USDA: 20 million melamine-tainted chickens cleared for sale

[rec_report]

USDA: 20 million melamine-tainted chickens cleared for sale 08 May 2007 Chickens that ate bird feed made with a small amount (!) of contaminated pet food are safe for human consumption and can be released for slaughter and sale, federal health officials said yesterday. That decision emerged from a government risk analysis completed over the weekend involving 20 million chickens that officials said Friday had inadvertently been fed the tainted feed in several states. (Oh. Since they're "safe," I hope they make it to Bush and Cheney's dinner table.)

More news here.

[Erika]

1. I'm off of chicken for awhile

Unless I could use the Bush administration as testers.

[rec_report]

4. Many were hoping the 'mad cow' would have come through,

given that Bush was such a big beef eater, and all...
Just kidding, Agent Mike!
:hi:

Polar Bear

[RC]

12. You never hear what they feed cows anymore -

I wonder why?

[smoogatz]

17. Soylent green, I'm pretty sure.

That's why we only buy locally raised, grass-fed organic beef. It tastes a hell of a lot better, too.

[Name removed]

74. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hekate]

7. Me too. I hope tofu is safe.Why do I get the feeling that Bush-FDA doesn't care about us?

I wonder how long it will be before 20 million chickens are cleared out? :-(

Hekate

[bdamomma]

22. they don't care about us.

[nadinbrzezinski]

84. Hmm Tofu will have to find how to cook it

[Robbien]

21. What you really need to wonder about is the eggs

Whatever the chickens ate must have made its way into their eggs.

This is what worries me even more than the chickens themselves.

[GregD]

2. we only buy organic chicken breasts

please tell me that is a safe purchase

[Rainscents]

3. Is it from local or CA?

CA has strick orgainc stander, this is why, I asked. I get mine from local organic farm.

[GregD]

16. Our brand is "Coastal Range Organics" from WA

[rec_report]

5. Have the USDA (*joke*) guidelines been weakened since the....

Bush regime took (literally, took) office?
Polar Bear

[rec_report]

6. USDA = United States Department of Agribusiness n/t

[Faux pas]

8. Hey, if they're 'safe' enough for us, why don't we export them

to China?

[vickitulsa]

9. Food Supply in the U.S.: A vulnerable area that affects everyone!

I've long been concerned about the extremely low and sloppy "standards" our government uses in its food quality verification systems -- if in fact we consider it that at all, since I believe we are provided very damn little protection from tainted or otherwise dangerous content in our foodstuffs.

This latest major scare involving first our pets at risk and now worrying many with regard to human consumption of some of the same bad content is apparently proving useful in one respect, because it's drawing a lot of attention to this overall problem. The fact that so many people have lost beloved pets or other animals, that livelihoods have been affected as well as the precious lives that we treasured and grieve for losing, means that a lot of folks are very concerned.

Perhaps the only good thing that can come out of such tremendous loss and sadness is enough attention and anger from the public to finally make people get real about this threat and demand better quality control of our food products!

Because my dog was never at risk in this case, and because I've been extremely busy getting ready to move my mother into my neighborhood (very close by!) so I can take better care of her, I have been so busy I was unable to follow the melamine contamination story very closely. But I know in general what has been going on and have read a few threads about it.

Now I'm thinking this seems like an area that DUers might well be even more concerned about than I first thought -- not because my notion of what DUers are like is wrong but because it's an even bigger and broader issue than I first realized.

Heaven knows the last thing I want to do is focus heavily on yet another source of "fear" for us all to deal with in these times. But food (and drug) supply safety is just too important an area to neglect!

Maybe the melamine fiasco and tragedy, so broad in scope and affecting so many lives, causing such wrenching pain and horror, will bring the corruption and "shortcomings" of the FDA and USDA -- and whatever other agencies are responsible for assuring that our food supply is safe -- into the big bright lights.

