Oprah: "20 burgers you must eat before you die"

[Lorien]

when she presents this topic (which was taken from a GQ article) the audience screams as if George Clooney had just walked on stage. Disgusting. I guess her beef ban is off.

She and the rest of America would do well to familiarize themselves with these fact sheets:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/reports/beyond.html

[Robeson]

1. My wife and I had burgers tonight......

...hers was a Boca, and mine was Morning Star. We seasoned them, put mushrooms and soy cheese on them, and guess what...they were awesome!

Gee, I'd hate for Americans to here about how good alternatives can be....:sarcasm:

[mzteris]

2. I recently had a new

mushroom burger - I *think* it was Morningstar - it was absolutely GREAT!

[Robeson]

3. Cool! I saw those. I'll try some....

...sounds yummy!...:9

[friesianrider]

4. Have you had the Morningstar Black Bean burgers?

Chili's restaurants have an AWESOME black bean burger and I saw Morningstar had some black bean burgers when I went to the store yesterday. I picked some up but haven't cooked them yet - have you tried these yet?

I also love Morningstar's Parmesan Ranch chik'n patties. They're yummy!

[Robeson]

5. Yes, I've had them at Chili's! They are great there....

...I haven't had the ones sold in stores. I'll try and see if they're the same! I love going to Chili's and getting them. The chips and salsa are pretty good, too! Dang, I want to go to Chili's now...:9

[Codeine]

12. Saltiest fries ever.

But still darned tasty!

[RebelOne]

7. I have had the Morningstar black bean burgers

and I really didn't care for them.

[blonndee]

8. I've had the Morningstar spicy black bean burgers--they're incredible!

If you like black beans, you will LOVE these burgers. They're my favorite out of all the alternatives.

[Lorien]

9. No love here

they're tolerable as a quick meal, as are Amy's burgers. I've rarely been as sick as I was after eating Boca and Gardenburgers;I must have a sensitivity to one of the ingredients.The only meat substitutes I eat are Quorn products.

The Oprah show WAS NOT about veggie burgers; it was about beef. I provided a link to some fact sheets about beef and it's impact on health, the poor, and the environment-but I guess that either everyone already has these facts sheets or they just don't care about reasons not to eat meat aside from the obvious inhumane treatment of animals. That's a shame, since wild animals are also suffering from humanity's meat consumption and animal rights alone won't convince other so called "progressives" to give up beef.

[SteveM]

23. When next in Austin, try Bouldin Creek Cafe's "Veggie Royale"...

I am an omnivore, but this "buger" is vegetarian (as are all of Bouldin's dishes) and is quite popular. The cost? About like any other meat-burger. Excellent, funky coffee house that has been going 10 years, and is due to move to bigger quarters this year.

I have not purchased meat at a grocery store for many months, but instead substitute deer and other game for beef (I have taken two whitetails this year). A lot of folks who do not wish to "partake" in the inhumane treatment of beef cattle, or put up with the harmones & antibiotics, can do the same. Wild game lives off the land and thereby does not place a significant demand on feed products and contribute to environmental degradation, except where over-population occurs.

I have misgivings about the routine consumption of vegetables/fruits as these usually come from large farms where an ecosystem of MANY wild animals once existed. Further, the transport and processing of these foods (like most all foods) takes a lot of fuel. So, I buy locally when possible.

We kill for food in 3 ways: (1) directly, like hunting; (2) by agent, when we buy meat in a store; (3) by abstraction, agriculture/herding where ecosystems are destroyed.

Sometimes much of what passes for "animal rights" is guilt-driven and sentimental objection to only certain forms of killing. What I like about Bouldin Creek Cafe is the tolerant atmosphere. Folks there know I hunt (the kitchen staff on occasion requests some deer meat from me for personal consumption only), and I know there are militant animal rightists there. But most of us realize that lessening harm is a better approach to absolutism. The very existence of places like Bouldin do more good than any parade of naked ladies.

[EndersDame]

24. Bouldin Creek is my favorite Hang out!

My favorite dish there is the 1/2 slacker (with the works) and side salad with vegan cornbread)

[SteveM]

25. Yoouu got it! I get those all the time, or in the alternative...

a full-size slacker with a sunny-side egg on top (I think I started a trend when I custom-ordered that). The relatively new chickpea "chicken" salad sandwich is excellent as well. With the kettle chips, it hearkens back to the old lunch counter days.

