courtney@hp-pcd.UUCP (Courtney Loomis) (01/07/84)
#N:hp-pcd:62400001:000:1644 hp-pcd!courtney Jan 6 18:09:00 1984 Though I have "passed through" many different justifications/reasons for not eating meats over the last 6 years (most of which had to do with the health in one way or another), my feelings now are based more on the MEAT INDUSTRY than the meat itself. It seems that at least twice a year the national press picks up some story about how a lot of nationally distributed meat got contaminated with some "really bad stuff". And you all know what makes RED MEAT RED... nitrates, of course (untreated meat has a gray-brown color to it, unlike any color most people have EVER seen). Or we could talk about HORMONES and FEEDLOTS (a disguisting practice... fat-marblize and water-log those beefs to improve those profits, while the consumer's health is not an issue unless the law makes it one and the lawmakers have a hard time regulating one of the strongest lobbies in the US... RANCHERS). And the CHICKEN-MEAT INDUSTRY is so loaded on hormones that I don't consider it as a red-meat alternative. So... yes, I eat meat... I eat grass-fed beef healthily home-grown by friends and neighbors. I eat wild game (from ranges not sprayed with pesticides). And I eat warm-when-found "road kills" (almost anything that isn't known for its garbage-eating habits). I eat fish (many of our waters are still healthy... thank somebody!). And with these considerations in mind, I suspect that I get just the right balance of meat and non-meat sources of protein, minerals, and vitamins in my diet. The quantity of meat in MANY people's diets is ridiculously high (according to a significant segment of people of the health profession). Courtney Loomis
stanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (Don Stanwyck) (01/09/84)
Courtney Lewis makes a statement that commercial chicken meat is very loaded with hormones. I first saw this rumor many years ago when I was in high school. I beleived it too, until i became a chicken farmer. I put myself through undergrad schoool partly on the selling of my hens' eggs. Along the way I took some Poultry Science courses at Oregon State Univ., where I attended, and learned one or two things. First. According to the commercial chicken feed ingrediant labels on the feeds I bought, there was basically only corn in my feeds. There were definitely no hormones. According to the poultry science classes I took it is economically unsound to try to feed hormones to chickens. They grow fast enough anyway. And hormones are expensive relative to the cost of one extra day of feed before market. Second, many people are very funny about what they will and won't eat. I did real well because I sold "brown eggs" in a town where many of the people were concerned about their health. Peoiple will pay a premium for brown eggs. Nutritionally there is no difference (unless you are eating the shell!). People will also pay a premium for a fertile egg - for what? One sperm cell? Maybe 8-10 cells of chicken that grew before I got it to the refridge? And I couldn't guarentee that an egg was fertile anymore than anyone else can. I just let a rooster run with my hens. If the hen got serviced at least once every 30 days, then the eggs she laid were probably fertile. If not - then there was a lower chance of the sperm cell being in the egg. Oh well. Good Grief, too. Enuf for now, I'v sqwakked my way into a discussion I never should have gotten into. -- ________ ( ) Don Stanwyck @( o o )@ 312-979-3062 ( || ) Cornet-367-3062 ( \__/ ) ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck (______) Bell Labs @ Naperville, IL
mush@dsd.UUCP (01/11/84)
I pay a rather high price for fertile eggs. I do so because I assume that these eggs must have been produced by chickens free to run arround a normal chicken yard, and infact, free to behave like chickens. I dislike subsidizeing the cruel practice of holding chickens in small cages their whole life, while cycling the lights at 18 hour intervals. In exchange for my concern, I am rewarded with eggs that are much tastier, and yokes with a nice dark almost orange color instead of a very pale yellow. Am I wrong in making this assumption? Dave Decker Ampex DSD Redwood City Calif, (mush)