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For decades, farmers have given livestock low doses of antibiotics in their feed to speed growth and prevent infection. And, for decades, scientists and public health officials have warned that this practice, known as “subtherapeutic use,” leads to the creation and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have grown more common both in people and in meat at the grocery store. Doctors encounter patients with infections that are harder to treat and last year, we saw a massive food recall—the third-largest recall of meat in USDA’s records—thanks to antibiotic-resistant Salmonella in ground turkey.The FDA acknowledges there’s a problem, but has...

The company that makes "pink slime" suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product. Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company's director of food safety and quality assurance. The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations. "We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back," Letch said. "It's 100 percent beef."

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- At Cappuccio’s Meats in the Italian Market, the cuts of beef are cutting into the profits. “Every week when I talk to my suppliers, I’m amazed by how much it’s going up,” said owner Domenick Crimi. Beef prices soared more than 10 percent last year according to the Department of Agriculture, and they will likely go up at least another 5 percent this year. “It bumps up a bit, comes down a tiny bit, then it bounces again, and when it bounces, it goes up another dime, 15, 20 cents,” said Crimi, “and sometimes that’s in a...

Animal rights activists are behind the burning of cattle trucks at the Harris Ranch truck lot early Sunday, according to a statement from the purported arsonists. The statement, released Monday, describes how the fire, which heavily damaged 14 tractors and several trailers, was set and says the attack was aimed at "the horrors of factory farming." Spokeswoman Nicoal R. Sheen of the Animal Liberation Press Office, which released the statement, said the office doesn't take part in illegal actions but distributes communiqués from those who do. Fresno County sheriff's spokesman Chris Curtice said detectives are looking into the claim. He...

There is nothing subtle about a 200-pound, fat-flanked steer hindquarter slung on a man's back. The sight brings out the red-blooded Neanderthal in even the Mason-jar-wine and skinny-jeans crowd at Oakland's Eat Real Festival in September. Despite the event's civilized sponsorship partners, like Whole Foods and Prius, the spectators roar and whistle as if a gladiator had entered the Colosseum. The charge is visceral, vaguely sexual. "Kill somebody!" one man yells. Staffers hang up the leg by its heel on a hook. "Bring on the ketchup!" "Give us some scraps!" The crowd sees a naked animal carcass, arguably as provocative...

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Two cows caused a traffic jam Friday morning when they got loose on the Marsha Sharp Freeway. The cows were being loaded up from the Texas Tech Animal and Food Sciences Center when they made a break for it. It took a combination of 10 police units and ropers from the Texas Tech ranching team to catch them both. One cow was caught off the MSF between Quaker Avenue and Slide Road. The other cow jumped through a law office window before being captured on 19th Street and Avenue Q behind Lubbock High School. The cows...

Kazakhstan flies in US cows to boost beef industryAssociated Press Updated Monday, Oct 10 at 12:01 PM BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) — Hundreds of North Dakota cows bred to withstand brutal cold are being shipped in jumbo jets to Kazakhstan to help build the nation's beef industry. **SNIP** North Dakota is known for its harsh winters and hardy livestock, Price said. North Dakota cows typically have thicker coats and more marbling and fatty tissue, state agriculture officials say. More than 2,600 pregnant cows and heifers were shipped last year on Boeing 747 freighters from North Dakota to Astana, the capital...

One of the very popular propaganda campaigns by the governments is to use children to appeal safety. Since the national government, prefectural governments, municipal governments all do it, producers and wholesalers must feel they are not just allowed but encouraged to do the same, and they join in with the governments to exploit small children so that they (think they) can sell their stuff, whatever they are peddling. Here's the latest from Tochigi Prefecture, where radioactive cesium in the beef exceeded the national provisional safety limit by wide margin and the shipment of the meat had been halted in August,...

Charges may ensue for an Ogden man who startled the neighbors by butchering a cow in his driveway over the weekend. Police were called to the scene at 1:44 p.m. Sunday after the cow's owner began harvesting the animal. A patrolman was responding to a caller who saw a cow being trailered to the home in the 2700 block of Gramercy Avenue. The caller then reported hearing the cow's audible mooing, followed by what sounded like a gunshot, said Police Lt. Troy Burnett. Then the mooing stopped. The patrolman's report said when he arrived at the scene a half-block above...

