When February’s historically huge beef recall hit the news I was sitting in an airport. It seemed ironic, having just returned from a country where visitors fear food-borne microbes. But this recall wasn’t about E. coli, the usual culprit in beef recalls in the US. Instead, a video from a weeks-long undercover investigation by the Humane Society caught workers at the Hallmark/Westland meatpacking plant (slaughterhouse) abusing downed cows, or “nonambulatory” ones, as technical lingo calls animals that are too injured, sick, or weak to stand.
In the video, workers shove and roll the collapsed cows with a forklift, repeatedly jab them with a cattleprod, and spray water at high pressure up a crippled cow’s nose. The point was to get these “spent” dairy cows to enter the building of their own accord; otherwise a vet would have to clear them for slaughter.
Kenneth Peterson of the United States Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for meat inspection and safety, in an interview with PBS in late February, said what happened at Hallmark/Westland is “an aberration” and that “I have inspectors present in the plant that look for these very same kind of practices.” But it was the Humane Society, not the USDA inspectors, who blew the whistle. Nonetheless, Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, said in a press release, “We are confident in our inspection system and the food safety regulations that ensure the safety and wholesomeness of the food supply.”
Still, the USDA has indefinitely terminated Hallmark/Westland’s operations and recalled 143 million pounds of beef that came out of the plant over the last two years. Most of it has been eaten. Much of it went to public schools, supplied free from the federal government’s subsidy programs. Mike Robinson, Food Director for New Paltz school district, says he destroyed about a meal’s worth of ground beef, and a couple meals of burgers; several more meals’ worth from the Hallmark/Westland batch had already been consumed.
Down, but not out, of the foodstream
To be clear, the beef recall wasn’t prompted by animal abuse per se, but because the downed cattle were being slaughtered, processed, and shipped as food. It is illegal to process downer cows because of the likelihood that they will introduce pathogens into our food. (No legislation exists yet for other food animals.) The law banning downed cattle from food owes its beginnings to Farm Sanctuary, the country’s premier food animal watchdog organization born from the rescue of a downed sheep found on a pile of dead animals at a slaughterhouse.
“In 1999 we petitioned the USDA,” said Farm Sanctuary’s cofounder and CEO Gene Baur in a phone interview, “saying that downed animals are diseased and shouldn’t be in our food. It’s very simple. But the USDA’s response at that time was that downed animals are okay for food, and they countered our assertion that it would be a small economic burden [not to use downed animals] by saying it would in fact be a big economic burden.” That implies downed animals are used often enough to figure in a plant’s profits.
Through an ensuing legal battle, the USDA agreed in 2004 to an interim ban on downed cattle, shortly after news that BSE (bovine spongioform encephalitis) was found in a US cow. But, Baur explained, the rule was altered when it was made permanent in 2007. “The USDA changed it to say that if the animal walks off the truck [on arrival at the slaughterhouse], but goes down before slaughter, it can be checked by a vet, okayed, and used for food. That leaves a huge loophole where short term economic gain runs counter to longterm consumer health.”
What does “okayed” mean? “Basically the inspector looks to see if the animal is alive and breathing,” said Baur. “I’ve talked to people at the plants who confirm this. We have seen for the last 20 years that the slaughterhouses will exploit that loophole. Downed animals get slaughtered for food.”
Mad cows in the mix?
Some cows are just “obstinate” or “tired,” said Kenneth Peterson of the USDA after viewing the ones in Hallmark/Westland video. But Paul Shapiro, Senior Director of the Humane Society’s Factory Farming Campaign, knows otherwise. “These are animals who were so crippled that even upon being tortured they were unable to rise. Downers are a pervasive problem, especially in the dairy industry. The animals have been selectively bred for astronomical rates of milk production. They are more prone to lameness and mastitis” (infection of the udders). And muscle weakness and collapse is a symptom of BSE.
BSE—an incurable brain-wasting disease transferable to humans who eat infected meat—carries a pretty decent fear factor. Three cows in the US have tested positive to date, with the latest (December 2003) prompting over 40 nations to shun American beef. This year Canada racked up its 12th confirmed case of BSE in cattle when a dairy cow collapsed and tested positive.
