Posted on 01/07/2008 8:46:19 AM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
FLORIDA CITY, Fla. — Walking into the small Florida City warehouse, Blair Blacker pauses to survey the towering pyramid of canvas bundles, each about the size of a punching bag, that contain the stock-in-trade of his business: human hair. About 15 tons of it on a recent day, imported from China, neatly pressed into mats and ready to ship to farmers and nursery growers who swear by the horticultural benefits of Blacker's hairy wares. "If you had told me when I was flying combat helicopters in Vietnam that one day I'd be sitting on 30,000 pounds of human hair," said Blacker, a retired Army colonel-turned-entrepreneur, "I'd have said you were crazy." The mats stored in southern Miami-Dade County are part of a world marketplace for human hair. Uses range from the obvious, such as false eyelashes and wigs, to the more obscure: it's a common raw-material source for l-cysteine, an amino acid frequently used in baked goods such as pizza dough and bagels. China and India exported more than $154 million worth of human hair last year, according to United Nations trade statistics. They are Blacker's main suppliers. "It's not processed or dyed like a lot of hair we have here," said Blacker, whose own hair is silvery and neatly cropped. The product, marketed as SmartGrow, is effective in keeping out weeds, and has even shown signs of increasing yield in crops like tomatoes, according to University of Florida scientists. "It's really exciting. The first trial was just outstanding," said Aaron Palmateer, an associate professor of plant pathology who has conducted tests on the SmartGrow product at UF's Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead. There is an admitted yuck factor to using hair in lieu of herbicide, but Palmateer points out that common agricultural methods can be similarly unappetizing.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No. If hairs drop into your soup or food... and this happens often enough it’s no cannibalism either, isn’t it?
Also you might be surprised how many tiny skin particles, which come off all he time, are in our food... it’s not cannibalism.
However human hair knowingly used in Pizza is disturbing and gross anyway.
It seems to me that several folks here had better not look into what goes into bologna and many other things we eat every day. And what do farmers do with the stuff they clean out of stables and barns?
Pizza?
I'm guessing it is extracted.
In a previous life, I worked in the cosmetics business. One of our best suppliers had rare returns on occasion because an insect might be found in their cosmetics. They used mainly botanical extracts. Botanical extracts are the most popular alternative to the other main ingredient in cosmetics-- collagen and animal fats.
Every botanical extract contains insects. The better ones (such as we were representing) will occasionally show an insect because their blending and refining process is minimal in order to produce the best close to nature benefits of the botanical used. Those lower on the scale (such as you buy in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart) will almost never show identifable insects or insect parts because they contain a small quantity of highly refined and blended extract mixed with a lot of filler.
If we knew everything that was in what we eat or rub on our faces, we probably could do neither.
Guess I should stop ordering the “everything bagel”.
Hair-raising!
I guess it will be Chinese hair pasta....
He ought to hit up Alec Baldwin for some of his back and body hair. That would be four sacks right there! Ask his ex.
I didn’t intend my post to be 100% serious.
Anyway, I still argue that it is technically cannibalism when you eat even a stray hair in your bakery muffin. LOL.
This is disgusting. In PIZZA?
Good point!...does everyone know what’s in head cheese?
Um, I don’t eat head cheese. Or bologna or hot dogs. Or chicken mcnuggets for that matter.
Okay then...
I got nothin...
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!
I was sooo slow
A lot of baked goods have Dough Enhancer added. It’d be my guess that it’s in that rather than the flour.
Here’s a source for grain and flour that’s American.
http://www.newhopemills.com/products/
New Hope Mills has fought the state of NY and won in an effort to keep from putting additives in their pancake mix. They have a whole wheat pancake mix that’s out of this world. With other brands you can tell you’re eating something good for you. This is way better.
thanks for the link! I’ve never been involved in any production scale food processing or baking of any sort - just local stores where I’ve never seen or used anything like Dough Enhancer as an ingredient (hence the suppositions made in my earlier post).
Yeah, I hear ya. There are a lot of things I would like to unsee when it comes to food production (things I’ve seen on TV or seen other people do in kitchens).
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