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Sept. 7, 2011: Not all trans fats are created equal and it's time for a change in nutrition labels in North America to reflect this, particularly when it comes to dairy and beef products. According to a scientific review published in the latest edition of Advances in Nutrition, natural trans fats produced by ruminant animals such as dairy and beef cattle are not detrimental to health and in fact show significant positive health effects. Some evidence even links these natural trans fats to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. "The body of evidence clearly points to...

The severe drought started in Texas and now ranges up to southeast Iowa. Hay sought by farmers and ranchers for their cattle, and by homesteaders and horse lovers. Those people who have a horse or two or a handful of cattle, goats, or sheep are suffering as bad as the large producers. Why? Small hay bales that used to be $3.00 are selling for up to $9.50 in southeast Iowa. Large bales are well over $100.00 in places.

From Asahi Shinbun (3:02AM JST 8/11/2011): The survey by the Ministry of Education and Science has revealed that 296 schools in 12 prefectures have used beef from cows suspected of radioactive cesium contamination. 2 schools used the beef whose cesium level exceeded the provisional safety limit. According to the ministry, as of August 9, the meat from the cows that may have eaten radioactive rice hay was used in school lunches in 278 elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and special education schools, and 18 kindergartens, in 20 cities and towns in Japan. 127 schools in Yokohama City used...

Yokohama City officials, from the ex-Daiei CEO mayor on down, denied and refused to do anything about it since one of the city's assemblymen first raised the issue back in April of school lunches in the city using beef from cows that were possibly contaminated with radioactive materials. The officials asserted that any food items were "safe as long as they are sold in the marketplace". (See my post here for the assemblyman's effort with concerned citizens of Yokohama to force the city to stop the use of beef in school lunches.) Now, the city's Board of Education finally admits...

Turmoil over radiation-contaminated beef spreads to luxury brands MORIOKA (Kyodo) -- Turmoil caused by the recent detection of cesium contamination of beef shipped from Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is spreading to hurt producers of high-quality beef in other parts of the country. With cattle shipments and bidding suspended or canceled due to people's fears over the contaminated beef, livestock farms and related firms worry they may be forced out of business. Since radioactive cesium above the government-designated limit was detected in beef cattle from Fukushima at a Tokyo slaughterhouse on July 8, it has...

Over 1,300 cattle suspected of radiation contamination shipped TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A total of 1,349 cattle suspected of being fed rice straw containing radioactive cesium have been shipped to 45 of Japan's 47 prefectures, a Kyodo News tally showed Wednesday. On Wednesday, prefectural surveys revealed 699 cattle suspected of such contamination were shipped from farms in Iwate, Akita, Gunma, Niigata, Gifu and Shizuoka prefectures, adding to another herd of such cattle found to have been shipped from farms in Niigata, Fukushima, Yamagata and Saitama prefectures. In Iwate, up to 57,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram -- far above the...

37 prefectures get meat from cows fed tainted straw The Yomiuri Shimbun The meat of beef cattle fed rice straw tainted with high levels of radioactive cesium in Fukushima Prefecture was distributed in 37 prefectures, and the cows' meat was sold to consumers in 35 of the prefectures, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey. The tainted meat was newly found to have been distributed in Toyama, Nara and Yamaguchi prefectures, in addition to the distribution in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka and Fukuoka prefectures that had been confirmed earlier. The 35 prefectures where meat from the cows was sold to consumers include...

'Colossal blunder' on radioactive cattle feed / Govt officials admit responsibility for foul-up that let tainted beef enter nation's food supply The Yomiuri Shimbun Officials of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry have admitted they did not consider the possibility of cattle ingesting straw contaminated by radioactive substances emitted from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. "This is nothing less than a colossal blunder by our ministry. It was beyond our expectations that straw would become a source of radioactive contamination," a ministry official said. A total of 143 beef cattle suspected of being contaminated with radioactive cesium after...

Gov't may expand cattle shipment suspension zone beyond Fukushima Pref. TOKYO, July 18 (Kyodo) - The government may consider halting beef cattle shipments from areas beyond Fukushima Prefecture, where it plans to soon impose a suspension, senior vice health minister Kohei Otsuka said Sunday. ''We are currently considering Fukushima Prefecture, but we may have to consider the need for a further response by checking the distribution of contaminated straw,'' Otsuka said on a TV program. The government's nuclear disaster task force is set to suspend shipments of beef cattle from Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant...

