EarthSave Research Update
July/August 1997

HEALTH

Cadmium in Sheep British sheep that graze on land fertilized with sewer sludge have accumulated high levels of poisonous cadmium in their livers and kidneys. According to New Scientist magazine, "If the practice of spreading sewage sludge on pasture intensifies, as is likely in Europe after 1998 when dumping at sea is banned, people who eat lambs' livers or kidneys regularly might be at risk of chronic cadmium poisoning."

Source: "Toxic Cadmium found in British sheep," Reuters, ENN Daily News, March 20, 1997.

California Pesticide Drift on Increase Aerial spraying of pesticides is on the rise in California, and it is inevitable that people, not just crops, are occasionally dusted with chemicals. In California, the acreage treated from the air increased 34 percent in 1995, exceeding 50 million acres, according to the Department of Pesticide Regulation. Aircraft sprayed fields 833,000 times in 1995, a 26 percent increase.

Source: Marla Cone, "Concern of people being hit by pesticide drift," Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1997.

Fruit and Veggies Lower Blood Pressure A diet including 8-10 servings of fruit and vegetables each day can dramatically improve people's high blood pressure in as little as two weeks, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April 1997. Based on these findings, researchers estimate that if the entire US population suddenly experienced a similar drop in blood pressure as seen in this study, the result would be 125,000 fewer strokes each year.

Source: Christine Gorman, "The Low-Pressure Diet," Time, April 28, 1997.

Mad Cow Disease Update

In March:

A coalition of groups including Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, asked the US government to institute the same kind of ban on the livestock industry that is in effect in England: one that prohibits the use of protein from all mammals in the feed of any food animal. Thus far, in response to the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease in England, the US FDA has proposed a ban on using tissue from animals that chew their cud--including cows, sheep and goats--in animal feed. The FDA worries that the wider ban proposed by the coalition would create problems for disposing of the animal renderings now used in feed.

The coalition also urged the USDA to determine quickly if American pork products might be tainted by a "mad-pig disease." Concerns over whether pigs might carry a version of Mad Cow Disease arose from a 1979 USDA study of hogs in a New York slaughterhouse. In this case, a federal veterinarian noted unusual symptoms of the central nervous system in hogs. Because the animals came from several sources and the plant did not routinely deal with diseased animals, the veterinarian believed the condition might affect animals being slaughtered nationwide. The coalition called on the USDA to reopen the long-dormant study and to include pigs in research on Mad Cow Disease.

Source: Marian Burros, "US asked to take new steps to prevent mad-cow disease," New York Times, March 28, 1997. "USDA urged to check pork," Reuters, ENN Daily News, March 28, 1997.

Also in March:

Vegetarian Times magazine reported that the British Meat and Livestock Commission had recently asked the government for 15 million Pounds of taxpayers' money to promote beef in the wake of the Mad Cow crisis. Sales have toppled 20 percent in the UK, and in Germany and France by 60 percent and 40 percent respectively.

Source: "Carrot and Stick," Vegetarian Times, March 1997.

In April:

Grain and livestock futures tumbled after a 62-year-old Indiana man died of Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, a disease suspected to be linked to Mad Cow Disease. Both CJD and Mad Cow Disease are caused by the same agent.

Source: Aaron Lucchetti, "Report of Mad Cow Disease Sends Cattle Prices Sliding," Wall Street Journal, April 17, 1997.

In May:

New Scientist magazine reported that Mad Cow Disease (BSE) may be quietly spreading across Europe because farmers and veterinarians are failing to report sick cows. The head of BSE at the National Institute for Veterinary Research in Brussels stated that animals demonstrating strange symptoms of the central nervous system had been slaughtered and often ended up on supermarket shelves. 57,900 British cattle were exported to Europe between 1985 and 1990 which may have ended up in the food supply. There was also a huge trade in meat and bone meal between Britain and Europe, items blamed for spreading BSE in the first place.

Source: "Magazine says mad cow disease threatens Europe," Reuters, ENN Daily News, May 2, 1997.

Also in May:

Tests confirmed that a brain ailment linked to Mad Cow Disease killed a British man. The 27-year-old victim was infected with Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease. CJD has killed at least 17 people in Britain and one in France. Since 1996, the European Union has banned beef exports from Britain.

Source: "Briton's death linked to Mad Cow Disease; at least 18th victim," Associated Press, May 17, 1997.

