old then I think there shouldn't be meat in pies over 30 months old...And that includes frozen beefburgers.''MERRY-GO- ROUND Kimbell said the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee had voiced their concerns over the restrictions but it was up to Britain's food watchdog to rethink measures to halt what could become a merry-go-round of infected beef sales.

BSE has spread across Europe since the first UK herd was found with the disease in 1986 and then linked to its human form, new variant Creuztfeldt Jakob disease, 10 years later. Consumer panic was sparked elsewhere in Europe after French supermarkets said in October they may have unwittingly sold contaminated beef. Then Germany, Spain and other countries reported cases of BSE.

Britain imported 726 tonnes of frozen beef on the bone from France from September of last year until August, and a further 1,318 tonnes of frozen beef. Imports of fresh meat of both types stood at 679 tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry said. Those imports may also contain meat from cattle under 30 months old that could carry the disease without showing clinical symptoms, scientists have said. Committee members said they had to put up with unsophisticated tests and a lack of knowledge of the disease for the time being until more money was made available for research. ``Clearly the backbone of the controls in this country is ensuring that animals over 30 months old do not get into this country,'' Chris Bostock, acting chair of the committee, said.

``We have to rely on current validated tests which have only been validated on clinically affected animals...but it is not in the remit of SEAC to change these things.''

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

Well Putret, You'd better stop eating vegetables too. Many of your vegetables are grown with livestock manure as fertilizer.

The CDC reports that E. coli infections can be gotten from lettuce, cole slaw, cantalope, sprouts, unpasteurized apple juice, and water. Raw cattle manure is often used to fertilize crops. The E. coli can live in the manure for over two months. Many of those fresh vegetables we enjoy in Winter come from south America where irrigation is done with abacteria-contaminated water.

Vegetable fields grown without manure may be close to fields that do. The wind can blow bacteria-contaminated dust to those vegetables too. The safest thing to do with vegetables and fruits is to wash with a disinfectant solution such as a 1-to-10 bleach solution.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

And might as well forget vitamin capsules as well. The gelatin capsules are also made directly from your pet soup (flea collars and all) at the rendering plants.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000

The compounds (the elements surely) in your body didn't arise de novo when they were put into you, many have probably been recycled through the food chain in various guises innumerably. So what?

My big concern would be if anyone showed that diseases were spread through the process, otherwise the rendering plant is just a practical extension of nature.

A part of the "great circle of life", and happy to be here,

Frank

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2000