[EndersDame]

26. I will have to try that!

I love the all the people there and the atmosphere . My puppy likes to go there as well!

[SteveM]

27. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to keep Mesa the cat warm. Rough night coming. nt

[Lorien]

6. OK, lovefest for veggie burgers aside, here's part of one of the

fact sheets at the link:

FACT SHEET: GLOBAL HUNGER AND POVERTY
THE REAL COSTS OF BEEF:
GLOBAL HUNGER AND
POVERTY

Beef production causes human hunger and poverty by diverting grain and cropland to support livestock instead of people. In developing countries, beef production perpetuates and intensifies poverty and injustice, particularly if beef or livestock feed is produced for export.

* Seventy percent of all U.S. grain -- and one third of the world's total grain harvest -- is fed to cattle and other livestock. At the same time, between 40 and 60 million people die each year from hunger and diseases related to hunger. As many as one billion suffer from chronic hunger and malnourishment.1
* U.S. livestock -- mostly cattle -- consumes almost twice as much grain as is eaten by the entire American population. Globally, about 600 million tons of grain are fed to livestock, much of it to cattle.2
* Two-thirds of all U.S. grain exports foes to feed cattle and other livestock rather than hungry people.3
* In Africa, nearly one in three people is undernourished. In Latin America, nearly one out of every seven people goes to bed hungry each night. In Asia and the Pacific, 22 percent of the people live at the edge of starvation. In the Near East, one in nine is underfed.4
* Chronic hunger and related disease affect more than 1.3 billion people, according to the World Health Organization. Never before in human history has such a large percentage of our species -- more than 20 percent -- been undernourished.5
* Undernutrition affects nearly 40 percent of all children in developing nations and contributes directly to an estimated 60 percent of all childhood deaths, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. More than 15 million children die every year from diseases resulting from, or complicated by, undernourishment.6
* If worldwide agricultural production were shifted fron? livestock feed to food grains for direct human consumption, more than a billion people could be fed -- the precise number which currently suffer from hunger and malnourishment.8
* Feeding grain to livestock is an extremely wasteful method of producing protein. Feedlot cattle require nine pounds of feed to make one pound of gain. Only 11 percent of the feed goes to produce the beef itself. The rest is burned off as energy in the conversion process, used to maintain normal body functions, absorbed into parts of the cattle that are not eaten -- such as hair or bones -- or excreted.8
* Cattle have a feed protein conversion efficiency of only 6 percent, producing less than 50 kg of flesh protein from more than 790 kg of plant protein. A feedlot steer consumes 2,700 pounds of grain by the time it is ready for slaughter.9
* Asian adults consume between 300 and 400 pounds of grain a year; three-fourths or more of the diet of the average Asian is composed of grain. A middle-class American, by contrast, consumes over a ton of grain each year, 80 percent of it through eating cattle and other grain-fed livestock.10
* Two out of every three people around the world consume a primarily vegetarian diet. With one-third of global grain output now going to cattle and other livestock, and with the human population growing by almost 20 percent in the next decade, a worldwide food crisis is imminent.11
* Three quaners of America's public western land -- covering 40 percent of the eleven western statss -- is leased to cattlemen at prices far below market value.12
* Nearly half of the earth's landmass is used as pasture for cattle and other livestock. On very rich grasslands, two and a half acres can support a cow for a year. On marginal grazing land, 50 or more acres may be required.13
* In the 1960s, with the help of loans from the World Bank and the Inter- American Development Bank, many Central and South America governments began converting millions of acres of tropical rain forest and cropland to pastureland for the international beef market. Between 1971 and 1977, more than $3.5 billion in loans and technical assistance went to Latin America for cattle production.14
* Many major U.S. corporations invested heavily in beef production throughout Central America in the 1970s and 80s, including Borden, United Brands, and International Foods. Other American multinational companies such as Cargill, Ralston Purina, W.R. Grace, Weyerhauser-, Crown Zellerbach, and Fort Dodge Labs, provided most of the technological support for the Central American beef industry, from frozen semen to refrigeration equipment, grass seeds, feed, and medicine. 15
* The beef industry in Central America has enriched the lives of a select few, pauperized much of the rural peasantry, and spawned widespread social unrest and political upheaval. More than half the rural families in Central America -- 35 million people -- are now landless or own too little land to support themselves, while powerful ranchers and large corporations continue to acquire more land for pasture.16
* In Costa Rica, cattle interests cleared 80 percent of the tropical forests in just 20 years, turning half the arable land into cattle pastures. Today, just 2,000 powerful ranchincg families own over half the productive land in Costa Rica, grazing 2 million cattle most of whose meat is exported to the United States.17

