Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and other Health scandalsBritain’s mad cow disease health scandal was caused when farmers turned herbivores into cannibals by feeding cheap animal feed to their cattle which was contaminated with meat by-products produced from their own species.
This totally unnatural diet caused them to display signs of a disease called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (or BSE), which caused a breakdown in the protein of the brain and was dubbed “mad cow disease.”
What happened next was a total scandal as these cattle were deemed to be fit for human consumption despite dying of a diseased brain and nervous system which could potentially be passed on to humans who ate the meat from these diseased animals.
It was a direct result of greed with tragic results. But politicians consistently defended and protected farmers, and for years deliberately hid the truth about this very real health hazard.
Dr Vernon Coleman, a British campaigner, has written over 90 books on health matters. He warned that this disease could be a serious problem as far back as 1990. He also predicted that it could cause eventual death in humans.
However he was vilified by the Government and accused of “scaremongering”. He repeated his warnings in 1993 that anyone eating beef and beef products were taking a real health risk.
Britain’s chief medical officer at the time, assured people that beef could be safely eaten by anyone. “To say Doctor Coleman’s views are alarmist would be an understatement” he announced.
When Dr Coleman further revealed that mad cow disease was being transmitted back to sheep, (by feeding the carcasses of cows suffering from the disease to sheep), he was again dismissed as a scaremonger.
This whole saga just proves that far too much decision making in our world is done in the interests of corporations, institutions and business in general, and against the interests of individuals.
Details of how politicians allow farmers to feed their livestock are coming to light more frequently following the appalling mad cow disease scandal in the UK.
I quote directly from Dr Coleman here, who has carried out a lot of research into this area of public interest:
“Among the cheap foods fed to cattle and pigs on farms in the U.S are: human sewage sludge, dead cats and dogs, chicken manure, slaughterhouse waste, cement kiln dust, old newspapers, waste cardboard, agricultural waste (corn cobs, fruit and vegetable peelings) and old fat from restaurants and grease traps.” (food for thought, 2004)
Those who eat meat, especially beef, could well be consuming the residues of this disgusting diet. If it is true that we are what we eat then this should alarm all those who eat meat. What farmers choose to include in the animal feed is crucial to our health.
Animal Feed Health ConcernsApproximately 7 million people in America suffer ill health as a result of food-borne illnesses. The figures for other western countries are proportionally similar. One reason is that animal manure remains attached to or mixed with meat, and sent to the shops to be eaten by us.
Another reason is the fact that many cooks do not prepare meat properly – often by not cooking it right through. But the major cause of illness must be the practice of feeding animals so poorly. Our insatiable demand for meat means that millions of farm animals are raised to provide meat –and then go on to produce an enormous amount of manure.
Getting rid of this has become a real problem as the vast quantity of mature can’t all be spread on the land as fertilizer. So, to try and get rid of this toxic waste, farmers now frequently mix this animal waste into livestock feed. On farms that raise both cattle and chickens, chicken manure often gets fed to cows.
Dr Coleman is convinced that the mixing of chicken manure in animal feed is an important cause of infection. Chicken commonly carry the salmonella bug (among others) And so the cattle become infected with salmonella. It’s not surprising that food borne disease and ill health is so commonplace. Food from the United States of course is imported freely into Britain and other parts of Europe.
More Health ConcernsModern regulations allow farmers, meat processors, packers and food companies selling meat to greatly mislead us, the consumers of these products. The word “meat” can mean all manner of parts of animals like the tail, spinal cord, heads and feet. The term “meat product” also covers a whole multitude of sins.
A food product packaged as “pure beef” may include fat, gristle, and skin. Sausages can include intestines, fat, bone and cartilage. To cap it all, food products often contain dyes, flavourings and chemicals to disguise any unpleasant tastes of what they are selling Read more about this here Every day, huge numbers of animals are killed and “processed”. In theory, the slaughter should be clean, fast, painless and hygienic. However, this is far from the reality.
Killing goes on in huge sheds where cross infection is commonplace and where there is no time to clear away blood or fecal matter. Chickens are killed in batches of thousands at a time. It’s no surprise then when there is infection on a large scale, and contamination is widespread.
Further reading
Read about the health concerns of the use of hormones and drugs in animal feed
Doctors and experts are warning about the dangers of too much junk food in our diets
The dangers of Genetically modified foods in our diets
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