Avian Flu Outbreak Among
Chickens—What This Disaster Can Tell Us About Our Food Production
May 19, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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Three large egg-producing states in the US are in
the midst of an avian flu outbreak. Iowa declared a
state of emergency on May 1. Minnesota and Wisconsin
declared states of emergency last month
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It’s estimated that 25 percent of all chickens in
Iowa have been infected, and millions of chickens
and turkeys in the three states have already been
killed in an effort to contain the disease
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The confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) model
virtually guarantees drug resistance and
out-of-control spread of disease, both among animals
and humans
By Dr. Mercola
Three large egg-producing states in the US are in the midst of an
avian flu outbreak. Iowa—where about 20 percent of all US eggs are
produced—declared a state of emergency on May 1.1
Minnesota and Wisconsin declared states of emergency last month,
and dozens of countries have imposed partial or total bans on US
poultry.
It's estimated that 25 percent of all chickens in Iowa have been
infected,2
and millions of chickens and turkeys in the three states have
already been killed in an effort to contain the disease.
According to Reuters:3
"Iowa officials started receiving noticepur about an
outbreak of the virus beginning on April 21. The pathogen is
highly contagious for turkeys, chickens, and other poultry.
While it's not a threat to humans, it can lead to high costs
over the loss of livestock and property, and quickly exhaust
local emergency responses..."
CAFOs Are a Constant Threat to Health
This outbreak is really not surprising. In fact, it's exactly
what you can expect when you dramatically disrupt the natural order
of things, and produce food under wholly unnatural circumstances.
Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are major
warehouse-style growing facilities where animals are crowded
together by the thousands, or in the case of chickens, tens of
thousands.
These animals are fed a completely unnatural diet of
glyphosate-containing genetically engineered (GE) grains mixed with
antibiotics—a surefire recipe for drug resistance and
out-of-control spread of disease, both among animals and humans.
This problem is certainly not restricted to chicken CAFOs. The
same applies to cattle and hog farms as well. As an example, hog
farmers are six times more likely than the general population to
carry drug-resistant Staph bacteria.4
In this case, two different strains of avian influenza have been
detected in chicken CAFOs across the US. The H5N2 strain is
circulating in Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, and
Wisconsin, while the H5N8 strain is found in California and in
Idaho.
And, while there are safeguards in place to contain deadly
disease outbreaks from spreading, poultry veterinarians note that
those strategies appear to have failed, as the influenza managed to
spread across 14 states in five months.
Amy Mayer, an Iowa Public Radio reporter told PBS5
that scientists are still struggling to figure out how the outbreak
was able to spread as widely as it has. "They thought they had a
pretty decent understanding of how this virus could spread, but the
way it is moving right now has really caused them to rethink some of
those ideas..." she says.
Reuters6
also noted that:
"Wild birds are thought to be carriers of the flu virus,
which can be tracked onto poultry farms by people or trucks that
come into contact with contaminated feces. It may also be
carried into barns by wind blowing in contaminated dirt or dust.
US and state officials had thought that quarantining
infected farms and killing birds would prevent the virus from
moving to neighboring farms.
However, veterinarians now think the disease was
transmitted between farms... If confirmed, a lateral spread
'would represent a failure in biosecurity,' said John Glisson,
vice president of Research for the US Poultry and Egg
Association."
Factory Farmed Foods Responsible for Most Foodborne Outbreaks
US authorities are very heavy-handed when it comes to
"protecting" you from unadulterated organic foods, such as raw milk
and artisan cheeses, ostensibly because such foods have not been
processed to the point that any and all microbes have been
eradicated.
Sterile equates to "safe," is the general idea, yet nothing could
be further from the truth.
The focus on eradicating microbes from our food supply and our
immediate environment, including our bodies, has led to dramatic
changes in the
microbiome of Americans, and the health ramifications of this
runs the gamut from obesity to an increased risk for most chronic
diseases.
Scientists have now realized that we need microbes to
stay healthy, slim, and mentally well-adjusted. And animals need
them too, in order to stay healthy, and therein lies the problem.
CAFOs are notorious for routinely administering antibiotics
(which indiscriminately kill both beneficial and pathogenic
bacteria) to the animals in order to keep them well enough for
slaughter. Antibiotics also make the animals grow fatter, faster,
which is another reason for their use.
Regardless of the justification, the end result is the same.
Indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture has led to the rise
of antibiotic resistance that now claims the lives of 23,000
Americans each year.
It also reduces the animals' overall immune function and health,
which ultimately equates to an inferior food product, compared to
eating a truly healthy, organically raised specimen.
Despite the fact that CAFOs are responsible for virtually all
foodborne outbreaks, the US government keeps protecting this model
of food production.