[Maru Kitteh]

13. Holy smokes Lorien! Excellent work here and thanks for bringing this

to us. I'll be using it extensively!

I always love seeing your kitties so much too. Kiss those babies for me. :pals:

[Lorien]

14. Thanks Veganistan!

The kitties have received their daily cuddles. :hi:

Here's more facts to use next time the burger monkeys get going about how "cows are tasty":

THE REAL COSTS OF BEEF:
ENVIRONMENTAL
DEVASTATION

Cattle and beef production is a primary threat to the global environment. It is a major contributor to deforestation, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity, water pollution, depletion of fossil fuels, global warming, and loss of biodiversity.

Deforestation

* Cattle ranching is a primary cause of deforestation in Latin America. Since 1960, more than one quarter of all Central. American forests have been razed to make pasture for cattle. Nearly 70 percent of deforested land in Panama and Costa Pica is now pasture.1
* Some 40,000 square miles of Amazon forest were cleared for cattle ranching and other commercial development between 1966 and 1983. Brazil estimates that 38 percent of its rain forest was destroyed for cattle pasture.2
* Just one quarter-pound hamburger imported from Latin America requires the clearing of 6 square yards of rain forest and the destruction of 165 pounds of living matter including 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 insect species, and dozens of bird, mammal, and reptile species. 3

Soil Erosion and Desertification

* Cattle production is turning productive land into barren desert in the American West and throughout the world. Soil erosion and desertification is caused directly by cattle and other livestock overgrazing. Overcultivation of the land, improper irrigation techniques, and deforestation are also principal causes of erosion and desertification, and cattle production is a primary factor in each case.
* Cattle degrade the land by stripping vegetation and compacting the earth. Each animal foraging on the open range eats 900 pounds of vegetation every month. Their powerful hoofs trample vegetation and crush the soil with an impact of 24 pounds per square inch.4
* As much as 85 percent of U.S. western rangeland, nearly 685 million acres, is being degraded by overgrazing and other problems, according to a 1991 United Nations report. The study estimates that 430 million acres in the American West is suffering a 25 to 50 percent yield reduction, largely because of overgrazing.5
* The United States has lost one third of its topsoil. An estimated six of the seven billion tons of eroded soil is directly attributable to grazing and unsustainable methods of producing feed crops for cattle and other livestock.6
* Each pound of feedlot steak costs about 35 pounds of eroded American topsoil, according to the Worldwatch Institute.7

Water Scarcity

* Nearly half of the total amount of water used annually in the U. S. goes to grow feed and provide drinking water for cattle and other livestock. Producing a pound of grain-fed steak requires the use of hundreds of gallons of water. Producing a pound of beef protein often requires up to fifteen times more water than producing an equivalent amount of plant protein.8
* U.S. fresh water reserves have declined precipitously as a result of excess water use for cattle and other livestock. U.S. water shortages, especially in the West, have now reached critical levels. Overdrafts now exceed replenishments by 25 percent.9
* The great Ogallala aquifer, one of the world's largest fresh water reserves, is already half depleted in Kansas, Texas, and New Mexico. In California. where 42 percent of irrigation water is used for feed or livestock production, water tables have dropped so low that in some areas the earth is sinking under the vacuum. Some U.S. reservoirs and aquifers are now at their lowest levels since the end of the last Ice Age.11

