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Scientists: Oh, Actually, Red Meat Isn’t Bad for You

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Ahhh, remember those big government sycophantic freaks like Bill De Blasio who advocate bogus ideas like “meatless Monday” because it is supposedly better for your health to not eat meat? Or those left-wingers who insist that we should listen to scientists 100 percent of time and impose sweeping lifestyle changes, like all going vegan, mandated by the government for issues like obesity and global warming? Common sense informs the average American that eating meat is not bad for you. Our ancestors have been doing it for thousands of years. Elites have told you these average Americans to shut up and eat their veggie burgers as scientists. Well, based on a recent report, it looks like those elites are wrong. Scientists are now saying that actually, it is okay to eat red meat.

Here is what the New York Times reported on the latest study:

Public health officials for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of concerns that these foods are linked to heart disease, cancer and other ills.

But on Monday, in a remarkable turnabout, an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice, a bedrock of almost all dietary guidelines, is not backed by good scientific evidence.

If there are health benefits from eating less beef and pork, they are small, the researchers concluded. Indeed, the advantages are so faint that they can be discerned only when looking at large populations, the scientists said, and are not sufficient to tell individuals to change their meat-eating habits.

(Read more from “Scientists: Oh, Actually, Red Meat Isn’t Bad for You” HERE)

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Vermont Man Accused of Beating Mother With Gun Over Deer Meat, Report Says

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A man in Vermont was accused of beating his mother with a rifle on Saturday after she allegedly stole deer meat from him, a report said.

According to the Rutland Herald, Zachary C. Merriam, 21, allegedly chased his mother around her home and hit her with his 30-30 rifle, leaving bruises on her back, because he thought she’d taken a chunk of meat from a deer he’d hunted.

Police said the woman told them that her son didn’t try to shoot her at any point but she didn’t know if the weapon was loaded and worried it would accidentally fire, the report said.

Bruises reportedly found on the woman’s back appeared to be the result of the alleged incident, police said, and were photographed by police as evidence. (Read more from “Vermont Man Accused of Beating Mother With Gun Over Deer Meat, Report Says” HERE)

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Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes

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An influential think-tank with close ties to government has co-authored a report advocating so called meat tax as a means to lower meat consumption worldwide.

Tackling climate change and improving public health can be achieved by forcing consumers to eat less meat in their diets, and it is up to government to force that change, finds a new report. Co-authored by the University of Glasgow and Chatham House, one of the world’s most influential think-tanks, the paper claims “our appetite for meat is a major driver of climate change”.

Finding global meat consumption has reached “unhealthy levels” and cutting consumption is key to “keeping global warming below the ‘danger level’ of two degrees Celsius”, the paper calls for urgent government intervention. Far from being a potentially fatal move for democratic governments around the world, the report findings insist the public won’t actually react badly to the State taking meat off the table.

The changes and government intervention should be packaged and served up to the public in the same way punitive taxation and gradual banning of tobacco products were, reports The Guardian.

Speaking on the findings, report author Laura Wellesley of Chatham House said: “Governments are ignoring what should be a hugely appealing, win-win policy. (Read more from “Meat Tax: Influential Report Calls for Meat to Be Taxed Like Cigarettes” HERE)

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Finally, the Government Has Decided to Eliminate Pork — From This Menu

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The nation’s pork producers are in an uproar after the federal government abruptly removed bacon, pork chops, pork links, ham and all other pig products from the national menu for 206,000 federal inmates . . .

The Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for running 122 federal penitentiaries and feeding their inmates three meals a day, said the decision was based on a survey of prisoners’ food preferences: . . .

“Why keep pushing food that people don’t want to eat?” asked Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the prison bureau. “Pork has been the lowest-rated food by inmates for several years,” It also apparently got more expensive for the government to buy, although he did not provide specifics.

The National Pork Producers Council isn’t buying it. “I find it hard to believe that a survey would have found a majority of any population saying, ‘No thanks, I don’t want any bacon,’” said Dave Warner, a spokesman for the Washington-based trade association, which represents the nation’s hog farmers.

“We’re going to find out how this came about and go from there,” Warner said. “We wouldn’t rule out any options to resolve this.” He said the association “is still formulating our strategy” to reverse the prison decision, which the industry first learned about Monday when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called for comment. (Read more from “Finally, the Government Has Decided to Eliminate Pork — From This Menu” HERE)

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Restaurant Report Card Grades on Antibiotics in Meat Supply

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packaged-meatA new report is sounding the alarm about the use of antibiotics in the meat and poultry supply chains of the 25 largest U.S. fast food and “fast casual” restaurants.

Most top U.S. restaurant chains have no publicly available policy to limit regular use of antibiotics in their meat and poultry supply chains, according to the “Chain Reaction” report by Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council and four other consumer interest, public health and environmental organizations.

“When livestock producers administer antibiotics routinely to their flocks and herds, bacteria can develop resistance, thrive and even spread to our communities, contributing to the larger problem of antibiotic resistance,” the authors wrote in the report, which was released Tuesday. “The worsening epidemic of resistance means that antibiotics may not work when we need them most: when our kids contract a staph infection (MRSA), or our parents get a life-threatening pneumonia.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have repeatedly warned about the not-far-off public health threat of antibiotic resistance. The CDC estimates at least 2 million Americans contract antibiotic-resistant infections every year, and that 23,000 die as a result.

