I'd been hoping to write a follow-up to
an old diary, but I couldn't find the information I was looking for to write it. "Well, poop" I thought. And then I had a good idea. Poop. I'll write about poop. Because when you raise animals for food, you wind up with a lot of poop.
There are many good things you can do with poop - compost, biomass energy, etc - but today I want to talk about the bad uses of poop and some mitigation strategies for them. Namely, I want to talk about environmental pollution and food safety. (Farmerchuck - I am counting on you to back me up in the comments and be our resident expert on the good uses of poop.)
Environmental Pollution
I didn't really think too much of poop until February 5, 2005. Until then it probably only crossed my mind when I had to go myself. Then on that day, I heard a
Ring of Fire show about factory hog farms in North Carolina (you can listen to it at the link).
The story begins with Rick Dove, an ex-Marine and ex-Republican. Except he wasn't an ex-Republican yet. After retiring from a 25 year career in the Marines, he became a fisherman on the Neuse River in North Carolina.
Before long, the Neuse River went "belly up" and Rick went looking for the cause. The cause, it turned out, was pig poop.
Over the past 16 years, the North Carolina pork industry devolved from 27,500 family farms to 2200 CAFOs (concentrated animal-feeding operations) in 2005, owned primarily by one company - Smithfield Foods. The CAFOs house up to 800,000 animals together in warehouses, and that many pigs, each shitting ten times as much as a human, together produces as much crap as the entire city of New York every day.
There is a way to deal with this high volume of poop - after all, what do you think New York City does about theirs? These CAFOs could put in waste water treatment plants - just like NYC - but if they did that, family farms would outcompete them. So, they don't do that. It's far cheaper to buy off a politician and pollute.
They store the poop in lagoons, and then dump it on fields. From the fields, it runs into the streams and rivers. It's upset the ecosystem in the Neuse River, breeding a bacteria that produces a neurotoxin. This neurotoxin produces open, bleeding sores on fish and people, kills fish, and causes brain damage and permanent respiratory injury to people. During a six week period in 1991, over one billion fish died in the Neuse River.
For more information, I recommend a few other diaries. Boran2 gave us a recent update on EPA regulations in EPA Says Poop is Okay and Cedwyn gave us a less recent diary called Farm Pollutants (it's from 2004 and she was nice enough to dig it up for me).
This doesn't mean you cannot or should not eat pork (or other animals that poop) - that's up to you of course - but you might try to look for a more sustainable source.
Beef and E. coli O157:H7
Poop creates a food safety hazard and I'd like to illustrate this point with beef and E. coli. Why beef? Well, obviously as a smug vegetarian I'd like to demonstrate my moral superiority over you carnivores. Just kidding. Beef is an easy example because it is well documented and information is readily available. The beef industry does not exactly hide the fact that they resent any federal food safety standards. And before I get too smug, I'll remind myself that alfalfa sprouts are susceptable to E. coli too.
E. coli itself is not necessarily harmful. It is necessary for human digestion and it ordinarily lives in the lower intestines of mammals. Because we excrete it when we take a shit (as do cows), testing for E. coli is a great way to test for fecal contamination.
The E. coli we worry about in ground beef is E. coli O157:H7. This strain causes severe illness in humans - and sometimes death in small children and the elderly - but it does not make cows sick.
According to Marion Nestle:
Unlike common E. coli, this type resists heat; it grows at temperatures up to 44 C (111 F). It also resists drying, can survive short exposures to strong acid (pH 2.5), and sometimes resists radiation and antibiotics. For these reasons, controlling it is not easy. Worse, E. coli O157:H7 is infectious at very low doses. The normal digestive tract contains hundreds of billions of bacteria that compete for space and nutrients. In this environment, it takes thousands of Salmonella to induce symptoms, but the lowest infectious dose of E. coli O157:H7 appears to be less than 50 - a minescule number in bacteria terms. - Safe Food, p. 41
E. coli O157:H7 is a recent problem in our food system. The first reported outbreak occured in 1982, but the earliest case was most likely in 1975. Since it's a recent problem, let's see if we can't trace it to recent changes in beef production.
Food Safety Starts On The Farm
Food safety is a tricky issue because it's easy to pass the buck. Before your hamburger gets to you, it goes to a farm, a slaughterhouse, a processing plant, and a restaurant or grocery store. Each link in the chain shares responsibility to prevent you from getting food poisoning. Because you can simply kill the bacteria with proper storage and preparation, the people who brought you that hamburger do not think you should mind having bacteria in your hamburger in the first place - even if its presence is indicative of fecal matter.