Water Pollution

* Organic waste from cattle and other livestock, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and agricultural salts and sediments are the primary non-point source of water pollution in the U.S.11
* Cattle produce nearly 1 billion tons of organic waste each year. The average feedlot steer produces more than 47 pounds ofmanure every twenty-four hours. Nearly 500,000 pounds of manure are produced daily on a standard 10,000- head feedlot. This is the rough equivalent of what a city of 110,000 would produce in human waste. There are 42,000 feedlots in 13 U.S. states.12

Depletion of Fossil Fuels

* Intensive animal agriculture uses a dis proportionate amount of fossil fuels. Supplying the world with a typical American meat-based diet would deplete all world oil reserves in just a few years.13
* It now takes the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of grainfed beef in the United States. The annual beef consumption of an average American family of four requires more than 260 gallons of fuel and releases 2.5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, as much as the average car over a six month period.14

Global Warming

* Cattle and beef production is a significant factor in the emission of three of the four global warming gases -- carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane.15
* Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is directly attributable to beef production: burning forests to make way for cattle pasture and burning massive tracts of agricultural waste from cattle feed crops. When the fifty-five square feet of rain forest needed to produce one quarter-pound hamburger is burned for pasture, 500 pounds of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.16
* CO2 is also generated by the fuel used in the highly mechanized agricultural production of feed crops for cattle and other livestock. With 70 percent of all U.S. grain production now used for livestock feed, the CO2 emitted as a direct result is significant.17
* Petrochemical fertilizers used to produce feed crops for grain-fed cattle release nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas. Worldwide, the use of fertilizers has increased dramatically from 14 million tons in 1950 to 143 million tons in 1989. Nitrous oxide now accounts for 6 percent of the global warming effect.18
* Cattle emit methane, another greenhouse gas, through belching and flatulation. Scientists estimate that more than 500 million tons of methane are released each year and that the world's 1.3 billion cattle and other ruminant livestock emit approximately 60 million tons or 12 percent of the total from all sources. Methane is a serious problem because one methane molecule traps 25 times as much solar heat as a molecule of CO2.19

Loss of Biodiversity

* U.S. cattle production has caused a significant loss of biodiversity on both public and private lands. More plant species in the U.S. have been eliminated or threatened by livestock grazing than by any other cause, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO).20
* Riparian zones -- the narrow strips of land that run alongside rivers and streams where most of the range flora and fauna are concentrated -- have been the hardest hit by cattle grazing. More than 90 percent of the original riparian zones of Arizona and New Mexico are gone, according to the Arizona State Park Department. Colorado and Idaho have also been hard hit. The GAO reports that "poorly managed livestock grazing is the major cause of degraded riparian habitat on federal rangelands."21
* Unable to compete with cattle for food, wild animals are disappearing from the rangs. Pronghorn have decreased from 15 million a century ago to less than 271,000 today. Bighorn sheep, once numbering over 2 million, are now less than 20,000. The elk population has plummeted from 2 million to less than 455,000.22
* The government has worked with ranchers to make cattle grazing the predominant use of Western public lands. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has long favored ranching over other uses. BLM sprays herbicides over large tracts of range eliminating vegetation eaten by wild animals and replacing it with monocultures of grasses favored by cattle.23
* Under pressure from ranchers, the U.S. government exterminates tens of thousands of predator and "nuisance" animals each year. In 1989, a partial list of animals killed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Damage Control Program included 86,502 coyotes, 7,158 foxes, 236 black bears, 1,220 bobcats, and 80 wolves. In 1988, 4.6 million birds, 9,000 beavers, 76,000 coyotes, 5,000 raccoons, 300 black bears, and 200 mountain lions, among others, were killed. Some 400 pet dogs and 100 cats were also inadvertently killed. Extermination methods used include poisoning, shooting, gassing, and burning animals in their dens.24
* The predator "control" program cost American taxpayers $29.4 million in 1990 -- more than the amount of losses caused by wild animals.25
* Tens of thousands of wild horses and burros have been rounded up by the federal government because ranchers claim they compete with their cattle for forage. The horses and burros are held in corrals, costing taxpayers millions of dollars per year. Many wild horses have ended up at slaughterhouses.
* For several years, cattle ranchers have blocked efforts to re-introduce the wolf, an endangered species, into the wild, as required by the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

