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Still eating beef?


Boojum

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In light of the current concern about transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, I was wondering how many folks here are still eating beef.

 

(For my family, this has been pretty much the last straw: Beef is already inherently fairly unhealthy, with its fat marbling, and after this, I think we'll be eating buffalo and ostrich when we want a healthier and probably safer alternative. And by the way, buffalo stroganoff is quite good. :dance: )

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Tonsa:

 

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of progressive disorders of the brain and central nervous system characterized by lesions that leave the victim's brain resembling a sponge.

 

Caused by proteinaceous infectious particles (otherwise known as prions) that are smaller and harder to destroy than viruses, the TSEs include a bovine form known popularly as mad cow disease, in addition to a form called scrapie that affects sheep, and a human TSE called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease whose symptoms include sleep disorders and dementia. They are not curable or treatable.

 

Recently found for the first time in the United States, the bovine form appears to be caused by cattle ingesting feed containing parts from scrapie-infected sheep, a practice that was supposed to have ended in the U.S. in 1996 shortly after the British mad cow scare. Unfortunately, enforcement is so lax that some beef producers have even voluntarily requested that it be better handled by the federal regulators!

 

The concern is therefore that prions--which cannot be destroyed by cooking or even by temperatures used for sterilization procedures--may be spreading and posing the threat of a serious risk to public health. Indeed, Britons are now waking to the possibility that the particles may have entered the water table.

 

While it is doubtless true that the likelihood of infection remains vanishingly small, the stakes are such that I am not willing to put my family at risk.

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While it is doubtless true that the likelihood of infection remains vanishingly small, the stakes are such that I am not willing to put my family at risk.

 

Do you drive a car?

 

There are far more things in life with greater risks of death than this.

 

If the sky is falling I'll just have to look up more often :dance:

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Man that SourDough Bacon Cheese Burger from Burger King I ate for dinner was awesome!

 

If I am going to die, I would prefer to die with Big Mac in hand.

 

Mad Cow Disease is scary, but I think eating undercooked food poses more a risk than Mad Cow.

 

That being said, I still like my steak still mooing....

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I agree...my whataburger last night was excellent!

 

The flu can kill you...heck a paper cut can kill you*, so what are you going to do stay home with your hands in your pocket everyday?

 

36,000 Americans die every year from the flu.

 

As of December 1, 2003, a total of 153 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (mad-cow) Disease had been reported in the WORLD.

 

Considering the odds, I'll keep eating beef. (and like Head Guru, I prefer it still mooing)

 

*One of my clients contracted necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating virus) from a paper cut on his finger, luckily he got treatment quickly all is fine now.

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Bring the beef. I take risks just getting out of bed in the morning.

 

Raul, at least my food has a chance to run. :)

 

No really, good for you. I wish I could stick to something like that, there is just something about cheeseburgers and chicken fried steak I cant resist.

 

But I havent had a cigarette since haloween so I guess that is one good thing.

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Absolutely- I'm still eating beef. If we are to stop eating beef because of Mad Cow disease, it only seems like a good idea to stop driving cars, flying on airplanes, we should dig 10 feet holes in the earth so we have a place to go during thunderstorms (we might get struck by lightning), we should try to stay in our homes- quit jobs and schools, heavens someone might have SARs!! Don't use the oven, don't use a microwave, don't use a grill, we each should hunt our food because during the processing something "foreign" might have gotten it, but wait, we can't hunt! We might shoot ourselves with the gun or cut our own heads off by accident. We should stop eating! Giving birth has risks for death, so we should stop reproducing immediately. etc.. etc...

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MMMMMM beef, I dont think i could stop eating beef, and i'm with HG..knock the horns off, warm it up and toss it on a plate.

 

Eating beef is the very least of my bad habits, smoking is one I plan on kicking, and my coke addiction (coca cola you freaks!) isnt that healthy either.

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Mmmm!

 

Saturated fat, sugar, caffeine, phosphoric acid and possibly prions!

 

Bring on the everlasting night. :blink: :D woooot

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And?

 

I like it, so what? It is possible there are many things in our food, unless you grow it and kill it yourself you don't know what you are eating. Your food is allowed to come in contact with a certain amount of nasty stuff while it is being processed.

 

One cant go through life worrying about what might happen if I eat this, could it cause me to break toxic wind that destroys my subdivision?

 

What kind of life will you have if all you do is spend it looking out for what might happen instead of living it?

Edited by TCH-Rob
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Rob,

Don't forget that to know what's in your food you have to grow your own food, fertilizer, keep the stock in a self-contained bubble to keep out bad things in the air... There is no way we can think that we know what's in our food. Too bad too - it used to be that you could just go out to the garden or barn and get your food. :blink:

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It's ok Jim, I almost have that bubble built. It will have a length of three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. 
Yea, but will yours float? :lol:

 

P.S. Raul, you are not the only black sheep among our carnivores family, soybeans rule! ;)

 

 

I was driving the other day with a gal that works for me (and who always gives me a hard time about my vegetarian ways) and we pull up next to a pick-up truck with a bumper sticker that read:

 

Vegetarianism, an old Native American word for 'lousy hunter'

 

[i must admit, I laughed as loud as she did]

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It's ok Jim, I almost have that bubble built. 

