Large commercial meat producers also use common cleaning
chemicals like chlorine and ammonia to kill the germs endemic to livestock
operations. Chickens are routinely given a chlorine bleach "bath"
before sold to the public. And who can forget the ammonia puffs that Pink Slime
was treated with to kill E. coli? Yuk.
"Big meat" also irradiates meat, adds nitrites
(substances which can form carcinogenic nitrosamines in the body) and adds
gasses to retard bacterial growth. Up
to 70 percent of commercial meat in stores packages looks appealingly red
because it is treated with carbon monoxide. Thanks to such gasses, meat can
stay red up to a year but livestock producers deny that spoiled meat that looks
red is a health risk. A spokesperson for a firm representing major meat
companies says "When a product reaches the point of spoilage, there will
be other signs that will be evidenced--for example odor, slime formation and a
bulging package--so the product will not smell or look right." That's a relief!
Is seafood safer? Sadly, no. The
antibiotics, veterinary drugs and pesticides used in aquaculture can make meat
production look, well, green. A review of the book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat
Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood on AlterNet says
commercial shrimp
production "begins with urea, superphosphate, and diesel, then progresses
to the use of piscicides (fish-killing chemicals like chlorine and rotenone),
pesticides and antibiotics (including some that are banned in the U.S.), and
ends by treating the shrimp with sodium tripolyphosphate (a suspected
neurotoxicant), Borax, and occasionally caustic soda." The New York
Times , Chicago
Tribune and Consumer
Reports all have
reported disturbing mercury levels in red lean and fatty tuna.
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