Most of the population in the U.S. suffers from an acute diarrheal illness, every year. According to a recent survey, most people correctly identified food as the most common source of infection, but fewer than half (45 percent) believed it legal for grocery stores to sell meat with food-poisoning bacteria on it.

You can’t sell unsafe cars and you can’t sell unsafe toys; how could they possibly sell unsafe meat? They do it by blaming the consumer.

In this two-minute video, Unsafe at Any Feed, one USDA poultry microbiologist said, “I think the consumer has the most responsibility, but refuses to accept it “Raw meats are not idiot-proof. They can be mishandled and when they are, it’s like handling a hand grenade. If you pull the pin, somebody’s going to get hurt.”

So it’s our fault if we get sick. That’s like a car company knowingly selling cars with faulty brakes and then blaming tragedies on parents for not putting their kids in rear-facing car seats. …read more of Why is it Legal to Sell Unsafe Meat? here

The results of two major Harvard studies, which followed the diets of more than 100,000 men and women, for up to 22 years were published March 12, 2012.

The researchers found that red meat consumption was associated with living a significantly shorter life – increased cancer mortality, increased heart disease mortality and increased overall mortality.

These studies were featured in this NutritionFacts.org video-of-the-day Harvard’s Meat and Mortality Studies.

A press release sent out immediately by The American Meat Institute stated, “A new study in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine tries to predict the future risk of death from cancer or cardiovascular disease by relying on notoriously unreliable self-reporting about what was eaten and obtuse methods to apply statistical analysis to the data.”

Alas, yes, the Harvard researchers were not telepathic and did indeed have to ask people what they were eating. The Meat Institute criticized the esteemed researchers for using “survey data – not test tubes, microscopes or lab measurements….” No beakers either, I bet!  …read more of Red Meat Consumption Associated with Significantly Shorter Lifespan here

Chicken products could be declared “unfit for consumption.”

Dioxin, the industrial pollutant of Agent Orange infamy, has been called “the most toxic compound synthesized by man.”

Not only is dioxin considered a known human carcinogen, adverse health effects may include cardiovascular disease, diabetes, endometriosis, early menopause, reduced testosterone and thyroid hormones, altered metabolism and immune responses, and skin, tooth, and nail abnormalities.

Exposure to dioxin during pregnancy can result in altered thyroid, brain, immune system, and reproductive organ development.

The Environmental Protection Agency start testing Americans’ tissues for dioxin levels back in 1982 and after three decades of delay is now releasing new guidelines that would set limits on the safe exposure of U.S. consumers to this class of toxic chemicals.

In response, the National Chicken Council, American Meat Institute, and other industry groups complained to the White House that their products “could arbitrarily be classified as unfit for consumption.”

But the classification wouldn’t be arbitrary at all; it would be based on the level of dioxin contamination in the food. …read more of EPA Dioxin Limit has National Chicken Council Worried here

Most people go vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, some will go vegetarian or cut red meat out of their lives for health reasons.  But what about the environment?

As more and more people are starting to think about where their food travels from (my banana came from where?!) and what treatments they’ve underwent (what hormones are in this?!), the implications of eating meat are starting to be realized.

Some fast facts about what it takes to “grow” cattle in the U.S. today:

• It takes a gallon of gas to produce a pound of beef.
• Eighty percent of U.S. grain production goes towards feeding livestock.
• Most pesticides fall on the grain and grass used to feed cattle (which means you’re ultimately consuming them). …read more of The Environmental Impact of Raising Meat here