-Caveat Lector- Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com http://www.ioa.com/~davehart GUARDIAN (London) Science Editor Thursday October 28, 1999 US cattle fed manure and wood shavings What's wrong with our food? - special report Tim Radford, Beef producers in the US still use poultry litter as stock feed. The mix of chicken manure and wood shavings is, says the North Carolina extension service, "an economical and safe source of protein, minerals and energy for beef cattle". American farmers still also use bone and feather meals to beef up output. But in both Britain and France - and everywhere in the EU - such experiments officially came to an end long ago, and European cows and sheep are back on vegetarian diets. They are supplied with high protein, high energy cakes and crunch bars made from apple pomace, bakery products and barley, full fat soya, grape pulp and grass meal, maize gluten, malt residuals, mango and manioc, sunflower, sweet lupins and sweet potato, stuck together with minerals, molasses and vegetable oils of any description. Farmers need cheap food, so manufacturers use what waste products are sold locally, and everywhere in Europe, the precise recipe for the cattle equivalent of the crunchy cereal bar is slightly different. Alexander During of Fefac, the European consortium of agricultural feed suppliers in Brussels, said one thing was clear. "We have a ban on animal protein throughout the EU. There is a total ban on mammalian meat and bone meal for the whole of the EU. The one difference between the EU and the UK and the rest of Europe is that, because of commercial pressures, the UK people do not use tallow as an animal ingredient and have to replace it with fat of vegetable origin." Mike Evans, of the UK Agricultural Supply Trade Association, agreed that French cattle diets are very like British ones. "They will use many of the ingredients we use in the UK, which is why we are a little shocked at the revelation that, allegedly, human and animal excrement had been used," he said. "They most certainly use fat from rendering plants to provide energy in the diets. We don't since BSE. We use vegetable oil, they use both." Animal fats are a valuable source of high energy: if pure, they do not contain the rogue proteins that have been fingered as the culprit behind BSE or the new form of CJD which has so far taken 43 lives. So tallows recovered from rendering plants go into French cattle feed. Most European nations will also allow fishmeal as a protein source, and even poultry meal, but the French have banned everything except hydrolised fish meal: fish protein converted to a kind of Marmite. In Britain and other parts of Europe in the 1960s and 70s, there were experiments with poultry litter, town sewage sludge and farmyard slurry as sources of cattle feed. If fermented, experts argued, these could provide safe supplements rich in nitrogen. But the experiments "In this era, in this climate, it turns us off to even think about it, but back in the 60s and 70s, things were different, and it was all about cheap food policy and utilising materials and nutrient value. I am referring to poultry litter now," Mr Evans said. Mr During agreed. Neither human nor animal excrement was an acceptable source of food for livestock. But he conceded that it might still be possible in businesses where feed was mixed on the farm. Wheat straw is a high fibre diet of low food value: if treated with ammonia, however, the fibres break down to produce protein and carbohydrates. ================================= *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. *** DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