In June:

Newspapers reported that Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman (a member of EarthSave's board of directors and a former cattle rancher) are being sued by Texas cattlemen over statements made during an Oprah show aired in 1996 on Mad Cow Disease. During the show, Lyman said that practices within the livestock industry such as feeding the rendered remains of dead cows back to other cows were potentially threatening as they were likely to spread Mad Cow Disease should it be present in the US. Winfrey and Lyman are being sued under a food disparagement law that safeguards producers against people who falsely disparage agricultural products. Such laws have been passed in 13 states.

Source: "Texas cattlemen brand Oprah a troublemaker," Associated Press, June 17, 1997.

In July:

Consumer Reports ran a story on Mad Cow Disease, noting, "Whatever agent causes this class of disease, it's incredibly durable; it can survive very high temperatures (cooking does not destroy it), common disinfectants, even 10 years of soaking in formaldehyde at a research laboratory. What makes the investigation difficult, and the threat potentially worse: The infection can go undetected in animals when they're slaughtered; in people, it may take years for symptoms to appear. The uncertainties are so great that one risk analysis projects the number of human deaths in Britain from infected beef over the next 20 years at anywhere from 100 to 80,000."

CR continues, "There's no direct evidence that people in this country have been infected with any sort of TSE [the family of diseases to which Mad Cow Disease belongs] through food. But two small studies of Americans with CJD demand follow-up. One of them, in 1973, found that CJD patients were more likely than other people to have eaten brains, particularly hog brains. The other, in 1985, found that they were more likely than other people to have eaten certain meats, including lamb and several kinds of pork. The authors concluded that the results could mean that a scrapie-like disease might exist in swine and might be infecting people."

Even if the government bans the feeding of all animal protein to cows (as CR is calling for) they acknowledge that "even after a comprehensive ban, it will take several years before all meat in the supermarket comes from animals that have never consumed animal protein."

Source: "Can it happen here? The puzzle of mad cow disease," Consumer Reports, July 1997, p62-3.

Veg Out At Burger King? So declare ads announcing the new BK Veggie Whopper in Britain. The ad reads, "Burger King launches first ever Vegetarian Society approved burger! Burger King has teamed up with the Vegetarian Society to launch Europe's first ever 100% vegetarian fast food burger, a delicious vegetable burger made with brown rice, onion, low-fat mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses, free range eggs, mushrooms, herbs and spices. The BK Veggie Whopper is served in a sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, egg-free mayo and ketchup. The launch of the BK Veggie Whopper comes in response to increased levels of vegetarianism, semi-vegetarianism and red meat avoidance in Britain. The BK Veggie Whopper is available in Burger King restaurants nationwide [Britain] from November 1st, 1996."

Source: Burger King promotional materials.

ENVIRONMENT

California Abalone Teeter on Edge of Extinction Diners from San Francisco's Chinatown to Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong are loving the red abalone to death. Once abundant up and down the California coast, the kelp-eating mollusk is near extinction. Green, black and pink abalone are already off-limits to harvest. White abalone is already teetering on oblivion. The California Fish and Game Commission is considering a total moratorium on abalone harvesting from San Francisco to the Mexico border. Commercial harvests are already banned along the coast north of San Francisco. The commercial catch of abalone in 1995 was 83 tons, down 94 percent from 1966.

Source: "California abalone teeter on edge of extinction," Reuters, ENN Daily News, March 27, 1997.

Cows May Threaten Water Supply Ranchers are protesting a proposed ban on cattle in San Francisco's vast East Bay watershed. Government officials want to prevent contamination of San Francisco's water supply with cryptosporidium, a parasite common in calves. Although most individuals can ward off the parasite, others, particularly those with immunological disorders such as AIDS, are more susceptible. The cows currently keep grasslands low during fire season, but there are other means of fire prevention available, officials say.

Source: "Ranchers protest livestock ban in East Bay watershed," Reuters, ENN Daily News, March 3, 1997.

Dead Pig Disposal The pig industry generates a lot of dead pigs, and the industry would not earn high marks for what it does with all those carcasses. So says Kenneth Kephart, Extension Swine Specialist for the Department of Dairy and Animal Science at Penn State University. Kephart estimates that in Pennsylvania alone, the hog industry ends up with 8 million pounds of dead hogs each year. Most large operations use rendering to dispose of the hogs. Smaller outfits rely on burying, which Kephart worries could easily lead to groundwater contamination. Kephart also notes, "Some operations have established symbiotic relationships with local scavenger populations such as buzzards and alligators. Dead hogs are hauled up to the hillside and the buzzards do their thing, sometimes, I am told, within a matter of hours. Alligators are popular in Florida. "

Source: Kenneth Kephart, Extension Swine Specialist for the Department of Dairy and Animal Science at Penn State University in his Feb. 1992 Swine Management News column.