In my opinion, the place to start fixing the problem is the place the problem starts - the farm. Well, the factory farm. Beef production methods have changed in the past few decades, and the key to the changes is the cows' feed.
Cows evolved eating grass. They are extremely well-adapted to eat grass. That is unfortunate, because our society is extremely well-adapted to feed them corn and soy. Always remember: factory farms are factories and the cows are not living, breathing animals, but beef-making machines - at least in the eyes of agribusiness. A good machine makes its product bigger, faster, and cheaper. Bigger, faster, and cheaper is how we Americans like it. For beef-making machines, corn and soy are the keys to bigger, faster, and cheaper.
Whereas the conditions in the digestive tract of cows fed on grass or hay is not hospitable to E. coli O157:H7, the conditions of the digestive tracts of cows feed corn and soybeans is. Going back to my friend Marion Nestle, she says:
Animals fed hay prior to slaughter generate less than 1% of the E. coli O157:H7 usually present in the feces of grain-fed animals, and they become free of the undesirable bacteria in just a few days. - Safe Food, p. 47
Cows fed corn and soy often develop health problems. To remedy this, factory farms include antibiotics in the cows' feed. According to Safe Food:
By one estimate, nearly 25 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal agriculture, whereas just 3 million are used to treat human infections. Altogether, nearly three-fourths of all antibiotics are used for nontherapeutic purposes in animals.
The results? Rich drug companies and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Drug companies do not want to lose their sales, and agribusiness does not want to suffer the loss of profits caused by feeding the cows hay for a few days before their slaughter.
The last factors exacerbating the problem of E. coli O157:H7 on factory farms are the high densities of cows in small spaces, and the filthiness of their environments. Unless cows' stomach bacteria were to mutate into E. coli O157:H7 on its own, the only way a cow will become infected is by consuming food tainted with contaminated manure. While it is possible for the bacteria to mutate, the E. coli problem would not be as widespread as it is if the animals were not kept in conditions conducive to ingesting poop with their food (or, as a diary by abbeysbooks points out, poop as their food).
"There's Shit in the Meat"
When I read Fast Food Nation a year or so ago, one line stuck with me: "There's shit in the meat." When the cows are on the farm, the E. coli stays contained in their intestines and poop. Some of the poop (and thus, E. coli) may get on the cows' hides, but not in the meat. E. coli (any strain) is indicative of shit in the meat.
The cows go from the CAFO to the slaughterhouse, where they are processed. The ideal slaughterhouse (if such a thing isn't a complete oxymoron) would be able to get the cows in and out without mixing poop and meat. As it is, that happens in theory but not in practice.
Recall where the E. coli resides: the cows' intestines and their hides.
The hides are now pulled off by machine; if a hide has been inadaquately cleaned, chunks of dirt and manure may fall from it onto the meat. Stomaches and intestines are pulled out of cattle by hand; if the job is not performed carefully, the contents of the digestive system may spill everywhere. The increased speed of today's production lines make the task much more difficult. A single working at a "gut table" may eviscerate sixty cattle an hour. Performing the job properly takes a fair amount of skill. A former IBP "gutter" told me that it took him six months to learn how to pull out the stomach and tie off the intestines without spillage. At best, he could gut two hundred consecutive cattle without spilling anything. Inexperienced gutters spill manure far more often. At the IBP slaughterhouse in Lexington, Nebraska, the hourly spillage rate at the gut table has run as high as 20 percent, with stomach contents splattering one out of five carcasses.
- Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, p. 203
If there's shit in your meat, you can cook it to a high enough temperature to kill the E. coli and other bacteria inside it, and you will be fine. You're probably not thrilled with the idea of shit in the meat - but you won't get sick. The catch is that consumers do not always know how hot is "hot enough" and restaurant goers rely on the restaurant to follow properly cooking procedures to kill all of the bacteria.
The biggest problem comes from ground beef. Let's say that 1% of cows have E. coli O157:H7 in their intestines, and 1 out of 200 cows is contaminated with manure during processing. In that case, 1 out of every 20,000 cows is contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. That does not sound so bad (although it does sound bad) until you consider the practices used in making ground beef.
Many animals are mixed together to make ground beef. At the end of the day, the plants typically save any leftovers (ground beef not yet turned into hamburger patties) and mix them in with the next day's batch. Therefore, one contaminated animal could potentially contaminate all hamburger patties made after it, indefinitely. Furthermore, the bacteria is throughout the hamburger, not just on the surface of the meat; consumers need to cook the center of the meat to kill the bacteria, not just sear the surface.
