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Our local TV news had a piece last night about a "report card" on fast food franchises in regards the beef they use for their hamburgers. The major ones like BK, Mac & the Redhead with Pigtails all scored "F"-- they buy commercially produced meat (I happen to know it's mainly imported) with no restrictions as to use of antibiotics or other chemicals in the raising of the cattle. Of course they had the obligatory sound byte of the "expert" who decried the use of antibiotics vis-Ã -vis the problem of antibiotic resistance. They mentioned a couple places (I never heard of) that insisted on using only "organically raised" cattle.
Any thoughts? Do you care? Would you pay more for organic meat? How much more? What are the environmental disadvantages to raising meat with the use of "chemicals?"
[Disclaimer (a) I used to raise organic beef cattle. (2) It takes 3 weeks to starve to death. What possible excuse could one have to ever stop for fast food? ]
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto
Our local TV news had a piece last night about a "report card" on fast food franchises in regards the beef they use for their hamburgers. The major ones like BK, Mac & the Redhead with Pigtails all scored "F"-- they buy commercially produced meat (I happen to know it's mainly imported) with no restrictions as to use of antibiotics or other chemicals in the raising of the cattle. Of course they had the obligatory sound byte of the "expert" who decried the use of antibiotics vis-Ã -vis the problem of antibiotic resistance. They mentioned a couple places (I never heard of) that insisted on using only "organically raised" cattle.
Any thoughts? Do you care? Would you pay more for organic meat? How much more? What are the environmental disadvantages to raising meat with the use of "chemicals?"
[Disclaimer (a) I used to raise organic beef cattle. (2) It takes 3 weeks to starve to death. What possible excuse could one have to ever stop for fast food? ]
I agree with you there, it's well worth the extra cost to go to a real restaurant for a good burger, and a nice cold beer with it. I have found it too hard to worry about the source of beef or other products, and go more by taste, but generally good beef costs more. I am far more likely to have burgers when the menu lists burgers with things like applewood smoked bacon, beer based sauce, truffle mayo, roasted onion confit, bacon-onion jam and costs $12-15.
It isn’t just restaurant beef. If you check labels of major grocers’ ground beef, you will see that it is usually sourced from the US, Canada, and Australia. This means it is shipped frozen and blended at the processor. At least that is how I interpret the label.
And honestly, ground beef like this has no flavor. It is like mystery meat.
I have been buying single sourced ground meat from Whole Foods, when I buy ground beef.
I wish I could afford other cuts of beef from there. But in general, we are not eating as much beef as before.
When it comes to where your food is sourced humans have token sympathy and crocodile tears. We could easily put these establishments out of business and should. Remember that we also have agreements with countries that force this behavior on us.
Many countries ban import of American meat, and here is why: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/these...rodu_b_5153275
Makes you wonder why FDA happily permits it for local sale. If comes to making a buck, no one really cares about our health.
Many countries ban import of American meat, and here is why: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/these...rodu_b_5153275
Makes you wonder why FDA happily permits it for local sale. If comes to making a buck, no one really cares about our health.
The truth is, those countries ban US imports because they are protecting their own producers.
"Live cattle" (the heading you see in the commodity reports for animals ready for slaughter) sells for ~$1.20/lb--ie- an 1800 lb steer goes for about $2200--and only $200 of that represents profit to the producer; the remainder is input costs (overhead).
Producers use three basic "chemicals" that add ~100lb to a steer's carcass. Without that extra 100lb, the producer would only make a profit of $50 a head. Is the risk of a drought with more expensive feed, or an epidemic of disease that would wipe out his herd worth it if profit is only $50 when things go well? No. Even at $200m profit, it's not really worth it.
The three chemicals are (1) estrogen (usually incorrectly called "growth hormone"). How much extraneous estrogen winds up in a serving of beef? Well, a serving of potatoes has 16x more natural estrogen than a serving of beef. Should we worry about it?
