Visiting the Dentist

I used to be really creeped out by our old dentist, a really nice guy that always asked too many questions, so I was pretty happy when we switched to a new dentist who was an old family friend. And that’s great, but my oral hygienist is just a little bit out there, if you know what I mean. Yesterday’s conversations started early down the animals for food conversation because she knows that I raise animals with my family and she’s mostly curious. But some of the things she holds as fact are like these gray hair “cures”, absolutely ridiculous.

Curiosity is a truly great thing, and yet a humbling revelation if you’re the asker of seemingly obvious questions. But what seems obvious to me is much more difficult to grasp in the minds of other people who never grew up on a farm or around animals, and this is the case with my hygienist. She has an organic consultant whose main goal in life is sell product, and more of it, and so he presents her with lots of ideas which she doesn’t know what to do with. She believes most of what he tells her, but says she’s skeptical, adding that he’s smart so she wants to believe he knows what he’s talking about.

Unfortunately, not every smart person is always honest, or always well educated. So I just wanted to spend a few minutes addressing some misconceptions that “health food” experts propagandize shamelessly. It’s a free world and you’re free to believe anything you want to believe, and to spend your money on whatever makes you feel better at the end of the day. My bartender the other night likes to buy meat and milk only from Giant Eagle because she believes that their product is fresher, of higher quality and she maintained that she could taste the difference, and feel it when she woke up in the morning. And who am I to disagree with that? I have firm confidence in the ability of science to prove or disprove these theories though, and that is what I’m here to tell people about since I’m an animal scientist.

Hormones are always a frontrunner in conversations such as this. And with kids reaching earlier maturity and prom season once more getting out of hand, who will debate that hormones in our youth are definitely a concern. But for all of the desire to get more “natural” in the world around us, I find it hard to believe that people just don’t see this as the natural way of things. What’s important here though is to remember that regardless of the cause of hormone increases in our children, animal products are not the cause. I’ve included an informative video to accentuate this point, created by the American Meat Science Association.



And then the topic of grass-fed animals came up. For starters, those of you who believe that by buying organic products, you are consuming grass-fed products, you are far from the truth. Organic more specifically refers to the use of antibiotics, GMOs and pesticides for food consumption and just like you can buy organic grains at the store, we can feed organic grains to animals. Organic has a small standard of welfare assurance in the certification, but there is also no proof to date that one method or the other is better for the animals (a focus of my own research).

So if you want grass-fed meat, then specifically buy grass fed meat. But don’t be fooled that it will change the impact of your diet on your health. This video by the American Meat Science Association does a good job highlighting the fact that, for example, while Omega-3 fatty acids are increased in beef fed on grass, it is not really any healthier to consume than grain-fed beef. To truly see a change in the Omega-3 fatty acid profile of your diet, you would need to switch entirely away from beef to something more like fish because the difference between grass and grain feeding is not significant enough to impact your health (unless you only eat beef 24/7, in which case you probably don’t care anyways).

The finale of this onslaught of misinformation which accompanied an unnecessary bloodbath that was my dental examination (even though I had such “beautiful teeth”) was her telling me that she buys a ginger pill which she consumes with her beef. She confidently stated to me that she was short on sex hormones (TMI?) and that the ginger converted her cholesterol to testosterone, leaving her healthier. A captive audience, I could do naught but sit and listen to this nonsense, promising I would look it up for myself when I got home. Of course, Dr. Google can find anything, even articles that discuss ginger reducing cholesterol. But the key words in any semi-reputable article would be “possibly blocks production of cholesterol in the liver”, “may reduce blood cholesterol” and “might thin blood”. Not anything I’d stake my reputation on, that’s for certain, and nothing online that was convincing in the slightest. This is one more moneymaking myth on a list which I get every time I go to the dentist.
If you want to comment on the morals of farmers, it’s interesting also to note that they could absolutely pull the wool over the eyes of the consumer, producing ridiculous products with unverified claims and pilfer the consumers’ pocketbooks one overpriced product at a time. But the farmer sticks to what they know is right: providing wholesome food to the consumer at prices they can afford. And for that, they should be commended.

Vicious

I searched long and hard, deep within for a one-word title to cover the recent Mercy for Animals video release. This video has been festering in my mind and buzzing in conversation for the last week and for good reason. What you see on the video (which I will not include here, you can Google it yourself) is vile and disgraceful for cattle farmers everywhere. But the story doesn't end there.

Vicious is a word that we use to describe dangerous or sick animals, heart-breakers that we meet at the bar and is also an appropriate description of Mercy for Animals. Credit this organization for always fighting for animal rights like a dog in a corner, yet they're also always on the offensive. They are viciously dishonest as well and based on the lies and falsification of previous movies released (which drives some states' new legislation to prosecute "undercover filmers"), I doubt the honesty behind the depiction of cruelty at the farm. There are thousands of animals on the farm, and over a month there are only 3 minutes of video. Of these 3 minutes, the actual headliner of calves being beat in the head only consisted of a half-dozen calves, our of thousands. Three minutes of video footage for a month of investigation.