Tainted beef sold at Ito-Yokado, Aeon supermarkets in Chiba National Jul. 18, 2011 - 07:50PM JST ( 16 ) TOKYO — Supermarket operator Ito-Yokado Co said Monday it sold 41.7 kilograms of meat from a cow shipped from Fukushima Prefecture and contaminated with radioactive cesium at two of its outlets in Chiba Prefecture. The company has decided to suspend sales of Fukushima-produced beef for the time being, it said. The beef in question was sold at its outlets in Narita and Nagareyama between July 1 and 10, according to Ito-Yokado. Ito-Yokado said it will accept returns and provide refunds on...

Cesium-Tainted Beef Woes Hit Meat Retailers, Restaurants Tokyo, July 16 (Jiji Press)--Cesium-tainted beef that has been shipped from Fukushima Prefecture to many places outside the prefecture has put many meat retailers and restaurants into a plight. "Our beef sales have halved," a 70-year-old man running a meat retailer in Tokyo's Suginami Ward said. "There is nothing I can do about this." "Some shoppers even refuse to buy beef from places near Fukushima," he said. In Japan, beef containing radioactive cesium exceeding the legal limit was found to have been shipped to many locations throughout Japan. Some of the meat reached...

Another 84 cows in Fukushima found to have been fed contaminated straw TOKYO, July 16, Kyodo Authorities in Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is located, said Saturday they have discovered that another 84 cows shipped from five beef cattle farms in the prefecture were fed with straw contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium. The 84 cows were shipped to slaughterhouses in five prefectures -- Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Saitama and Tokyo -- and the Fukushima prefectural government has asked related municipalities to check where the meat was distributed.

Radioactive cesium detected in straw fed to beef cattle The Yomiuri Shimbun FUKUSHIMA--Beef cattle at a farm in Asakawamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, have been fed with straw tainted with high levels of radioactive cesium, and 42 cows from that farm have been shipped to Tokyo and three other prefectures, according to the Fukushima prefectural government. The prefectural and central governments, which have begun investigating the marketing route, asked all cattle farms in Fukushima Prefecture to refrain from shipping or moving any cows until Monday, when the on-the-spot inspections will be completed. Earlier this week, beef cows shipped by a farm in...

Atlanta-based Wendy's/Arby's Group agreed to sell most of its Arby's division to a buyer formed by Roark Capital Group, an Atlanta-based private equity firm with $1.5 billion of equity capital under management. Roark's portfolio includes Moe's Southwest Grill, Schlotzsky's, Wingstop and other restaurant companies. The deal, valued at $430 million, will break up a fast-food company that was formed less than three years ago and arguably never reached its full potential. About 40 jobs at the Wendy's/Arby's headquarters will be eliminated, but more than 300 people will either join Roark or stay with the Wendy's brand in Atlanta. The headquarters...

(snip) For example, some of the "ingredients" commonly used in animal factory feed include: (think hard about this list the next time you order a hamburger...) 1. Excessive grains -- Abnormally high amounts can make the animals sick, especially natural grass eaters like cattle. Their bodies are not designed to handle a corn-rich diet; as a result, these animals can form liver abscesses and excessively acidic digestive systems. 2. Plastics -- For the many animals whose digestive systems still need roughage to move food through, these factories have turned to the use of plastic pellets instead of plant-based roughage to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- If you're already shocked by how much your favorite cut of beef costs at the supermarket, brace yourself because prices will keep going up. Surging commodity prices already have consumers paying more for groceries such as eggs, milk, cereal and meat. The price of beef in particular has shot through the roof In February, the average retail price per pound for beef was $3.87, up 12.4% versus a year ago, according to market research firm FreshLook Data. The average retail price for a pound of chicken was up 3.9% in February versus a year ago, turkey...

Contending that the purported "seasoned beef" or "seasoned ground beef" in a number of Taco Bell menu items isn't as meaty as it sounds, consumer law firms have filed a federal suit in California this week asking for a court determination on the issue.

The insiders know, they see it coming. A spike in food prices is just around the corner. Here's what Drovers Cattle Network is telling farmers: Americans have spent less than 10 percent of their disposable income on food for many years now. That’s about to change. Food prices are on the rise and there will be new records set for some, actually many goods, this year. Meat, dairy and poultry prices are among the products on pace to set records. While the general inflation rate was nearly zero in 2010, food and fuel presents another story. Predictions for 2011 food...

