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Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

motherjones.com

161–170 of 203 posts

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#161
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

battles over who has the right to make certain types of sausages What do you mean? There are people in England who think that the EU is going to ban British Sausages being called "sausages", forcing them to be called "emulsified high-fat offal tube". It was actually a joke from the political satire show "Yes, Minister" from 1984 (watch the clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzeDZtx3wUw ). There are a lot of eu…

Thanks for the knee-jerk anti-British rant, and I am very well aware of Yes Minister as well, but I was actually referring to this case.[1] [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17706290

In fairness, speaking as a British person, we do fucking go on about EU regulations. Or at least the media like to kick up a fuss.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#162

The US is now the control group to see if these practices make any difference. There's no reason to implement any of them unless someone demonstrates that Europe has a better outcome on the various claimed side-effects. For example, if honeybees fare no better in Europe than the US, then we can eliminate the theory that neonicotinoids are a problem.

I'm not sure that's the only difference, though.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#163
post #130

Another thing that is not practiced in Europe (to my knowledge) and allowed in the US is fluoridation of water. There is scientific proof that fluoride is a potent neurotoxin[1], and yet the government continues to insist and require fluoridation of water. ------------ 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoride_toxicity

Well, of course it's a toxin. There's a reason it's added to water: In small amounts, it is not harmful to human health but is harmful to bacteria that cause cavities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation#Safety

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#164

1. Being from UK where we have just had months of "how the hell did horsemeat get into every burger and lasagne meal?", the idea Europeans have this food business sorted is laughable. 2. All western countries have high standards in food processing. The differences are arbitrage not horrors that will kill us all, as this article rather lazily implies. 3. processing food is mostly the problem. Processing meat is almost…

> the idea Europeans have this food business sorted is laughable.

It was a scamdal. and it IS sorted out. And EU has the regulations in place, as opposed to USA.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#165
post #86

The most sensible European regulations of those listed in the article kindly submitted here are "What Europe did: Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001." and "What Europe did: In the EU, all antibiotics used in human medicines are banned on farms—and no antibiotics can be used on farms for 'non-medical purposes,' i.e., growth promotion." I'd like to see the United States fo…

The fact that you have to qualify your comment with your links to farmers puzzles me. I mean, I understand why you did it, but it's puzzling to me that attitudes are such that you need to. The Brave New Antibiotic-Resistant Apocalypse will hurt farmers just as much as the rest of us, after all. The way I see it, farmers should be leading the charge to ban non-medicinal antibiotics use in farm animals. The current sit…

This has nothing to do with "farmers". Cow 'production' uses only factory workers now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Ranch#cite_note-post-9

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#166

1. Being from UK where we have just had months of "how the hell did horsemeat get into every burger and lasagne meal?", the idea Europeans have this food business sorted is laughable. 2. All western countries have high standards in food processing. The differences are arbitrage not horrors that will kill us all, as this article rather lazily implies. 3. processing food is mostly the problem. Processing meat is almost…

> the idea Europeans have this food business sorted is laughable. It was a scamdal. and it IS sorted out. And EU has the regulations in place, as opposed to USA.

>And EU has the regulations in place, as opposed to USA

You don't think the USA has food regulations?

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#167
post #158
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy local. I live in central Illinois, so it's fairly easy to find local (within 30 miles) producers of most raw foods (meat/veggies/eggs), with the exception of milk. While this may be difficult in some parts of the country, I find getting to know local farmers and buying directly from the ones that do not use these practices (farmer's markets are great for making those connections) is the easiest. Though, as I said…

Hu? Why does the fact that the farmer is next to you have anything to do with his process? So if I buy from that same farmer you go to, but I'm hundreds of miles away I suddenly get those chemicals but you don't?

> Why does the fact that the farmer is next to you have anything to do with his process?

It doesn't. It does, however, have everything to do with discovering what that process is. I walk up to a farmer at a local farmer's market and say, "Hey, do you feed your cows chicken shit?... No? Cool, can I buy some steaks from you?"

Obviously there's better ways to present the question, but you get the point. It's far easier to discover the process directly (and IMO more reliable) than to follow the supermarket->distributer->packager->slaughterhouse->farmer chain to find out what the process is.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#168

The most sensible European regulations of those listed in the article kindly submitted here are "What Europe did: Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001." and "What Europe did: In the EU, all antibiotics used in human medicines are banned on farms—and no antibiotics can be used on farms for 'non-medical purposes,' i.e., growth promotion." I'd like to see the United States fo…

>Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001. Saw a Dirty Jobs segment some time ago in which a Nevada pig farmer picks up all the waste from several casinos' buffets, hauls it out to his farm, hand-picks the plastic and other inedible crud out of it, liquefies it, steams it to kill off some of the bacteria, then feeds it to his hogs. My first thought was that it was pretty cleve…

Of all the animals, I get the feeling trying to regulate what goats or pigs eat is going to be a loss. Pigs have been used as "garbage disposals" for a long time by many groups. There is a decent historical reason for some religions to ban the eating of such animals. Parts of the Old Testaments are after all a health manual for their time period.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#169
post #165
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you have to qualify your comment with your links to farmers puzzles me. I mean, I understand why you did it, but it's puzzling to me that attitudes are such that you need to. The Brave New Antibiotic-Resistant Apocalypse will hurt farmers just as much as the rest of us, after all. The way I see it, farmers should be leading the charge to ban non-medicinal antibiotics use in farm animals. The current sit…

This has nothing to do with "farmers". Cow 'production' uses only factory workers now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Ranch#cite_note-post-9

"Cow 'production' uses only factory workers now."

I suppose I should ask the folks around here (ND) about that line. On second thought, I am pretty sure they would have some words for me.

Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US

#170
post #86

The most sensible European regulations of those listed in the article kindly submitted here are "What Europe did: Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001." and "What Europe did: In the EU, all antibiotics used in human medicines are banned on farms—and no antibiotics can be used on farms for 'non-medical purposes,' i.e., growth promotion." I'd like to see the United States fo…

The fact that you have to qualify your comment with your links to farmers puzzles me. I mean, I understand why you did it, but it's puzzling to me that attitudes are such that you need to. The Brave New Antibiotic-Resistant Apocalypse will hurt farmers just as much as the rest of us, after all. The way I see it, farmers should be leading the charge to ban non-medicinal antibiotics use in farm animals. The current sit…

It's not a qualification, he's establishing his credibility and impartiality in the discussion.
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