(2)Ractopamine -- a beta-agonist very similar to albuterol, a common med in the inhalers used by asthmatics. The PETA nitwits oppose it because the occasional steer has a mutation that doesn't allow the stuff to be metabolized and cleared from the animal's system rapidly, so it's liable to suffer the side effects of beta-agonist over-dose-- tremors &muscle spasms. There's a mandatory "wash-out period" so none of the chemical winds up in the meat you eat.
(3) various antibiotics. None are the actual products used for humans, but all are from the usual classes of antibiotics-- macrolides, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, etc. These are also to be used with a required wash-out period before slaughter, so none show up in the meat you buy...The problem of antibiotic resistance is usually brought up by opponents, but they're seriously misinformed. The food borne illnesses are not treated effectively with antibiotics (although they're often prescribed for med liability reasons, but there is no research that supports their use), so resistance is not a factor for those. Other bacteria like Staph & Strep are found everywhere and there's plenty of research showing resistance there is attributable to excessive use of antibiotics in humans themselves, not in animals.
It isn’t just restaurant beef. If you check labels of major grocers’ ground beef, you will see that it is usually sourced from the US, Canada, and Australia. This means it is shipped frozen and blended at the processor. At least that is how I interpret the label.
And honestly, ground beef like this has no flavor. It is like mystery meat.
I have been buying single sourced ground meat from Whole Foods, when I buy ground beef.
I wish I could afford other cuts of beef from there. But in general, we are not eating as much beef as before.
A good deal of that meat comes from Mexico also.
"The good stuff" from American producers goes to restaurants. The stuff you buy at the grocery store comes from culled out dairy cows that have gotten too old, or their baby bulls (turned steers). Dairy breeds don't put a lot of meat on their bones. Compare the size of a filet on a T-bone from Black Angus vs the usual T-bone at the meat counter.
If you go to your local, small meat processor and buy a cow by the qtr, half or whole, finished by a local producer, you'll never go back to buying beef in a store. It may well have been produced without those added chemicals, but it'll still be cheaper than store meat because you've cut out a couple middle men. You can't compare the tastes.
The truth is, those countries ban US imports because they are protecting their own producers.
Partially, perhaps.
BUT - Have you ever noticed how much bigger some U.S. cows, chickens, and turkeys are than their European counterparts? That's because many of America's animal farms actually mix in synthetic hormones with the feedstock, making their cows, pigs, and other animals grow a lot bigger and faster than they usually would.
Few Americans realize that most of the meat they eat is banned in other industrialized countries.
One example is ractopamine, a controversial growth-promoting asthma-like drug marketed as Optaflexx for cattle, Paylean for pigs, and Topmax for turkeys and banned in the European Union, China and more than 100 other countries. More than 100 countries can't be wrong, but FDA doesn't care...
The routinely used synthetic hormones zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate pose increased risks of breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Other countries boycott U.S. chickens because they are dipped in chlorine baths. In the U.S. it's perfectly legal to 'wash' butchered chicken in strongly chlorinated water...
And other countries are just not interested in feeding their citizen frankenfood. https://www.ecowatch.com/antibiotics...454994122.html
I addressed all those concerns in my post. You may change your mind if you read it and learn the actual facts.
Chlorinated water? You mean bleach. All poultry should be considered contaminated on its exterior (including egg shells) with Salmonella. Even if they did use bleach at the processing house, you should do it again when you get the cuts home. Bleach is good because it's effective and dissipates rapidly into the air, so you're not actually ingesting any. Soap isn't as effective (needs long exposure time) and doesn't rinse off well. Plane water is useless-- the bugs are hydrophobic (not be confused with hydrophobia ) and sticky.
I should add here that not only do the use of growth promoters help the producer in terms of economics, but the better profit helps ensure our food security: if producers go out of business, where will our food come from?...AND... producing more food (meat or veggies) on less land means more natural habitat for MotherNature.
Thoughts? Don't get me started...I only buy organic everything.
I know if my sister offers me chicken soup that is not organic...next day I have whiskers
on my chin from the hormones.
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) and sticky.