Dead Chicken Disposal For Georgia's booming $2.1 billion-a-year poultry industry, alligators are proving to be an attractive option for disposing of the hundreds of thousands of chickens that die before they reach the slaughterhouse. The alligators are eventually slaughtered for hides and meat. A farmer with 350,000 chickens can expect to lose about 21,000, or 6 percent, in a year. Starting an alligator farm requires at least $250,000.

Source: Elliott Minor, "Poultry farmers see alligators as disposal solution," Associated Press, January 1997.

Fish in Peril An estimated 37 percent of fish species that inhabit North American lakes and streams are either in jeopardy or extinct. Ten such species have disappeared in the past decade.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p19.

Fish Harvest Hits New High The world's fish harvest reached 109 million tons in 1994, up from 102 million in 1993. Much of this increase was due to expanding aquaculture. Yet, fish farming shares many of the problems of the livestock and poultry industries. For example, to increase aquacultural output, grain stocks and water supplies must be diverted from direct human consumption to fish production.

¥ In the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery, 80 percent of all fish caught--an estimated 450,000 tons annually--is discarded in the process, damaged or killed. Globally, an estimated 27 million tons of fish are discarded each year, a fourth of the total harvest.

¥ Protests, disputes and even violence plagued the fishing industry in 1995.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p30-32.

Humans Expose Penguins to Poultry Virus Visitors to Antarctica are exposing penguins that thrive there to a potentially deadly chicken virus, according to Australian scientists. Tests show that colonies of both emperor and Adelie penguins have antibodies to infectious bursal disease virus, which can weaken and kill domestic chickens. This source of environmental contamination "could be from careless or inappropriate disposal of chicken products," say the scientists in the journal Nature.

Source: "Humans bring poultry virus to penguins," Reuters, ENN Daily News, May 15, 1997.

Oceans Threatened In 1996, more than 100 species of marine fish were listed as threatened or endangered by the World Conservation Union, including the Atlantic cod and the Atlantic bluefin tuna. But overfishing isn't the only threat. According to Sylvia Earle, former chief scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, another potent threat comes from the vast quantities of toxic chemicals, plastic debris, sewage and runoff from farms, and recreational and residential areas. "Some regard the effects of 'overfertilizing' the sea with nitrates and phosphates [from agriculture] as one of the greatest and growing threats to ocean health," says Earle.

Source: "Overfishing, pollution threatens oceans," Reuters, ENN Daily News, May 12, 1997.

Organic Farming Up Sharply: Organically cultivated area in the European Union expanded fourfold between 1987 and 1993, while the number of farmers in organic production doubled. In the US, sale of organic foods more than doubled between 1990 and 1994. The Food Marketing Institute reports that 24 percent of US shoppers purchase some natural or organic produce every week. 42 percent of US supermarkets now carry some organic produce; these outlets posted a 23-percent rise in such sales in 1994.

In Germany, a government effort to reduce the environmental impact of farming and to meet consumer demand for healthier food resulted in a sixfold increase in the number of organic farms and a tenfold increase in the area farmed organically. The government paid farmers $190-$316 per hectare between 1989 and 1992 if they converted to organic farming. One analyst in Germany expects organic food's share of the market there to increase from 1.3 percent in 1993 to 8 percent in 2000.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p111.

Pesticide Outlook Annual global consumption is now estimated to be 5.5 billion pounds. The 1994 world pesticide market was valued at $27.8 billion, and the pesticide industry projects sales of over $34 billion in 1998. In the US alone, 860 active-ingredient pesticide chemicals are formulated into 21,000 commercial products. Of those, 278 are directly used on raw agricultural crops.

¥ The World Health Organization reports 20,000 annual pesticide-related deaths worldwide. A 1990 study calculated that some 25 million agricultural workers in developing countries are acutely poisoned each year.

¥ More than 900 species of insects, plant diseases, and weeds have developed resistance to the pesticides commonly used to control them. In the US, at least 10% of pesticide use is devoted to combatting resistance in pest species.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p108.

Population Climbs In 1995, the world added an estimated 87 million people to its population, as many people as live in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p19.