I cannot imagine how awful it must feel to those who fed their beloved pet food products they trusted and their pet suffered or even perished because of it. It breaks my heart even to think about this!

Even Repukes have pets that they love very much, and surely many must have lost them or come close to it during this terrible contamination event. Even Repukes don't want to be poisoned by the foodstuffs they consume every day. So maybe this is one issue where we really could work with those in the opposing party to get some improvements made in the system, while halting and reversing any trends or changes that have been making us more vulnerable.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel we must "strike while the iron is hot" on this one in particular.

Let's all be sure we talk to people about this! (I know you have been, yes I do understand that.) Mention it in the checkout line at the store or in the pet food aisle when you see others trying to figure out what is okay to feed the furry members of their families. I do this every time I buy dog food now. Every time, these have been rather intense and certainly meaningful encounters.

People CARE ABOUT THIS right now!

I hope we can take advantage of this window of opportunity to address something so important, even in the midst of many investigations of other areas where this administration has been screwing up and screwing us over. It's all worth doing, of course!

In a way, it's almost overwhelming that we now have so many scandals and crimes of the Repukes and Bu$hCo in particular to examine. The surfeit of nastiness exposed is a bit intimidating to me sometimes, even as I appreciate that the attention is being paid where it is nowadays so these criminals and creeps can be held accountable (at long last) for all they've done.

Yet I still think we need to turn our focus on the failure of our government to provide adequate safety regulations and testing of food products. As it stands now, the whole system in place is a joke -- and a very cruel and dangerous one!

[symbolman]

10. Notice how all these Govt agencies are FINE with

releasing the chickens, BUT NO ONE SEEMS TO WANT TO TELL US WHO is Selling them?

WHAT Corporation, and how many are selling this tainted meat?

What are their NAMES so we can BOYCOTT THE FUCK OUT OF THEM?

I want ANSWERS Damnit.

Anyone KNOW?

[rec_report]

15. Good point, symbolman.

I notice that whenever agribusiness is involved with deadly/tainted food and the news hits the GOP-owned & operated media, we rarely learn the name of the corpora-terrorists who are responsible. The entire issue is typically 'buried.'
Polar Bear

[robinlynne]

26. I like how you call them terrorists. It's true. the corporations are the terrorists.

[Shallah Kali]

72. And what of the hogs and fish who were fed the same chemicals? FDA & USDA won't name names

!

[orleans]

85. maybe we have to boycott ALL chicken--and when all the

companies start feeling the pinch then maybe the melamine-free feed companies will DEMAND the guilty companies step up (or maybe then at least someone will start leaking which companies are at fault)

[JCMach1]

11. Complete BS from USDA

Under Bush, basically, there is no longer any food regulation beyond what companies do themselves.

Irony, I guarantee McDonald's won't take the Melamine chicken. But it's ok for the general consumer...

[Babsbrain]

18. How do you know?

Do you know for a fact that McDonalds does not have contaminated chicken? Or do you just have a dog in this fight?

[Babsbrain]

19. McDonalds would be the first to take it

To say McDConalds wouldn't take tainted chicken is an insult to our intelligence.

[Megahurtz]

61. No Kidding! n/t

[JCMach1]

78. I would suggest you read Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" for a good outline

of how the distribution system operates in the U.S. It is dictated by McD's and the other big chains. This is extraordinarily harmful to the food supply, but probably not in the way you imagine.

They promote the factory farming and processing, but they SKIM the best products for themselves. It is the lower quality sub-standard stuff that goes to your neighborhood groceries, packers and school lunches.

You will be safe from Melamine at McD's but exposed to the fat-filled unhealthy food. :(

Can't win there.

[salin]

13. Why does this not make me feel better... oh - could it be the *many*

times agencies under Bushco have changed scientific findings to benefit corporate profits rather than serve the public safety?

[B Calm]

14. I never really liked chicken that much anyhow.. No more chicken

for awhile...

[Javaman]

20. My question is...

Does it still taste like chicken?