Poke-and-Sniff
Why doesn't the government do something about this? Wouldn't it make sense? It can't even be that difficult - institute preventative measures up front and test for E. coli and other bacteria on the back end. For that matter, why wouldn't the beef industry implement this, to ensure the quality of their product?
The backbone of U.S. regulation here comes from a 1906 law requiring all slaughterhouses to have a USDA inspector on site during all hours of operation. The inspectors "poke and sniff" the animals (i.e. use sensory observations) to keep sick animals from entering the food supply. The problem: E. coli O157:H7 does not make cows sick.
Throughout the years, the beef industry has resisted further regulation. It does not want the government meddling in its affairs before the cows arrive for slaughter or after they leave the plant in plastic wrap. They do not want to test for microbial contamination. They do not want to put preventative measures in place to avoid getting shit in the meat. Basically, they want to keep doing what they are doing and make as much money as possible irregardless of consumer safety. And they've been pretty good at getting the government to let them. If you want to change the way these slaughterhouses operate, you need to be a big enough customer to hurt them in the wallet unless they shape it up.
Is safe food possible? You bet. We developed and implemented a process called HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) for our space program, to make sure our astronauts do not get sick in space. It works.
Beginning in 1996, the USDA established a HACCP program for large operations that deal with raw meat. The HACCP program has had many enemies over its 10 year life - from industry that did not want to implement pathogen reduction programs to consumer watchdog groups who were afraid that HACCP represented a form of "self-regulation" by industry. It's gone around and around in court battles, and when implemented, it was done with questionable success. As the USDA's jurisdiction begins at the slaughterhouse, the first key step in pathogen reduction (feeding cows hay during their last few days) is a decision left to agribusiness.
One last point - what happens to family-farmed beef? It is illegal to build a slaughterhouse on agricultural lands. In other words, family farmers cannot kill their own cows. They must bring them to the same large slaughterhouses that factory farms do. You can read two articles to find more information on this - Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal by Joel Salatin (the farmer from The Omnivore's Dilemma), and a Mother Jones article about contaminated beef.
The End of the Story
The story ends with you, the consumer, and your poop. You bring home the hamburger meat and hopefully you cook it thoroughly, wash any utensils and surfaces it touched while raw, and wash your hands.
When an outbreak occurs, those affected report intense abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Some are hospitalized, and some die. Many do not report their food poisoning at all (I've had food poisoning, although not from E. coli, twice in the past year, and I've never reported it) so statistics are difficult to track.
Unfortunately, the USDA cannot require a recall (because their jurisdiction ends when the meat leaves the plant). The best they can do is request a recall, and you can find out more about requested and recent recalls on the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service website. When push comes to shove, the USDA can withdraw its inspectors from the processing plant, effectively shutting it down.
It's a crime that responsibility for food safety belongs to you, the consumer. While you hold some responsibility, ultimately it should be shared among every pair of hands who touches the beef (or any other food) from the earth to the table. It's also a crime that our leaders will not amend our 1906 laws to reflect current farming practices and modern microbiology. So long as the Republicans are in charge, this will never change.
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Recipes
I apologize I don't have a better transition from bloody diarrhea to recipes, but this will have to do. The farmer's market was fantastic, as always, this week. I got Yukon Gold potatoes, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, the sweetest cherry tomatoes I've ever eaten, herbal tea, cherries, and chemical-free corn (that was a challenge to find!). My farmer's market buddy, Jonny, got a variety of Italian, Asian, and purple and white globe eggplants. I hope he shares whatever he makes with me!
My CSA box came with green beans, summer squash, patty pans, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, basil, red potatoes, scallions, and chard. I've got a confession to make: I really don't like arugula and I don't know what to do with it! It's too peppery for me and I'm not a salad-lover anyway. Suggestions are welcome and I'll know you're not implying I'm a troll.
Mango Cherry Nectarine Smoothie
- 1 nectarine, sliced and frozen
- 1/2 mango, sliced and frozen
- 10 cherries, halved, pitted, and frozen
- 1/3 c. milk, soy milk, or plain yogurt
- 1 tbsp. honey
Blend in a blender and enjoy!
Squash in Tomato Sauce
- 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 3 summer squash, sliced
- 1/2 c. tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp. fresh oregano (or 1 tsp. dried)
- Feta cheese, optional
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Combine all ingredients except for cheese in a saucepan over medium high heat. Cover and stir occasionally until squash are tender. Add feta if desired and serve.