FOOTNOTES

* <1> Catherine Caulfield, "A Reporter at Large: The Rain Forests." New Yorker, January 14, 1985, 79.
* <2> Ibid, 49.
* <3> Julie Denslow and Christine Padoch, People of the Tropical Rainforest (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1988), 169.
* <4> John Lancaster, "Public Land. Private Profit," Washington Post, A1, A8. A9; Lynn Jacobs, Waste of the West. Puhlic Lands Ranching (Lynn Jacobs: Tuscon. AZ, 1991). 15.
* <5> Myra Klockenbrinli, "The New Range War Has the Desert As Foe," New York Times. August 20, 1991, G4.
* <6> Frances Moore Lappe Diet for a Small Planet (New York: Ballantine Books, 1982), 80.
* <7> Alan Durning, "Cost of Beef for Health and Habitat," Los Angeles Times, September 21, 1986, V3.
* <8> Lappe, Dietfor a Small Planer, 76-77.
* <9> David Pimentel and Carl W. Hall. Food and Natural Resources (San Diego: Academic Press, 1989),41.
* <10> Sandra Postel, Water: Rethinking Management in an Age of Scarcity, Worldwatch Paper 61 (1984), 20.
* <11> Pimentel and Hall, 89.
* <12>M. E. Ensminger, Animal Science (Danville, IL: Interstate Publishers, 1991), 187, table 5-9: Based on analysis by John Sweeten, Texas A&M, for the National Cattlemen's Association, 1990.
* <13> Pimentel and Hall, 35.
* <14> Alan Duming, "Cost of Beef For Health and Habitat," Los Angeles Times, 3; Based on 65 pounds of beef consumed per person per year. The auto CO2 emissions comparisons come from Andrew Kimbrell, "On the Road," in Jeremy Rifkin, ed., The Green Lifestyle Handbook (New York, NY:Henry Holt and Co., 1990), 33-42.
* <15> Fred Pearce, "Methane: The Hidden Greenhouse Gas," New Scientist, May 6, 1989; Alan Duming and Holly Brough, Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment, (Washington D.C.: Worldwatch Institute), 17; World Resources Institute, World Resources 1990-91, 355.
* <16> Greenhouse Crisis Statistical Review, Sources: World Resources Institute, Rainforssr Action Network. U.S. Department of Agriculture. and Worldwatch Institute in U.S. News and World Report, Oct 31, 1988.
* <17> David Pimentel, "Waste in Agriculture and Food Sectors: Environmental and Social Costs," paper for Gross National Waste Product Forum, Arlington. VA. 1989, 9-10. Pimentel concludes that substituting a grass feeding livestock system for the present grain and grass system would reduce energy inputs about 60 percent.
* <18> Lester Brown et al., State of the World 1990 (New Yorer, NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1990), 67; Fred Pearce, 38.
* <19> Fred Pearce, 37; Methane emissions from live stock from World Resources Institute et al. 1990-91. 346. Table 24.1; Cattle emissions as a per cent of livestock emissions from Michael Gibbs and Kathleen Hogan, "Methane," EPA Journal, March/April 1990.
* <20> George Wuerthner. "The Price is Wrong," Sierra, September/October 1990. 40-41.
* <21> Wuerthner, 40: Jon Luoma. "Discouraging Words," Audubon, September 1986,92.
* <22> Wuerthner, 41-42; Denzel Ferguson and Nancy Ferguson. Sacrcd Cows At The Puhlic Trough, (Bend. OR: Maverick Publications. 1983). 116.
* <23> Ferguson and Ferguson, 158; Lynn Jacobs, 237.
* <24> Keith Schneider, "Mediating the Federal War of the Jungle," New York Times, July 9. 1991,4E; Carol Grunewald, ed, Animal Activist Alert, 8:3 (Washington D.C.: Humane Society of the United States, 1990), 3.
* <25> Carol Grunewald, ed, Animal Activist Alert, 8:3, 3.

FACT SHEET: DAMAGED HEALTH
THE REAL COSTS OF BEEF:
DAMAGED HEALTH

Beef contains high levels of cholesterol and saturated fat and is frequently contaminated by chemicals and disease. Beef may be one of the more unhealthy foods on the market today.