The latest screw the consumer attack is coming from Angus Beef cattlemen and America's meat sellers. Try and find a piece of meat with the "Certified Angus Beef" (CAB) sticker on it that also has the acceptable USDA grade on it. Very difficult, if at all. My local market managers when asked about the USDA grade on thier CAB meat say: "Oh, it's choice or select." So how are we supposed to know which? I don't knowingly buy "select". This is a scam...ripoff...and consumer fraud! Complain to your meat seller and tell your congressman to force the USDA to stop...

North Korean Funds for Beef Frozen by New Zealand By Park In Ho [2010-11-05 12:26 ] It has been confirmed by The Daily NK that North Korea failed in a recent attempt to import beef from New Zealand for the purpose of providing special gifts to cadres on Kim Jong Eun’s birthday, January 8, after the plan ran afoul of the New Zealand government, which froze the funds. According to a source from North Korea today, “$170,000 remitted by ‘Myohyang Bureau’ to a New Zealand bank in October to import parts for Japanese tourist buses and beef has been frozen...

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Meat prices are poised to extend a 14 percent rally this year that drove U.S. retail costs to the highest levels since the 1980s as surging corn futures prevent livestock producers from expanding their herds. The U.S. cattle herd in July was the smallest since 1973 and the number of breeding hogs last month was near the lowest ever, government data show. Corn futures jumped to a two-year high today and the price of the main feed ingredient is more than 70 percent above the 10-year average.

An insight into how liberals and conservatives differ not just in politics but also ways of thinking.

State officials, Temple mayor seek $18M in federal grants for high-speed rail planState transportation officials are seeking about $18 million in federal grants to continue building a plan for high-speed rail in Texas. Mayor Bill Jones III of Temple was in Austin on Friday meeting with Texas Department of Transportation rail staffers to make sure the so-called Texas T-Bone is in that plan. The Texas T-Bone is the nickname given to a high-speed rail line that would connect the Dallas-Fort Worth area with Austin and San Antonio through Temple and with Houston on a leg routed southeast from Temple.

Mass output and U.S. rules have diminished flavor; what aficionados should demand Let's talk about steak for a moment. Was the last one you ate good? How about the one before that? Be honest. The first bite, in all probability, was juicy and tender. Not bad. A brief hit of beefiness, enough to spur you on to bite No. 2. But by bite No. 4, there was a problem: grease. The tongue gets entirely coated in it. It is at this point that many hands reach for that terrible abomination called steak sauce. It's acidic and zingy and cuts through...

The $250 steak's days are numbered on some of the area's finest menus as Japan has temporarily banned exports of its prized Wagyu beef. Japanese officials suspended beef exports last week after cows tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease at farms in the southern part of the country. That means no Japanese-imported Wagyu, the cattle breed that produces the premium beef famous for its flavor, tenderness and high price-tag. A ban means no more Japanese-imported Wagyu, the cattle breed that produces the premium cut beef famous for its flavor and tenderness and high price-tag -- up to $250 for a steak...

Italy's agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald's new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation and sacrificing Italy's culinary reputation in the process. Minister Luca Zaia has argued that McDonald's new McItaly burger — using all Italian beef, Asiago cheese and artichoke spread — will pump €3.5 million ($4.8 million) more a month into the pockets of Italian farmers grappling with tough economic times. But for a country that gave birth to the Slow Food movement a quarter-century ago and prides itself on its varied, delicious and healthy cuisine, Zaia's enthusiastic support...

Split a side of beef with my sister. Got a lot of ground beef, some patties, and steaks. Also got 2 london broils. Looking for the beef Freepers who have experience with meat for different cooking ideas. Have no idea what to do with the broils. Even got the ox tail. Little help?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some 390 tons of ground beef produced by a California meat packer, some of it nearly two years ago, is being recalled for fear of potentially deadly E. coli bacterium tainting, U.S. officials said on Monday. The beef was produced by Huntington Meat Packing Inc of Montebello, California, and shipped mainly to California outlets, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food safety arm said. An initial problem, in ground beef shipped by the plant from January 5 to January 15, was discovered during a regular safety check, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said. It said it had...

Window cleaning chemical injected into fast food hamburger meat Mike Adams Natural News Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 If you’re in the beef business, what do you do with all the extra cow parts and trimmings that have traditionally been sold off for use in pet food? You scrape them together into a pink mass, inject them with a chemical to kill the e.coli, and sell them to fast food restaurants to make into hamburgers. That’s what’s been happening all across the USA with beef sold to McDonald’s, Burger King, school lunches and other fast food restaurants, according to a New...