Should you worry about getting BSE? The USDA monitors cattle for it through periodic testing. Of the 40 million cattle brought to slaughter each year, fewer than 20,000 are tested (1 in 2,000). That’s not a big sampling. More disturbing is that many factory farmed cattle are slaughtered too young to show symptoms of BSE even if infected. It takes several years for the disease to manifest visibly, during which time it can be transmitted to animals or people who consume the flesh. Other food animals—notably sheep—can harbor the illness (called scrapie); a few years ago, for instance, 200 dairy sheep in Vermont were killed for fear they were infected. The US and Canada made the wise move in 1997 to ban feeding cows with ground up body parts of other ruminants (sheep, goats, cows). That bizarre and once-common practice saved money and carcass disposal problems, but it also spreads BSE. But it’s still legal to feed ground-up chickens to cows, as is other interspecies feasting—sheep and cows to pigs, and to chickens, and so on.
Pathogens on your plate
BSE is just one problem. To meet consumer demand for cheap and abundant animal flesh, milk, and eggs, gargantuan operations such as factory farms, feedlots, battery cages for chickens, and breakneck-pace slaughterhouses (several animals gutted per minute) have taken over much of food animal processing. The unsanitary and inhumane conditions of these places are well documented in video clips, photos, undercover investigations, worker testimonies, movies like Meet Your Meat, and books such as Slaughterhouse, Farm Sanctuary, The Food Revolution, Diet for a New America, and Mad Cowboy (the latter by Howard Lyman, cattleman-turned-vegetarian who got sued along with Oprah Winfrey by the cattle industry for voicing concerns about BSE on her show).
All told, the annual incidence of food-borne illness is astounding. The latest comprehensive report from the Centers for Disease Control in 1999 estimates 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths due to extensive infection and organ failure in the US each year. Not all are due to animal products, but most are. (Produce sometimes gets contaminated, but animals and their feces are the source of most pathogens.)
Food-borne illnesses dish out abdominal cramps, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, fever, and, in some cases, Guillain-Barre syndrome (acute, months-long paralysis), acute kidney failure, seizures, blindness, lung damage, and spontaneous abortion. The microbial culprits include E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter, Vibrio, Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium parvum, Norwalk virus, and hepatitis A. The CDC warns that contaminated meat looks and smells normal, that very few bacteria cause illness, and that one drop of fresh meat juice is enough to contaminate other foods or surfaces.
“Changes in the preparation of animals for slaughter and in slaughter and processing methods could decrease the contamination,” the agency advises.
As a public service (and grim wake-up call), Consumer Reports periodically tests for pathogens in grocery store chickens. Their January 2007 results: of 525 fresh, whole broilers purchased in 23 states, 83 percent were contaminated with campylobacter or salmonella (from poultry digestive tract). Moreover, 67 percent of the campylobacter bacteria and 84 percent of the salmonella were resistant to one or more antibiotics. “Some people who are sickened by chicken might need to try several antibiotics before finding one that works,” the report warns. Thorough cooking kills the pathogens; nonetheless, the CDC estimates that campylobacter and salmonella from undercooked meat or other foods contaminated with raw meat juice each sickens about a million people annually, and cause about 100 and 600 deaths, respectively.
Superbug factories
As with people, animals spread illnesses more readily when crammed into close quarters. Factory farming and battery cages means very close (e.g., chickens with floor space no bigger than a sheet of paper, side-by-side pig cages too small for the animals to turn around in). Pathogens are shed and spread in feces, urine, and other bodily discharges. So, widespread antibiotic use is common practice to keep illnesses at bay. In addition, studies in the 1950s showed that animals gained more weight on a diet of low-dose antibiotics, so they are a standard feed additive. Incredibly, these uses of antibiotics account for 70 percent of the nation’s antibiotics market, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
There are two big problems with this practice. First, bacteria become resistant to antibiotics to which they are routinely exposed. Second, the kinds of antibiotics used are from the human medicine cabinet: tetracyclines, sulfonamides, penicillins, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, and more. Put these problems together, and the mainstream meat and dairy industry is fueling the superbug epidemic—the emergence of bacteria that sicken us but are now resistant to the effects of antibiotics.
