380 Million eggs recalled since last week.

Were they from a small family farm or CAFO?

What’s your guess?

Two Iowa farms, CAFOs, recalled more than half a billion potentially tainted eggs this month. Those two farms share close ties since they supply both the chickens and the feed and yet are owned by the same company.

DECOSTER FARMS CITED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

Both farms are linked to businessman Austin “Jack” DeCoster, cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations over the years. DeCoster owns Wright County Egg, the original farm that recalled 380 million eggs Aug. 13 after they were linked to more than 1,000 reported cases of salmonella poisoning.

FDA SEEKS FURTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY

According to Sherri McGarry of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, “There are preventive measures that would have been in place that could have prevented this.” She and other officials declined to say what specific measures would have prevented this particular outbreak, citing an ongoing FDA investigation. The FDA recommends stronger regulatory powers be given to the agency.

CHEAP EGGS, FILTHY CONDITIONS

Michael Pollan, “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” would call these eggs, “battery cage eggs,” because the chickens are crammed into tiny cages, unable to walk or spread their wings.

They’re covered in feces, often forced to share cages with the bodies of dead neighbors. These unnatural conditions produce sick birds, which increases the likelihood of infected eggs.

DeCoster has been warned before of environmental violations. Hog effluent, from his hog farm, contaminated the chicken operation. Rats contaminated the feed, and carried contamination from one to the other.

Hog effluent, rats rummaging in chicken feed.  It’s no surprise there’s salmonella.

http://cleanse-for-better-health.com/blog/uploaded/farmsanctuarychicken.jpg
Picture courtesy of “Farm Sanctuary”

FACTORY FARMS FIGHT NATURAL DESIGN

I wonder how the FDA proposes to inspect and regulate huge animal factories.

Why try to regulate “farms” that are, by design, breeding grounds for disease and bacteria? It seems to me this problem does not stem frm lack the lack of regulation as much as faulty design.

It’s the industry itself. How do you present factories that treat animals/birds inhumanely as sources of healthy food for our bodies?

Can we expect food from abused creatures to really nourish and bring health?

EGG INDUSTRY CONSOLIDATION MEANS FEWER FOOD SOURCES

The egg industry has consolidated over recent years, leaving a few very large businesses.  Controlled Animal Feeding Operations, CAFOs, control most of the nation’s egg supply.  That’s not a sustainable system.

Amy Goodman interviews, Aug 24, on “Democracy Now” author David Kirby, “Animal Factory,” about the dangerous consolidation of our food supply:

WHERE DOES OUR FOOD COME FROM?

WHERE DO I GET MY EGGS?

Thanks for asking!! Our family buys chickens and eggs from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Program. The chickens are raised on a small family farm in Nevada.  Even in the city you can find today folks who raise a few chickens and are willing to sell their eggs. 

The chickens run free, are not cramped in small cages with no room to turn.  They’re allowed to express their “chickenness,” as Joel Saladin would say.

http://cleanse-for-better-health.com/blog/uploaded/chickens.jpg

 

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