“A post-antibiotic era — in which common infections and minor injuries can kill — far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century,” the WHO cautioned in a 2014 report. (Read more from “Restaurant Report Card Grades on Antibiotics in Meat Supply” HERE)

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Chinese Caught Selling Rat Meat as Lamb

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Photo Credit: jo-hEven for China’s scandal-numbed diners, inured to endless outrages about food hazards, news that the lamb simmering in the pot may actually be rat tested new depths of disgust.

In an announcement intended to show that the government is serious about improving food safety, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday that the police had caught a gang of traders in eastern China who bought rat, fox and mink flesh and sold it as mutton. But that and other cases of meat smuggling, faking and adulteration featured in Chinese newspapers and Web sites on Friday were unlikely to instill confidence in consumers already queasy over many reports about meat, fruit and vegetables laden with disease, toxins, banned dyes and preservatives.

Sixty-three people were arrested and accused of “buying fox, mink and rat and other meat products that had not undergone inspection,” which they doused in gelatin, red pigment and nitrates, and sold as mutton in Shanghai and adjacent Jiangsu Province for about $1.6 million, according to the ministry’s statement. The report, posted on the Internet, did not explain how exactly the traders acquired the rats and other creatures.

“How many rats does it take to put together a sheep?” said one typically baffled and angry user of Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog service that often acts as a forum for public venting. “Is it cheaper to raise rats than sheep?”

Residents of Shanghai recently endured the sight of thousands of dead hogs floating down a nearby river, apparently the dumped victims of disease in piggeries upstream.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sequester Meat Shortages Months Away, Says USDA Secretary

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Photo Credit: AP

The sequester likely won’t cause meat and poultry shortages for a while—thanks, in part, to union negotiations and USDA inspectors’ lack of email access.

Furloughs to Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at the U.S. Department of Agriculture could force meat and poultry plants to stop production–with no inspectors to approve products, they can’t be sold—but today Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee that those furloughs probably won’t happen until later this year.

“We are looking at a several-month period, if you will, before a furlough will be imposed,” Vilsack said, depending on negotiations with the inspectors’ union. A drawn-out notification process will prevent the furloughs from happening right away, Vilsack said.

“This week we will send out notices to the union reps that a furlough is possible, and one of the challenges is that not every one of our workers in this particular area has email, so we actually have to hand-deliver a letter or written notification to those employees. That has to be followed up … with oral conferences to take place with any employee who requests an oral confirmation–that will happen at the local level,” Vilsack said. After all employees are notified, Vilsack said, USDA will negotiate with union representatives over how the furloughs will be implemented.

But if furloughs do happen, Vilsack warned their impact could be particularly severe.

Read more from this story HERE.

USDA tells its employees to not consume meat “to reduce your environmental impact” (+video)

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This week, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran called on Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to explain why the agency’s employee newsletter encouraged them to not eat meat and participate in the “Meatless Monday” initiative for the environment.

“One simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias is to participate in the ‘Meatless Monday’ initiative https://www.meatlessmonday.com/,” The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) July 23, 2012 “Greening Headquarters Update” read. “This international effort, as the name implies, encourages people not to eat meat on Mondays. Meatless Monday is an initiative of The Monday Campaign Inc. in association with the John Hopkins School of Public Health.”

Pointing to the United Nations as their informational authority, the USDA’s newsletter said that going meatless is good for the environment because “animal agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases and climate change. It also wastes resources. It takes 7,000 kg of grain to make 1,000 kg of beef. In addition, beef production requires a lot of water, fertilizer, fossil fuels, and pesticides.” It further charged that heavy meat consumption has detrimental health effect.

Moran, who represents the third-largest beef-producing state in America, was shocked by the revelation.

“Never in my life would I have expected USDA to be opposed to farmers and ranchers,” Moran said in a statement. “American farmers and ranchers deserve a USDA that will pursue supportive policies rather than seek their further harm.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the video of Senator Moran attacking this crazy USDA directive from the Senate floor:

Photo credit: Charlie Day

ABC: Lone Star Tick May Make Vegetarians of Some

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By Katie Moisse

Tick Bite Blamed for Bizarre Meat Allergies; Researchers Hope to Prove Link

There’s a new weapon in the war on meat: a tiny tick, whose bite might be spreading meat allergies up the East Coast.

A bite from the lone star tick, so-called for the white spot on its back, looks innocent enough. But University of Virginia researchers say saliva that sneaks into the tiny wound may trigger an allergic reaction to meat — agonizing enough to convert lifelong carnivores into wary vegetarians.

“People will eat beef and then anywhere from three to six hours later start having a reaction; anything from hives to full-blown anaphylactic shock,” said Dr. Scott Commins, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. “And most people want to avoid having the reaction, so they try to stay away from the food that triggers it.”

Commins said cases of the bizarre allergy are popping up along the East Coast and into the Bible Belt, areas ripe with lone star ticks. He’s already seen 400 or so. And 90 percent of them have a history of tick bites, he said.

“It’s hard to prove,” he said of the link between lone star ticks and meat allergies. “We’re still searching for the mechanism.”

Allergies are immune reactions to foreign substances, from pet hair to peanuts. As antibodies attack the substance that caused the reaction, they trigger the release of histamine, a chemical that causes hives and, in severe cases, life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Continue reading on the ABC News website…

PHOTO CREDIT: Visuals Unilimited / Corbis