Big Pharma

if an animal gets sick with any type of bacterial illness, it moves like wildfire throughout the whole operation thanks to extreme overcrowding.

Factory farming is the problem. Big pharma might be cashing in on prophylactic antibiotics, but they're not driving their use.

animals raised in factory farming situations.

You can get 100% grass fed beef and meat raised without antibiotics but its' pricier.

And that's a good thing because it encourages people to eat less meat. Their arteries will thank them.

Guaranteed to NOT end well.

by the time they're 8 or so weeks old.

The whole thing has gotten insane, inhumane, and will ultimately collapse and make us all very hungry for a very long time.

Very new and completely unsustainable. Huge waste ponds that rival the sewage treatment needs of cities are created and left untreated. When the ponds get too big, they move the farms.

There's absolutely no plans for sustainability - it's a profit and run deal.

I thought the big chickens were fed fatty foods or steroids.

My wife & I moved from Minneapolis to a very rural area of Arkansas (Ouachita Mountains) in the Fall of 2006. A couple of months later, during Christmas Week, we were exploring along a winding, dirt back road after a snowfall,
and there, in the middle of the road, sitting on a small pile of snow between the ruts, was a small, yellow chick that couldn't have been more than 2 days old.

We had no idea how that chick could have gotten there,
but, of course, we took the chick home, warmed it up, and became the proud parents of a beautiful little house chicken.

Since raising and keeping Free Range Chickens was a part of our plan, we celebrated the Christmas Providence of the newest member of our refuge and first member of our flock.

It soon became apparent that our new member had difficulty standing, and was deteriorating daily. My wife stayed in 24 hour nursing attendance, hand feeding and nurturing this small and very frail piece of our new life. She even fashioned small splints in the hope that this would let her stand, but that was not to be.
After several days, this small chick died in my wife's hands while she was whispering words of love and giving her permission to go. We buried "Peep" behind our cabin that afternoon.

A few days later, we mentioned the mystery of the Chick-in-the-Road to a local neighbor, and he told us the horrible truth.

Tyson Industries contracts with local Chicken "Farmers" in this area.
Tyson provides the chicks and the feed, and picks up the hens for slaughter.
The "farmers" keep these chickens in tight confinement (Concentration Camps).
They live their short lives in cages too small to turn around in, so there is no need for them to even stand. They are bred for the size of their breasts ONLY, and wouldn't be able to walk even if they were free.

The chicks are hatched at the Tyson Factory Headquarters,
and transported to the "farmers" aboard the "Chicken Bus",
and it is not uncommon for one or two chicks to escape from the bus during transport, but that doesn't do them any good because they can't really walk.
THAT was what we had found in the snow, in the road, the Day before Christmas, and a sobering dose of reality for us.

We are still here, and we have a wonderful flock of happy, healthy, Free Range chickens.
We treat them with respect and love, and they entertain us, mystify us, and give us healthy eggs, but we also haven't forgotten the horrors that exist not too far away.

and that's when she made her escape, during the confusion of the process of debeaking a huge clutch.

Most broilers are raised in big, barrack like structures, plenty of room when they're chicks but crammed in pretty tightly as they get to be seven to nine weeks old, the average age for the broiler chickens you see most often in the supermarket. Debeaking is necessary because overcrowded chickens will peck at each other and make each other's meat less appealing.

Laying hens are the ones crammed into cages, able to sit and eat and lay eggs and nothing else until they stop laying and are sent to be made into soup.

Eggs and meat from chickens labeled "free range" might come from chickens whose ability to be outdoors and scratch for grubs is limited to an hour a day, but that's an hour better than Purdue's hapless hens get.

Organically raised, really free range chicken is very, very different from mass produced chicken. The breasts are normal size and you can't cut the meat with the side of your fork. A diet of corn supplemented by mealworms, grubs and insects makes the meat more flavorful. It does take getting used to (especially the price!), but it's better for you and much better for the poor chickens.

on a finish lot when they're fed all that corn to make them unhealthily fat.

In any case, I've driven past feed lots in August. Nothing that smells like that can be healthful for man or beast.

I'll stick to the 100% range fed stuff. Or develop a taste for buffalo, which stores here are beginning to carry. Everybody else can have my share of that "marbled" beef that is so efficient at clogging arteries.

Bacterial diseases can be fought, for now, with increasing antibacterials...

Virus mutations? Not so much. One of these days one will hop to humans....

Dunno what is happening with level of dairy cows, tho.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]I know someone who has severe allergic reactions to multiple antibiotics. He couldn't understand why he's been unable to eat meat for the last few years without getting sick. Needless to say, I've passed on this article.

grass, grain and no antibiotics.

We avoid meat with Antibiotics and Hormones currently.

But, my wife grew up in a meat and potatoes home, and I fell that all of the hormones and anibiotics turned her into a superhero.

My evidence:
1. She is always right.
2. She never get sick.
3. She is super strong
4. She is always calm
5. She could definately kick my ass
6. She can drink me under the table
7. Taxis always stop for her
8. She has never lost anything
9. She does not pass gas

I can name 2 that were absolutely not calm. All I could drink under the table. All could also get sick. 3 that were never right. I can also confirm at least 4 passed gas, 1 that nearly killed me.

You better buy her a heart

I bought her a good wine, she'll appreciate that. I'll never get her flowers though.

I buy my wife wine and flowers. Never diamonds. I offered her one when I first proposed, and she refused!! So, no diamonds.

We avoid meat with antibiotics and hormones also.

1-8 is also my wife. I'll have to pass on #9

This is why I buy local organic meat from my local food co-op.

Omnivore's Dilemma. Antibiotics cause faster growth and in mass cow factories, corn causes problems that require antibiotics. Those fine establishments employees are mostly vets as in veterinarians. And all those antibiotics might be eaten by the cows (or other meats) are then eaten by you and I. No wonder they don't work anymore.

and groundwater. They are in the water used to irrigate farms. They are in municipal water supplies. We ingest them where our human cells are always developing new ways to disable the antibiotics and make them ineffective.

We are looking at the end of the age of antibiotics. This has been known for a long time but I guess no one wanted to offend the powerful corporations that run factory farms.

Back to dying of all those bacterial infections that we now consider minor.

Doctors try not to overdo antibiotic use in humans, but what good does that do when this is going on? We're breeding resistant bacteria on these "farms". The producers benefit from it. The pharmaceutical companies benefit from it. The consumer gets abundant, inexpensive meat and the connection to uncle Joe's or cousin Sue's persistent infection isn't clearly obvious. The market won't fix this. This requires government intervention, but we've known about this issue for decades and nothing is done.

Eat clean food. You will feel a lot better.