This egg recall, along with the recent recall of deli meat, have come right on the heels of reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, so of course I'm primed to think of this in a more radical way than I might have otherwise. I admit that I might still be flying on post-read paranoia, but it seems to me that all of this is truly based on an agricultural system that is completely jacked up.
There's rumor that the salmonella in the half-billion bad recalled eggs came from the feed given the hens. Okay, well, if they could eat the diet they were meant to eat (grass, bugs, or whatever else they can find outside) instead of corn and soybeans that come mass produced and delivered far and wide, it seems like the risk of contamination goes down. Not to mention that the feed also apparently contains "bone meal." Do with that information what you choose. I personally find that gross, but I guess I don't know why that is so much grosser than them eating bugs. It just is to me, okay?
There's also the fact that these hens live in such tight quarters that they never walk, can't spread their wings, and have their beaks trimmed to prevent them going all cannibalistic on each other. Oh, and there's also evidence that baby chicks that are male are not needed to lay eggs, so they're often just put through a killing machine, not unlike the dude in Fargo. So that's fun. All this close living means a much easier time spreading disease in a way that more spread-out living discourages disease spread. It's no different from humans: just think of the plague.
This all was prompted by a posting on the Huffington Post I just read. It's something to consider. I know I didn't start this blog to go all animal-rights on you, but it's all tied to making the right food decisions. Each decision we make affects not just our weight and health, but also the well being of all who/that created the food. I'm not innocent of eating food from frightening sources, so I can't make any grandiose claims of moral superiority. It's just something I think about in my food choices, particularly when there are animal products involved.
I am going to have to read this book. But I'm not sure if I want to. The truth is scary.
ReplyDeleteYeah. The problem is that he's hard to write off as a loon. He takes a very pragmatic, both-sides-of-the-story approach. It's not just a simple diatribe against anything non-organic, nor is it a universal praise of organic. His approach adds to the credibility of his argument and therefore my paranoia. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen King Corn? It's on Netflix Instant and worth watching. Not as outraging as some things you'll see about our agricultural system (the two guys are kinda cute and they're funny), but still eye-opening. It totally changed how I think about meat and what kinds I buy.
ReplyDeleteI have seen that, along with Food, Inc. Both of those were persuasive to me, but for some reason reading it made it so much more intensely real to me. Must be my academic training to read read read. :) King Corn was particularly useful, though, because it highlighted everything that I grew up seeing all the time, given that I grew up in Iowa with farmer relatives. I have memories of the farm crisis and what that did to the practice of agriculture. It all rings true, unfortunately.
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