India Tells West To Stop Eating Beef India has urged the West to give up eating beef to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming. Dean Nelson in New Delhi 20 Nov 2009 According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock is responsible for 18 per cent of the the Earth's greenhouse gas emissions. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images The environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said if the world abandoned beef consumption, emissions would be dramatically reduced and global warming would slow down. "The solution to cut emissions is to stop eating beef. It leads to emission...

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes. Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed. Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that...

A domestic meat importer yesterday filed a lawsuit against the broadcast network MBC and five producers of an investigative news program for reporting false facts about U.S. beef. Park Chang-kyu, president of A Meat and meat and restaurant chain Orae Dream, filed the lawsuit with the Seoul Southern District Court. He is seeking about 300 million won (240,000 U.S. dollars) in damages against MBC, five producers of “PD Notebook,” and actress Kim Min-sun. “Our companies suffered about 500 million won (410,000 dollars) in operating losses due to distortion of facts on American beef by the MBC program ‘PD Notebook.’” A...

Health reform idea: Put down the doughnutCritics say consequences of individual choice missing from reform debate By JoNel Aleccia Health writer msnbc.com updated 8:18 a.m. ET, Mon., Aug 10, 2009 If you ask Dr. Steven Spady, there are two important words missing from the nation’s conversation about health reform: “personal responsibility.” But Spady, a 54-year-old emergency physician in rural Kentucky, can’t talk about the topic right now. He’s too busy caring for people who he says don’t take care of themselves. “I just had to go take care of man that left our hospital this morning and now has gone...

Health officials in three Western states said Friday at least 28 people have reported illnesses tied to recalled ground beef that may be tainted with salmonella. On Thursday, Fresno-based Beef Packers Inc. recalled nearly 826,000 pounds of ground beef produced from June 5-23. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service says the beef was sent to retail distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah, with some sold at Safeway Inc. and Sam's Club. Friday, the department confirmed that California, Colorado and Wyoming have reported illness linked to the recalled beef. Colorado health officials said 21 people...

West Virginia Sanctuary Faces Lean Times; Feed 'Rama' for $51 a Month, Get a Photo, TooSaving cows, the Hare Krishnas in this village have learned, is a lot easier in India. Created four decades ago, New Vrindaban was the first cattle sanctuary in the U.S. At its peak, it had 434 bovine refugees. Today, the cattle population is down to 80 because there's not enough money to support more. So the Hare Krishna community is borrowing a tactic more commonly used by charities that try to save people. For $51, you can feed a cow for a month, while $108...

Beef farmers can breathe easier thanks to University of Alberta researchers who have developed a formula to reduce methane gas in cattle. By developing equations that balance starch, sugar, cellulose, ash, fat and other elements of feed, a Canada-wide team of scientists has given beef producers the tools to lessen the methane gas their cattle produce by as much as 25 per cent. "That's good news for the environment," said Stephen Moore, a professor of agricultural, food and nutritional science at the University of Alberta. "Methane is a greenhouse gas, and in Canada, cattle account for 72 per cent of...

When it comes to global warming, hamburgers are the Hummers of food, scientists say. Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week. That's because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada. Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate. By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for...

When I went to the supermarket recently I was surprised to see in small print that the beef was "Product of U.S.A., Mexico and Canada," and the pork said "Product of U.S.A. or Canada," but it didn't say which country. While I buy nonfood items from Mexico, I don't buy produce because people have become sick or even died from their produce, probably because of the water. Now the cows drink the same water, so why would I want to buy beef produced in Mexico.

Marinating beef in red wine or beer may reduce the levels of potentially cancer-promoting compounds, according to a study from Portugal. According to researchers from the University of Porto, the beer or red wine marinade reduced levels of heterocyclic amines by up to 88 per cent. Heterocyclic amines, formed during the frying or grilling of fish and meat, are reported to promote carcinogenesis in humans. In addition, the beer marinade was found to produce a final product with the “usual overall appearance and quality of the pan-fried steaks”, wrote the researchers in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. In...

Japanese scientists said Thursday they had successfully cloned the ancestral bull of a luxurious brand of beef, possibly opening the way to distribute cloned beef. At the start of the Year of the Ox, researchers announced they had kept frozen for 13 years the testicles of a bull named Yasufuku, the progenitor of the expensive Hida-gyu brand of beef in central Gifu prefecture. The researchers at Kinki University and Gifu's livestock research institute said they had cloned four Yasufuku calves between November 2007 and July 2008, although two of them died afterward. "Yasufuku's testicles were frozen for a decade without...