* Nearly 70 percent, or 1.5 million of the 2.1 million deaths in the United States in 1987, were from diseases associated with diet -- particularly diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol, according to a U.S. Surgeon General's report.1
* Many scientific studies have found a high correlation between the consumption of red meat -- which is high in saturated fats and cholesterol -- and heart disease, stroke. and colon and breast cancer.2
* In 1990, the largest study ever done on the health effects of consuming animalderived foods confirmed the results of previous studies showing a high correlation between meat consumption and the incidence of heart disease and cancer. Participating reseachers followed the eating habits of 6,500 people living in twenty-five procinces in China.3
* The Chinese study found that Chinese consume 20 percent more calories than Americans, but that Americans are 25 percent fatter. That's because 37 percent of the calories in the U.S. diet comes from fat, whereas less than 15 percent of the calories in the rural Chinese diet comes from far. The study also found that 70 percent of the protein in the U'estern diet conies from animal sources and 30 percent from plants. In China, only 11 percent comes from animal products and 89 percent from plants.4
* The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Pediatrics are just a few of the medical, scientific, and professional associations that recommend a reduction in the consumption of red meat and other animal-derived foods and a shift to a more vegetarian diet.5
* Beef contains the highest concentration of herbicides of any food sold in America, according to the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences. Eighty percent of all the herbicides used in the U.S. are sprayed on corn and soybeans, which are used primarily as feed for cattle. When consumed by cattle, the chemicals accumulate in their bodies and are passed onto consumers in finished cuts of beef.6
* Beef ranks second only to tomatoes as the food posing the greatest cancer risk due to pesticide contamination. It ranks third of all foods in insecticide contamination. Of all food on the market today, pesticide-tainted beef represents nearly 11 percent of the total cancer risk to consumers from pesticides, according to the NRC.7
* More than 95 percent of all feedlot- raised cattle in the United States are currently receiving growth-promoting hormones and other pharmaceuticals, residues of Which may be present in finished cuts of beef.8
* In order to speed weight gain, feedlot managers administer growth-stimulating hormones and feed additives. Anabolic steroids, in the form of small time-release pellets, are implanted in the animals' ears. The hormones slowly seep into the bloodstream, increasing hormone levels by two to five times. Cattle are given estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone.9
* In 1988, more than 15 million pounds of antibiotics were used as feed additives for livestock in the United States. The drugs were used to promote growth and fight the diseases which run rampant in cramped. contaminated pens and feedlots. While the cattle industry claims that it has discontinued the widespread use of antibiotics in cattle feed, antibiotics are still being given to dairy cows, which account for 15 percent of all beef consumed in the United States. Antibiotic residues often show up in the meat people consume, making the human population increasingly vulnerable to more virulent strains of disease-causing bacteria.10
* Veal calves are so sick that antibiotics and other drugs are routinely used to keep many of them alive until slaughter. Contrary to veal industry claims, no drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in formulafed veal calves. Some of the drugs used routinely, such as sulfamethazine, are carcinogenic. Drug residues are often present in veal purchased by consumers.11
* In a 1985 report, the National Academy of Sciences announced that current federal meat inspection procedures are inadequate to protect the public from meat-related diseases, and recommended ameliorative steps which have never been adopted. Instead, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), working with the meat-packing industry, developed a new, experimental inspection system -- the Streamlined Inspection System (SIS)-- the goal of which is to increase online meat production by up to 40 percent.12
* The SIS virtually eliminates the role of the federal meat inspector by placing responsibility for carcass inspection on packing house employees. Federal meat inspectors no longer inspect every carcass on the production line; instead, they examine less than one percent of the carcasses.13
* Under the SIS, thousands of carcasses with pneumonia, measles, and other diseases, peritonitis, abcesses, fecal and insect contamination, and contaminated heads (called "puke heads" because they are filled with rumen content) are passing through inspection on their way to dinner tables across the country.14
* In 1990, federal meat inspectors from across the country flooded the USDA with affidavits describing major problems throughout the new SIS system. Recently, USDA inspectors sent a letter to the National Academy of Sciences raising concerns about the wholesomeness of the U.S. beef supply.15
* Recent discoveries have suggested a possible link between new cattle diseases and disease in humans. Bovine leukemia virus (BLV), an insect-borne retrovirus that causes malignancy in cattle and which can be found in 20 percent of cattle and 60 percent of herds in the United States, is suspected of having a causal link to some forms of human leukemia. BLV antibodies have been found in human leukemia patients and BLV has infecfed human cells in vitro.16
* Bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV), which was discovered to be widespread in American cattle herds in the 1980s, genetically resembles the human HIV (AIDS) virus and, like the AIDS virus in humans, is believed to suppress the immune systems of cattle, making them susceptible to a wide range of diseases and infections. Scientists have successfully infected human cells with BIV, and at least one study suggested that BIV "may play a role in either malignant or slow viruses in man." In 1991,the USDA stated that it does not yet know "whether exposure to BIV proteins causes human sera to... become HIV positive."17
* The beef packing industry has the second highest rate of injury in American industry -- three times the national average. Injury rates in some plants exceed 85 percent, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.18