Sharks Under Attack The shark business is booming, and shark numbers are dwindling to dangerously low levels. According to the World Wildlife Fund, between 30 million and 70 million sharks were killed in 1994. That number could be tens of millions higher in unreported catches. Shark carcasses are used for meat, their skins for leather or abrasives, their livers for lubricants, cosmetics and vitamins, and their cartilage for herbal remedies. Shark fins alone can sell for $256 a pound in Hong Kong where they wind up in soup costing as much as $90 a bowl. Some Atlantic species of shark have declined by as much as 80 percent according to the Ocean Wildlife Campaign.

Source: "US shark hunt may be banned," Reuters, ENN Daily News, March 21, 1997.

OTHER

European Beef with Hormones Continues In May, scientists participating in a symposium on the use of growth hormones in meat production said that the European Union's ban on imports of hormone-treated beef from the US is based on sound science. The ban has been challenged by the World Trade Organization. Samual Epstein, MD, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois stated that lifelong exposure to residues of natural and synthetic growth hormones in meat poses significant risk of breast cancer and feminizing traits. "We have no idea of hormonal levels in meat," said Epstein. Not one of the 130 million livestock slaughtered in 1993 had been tested for cancer-causing and gene-damaging estradiol, or any related sex hormone, he said. Professor Manfred Metzler of Germany's University of Karlsruhe added, "Natural and synthetic hormones cause a cancer risk," noting that they were used for economic profit and should be banned.

Source: "Scientists back EU meat hormone ban," Reuters, ENN Daily News, May 22, 1997.

Also in May, France's Agriculture Minister threatened to ban imports of US meat treated with hormones, even if it meant heavy fines for Paris. Since 1989, the European Union has barred imports of beef produced with the aid of synthetic growth hormones. But the World Trade Organization says that ban is not based on any demonstrated health risk. "I say quite clearly, France is entirely prepared to pay penalties if that is what is needed to prevent hormone-treated American meat from gaining entry to our territory," said Minister Philippe Vasseur.

Source: "France may ban US meat over hormones--minister," Reuters, May 11, 1997.

Feedgrain Use The world's largest user of feedgrains--grains fed to livestock, poultry and fish--is the United States, which fed roughly 153 million tons to cattle, pigs, poultry and fish in 1995. China's rapidly growing use of grain for feed reached 95 million tons in 1995.

¥ Corn is by far the world's dominant source of feed. Although corn is a food staple in some countries in Africa and Latin America, the bulk of the global harvest of more than 500 million tons--roughly the same as that of wheat--is fed to livestock and poultry.

¥ In Europe and the former Soviet Union, large amounts of wheat are also used as feed. In Europe, 45 percent of the wheat used is consumed as feed.

¥ The region with the most rapidly growing use of feed is Asia. The number of mills that mix feedstuffs into rations for poultry, pigs, cattle and fish is increasing almost daily.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p34.

Genetic Engineering, I In October 1996, the German divisions of Nestle and Unilever canceled orders for more than 650,000 metric tons of US soybeans, due to consumer backlash against the US policy that allowed unlabeled genetically engineered soybeans to be mixed with ordinary soybeans for sale to domestic and international markets. Leading European supermarket chains, baby food and dietary food producers and the natural foods industry in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands have joined more than 300 consumer, health, farm and environmental groups pledging to boycott Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" herbicide-resistant soybeans.

Source: "US Soybeans Banned Abroad," Earth Island Journal, Winter 1996-97.

Genetic Engineering, II On December 17, 1996, six British activists poured a hazardous contaminant into silos containing soy oil owned by Cargill, which holds a monopoly on the production of genetically engineered soybean products in the UK. The silos were marked with a large "X" by the activists. In a press release, the activists accused Cargill, a US-based grain trading company of "abusing [its] control over the market by refusing British consumers the right to choose not to eat genetically engineered food."

Source: "Brits Spike US Soybeans," Earth Island Journal, Spring 1997, p3.

Good News In January 1997, Vegetarian Times praised citizen Sharon Gjersten for "responding creatively when her favorite radio station in Kenosha, Wis., held a promotional party and served haggis, a traditional Scottish dish made from lamb entrails. Fed up with the fuss over meat, she invited her favorite rock disk jockeys to her home for vegetarian brunch last fall. The Rock Awakening Vegetarian Brunch, featuring bagels, vegan lox, tofu scramblers and vanilla fudge tofutti, was more than a culinary success. The event generated much local publicity and introduced a few carnivorous broadcasters to the joys of meatless eating."

Source: "Carrot and Stick," Vegetarian Times, January 1997, p18.

