Thread: Knowing what you eat

ccording to Oliver, the fatty parts of beef are "washed" in ammonium hydroxide
and used in the filling of the burger. He says, "Basically, we're taking a
product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process,
is being given to human beings."

Chucaro, I have visited the Con Agra plant in Sydney and seen the process of making Macdonalds beef patties in Australia.

I can assure you that when I visited there was no pink slime used. Clean Fat was added to the lean meat to attain the required fat content while mixing for extrusion.

What I am trying to get across here is that Australia is not the USA or a South American country. We generally have much stricter rules. I have to say that IMHO this post follows many other similar ones where you throw up some scenario which is really a "straw man" . Oh well it makes good and lively discussion I guess and feeds paranoia .

BTW, I was thinking about your comment about using old footage of aerial and orchard spraying. The clips because of their age became a gross exaggeration.
In Australia a crop duster would be out of business in one day if they did that. For many years there have been VERY tight laws about the amount of wind speed allowed, buffer zones, testing of any livestock in the vicinity and mandatory warning to neighbours ( as a result of trace organophosphate being found in cattle by routine and regular testing) .In addition modern crop dusters have micro spray nozzles and give a positive charge to the nozzles so that the spray is attracted to the ground.

I also have to wonder about your comments about Roundup destroying micro organisms. I have been on many many farms and the weed growth after one season can sometimes be wondrous to behold. Roundup never seems to fully kill my Privet trees and they come back after a couple of years.

I guess the most powerful argument is that if you live to 60 now the odds are you will live to mid 80s. Tell that to some peasant using Neem 500 years ago if you can talk to them before they die at 40-50. Even in Germany in the late 19th century , the life expectancy was 65 and so the pension was set at 65.
Regards Philip A

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Philip, I have never said that it is happens in Australia, the post shows the ethics of the corporations mentioned and what are doing to the environment and human health.
Your replies give me the impression that you are backing up Monsanto and other chemicals manufacturer products which have been proved to be harmful to health and the ecosystem.
Regarding Roundup, it is not a herbicide designed to kill had weeds or trees. You use other chemicals for trees.
Glyphosate 360 is the generic herbicide which competes with Roundup. Because the competition in the market by the introduction of the generic herbicide Monsanto developed Roundup Ready. This products kills algae which produce carbohydrates through photosynthesis that are an important food source for beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil.
It will be to long for me here to explain other damages that Roundup does and I suggest to you to read research by Doctor Don Huber of Purdue University, Johal, G.S. and D.M. Huber. Glyphosate effects on diseases of plants. 2009. European Journal of Agronomy 31:144-152, etc
I cannot understand how you can base your arguments about Round Up based in a parcel of soil in your land
I expected some replies to my post with the term "paranoia" it is the easy position when a topic it is to hard to comprehend or study.
Your arguments about life longevity in Germany and other countries do not take into consideration the advances in human health care. It is a not valid comment.
Cheers
Arthur

Your replies give me the impression that you are backing up Monsanto and
other chemicals manufacturer products which have been proved to be harmful to
health and the ecosystem.

Here we go again Chucaro, maybe like the soapbox.
You are attributing attitudes to me that I do not have. There is an old saying which the Labor Party has recently found out." You have lost an argument when you start playing the man"
I have no bias towards chemical companies in fact as I stated before I was part of a team that advised the NSW Government to introduce a 5 year moratorium on even GMO trials. As you will know this will delay introduction of GMO by up to 10 years .
All I try to do is provide some balance to your posts which IMHO are extreme and you present without comment. By your lack of qualifying that these things MAY happen in the USA and South America IMHO you suggest they happen in Australia by omission.

If you are an Australian Graduate in Ag Science then you should know that all this stuff does not apply and you should know the stringent rules relating to chemicals ,additives and in particular GMO, so I wonder what the point is. Your posting title was " Be careful what you eat" when it is very unlikely that in Australia you could eat enough GMO to hurt you even if you tried.

The video you posted shows outrageous footage of spraying probably DDT 50 years ago and passes it off as what happens now. The doco shows cash being handed over implying rampant corruption. It gives time to practitioners who promote "natural "therapy and very much time to "organic" growers who may or may not be organic in the Australian sense as the USA rules are much more lax than Australia's.

There are benefits to GMO when used for non human uses which you seem to completely discount or ignore. For example GMO corn yields have made Ethanol much cheaper than otherwise in the USA thus reducing oil usage. Cotton production in Australia is far more reliable with GMO cotton, even though Monsanto charges a lot for its use. Farmers however choose to grow it because it is more profitable and most ( over 80% AFAIR ) cotton grown in Australia is now GMO and has been for at least 15 years.

I have not seen any feedback about loss of yield or other problems associated with GMO and I visited a major cotton property last year and have friends who own cotton farms. The group I was with was given a demo of knockdown spraying on a close paddock and none of us could even smell any chemical let alone be touched by drift.

I agree with you that rampant use of GMO withjout adequate testing and labelling is very bad, its just the "Al Gore" nature of the doco that brands it as unbalanced propaganda. Monsanto does have a point that it is up to the USA and other governments to establish the rules but we in Australia cannot do anything about it if they don't. More fool them.

Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Here we go again Chucaro, maybe like the soapbox.
You are attributing attitudes to me that I do not have. There is an old saying which the Labor Party has recently found out." You have lost an argument when you start playing the man"
My comment was in relation to your original comment about me, Quote: I have to say that IMHO this post follows many other similar ones where you throw up some scenario which is really a "straw man" . Oh well it makes good and lively discussion I guess and feeds paranoia .
If you are an Australian Graduate in Ag Science then you should know that all this stuff does not apply and you should know the stringent rules relating to chemicals ,additives and in particular GMO, so I wonder what the point is. Your posting title was " Be careful what you eat" when it is very unlikely that in Australia you could eat enough GMO to hurt you even if you tried.
I did not say that I am Australian Graduate in Ag Science, I said Agricultural Mechanization which it is a complete different and as I am aware not longer available
The video you posted shows outrageous footage of spraying probably DDT 50 years ago and passes it off as what happens now. The doco shows cash being handed over implying rampant corruption. It gives time to practitioners who promote "natural "therapy and very much time to "organic" growers who may or may not be organic in the Australian sense as the USA rules are much more lax than Australia's.
You are entitled to have a point of view, I have mine and belive my sources
There are benefits to GMO when used for non human uses which you seem to completely discount or ignore. For example GMO corn yields have made Ethanol much cheaper than otherwise in the USA thus reducing oil usage. Cotton production in Australia is far more reliable with GMO cotton, even though Monsanto charges a lot for its use. Farmers however choose to grow it because it is more profitable and most ( over 80% AFAIR ) cotton grown in Australia is now GMO and has been for at least 15 years.
IMO the factors against are enough to refrain to use GMO seeds in agriculture
I have not seen any feedback about loss of yield or other problems associated with GMO and I visited a major cotton property last year and have friends who own cotton farms. The group I was with was given a demo of knockdown spraying on a close paddock and none of us could even smell any chemical let alone be touched by drift.

I agree with you that rampant use of GMO withjout adequate testing and labelling is very bad, its just the "Al Gore" nature of the doco that brands it as unbalanced propaganda. Monsanto does have a point that it is up to the USA and other governments to establish the rules but we in Australia cannot do anything about it if they don't. More fool them.

Regards Philip A

Are some of the GMO seed imported to Australia protected by Monsanto copy wright laws? If yes, then many of the problems mentioned in the video are applicable in Australia.
Looks like that we have to agree to disagree in this topic