But if you take that approach you're gonna need a whole heck of a lot of water - otherwise the polutions can still get ya. ;)

 

All I know is that if God didn't want us to eat animals He wouldn't have made them taste like meat. :lol:

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During the very height of the Mad Cow scare in the UK, everyone panicked and boycotted beef. 90% of US Beef is bought by the local market. If Americans are panicked by the media, the industry will be devasted.

 

Here in Northern Ireland, we were not affected as much because we had the highest standards of beef production in Europe. Consumers were happier. It didn't stop the Republic of Ireland sealing the border to prevent animals being transported into the republic. They did more to prevent animals crossing the border than they did preventing terrorists escaping over the border!!!

 

I am sure you are concerned, but stick to good quality meat and avoid low grade meat products like pies, burgers, stock cubes...gravy etc.

 

The farmers are to blame, trying their best to poison us all!

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The chief concern, to me, is that "farmers" may no longer be the right term. We no longer raise meat, we manufacture it--that's how factory assembly line-like the process has become.

 

We now have a vast and tremendously politically powerful beef lobby in the United States--and isn't the fact that someone tried to use its slogan, "Beef: It's what's for dinner," as an argument against avoiding the meat evidence enough of that? :lol: --which cares not a whit for public health or safety, but only for producing and selling the maximum amount of product at the minimum of expense in the never-ending quest for the optimum of stock dividends. That lobby thinks nothing of suing an Oprah Winfrey and a guest expert who appeared on her show for daring to suggest that beef is not produced safely. And that lobby will use all its influence on Capitol Hill to stop two of the three measures that will be needed to restore confidence in their product.

 

Those measures: 1) No more use of "downer cattle" that are too sick to walk into the slaughterhouse for food. (This is already being implemented, though only time will tell how thoroughly.) 2) No more use of meat products as cattle feed. (This was approved in 1996, but enforcement has been inconsistent. We'll see if the beef lobby allows the government to put teeth in its enforcement. My guess is no. :angry: ) 3) All animals slaughtered for food in any form will need to be tested for prions. (This will be the bone of contention. Testing will cost the industry $1 billion per year. My prediction: The testing will eventually go forward, but the lobbyists will make sure it does so at public expense so they can go on selling cheap beef.)

 

I don't know about you, but the business climate in this country is really starting to offend me.

 

There was a time, not all that long ago, when "Made in the USA" was a label that provided reassurance and pride in products well and safely made. Integrity was once the cornerstone of American industry, and it showed in the quality of its products.

 

Today, I can't help but be a bit dismayed at the certain knowledge that the reason why the most successful businessmen are so is that they would cheerfully sell their own mothers to the highest bidder if they could get away with it. :(

 

I love beef, but I won't be eating it for a while. And don't get me started on the subject of chicken. :lol:

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which cares not a whit for public health or safety, but only for producing and selling the maximum amount of product at the minimum of expense in the never-ending quest for the optimum of stock dividends
Umm thats not just the beef industry

 

but the business climate in this country is really starting to offend me

 

It isn't pretty.

 

I am all for better food at least safer food, I would prefer no rat droppings in my peanut butter but some is allowed.

 

There are really only two choices that I know of; one is to use your vote to change the system, unless you live in Florida and second is to move. Unless you are Johnny Depp most countries wont take you. Of course I may be wrong, I am not the best at politics.

 

Most people I know that complain the loudest are the ones not voting, many cant but thats another story. Now I am not saying you don't vote Boojum, in fact by your site I would believe you do. Too many people don't and the system doesn't work if it isn't used.

 

Yeah there is a problem with how these animals are raised, fed and processed. However in my house it still is whats for dinner.

 

Funny thing about debates, no matter how much information one provides, if the other party starts with their answer already formed the outcome remains as it started.

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I'd like 27,000 cubic cubits of roast Perfectly Normal Beast.

Nice allusion. Yeah, I eat beef. Of course, of late I've been toying with the idea of limited vegetarianism...but...i dunno...

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The chances of getting the Mad Cow infection are few--you REALLY have to work at it to get it. In the UK, there were only 144 cases for the entire decade of the 1990's.

 

Living just a few hundred miles away from the sources, and less than 70 from the packing plants, it is still a non-issue for my two person family. We have beef as a part of the carniverous diet we have--we eat turkey, chicken, and pork with equal drive--and that will not change.

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Couldn't help but be reminded of this:

 

Two cows are standing in a pasture.

 

One of them asks, "Have you heard about this mad cow disease that's been going around?"

 

"Don't talk to me," says the other. "I'm a helicopter."

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But I havent had a cigarette since haloween so I guess that is one good thing.

Thumbs Up Way to go, TCH-Rob! Keep up the good work! B)

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