The CDC gives an example: “People get campylobacter diarrhea primarily from eating undercooked chicken. In 1989, none of the campylobacter strains from ill persons that CDC tested were resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics. In 1995, the FDA approved the use of fluoroquinolones in poultry. Soon afterwards, doctors found campylobacter strains from ill persons that were resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics.”
Experts in human infectious diseases warned of such scenarios long ago, and indeed, antibiotic resistance is now a worldwide health problem that continues to worsen.
Changes and choices
Antibiotic overuse, widespread meat contamination, downed animals in food—these are some, but not all, of the health concerns that accompany industrial-scale meat and diary processing. Environmental problems are astronomical as well. Something’s got to change. You can help by supporting legislation to improve practices at factory farms and the country’s large slaughterhouses. Support nonprofit groups like Farm Sanctuary, the Humane Society, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which are dedicated to cleaning up your meat and dairy supply while treating animals more humanely.
Bills are currently before Congress to require euthanasia for downed animals instead of slaughtering them or leaving them to die in corners and piles. A group of senators is proposing a ban on all downer cows, with no loopholes, and 24-hour surveillance cameras at processing plants (though Department of Agriculture Secretary Schafer says these changes aren’t needed). Recently, a hoard of some 800,000 Californians got a bill onto November’s state ballot to ban the common practices of confining veal calves, chickens, and pregnant pigs in cages too small to move in.
Another thing you can do is change your eating habits. Meat eaters often say they don’t want to know their meat’s history, because they’d have to stop eating animal foods out of guilt, or keep eating them and pretend not to care. But there’s a third, empowering option: Get informed, and then get picky about what you’ll eat. For starters, learn what meat and dairy labels mean and scan products with a skeptical eye, as some are misleading or not federally regulated. Here’s an introduction:
Cage-free: Poultry raised without cages; could mean birds crammed by the thousands indoors.
Free Range: The animal had some access to the outdoors each day, but may be only a few minutes, or may not have actually gone out (USDA regulates the label usage on poultry but not pigs, cattle, or egg-laying hens).
Pasture-raised, Pastured: Animals spent some of their lives in pasture (no minimum time specified).
Grass-fed: Cattle whose food was 99 percent grass or forage; does not require that animals live in pasture.
Grain-finished: Cattle fed mostly grass but then only grain for some time before slaughter.
Natural: Refering to products that have no added colors, flavors, preservatives, or other artificial ingredients.
Raised without Antibiotics, No Antibiotics Administered: Animal was not treated with antibiotics; does not indicate living conditions or diet.
rBGH-free or rBST-free: Cattle did not receive bovine growth hormone (bovine somatostatin).
Support local farms
Jessica and Joshua Applestone, owners of Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats in Rhinebeck and Kingston, were once vegetarians, says Jessica, because of “concerns about the way animals were raised at factory farms, the huge environmental problems, and my own health. I didn’t trust the meat we could find in local stores. I also wanted food that was raised locally.” Four years ago, the Applestones started their own store to work directly with local farmers and small slaughterhouses to provide the best in humanely and healthfully created meats and cheeses.
“Once Joshua and I started dealing with the farmers, and trusting them,” says Jessica, “we felt great about eating meat again. Many farmers are doing wonderful things in the way they raise their animals. We offer pasture-raised local meats, and some are grain-finished to allow fresh meat throughout the year [when pasture is under snow].” An important health benefit of a grass-fed diet is that E. coli aren’t prevalent, compared to feedlot animals given corn and soy, which their digestion isn’t meant to handle. “They become sick, E. coli is a problem, and they’re given antibiotics and medications.”
Jessica also urges people to understand that not all slaughterhouses are massive killing factories. “Most of the slaughterhouses we deal with are family run, have passed down the skills and knowledge, and are an important and respected part of the farming community. They can do 10 to 20 steers a week. Three to five people work in these slaughterhouses; they bring the animals in one at a time, and it’s done humanely and carefully. It’s an honest living and it’s essential.”