[bdamomma]

23. kick

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. How much melamine is in the chickens?

Compared to, say, the level we're normally exposed to via plastic food wraps, etc?

[gravity]

27. It's undetectable

From the article

Officials said the amount of melamine in the feed consumed by the 20 million chickens was so low that the chemical was undetectable in the birds, even using a highly sensitive experimental test that can detect as few as 10 parts of melamine per billion parts of tissue.

A larger proportion of pet food was added to the feed eaten by the Indiana breeding birds, so those chickens are being kept off the market until measurements of melamine in their tissues are complete, officials said. But government scientists said they were encouraged by the fact that none of the birds had grown ill -- and by the recent finding that the kidneys of pigs that ate the contaminated chow appeared normal under a microscope. Kidneys are often the first organs to show damage from melamine poisoning

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

29. So then what's the fuss?

Because we're getting ~1 ppm melamine in our food just from plastic wrap. If it's <10 ppb that's at least two orders of magnitude lower. Why should I believe this is not just fear mongering?

[StarryNite]

30. My, my

you're a trusting soul. And why not? Our government has never given us reason to distrust them. They always have our best interest at heart.


:sarcasm:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. When people tell me to worry about...

Weapons of Mass Destruction, or say, Chickens of Mass Destruction, I'm not going to panic without at least a little evidence.

[StarryNite]

33. Good thinking

Wait until the people start dropping the way the pets did.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

34. Sure.

Is that going to be before or after Saddam launches his WMDs?

[StarryNite]

36. The problem is that

it's the same government that told us there were WMD in Iraq that is telling us the food is safe. And you trust them, why?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

37. I don't trust them.

I also don't assume everything "they" tell me is a lie, because I wear a tinfoil hat.

I'm also not going to be a sucker for fear-mongering. From the government or otherwise.

[StarryNite]

39. So whose account of dead pets

do you believe? To me the fact that so many animals died supposedly from melamine in their food and now they say there is melamine in our food, I think warrants further investigation. And keep in mind that our government isn't one to "out" corporate misdoings. It's all about the buck for them. Our health means little to them.

For instance do you buy this governmental excuse for not allowing drug imports?

Drug import effort blocked

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Los Angeles Times

~snip~
The drug import measure, which was tacked onto the FDA overhaul, could have saved consumers billions of dollars, its sponsors said. But the pharmaceutical industry has argued that pharmacies risk being flooded with counterfeit drugs. And the White House, which also opposes importation, had threatened a veto of the drug safety bill if it eased restrictions.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2003697772_rxdrugs08.html

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. What was the concentration of melamine in those pets food?

Because if it was less than <1 ppm, I think it was something else besides melamine.

The drug import issue is unrelated, but I sure don't see how it helps your argument. If all these pets are dead, and by extension all of these people are going to die, because of contaminated imports, why would we want more unregulated, untested imports?

[StarryNite]

41. I don't know what the concentration

of melamine was in the pet food. But the correlation between melamine in our food and the importation of drugs is that the welfare of corporations is what this administration is concerned with more than it's concern for the citizens. Many of the drugs that would have been imported back into the US are the very same ones that are sold here to begin with. However, since those very same drugs are being sold for a fraction of the price in other countries, bringing them back into the US from those countries would save the consumer a lot of money. But since big pharma is one of the "owners" of our government then they get to call the shots when it really should not be their shot to call. Now what do you think would happen to the food producers if the FDA announced that their food was a health hazard as a result of being tainted with melamine? They will avoid going down that road if they can.

[Bjorn Against]

79. I would suggest you read up on who runs the FDA

If you think the FDA cares more about food safety than they do about corporate profits you are sorely mistaken. Read "Fast Food Nation" by Erik Schlosser or "Trust Us We're Experts" by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber if you want to have your eyes opened on this issue.