Grain Production Falls The world's 1995 grain harvest was the smallest in seven years, and four percent smaller than in 1994. The world's carryover stock of grain, the amount of grain in the bin when the new harvest begins, dropped from 342 million tons to 229 million tons. This represents only 48 days of world consumption, the lowest stocks on record.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p24, 36.

Labor: I Working conditions in the meat packing industry Currently three corporations, ConAgra, Cargill and IBP, control 80 percent of the beefpacking industry. Four companies control 45 percent of pork production, IBP, ConAgra, Cargill and Sara Lee. And four control 44 percent of broiler production in the poultry industry, Tyson, ConAgra, Gold Kist and Perdue Farms.

The meatpacking industry is much less unionized than it once was. Scores of meatpacking communities have become home to tens of thousands of impoverished Third World workers. The food processing industry in America today would collapse were it not for immigrant labor, says one expert.

Beef, pork and poultry packers have been aggressively recruiting the most vulnerable of foreign workers to relocate to the American plains in exchange for dangerous $6 an hour jobs. These workers now occupy jobs that once went to unionized meatpackers earning three to four times the current wage.

Source: Institute for Food and Development Policy, "Warning: Corporate Meat and Poultry May Be Hazardous to Workers, Farmers, the Environment and Your Health," Backgrounder Spring 1997, vol 4, no1.

Labor II: The New Jungle In September 1996, US News and World Report revealed, "In Storm Lake [Iowa] and dozens of other communities that are home to large meatpacking plants, the influx of immigrants is no accident. According to federal investigators, company-paid agents and workers themselves, meatpacking outfits search aggressively for employees in southern border states and hire recruiters who find workers in Mexico. The reason: Jobs in the plants are dangerous and the pay meager, about $7 to $10 an hour. That's low by US standards, but it's big money for many in Mexico, where unskilled field hands earn as little as $4 a day." Meanwhile, IBP made a juicy $257 million in profits in 1995, with Chairman Robert Patterson receiving a $5.2 million bonus to go with his $1 million salary.

IBP and the other big meatpacking companies keep pay low by hiring illegal workers who have little legal recourse if they are hurt or fired. ... Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation For American Immigration Reform notes, "This is the resurgence of the politics of greed, something we haven't seen for 100 years, where big corporations think they have the natural right to import labor on demand."

¥ The district director of the INS in Iowa and Nebraska estimates that 25 percent of the workers in the 220 packing plants in the two states, or at least 12,000 workers, are illegal aliens.

¥ Nationally, 36 percent of workers in meatpacking plants sustain serious injuries each year, the highest of any industry according to OSHA. Many workers suffer from repetitive-motion injuries. Cuts and back injuries are also frequent. "This is sort of like slave labor," says Mark Grey, an expert on the restructured packing industry.

¥ "IBP just chews these people up and spits them out," says Jim Gustafson, a Storm Lake hog farmer.

Source: Stephen J. Hedges and Dana Hawkins with Penny Loeb, "The New Jungle," US News and World Report, Sept 23, 1996.

Loving Horses, With a Side of Fries Considered repugnant in many countries, horsemeat is a delicacy in parts of the world. "If you love horses, you should eat them too," says Alfons Gulickx, owner of De Kuiper's restaurant in Vivoorde, Belgium. "It hurts to eat such a nice animal, but yes, a horse is made to die," says Rik Eylenbosch, one of Guilckx's customers. In January, the US government began investigating a government adoption program for wild horses after the Associated Press reported that many of the animals were winding up in slaughterhouses for export to countries including Belgium.

Source: Raf Casert, "From Farm to Fricassee, Belgians Love Their Horses," Associated Press, Feb 6, 1997.

Mad Pig Disease An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has reached epidemic proportions in Taiwan where pork is a mainstay of the diet and pigs outnumber humans two to one. The outbreak carries many of the same social, economic and political risks as Britain's Mad Cow Disease fiasco, though foot-and-mouth disease presents no threat to humans. The epidemic could cost Taiwan $3 billion in lost sales and result in 50,000 lost jobs. In April, the army had begun to slaughter 1.6 million exposed hogs. The animals were electrically stunned then tossed into incinerators or buried alive in mass graves. In an effort to restore faith in Taiwan's pork, government leaders asked television stations to stop spoiling viewers' appetites with footage of the pig slaughter. Meanwhile, Tibet's exiled Bhuddist leader, the Dalai Lama, was visiting Taiwan at the time of the outbreak and urged people to eat less meat.

Source: George Wehrfritz, "Now, 'Mad Pig' Disease", Newsweek, April 7, 1997.