So, meat-eaters, use your purchasing power to enjoy animal foods from local farms. We’re lucky to have many in our region. You’ll discover people who are devoted to healthy, humane, “old-fashioned” farming ways. Just as hunger for meat created factory farms, hunger for better meat can take them down.
For a comprehensive list of local farms and suppliers of meat and dairy products, visit
Providers of meat, dairy, and eggs from pasture-raised, free-range, or otherwise beneficially raised animals in the Hudson Valley:
Arcadian Pastures
Sloansville, NY
518-868-4378
arcadianpastures@hotmail.com
Awesome Farm Tivoli, NY 845-332-2927 www.awesomefarmny.com
Brook Farm
New Paltz, NY
845-255-1052
brookfarm@hvi.net
Evan’s Farmhouse Creamery
Norwich, NY
607-334-5339
Fleisher’s Grass-fed and Organic Meats
307 Wall Street, Uptown Kingston: 845-338-6666
47 East Market Street, Rhinebeck: 845-876-6688
www.fleishers.com
Flying Pigs Farm
Shushan, NY
518-854-3844
www.flyingpigsfarm.com
Four Winds Farm
Gardiner NY
845-255-3088
http://users.bestweb.net/~fourwind
Fox Hill Farm
Ancramdale, NY
518-329-2405
Lampman1@taconic.net
Free Bird Farm
Palatine Bridge, NY
518-673-8822
freebirdfarm@frontiernet.net
Gippert’s Farm
Saugerties, NY
845-247-9479
845-246-2360
Harrington Farm
High Falls, NY
845-687-7064
Hawthorne Valley Farm
Ghent (Harlemville), NY
518-672-7500
Heather Ridge Farm
Preston Hollow, NY
518-239-6045 or 518-239-6234
www.heather-ridge-farm.com
Herondale Farm
Ancramdale, NY
518-329-3769
www.herondalefarm.com
Kiernan Farm
Gardiner, NY
845-255-5995
www.kiernanfarm.com
Long Days Farm
Buskirk, NY
518-677-8128
djaffe@capital.net
Melody Springs Farm
Sharon Springs, NY
518-284-2731
jam0259@netzero.net
Midsummer Farm
Warwick, NY
845-986-9699
www.midsummerfarm.com
Rivendel Farm
Kenoza Lake, NY
845-482-4899
http://rivendelfarm.com
Ronnybrook Farm
Ancramdale, NY
www.ronnybrook.com
Sap Bush Hollow Farm
Warnerville, NY
518-234-2105
sapbush@midtel.net
Skate Creek Farm
East Meredith, NY
303-994-7126
skatecreekfarm@earthlink.net
Sprout Creek Farm
Poughkeepsie, NY
845-485-9885
www.sproutcreekfarm.org
Sweet Tree Farm
Carlisle, NY
518-234-7422
sweetree@telenet.net
Temple Farm
Millbrook, NY
845-677-8757
juliawiddowson@mac.com
Threshold Farm
Philmont, NY
518-672-5509
Twilight Acres
Stone Ridge, NY
845-687-0320
Valley Farmers (Valley Livestock Marketing Cooperative, Inc.)
Stanfordville, NY
845-868-1826
http://valleyfarmers.com
Veritas Farms
New Paltz, NY
845-384-6888
www.veritasfarms.com
Internet Resources:
Information and directory of pasture-based farms, buying clubs, restaurants, and more:
www.eatwild.com
“Life Behind Bars” (online look into factory farms): http://www.farmsanctuary.org/mediacenter/assets/LBB_new_booklet2.pdf
“The Meatrix,” award-winning Flash animation series about meat production: www.themeatrix.com
You Can Help!
The Downed Animal Protection and Food Safety Act (H.R. 661, S. 394) has been introduced in Congress to keep downed animals out of the human food supply by requiring humane euthanasia. Contact your federal senators and representative today and urge them to support it (find their names and contact information at www.Congress.org). More info at www.farmsancturary.org
This article appears in April 2008.