As reported by Oregon Live,7
several hundred people have been struck with severe food poisoning
over the course of a decade by chicken originating from Foster
Farms.
"State officials pushed federal regulators to act, but
salmonella-tainted chicken flowed into grocery stores, first in the
Northwest, then across the country. Oregon investigators became so
familiar with the culprit they gave it a name: the Foster Farms
strain," the article states, noting that the USDA repeatedly
chose not to warn the public or issue a recall of Foster Farm's
tainted chicken.
It almost seems as though CAFOs are "too big to bust," and
instead it's the tiny mom-and-pop artisan food makers that get
raided at gunpoint over some potential food safety issue, just so
the image of "food safety" can be maintained...
Sterilizing Food Does Not Make Unsafe Food Much Safer...
Non-organic foods are also typically sterilized before making
their way to your local grocery store, either through
pasteurization, irradiation, or antimicrobial chlorine baths, just
to name a few of the available procedures.
Despite such precautions, you still have a 50/50 chance of buying
meat tainted with drug-resistant bacteria when you buy it from your
local grocery store. In some cases, the risk may be even greater.
Using data collected by the federal agency called NARMS (National
Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System), testing by the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) revealed antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in 81 percent of ground turkey, 69 percent of pork chops,
55 percent of ground beef, and 39 percent of raw chicken.
In the US, nine million people get sick from
foodborne illness each year.8
While meats tend to top the list of offenders, conventionally grown
veggies are also responsible for their fair share of foodborne
illness, and the reason for this is also traceable right
back to CAFOs.
CAFOs collect the animals' waste in massive open-air cesspits,
the runoff from which can contaminate water used to irrigate crops
elsewhere. That's how a deadly fecal pathogen like E. coli O157:H7
can end up contaminating spinach for example. Putting sludge
originating from CAFOs as fertilizer on crop fields is another route
of exposure.
Why Organic Standards Might Be Corrupted
CAFO-procured dung is also becoming a problem within the
organic community, as the standards allow organic farmers to
spread manure on their fields—without regard for where that
manure came from. It's one thing to spread manure from grass-fed
cattle on your organic fields; another to douse it with manure from
cattle whose excrement is teeming with drugs and potentially
drug-resistant bacteria.
On April 28, 2015, organic rancher Nancy Utesch read the
following statement (reprinted here in part) to the National Organic
Standards Board (NOSB) in LaJolla, California:
"My husband and I are farmers raising 100 percent
grass-fed beef on our 150 acre farm in Kewaunee, Wisconsin.
Sitting... on the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline, my once
vibrant community now is home to 15 industrial mega-farms, known
as CAFOs... When community members gather where I live, we talk
manure; its make-up and its management.
Being subjected to the massive amounts of CAFO wastes
generated where I live has made me seriously question the
practice of organic standards allowing CAFO wastes spread on
organic ground and crops. This dirty secret in organics must be
stopped and the sooner the better!
These wastes are full of BGH, antibiotics, hormones,
copper sulfates, pesticide residues, GMO residues, chemical barn
cleaners, pharmaceuticals, and possibly municipal wastes. Where
I live, industrial waste is included.
This industrial waste comes from rendering facilities,
mink ranch, and slaughterhouse wastes of blood, hair, and paunch
(the stomach and intestine wastes of slaughtered animals),
cheese wastes heavy in chlorides, cattle truck wash, lime
slurry, and a myriad of other things combined to make a toxic
soup--delivered weekly by the tons to farmers and landowners --
who receive a tipping fee for taking these wastes. Very little
oversight takes place with these wastes, which are
self-monitored and logged.
These types of wastes carry with them the threats of
pathogens, endocrine-disrupting compounds, and a general make-up
that is harmful to human health and our soils... In 2013
research from the National wildlife Health Center in Madison
revealed that 'Prions, the infectious deformed proteins that
cause chronic wasting disease in deer--can be taken up by plants
such as alfalfa, corn, and tomatoes.'
Living in a CAFO community, I find the notion... of the
spreading of CAFO wastes on food deemed organic beyond an
oxymoron--it is OFFENSIVE. Obviously the uptake of these crops,
feeding on CAFO wastes, affects the quality of the food and its
status... [It] is NOT organic!
The unhappy marriage and unhealthy relationship of these
two diversely different farming methods needs to be divorced...
My trust in organics is the reason I am willing to pay premium
prices for food I consider medicine. I find the use of
industrialized farm wastes used in growing organic foods a real
breach of trust and integrity in the organic standards."