Meat Production Climbs Sharply In 1995, world meat production climbed by four percent, going from 184 million tons in 1994 to nearly 192 million tons. World meat production is responding to the rapid growth in demand, especially in East Asia.

¥ China's poultry meat output has doubled over the last four years.

¥ India's consumption of livestock products is rising. The broiler industry, which had roughly 30 million birds in 1980, climbed to 300 million in 1995.

¥ The demand for meat is also rising in several smaller Asian countries. The demand for beef in South Korea, for example, rose by an estimated 10 percent in 1995.

¥ Consumption of livestock was dropping in Europe due to economic disruption amidst reforms. In Russia, beef consumption has fallen from nearly 37 kgs in 1990 to 21 kgs in 1995, a fall of 40 percent. In Germany, average beef consumption has fallen from 19 kgs in 1990 to less than 17 kgs in 1995, a decline of one tenth. German pork consumption fell even more during this period.

¥ In the US, by contrast, per capita consumption of all major meats has increased during the 90s. Between 1990 and 1995, beef consumption increased by 1 percent, pork by 6 percent and poultry by more than 10 percent.

¥ The worldwide growth in meat consumption in 1995 was led by pork, which climbed by more than 6 percent. China accounted for almost all this increase, boosting its pork intake by a phenomenal 14 percent.

¥ Beef production grew for a second consecutive year, expanding by more than 2 percent. Over half the worldwide growth was accounted for by China, which has raised its beef consumption per person from 1 kg in 1990 to 3.6 kg in 1995.

¥ Poultry production grew by only 2.9 percent in 1995, down from 7.2 percent in 1994.

¥ World pork production is dominated by China, which produced 37 million tons in 1995, nearly half the world total of just under 80 million tons. The US, a distant second, produced 8 million tons.

¥ The US leads in beef production, accounting for nearly 14 million tons out of the global total of 50 million. China is now second with 7.5 million tons, followed by Brazil and France.

Source: Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 1996 (New York: Norton, 1996), p28.

Utah Meat Processor Fined The operator of a mobile meat-processing unit in Utah was fined $20,000 by the state Agriculture Department for selling the heads and other leftover parts from slaughtered animals to customers at large. According the Agriculture Department, the uninspected parts were not stored in sanitary conditions. It said the parts may have carried food-borne pathogens that can cause serious illness. All but $1,000 of the fine was suspended provided that the operator has no future violations.

Source: Lisa Carricaburu, "Utah Meat Processor Fined for Selling Leftover Animal Parts," Salt Lake Tribune, May 18, 1997.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I. Explosive Meat Tenderizer Morse B. Soloman is a researcher at the federal government's Agricultural Research Service's meat science research lab in Beltsville, Md. He has spent the past 4 years devising a new way to tenderize meat. His technique uses explosives to generate supersonic shock waves that eliminate toughness.

Currently chemical additives are used to tenderize meat. Soloman's idea, however, is that meat is placed in a plastic bag inside a tank of water and a small explosion is detonated at a precise distance away. The technology does raise some as-yet unanswered questions about worker safety.

Source: John D. McDlain, "Scientist blasts meat toughness to smithereens," Associate Press, May 15, 1997.

II. Sam Donaldson on the Federal Dole ABC newsman Sam Donaldson has been keeping agents from the government's Animal Damage Control agency busy on his New Mexico sheep ranch trapping, shooting and poisoning animal predators. ADC agents made 412 visits to Donaldson's ranch between October 1, 1991 and July 31, 1996. One agent spent nearly 1300 hours attempting to kill coyotes, bobcats and black bears on the ranch. The final body count for this effort included 74 coyotes, 3 bobcats and 2 foxes. New Mexico wildlife activist Pat Wolff estimates that Donaldson's use of the ADC's services cost US taxpayers "at least $100,000." During the same period, ADC agents spent 316 hours making 99 visits to the ranch of New Mexico Congressman Joe Skeen.

Source: "Samicide," Earth Island Journal, Spring 1997, p4. Tom Skeele, "ADC: Making Life Easier for Hobby Ranchers," The Home Range, Spring 1997, vol 7, no2, p10.

III. Taxpayers Being Milked The USDA opened a Miami trade office to help build exports of dairy products and other agricultural goods to the Caribbean, The Orlando Sentinel Tribune reports. The Miami office is the first of its type in the US; 15 other trade offices are based in foreign countries.

Source: "NewsWire," Dairy Field, April 1997.