[Megahurtz]

62. Lol! n/t

[rec_report]

32. LOL, do you actually trust the Bush regime's 'evaluations' and 'inspections' --

by the same corpora-terrorists who would lose *millions* if they report the truth about food safety?
Polar Bear

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

35. Do you know what the concentration in chickens is?

Is it over 1 ppm?

[rec_report]

69. Do you trust the Bush regime's 'testers?' If you do, why? n/t

[Sanctified]

47. Who believes they really tested all 20 million chickens.

Or did they just grab the one that looked healthiest and said, "No problems here folks, go back to bed your Government is looking out for you."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

57. They wouldn't have to.

Just test a random sample.

[mhatrw]

49. Why didn't they use their "highly sensitive experimental test" on

the contaminated pigs' and birds' kidneys?

Deceitful pseudo-scientific hacks.

[gravity]

50. Probably because we don't eat the kidneys

[mhatrw]

52. Who doesn't eat the kidneys?

Ever heard of sausage, lunch meat, broth, gravy and pet food?

Do you think they just throw out all kidneys simply because you yourself are too lazy and wasteful to make gravy or broth when you buy a whole chicken?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

58. What makes you think they didn't?

Or, if they didn't, what makes you think they would have to?

[mhatrw]

59. They say they tested the flesh and looked at the kidneys under a

microscope.

Why not test the kidneys? That's where you'd expect the melamine to concentrate.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

60. So then they did test the kidneys.

:shrug:

[mhatrw]

65. Really? Then why mention that they were reassured by the fact

that the kidneys looked OK under a microscrope? Does that make any sense to you if kidneys were tested using the using the "highly sensitive experimental test that can detect as few as 10 parts of melamine per billion parts of tissue"?

[StarryNite]

66. Shhhhh,

don't burst his little trust bubble.

[mhatrw]

67. Faith-in-authority-based "reasoning" n/t

[Shallah Kali]

73. any mention of Cyanuric Acid? Science reports seem to indicate it is this combo that is the deadlist

not one or the other alone.

[rec_report]

25. Why are so many people averse to removing this illegitimate dictatorship...

from power?
It's not just Iraq; Iraq is the 'cover' for the ascension of power by the corpora-terrorists.
It has gone on right under our noses, since January 2001.
Polar Bear

More news here.

[StarryNite]

28. Melamine chicken?

With all the tainted pet food being sold I wanted to play it safe and cook for my dog. I have been feeding her a lot of ground beef and turkey along with rice, yams, and veggies. I have also been feeding her chicken. But the past few times I bought chicken for her something didn't look quite right about it. Is it just me or do you think I might have bought one of those melamine chickens? She seems to be having a difficult time eating it.

[tsuki]

38. No chicken for me. We're buying our own peeps this week-end.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

42. This should backlash the industry. Boycott all chicken

until they decide not to poison us. This is insane. Safe to feed us a plastic that causes kidney failure?
:wtf:

[StarryNite]

43. But it's okay if it's in small amounts

wink, wink.

[gravity]

44. They did decide it wasn't poison

They couldn't even detect melamine in the meat.

[StarryNite]

45. Why do you trust "them"?

FDA Announces Millions of Chickens Contaminated with Melamine and Sold to Humans

~snip~
The FDA says they lack toxicity data on melamine but they said that at this time there are no plans to recall any poultry products. In the last few days they announced that even though their testing had found that thousands of hogs had tested positive for melamine and 45 people have eaten pork products tainted with melamine they have no plans to recall any pork products. When reporters asked the officials to name the the companies that may have unknowingly produced tainted products the officials refused to give any names, citing their ongoing investigation. While there have been no reports of serious human illness due to eating melamine tainted pork or poultry, the effects of melamine on humans are not known.