An Organic Regenerative Food System Is a Far Safer Food System
The root of all these food safety issues is the manner in which
the majority of our food is raised and grown. Agricultural giants
tried to "better" what nature came up with, and the system is
failing miserably. Now, the bird flu is obviously caused by a virus,
and viruses are not directly affected by antibiotics, so I'm not
suggesting that the use of antibiotics caused these lethal viruses
to emerge. What I am suggesting is that the use of antibiotics—in
combination with the large-scale confinement model—diminishes the
birds' immune function, leaving them more susceptible to disease,
such as the avian flu.
When they're cramped together by the tens of thousands, it's
certainly no wonder that a virus can take out an entire farm in no
time at all. Compounding the problem is the fact that CAFOs produce
tremendous amounts of waste, which allows microbes—be they
drug-resistant bacteria or lethal viruses—to spread through the
environment, traveling via wind, water, and wild animals to
neighboring farms.
In short, CAFOs create a negative feedback loop where safety
hazards are compounded and spread around, affecting animals, humans,
and the environment in equal measure.
The CAFO model virtually ensures that any breakout will be as
extensive and widespread as possible. Food safety will undoubtedly
remain elusive until or unless we change the way we grow and raise
our food, meaning we need to revert back to that which actually
works—a system where nature itself maintains a healthy balance with
minimal input from manmade drugs, chemicals, and genetic tinkering.
Tyson Vows to Phase Out Antibiotics... Sort of
As reported by Civil Eats,9
Tyson Foods has announced it will strive to eliminate antibiotics
from its American operations by September 2017. Perdue and Pilgrim's
Pride have made similar vows:
"Together these companies produce about a third of the US
chicken supply. It's part of a trend that has seen restaurant
chains like McDonald's, Chipotle, Panera, and Chick-fil-A pledge
to go antibiotic-free... The National Resources Defense Council
(NRDC), which has been campaigning to stop the overuse of
antibiotics in farming for years, has called this 'the tipping
point for getting the chicken industry off antibiotics.'"
The article does bring up a few considerations though. While
these promises are indeed welcome, the US government does not
oversee antibiotic use in livestock, so we're left to rely on the
company's own self-reporting. A black spot marring Tyson's
reputation for honesty is noted in the article:
"Tyson claimed to be producing antibiotic-free chicken in
2008, then was ordered by a federal court10
to change the label after the USDA found that the claims were
false."
Tyson also has poultry operations in Mexico, China, and India,
and the company has made no mention of addressing the use of
antibiotics in those chickens. So is the industry really going to
tackle this problem without regulation, or are promises such as
these just another PR stunt to soothe our fears? According to Civil
Eats:
"Ultimately, Tyson's announcement doesn't mean that the
company will stop using antibiotics entirely, either. It may
still use drugs important to humans to treat sick chickens.
McDonald's and Tyson are also still allowing for the use of
ionophores, an animal antibiotic that doctors don't prescribe to
humans. In other words, many of the practices that make chickens
sick to begin with may remain the same."
Wholesome Food Resources
I believe the movement toward sustainable food and ethical meat
is very important, both in terms of human health and animal welfare.
Organic,
grass-fed and finished meat, raised without antibiotics and
other
growth-promoting drugs is really the only type of meat
that is healthy to eat, in my view. The following organizations can
help you locate farm-fresh foods in your local area that has been
raised in a humane and sustainable manner:
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Local Harvest -- This Web site will help
you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of
sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce,
grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
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Eat Wild -- With more than 1,400 pasture-based
farms, Eatwild's Directory of Farms is one of the most
comprehensive sources for grass-fed meat and dairy products in
the United States and Canada.
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Farmers' Markets -- A national listing of
farmers' markets.
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Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals
-- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably
raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores,
restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United
States and Canada.
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FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes "Find Good
Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the
freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you
can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near
you.
When looking for antibiotic-free meat, it's best to familiarize
yourself with the various labels11
currently in use, as some are useful, while others can be downright
deceptive:
100% USDA Organic label offers
excellent assurance that antibiotics have not been used at
any stage of production. |
"No antibiotics administered" and
similar labels also offer high assurance that antibiotics
have not been used, especially if accompanied by a "USDA
process Verified" shield. |
"Grass-fed" label coupled with USDA
Organic label means no antibiotics have been used, but if
the "grass-fed" label appears alone, antibiotics may have
been given. |
"American Grass-fed" and "Food
Alliance Grass-fed" labels indicate that in
addition to having been raised on grass, the animal in
question received no antibiotics. |
The following three labels: "Antibiotic-free,"
"No antibiotic residues," and "No
antibiotic growth promotants," have not been
approved by the USDA and may be misleading if not outright
fraudulent. |
"Natural" or "All-Natural"
is completely meaningless and has no bearing on whether or
not the animal was raised according to organic principles.
"Natural" meat and poultry products can by law receive
antibiotics, hormones, and genetically engineered grains,
and can be raised in confined animal feeding operations
(CAFOs). |
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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