But in this day in age, it's not good enough to be right and a good animal caretaker almost all of the time. Almost only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades; it's not enough to have great employees except one who slips up and has anger issues or fails to follow instructions. And that's fine. With food as cheap as people are used to having it, they can afford to get picky and in this day and age, mistakes like what happened at E6 are inexcusable; we've come a long way and it's good of consumers to encourage farmers to tighten their own ranks and to police those who aren't quite as committed to ensuring their employees follow regulations and care standards that are already in place on farms and in this case just weren't followed.

Mercy for Animals goes much further than just helping to make sure that animals are properly cared for and that mistakes are reported. The French defined "vicious" just a little bit different when I was over there, referring to it as more "perverted". I stipulate that this is the true definition of Mercy for Animals. I think it's perverted that they are willing to infiltrate farms, deny care and consideration to animals and even partake in abuse themselves in an effort to convince America to go vegan. It's perverted to be encouraging farm workers to abuse animals and to rig video footage in an effort to convict someone for animal abuse. It's perverted that they get away with this farce unpunished and that so many people blindly accept their lies as the truth.

I can't tell you often enough that farmers care about their livestock and they are more infuriated by this poor care in their fellow farmers than the public can ever be. They fight an uphill battle every day against the one or two bad apples in the crowd, in addition to activists who are willing to personally abuse animals in order to get national attention (within minutes of my posting this, their searches will have already logged me as one more person to have talked online about this - check out socialmention.com), and in addition to the hard work farmers put in every day to feed you safely. They will keep producing wholesome food and will keep honestly caring for their animals in the best ways that personal experience and science have shown them to do. Life's about choices. You can believe the activists who abuse animals and blame it on other people, or you can believe the farmers who have been doing this for more generations than the stock market has been in existence and who genuinely care about the animals in their possession - the choice is all yours.

BEEF JBS article

I just want to make sure that I draw my readers' attention to the JBS article in BEEF Magazine which was also featured in the Agriculture Proud blog which is on the sidebar of my own blog. Ryan digs up some good reading and puts great thoughts into words on his blog so I again highly suggest reading it.

Anyhow, from my own conservative semi-rural background, I had trouble accepting JBS when I was first learning about it because what it seemed like was a company just had a lot of money and was buying out the American beef industry. While they have made some large purchases here in the US, it turns out that as they discuss in this article JBS started very small. Read the article, like I did, and you'll gain a new appreciation for the hard-working values that JBS was founded on which represent the values of hard-working American farmers.

Testimony from a former Vegan

And I bet you wouldn't guess who it is. Well, if Carrie Underwood is an out-spoken vegan whom I disown as a country singer, I have found a new favorite celebrity after reading this in a blog by one of the national beef ambassadors. Apparently Angelina Jolie loves beef. By the way, props to the national beef ambassadors on their interesting and varying posts, which is why you will now find their blog link on the sidebar under my blogroll now.

Cattle Dashboard

If you're into the meat industry, livestock production or beef slaughter at all, then you'll be excited about this new slaughter reporting site with the USDA which then leads me to the national beef price right now. $97/cwt when I check, and that seems great as we approach our county fair.

And while we're at it, check this unbelievable report from Traverse City, MI. I'm glad that they were apprehended by law enforcement and believe that they deserve to be punished.

Dairy News Update

I'm drawing these today from my ADSA update.

First is an update on animal welfare issues and video releases as they currently impact the dairy industry. Included is further discussion about the Conklin Farm as well as the Willet Farm in New York that was recorded in January and used at the beginnings of a tail docking ban for the state of New York.

In my opinion, tail docking should be voluntarily banned in the US. It is a popular move which would be widely accepted and appreciated by the public, furthering the interests of dairymen nationwide whilst having no significant impact on milk quality, milk production, or animal/worker health. I have included this search to help you get started on reading research related to this issue. Mind you that unless it comes from a university site, the other searches have been bought by rights groups to promote their activism. Try to restrict your search to those university sites which include peer reviewed articles.

Secondly, I include this article about some preliminary research into the documented effects of organic food. Not to spoil a good read, but basically, there's no evidence to support that it has any positive impact on you except costing you more money and impressing your self-conscious friends. If you aren't interested in those two points, then probably just pass. Also note the comment about the poor quality of the research. Well, that runs both ways, so obviously the jury's still out, but you should definitely take the current proclamations of improved food quality with a grain of salt.

This trend of misinformation about healthy foods appears to carry over into beef as well.

Week 2, Post 3

Updates today come mainly from Sara Long up at MSU and her weekly e-newsletter. If you'd like to subscribe to her newsletter just email me and I will give you the appropriate information.

First on my list today is an article discussing arguments between animal rights groups related to spending and usage of fundraising. It is harsh on HSUS and their spending, so it is worth including.

Also, for those of you who know me longer term, you will remember my specific interest in BSE. Well, this article discusses new research related to identifying the disease earlier through the glow of cattle's eyes when they are infected. It is quite interesting to me.

Don't expect fish products to get any cheaper in the near future, as devastation from the oil accident in the gulf spreads.

Animal welfare and the origin of animals for consumption has topped the list of consumer concerns in Great Britain.

And finally, a company has started producing billboards with a new taste, well, more literally smell to them. As you drive past this billboard, you will smell grilling steak.