On Demand
Political Chicken, Political Beef
A major economic group in Europe is pushing for an end to the EU's ban on American chicken. While both sides stand to profit from lifting the ban, some European officials are citing health concerns. Also in livestock news, South Koreans continue the protest over allowing US beef into the country. Patrik Jonsson, southern correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, breaks down the two debates.
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Generally, American chicken is industrial chicken which is nutritionally compromised to say the least. Industrially raised chicken (and hteir eggs) never see the sun, live in confinement - ' "free range" means they have been liberated from crate life and can run around in chicken poop - for a beautiful picture of the difference between any industrial (factory) farm product and pastured farm products, read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Great read, too. If I were European, I would say NO NO NO unconditionally. We need our few remaining local small farmers who pasture their chickens to feed us here!!!
When I was in Europe in January, the cloning issue was big...they were pretty unanimously dead set against allowing any tainted US meat into their borders, as they ought to be.
Even if Dubya can force his chicken upon the EU, who says anyone will purchase it (other than fast food chains)?
Has anyone ever noticed how they can eat anything over there, and their digestion improves a thousand percent? I suppose it's all the frankencorn and hormones.
or rather, lack of frankencorn and hormones!
Koreans (Northerners and Southerners are becoming a pain)...I say boycott their exports.
Tastes like chicken.
industrially-produced u.s. chicken tastes like nothing, so no loss to the europeans. can anyone explain why it's necessary to overproduce such an inferior product and then ship it thousands of miles, foisting it upon countries whose own chicken is likely far better-tasting?
after these last 3 segments I've decided to stop eating.
Why is it that our entire chicken population is so contanimated with salmonila anyway? The japanese consume raw chicken without fear.
Also why is it that eggs contain so little salmonila?
Trust the traditional French for anything to do with food!!! It is their culture, this sensitivity. Fight for those values here!! Vive la France!!!
I was in italy for a month and half on a school trip. In that month in a half my digestion changed for the better, I lost weight, I had never felt better. I wasn't even exercising that much. I have never been able to go back to the weight i was in when i was in italy. How did the quality of the food here in the U.S. get so bad? And people want to be like us?
Lets start exporting obesity. oh wait we already did.
Can we get a segment on what foreigners eat when they visit the US?
they have USA fast food every where i've been in Europe, not that i would eat that there.
For eggs to get salmonella, the shell has to be broken, so the bacteria can get in. So if the eggs are not cracked in anyway, they are fine.
Brian
Please read Michael Pollan on this - you would know that it is night and day, based on waht the beef are fed and how they live (Omnivore's Dilemma - a great read anyway)
no I am sure the South Koreans want their own traditional food!!!
The last time I attended a Chinese New Year dinner, in one of those 1,000-seat restaurants in Chinatown, I was surprised that virtually everything served in the multi-course dinner was fish.
I was told the Chinese--both in China and here in NY--are absolutely _terrified_ of Mad Cow.
I heard from my Korean friends in Korea that there are stories of suspected Mad Cow Diease cases in Korea. But the government is controling the report of that. However the internet in Korea is so advanced that most of the citizens are outraged basically.
Your listeners will appreciate this. Several months ago I found a choice at the supermarket between my normal "Bell and Evans" chicken (Best by date 3 days from that day) and an "All Natural" variety I had never seen before with a sell by date 2 weeks from that day. Manager didn't know why. I went home and called the FDA official in charge of this area to ask him about the world of sell by dates.
4 takeaways from this fascinating convo: 1. Sell by date is for the store not the consumer. "There's no such thing as this kind of protection for the consumer." 2. Freshness is defined by the FDA as "stored above ZERO degrees F (not 32!). 3. This official purchases his chicken from local chicken slaughter houses found in every city in the US, he said, often in the Asian or Mexican neighborhoods. 4. Older chickens / hens have flavor, the ones sold at the market are baby chickens, age-wise. Hens can only found at these slaughter houses.
Personally I appreciate these foreigners protesting against our subprime food standards, for whatever their logic. I also appreciate their success in delaying our GMO exports. I suspect many at the FDA do as well.
WHY should US methods be adopted or accepted elsewhere when they involve chemicals, antibiotics, hormones and other non-edibles of every kind? Anyone who cares about what they put in their body, American or not, should avoid mass produced American food at all costs, I know I try to. If only US producers would consider or even better be forced instead to adopt and accept clean, organic, natural production methods.
We don't KNOW that we don't have mad cow disease in this country. We are told we have an Alzheimers epidemic but that disease can't be distinguished from BSE except by autopsy, which is virtually never done. The cattle are not tested and the vast number of dementia patients are not tested.
The Koreans are right not to want our beef until we adopt the kinds of testing that are done in Asia.
chestinee,
"can run around in chicken poop "
is that better?
PS let's not over-celebrate the Korean food standards -- thanks to a taste for the salty and the BBQ'd Koreans and Japanese suffer from the world's highest rates of stomach cancer.
Bottom line to me is that the Europen Union should put the health of their citizens first.
In the states it seems we always put the health of our citizens last when it comes to making a profit.
The US pushes gen. modified corn on Europe and Africa and now they want to shove industrialized chicken down their throats.
A general comment about the global food crisis:
I have no doubt, due to rising oil prices and bad weather, that there is a food shortage. What I don't quite get is the headlines: the crisis is caused not by the food shortage itself but by the fact that people can't *afford* food. Yes, I realize that in market economics shortage = price increases on what remains. And that the crisis is in a) getting food to desperate people b) funding the ability of these desperate communities to buy food.
However, it seems that, if the purpose of all of our societies is its *people,* that, in a crisis, there should be an attempt to make food more affordable. Yes, the free-marketers nightmare: price controls. I'm sure they'll come up with many rationalizations and horror predictions, but the reality at this moment is, people are **starving**.
I would rather hear the protests of large producers who are surviving quite well than the dying screams of the many people who are *starving.*
Karl/22 I think their logic comes from considering the health of their citizens in terms of having *enough* food, at least in the future.
This is why Austrailian Cows(raised in open green pastures) are very popular. Organic meat is the way to go now, even for Americans, and the rest of the world is not stupid. They don't want to eat the leftover/unpopular meats from America, and American standard has to change, otherwise nobody wants to eat them, unless US forces the little countries to accept the trade unfairly.
Here's a video of what goes on...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Zp_0Z7KJoVE
hjs NO NO NO - in confinement they run around in chicken poop - outdied in teh sunshine they run around in the grass and eat grass and bugs and things they were made to eat - not just grain - grain has phytotoxins and should be soaked (fermented) before anybody eats it (sourdough)
In teh 60s and 70s savvy people formed co-ops to buy food. Theyare doing it again. Not as glam as Whole foods but you know where teh food comes from and you support local farms.
Important to note that fears of BSE (Mad Cow disease/Creutzfeldt-Jakob Dieasse) are valid even if cases have not yet appeared in Korea... Here's a Wikipedia citation:
"researchers proposed that individuals who contracted CJD in the early 1990s represent a distinct genetic subpopulation, with unusually short incubation periods for BSE. This means that there may be many more vCJD patients who have longer incubation periods, which may surface many years later"
US gov't has restrictions on blood donors who have spent a certain amount of time in the UK as far back as the 1980s I believe, for this reason.
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