no surprise to be found in this unfortunate situation "...it's virtually impossible to mass-produce clean, safe, optimally nutritious foods at rock bottom prices"



"Demand for food at cheaper prices has dramatically altered the entire food chain. Today, food production revolves around efficiency—the ability to produce more for less. ...This mindset has significant ramifications for both animal and human health, and the environment.

Today, nearly 65 billion animals worldwide, including cows, chickens, and pigs, are crammed into confined animal feeding operations known as CAFOs. These animals are imprisoned and tortured in crowded, unhealthy, unsanitary, and cruel conditions.

As noted by the Cornucopia Institute,1 the price of chicken has dropped dramatically over the past few decades, becoming the cheapest meat available in the US. As a result, consumption has doubled since 1970.

Seeing how chicken is supposed to be a healthy source of high-quality nutrition, the fact that it has become so affordable might seem to be a great benefit. But there's a major flaw in this equation. As it turns out, it's virtually impossible to mass-produce clean, safe, optimally nutritious foods at rock bottom prices.
"


"...we see nothing in a piece of meat but the price, and we reward those businesses who can provide it most cheaply. This has led to true outrages: environmental degradation, Tyson-style exploitation, and the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These, Ogle points out, are the tradeoffs we’ve chosen as eaters who overwhelmingly opt for the cheapest meat..."


"...Though 48 million people fall sick every year from eating food tainted with salmonella, campylobacter, E. coli, and other contaminants, “more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity,” according to an analysis of outbreaks from 1998 through 2008 by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)..."





http://grist.org/food/the-brutal-cost-of-a-cheap-chicken/
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/02/the-high-cost-of-cheap-chicken/index.htm

NBD

This a Farm Company or a Family Farm?? know alot of Southern MN farms

This virus is a air-borne item. Prevailing winds are from the Southwest this time of year. Every Operation will have a threat as long as the virus is able to survive in the present Climate Conditions. With a easy Winter season,this crap will happen.

How is this spreading? It must be coming in with chicks?

What I'm wondering is how it gets from farm to farm. How does it contaminate these factory farms to start with..I don't imagine they are open to the outside where an infected wild bird can come into the chicken houses and infect the birds...so how does the illness arrive? I'm thinking they buy chicks from a hatchery and that may be how it arrived...don't know but wonder how it's spreading.

Where is the pro-vaccine big pharma marketing group that say all of this is preventable by getting vaccinated?