~snip~


The FDA officials also increased their number of confirmed pet deaths due to pet food spiked with melamine. Previously the FDA acknowledge the deaths of only 16 pets due to the tainted food. Today they have updated that number to 4,150 confirmed or acknowledged pet deaths. Pet owners and veterinarians claim the number is much higher and the number of 'official' pet deaths is expected to grow as the FDA investigation continues.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/231055/fda_announces_millions_of_chickens.html

[gravity]

51. Well they use science to back up their decisions

Like actually knowing the concentration of melamine in the meat itself.

Also their asses are on the line. Imagine the lawsuits that would result if the chicken actually turned out to be dangerous.

[mhatrw]

53. How about the concentration of melamine in the kidneys?

Why didn't they test the concentration of the melamine in the kidneys of the birds and pigs who had eaten the most contaminated feed?

[StarryNite]

54. Science?

Is that the same science that said the air in Manhattan was safe right after Sept. 11? Huh? Is it the same science? You have to remember it's "their" science. Their scientists say what they are told to say.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

64. Oh, yeah, your scientists tell you all kinds of things.

Like how chemtrails are made up out of water vapor. Yeah, right. I have it on good word that they are in fact made up of dihydrogen monoxide.

[WinkyDink]

76. Haha. Your point?

[WinkyDink]

75. Surely you jest! Like science has never caved to Big Business in this country?

[Sanctified]

46. Pretty messed up because they probably.

Looked at this from a financial standpoint over a health of American people stand point. They probably figured by destroying 20 million chickens they would lose $80 million in revenue while by putting the meat out there maybe they would only lose $10 million in lawsuits from dead people.

Thats big Agriculture for you, we don't care if we kill you as long as we are making a profit.

[StarryNite]

48. They probably

figure that a lot of illness and deaths won't even be linked to melamine since at this point doctors wouldn't know to even check for something like that.

[rec_report]

55. Oops! Apparently, fish are contaminated, too:

Farmed fish fed contaminated material 08 May 2007 Farmed fish have been fed meal spiked with the same chemical that has been linked to the pet food recall, but the contamination was probably too low to harm anyone (!) who ate the fish, federal officials said Tuesday. (Oh. Since the contamination is "too low to harm anyone," I hope the fish make it to Bush and Cheney's dinner table.)

More news here.

[StarryNite]

56. But "their" scientists

say it "probably" won't hurt those who ate it. Wow! That makes me feel a whole lot better.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

63. Alright, what do your scientists say?

If there's melamine in the meat, it should be relatively easy for you to go out and measure it.

[mhatrw]

68. My scientists say release the information about which birds & pigs were

contaminated so we can test the concentration of melamine in the kidneys of a number of randomly selected birds and pigs from this population and publicly publish the results.

Yours say to keep this information secret, glance at a couple of kidneys under a microscope and assume all is well.

Why do you trust your "scientists" over mine?

[StarryNite]

70. Of course he trusts his

over yours. The government clowns, I mean scientists, wouldn't lie. Not to mention it's been reported on the news that our food is safe. What more proof could you ask for than that?

[Nikia]

71. Maybe it breaks down during digestion and metabolism

It is an organic substance of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. It doesn't contain heavy metals or anything.

[WinkyDink]

77. Trust scientists! And pass the thalidomide, mercury, DDT, and Ephedra!

[Deja Q]

80. Eating an apple is equally dangerous.

Each apple contains 5 or 6 seeds. A seed, mixed with hydrochloric acid, makes cyanide gas.

That's why you don't feed apple (or other) seeds to pets. It'll kill them.

It takes well over a cup of apple seeds to kill a human being.

[tyedyeto]

81. Guess who won't be eating chicken for a while? n/t

[Rex]

82. Ya know, it is funny how I stopped eating chicken tenders and stuff like it.

Just said ew, after the story about ADM and China. Guess that was a good move. I eat rat feces, hair, dead skin cells and who knows what. Fingers, eyeballs, but JESUS why do they have to add contaminated chickens?

What's next? Slightly radioactive chicken tenders? :eyes:

[nadinbrzezinski]

83. Oh god, that explains the sale at the local supermaket

guess we are off chicken for a while