[Critters2]

16. Geez! If my kitties only got DAILY cuddles, I think there'd be a revolt

Shadow, the velcro kitty, EXPECTS a cuddle every quarter of an hour, when I'm home. To make up for the non-cuddle periods when I'm at work. Leo doesn't work on a schedule, but is more a "cuddle on demand" kind of guy. Sophie can go a few days without cuddles, if she gets adequate amounts of window-sitting time, and marinara sauce.

But I digress...thanks for the beef info. Not that I could bring myself to eat it again, but good to share with others.

Does anyone else look at meat and just SEE dead flesh? It's getting so it's hard for me to sit at a table where meat is being served without feeling nauseated. Ick!!

[Lorien]

17. Oh, all three of mine are incessantly demanding too

Who says that cats are "independent"? Miro whines for food and a brushing from the moment I awake in the morning (he loves to be brushed-makes his tongue stick out an inch)! Oberon whimpers for playtime, then for hand feeding (kibble dropped into his huge mouth, wet food spooned to him), then to be picked up, then for MORE playtime and hand feeding....Puck also wants hand feeding and daily "walkies" on her leash around the neighborhood, plus a nightly cuddle that usually lasts a good half hour (she MUST be held and constantly petted during that time). I work at home-so it's a wonder that I get anything done with three such "independent" pets at my feet or in my lap 24/7.

[laheina]

18. Species jumping diseases

Recent discoveries have suggested a possible link between new cattle diseases and disease in humans.

It's funny how the public seems to have just realized this possibility. It's implications are scary.

[Rob H.]

10. From the first link you posted

Some feedlots have begun experimenting feeding cattle cement dust, cardboard, paper, and industrial oils and wastes. Such "foods" do not deprive human beings of nourishment; however, it might be difficult to work up an appetite for beef raised on organic and industrial wastes.

:puke:

That'd be good to hit someone with the next time the whole jackassed "If we aren't meant to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"-type 'humor' rears its ugly head. ("Actually they're made of meat and possibly cement dust, cardboard, and industrial waste. Enjoy your burger, clown.")


Edited to say thanks for all the info, Lorien. :)

[Lorien]

11. Thanks for your response!

:hi:

Yeah, that was one of the more nauseating entries on that fact sheet. Good stuff to have on hand when the burger monkeys start squealing again.

[LisaLynne]

15. Heh heh.

I'm totally using that line. That's brilliant. "Enjoy your burger, clown." Heh heh heh.

[Bouncy Ball]

19. Uh, GROSS.,

That's just freaking disgusting. And those poor cows. Shit.

[Ken Burch]

20. Of course, if you have all twenty on the SAME day, you probably WILL die

n/t.

[chatnoir]

21. Thought she vowed never to eat another burger again?

She always struck me as insincere, uninformed and an egomaniac.

[Lorien]

28. Her friend Gail was the one sampling all the burgers. I think that Oprah

still has reservations about beef, but she knows better than to piss off the beef lobby again. We'll never see an Oprah show that discusses the environmental impact of meat production. Even Al Gore won't touch that one.

[Pool Hall Ace]

22. I'm glad someone resurrected this thread.

No wonder Oprah put the pounds back on!