AVMA says mad cow disease won’t hurt public

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––University of San
Francisco researchers led by Dr. Stanley Pruisiner reported
on April 22 that they have discovered how disease-carrying
agents called prions replicate, a key step toward finding a
way to fight scrapie, a fatal brain disease of sheep and
goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bet-
ter known as “mad cow disease.” More than 100,000
British cattle have been destroyed due to BSE since 1986,
while isolated cases have appeared in seven other nations.
The spring 1994 Farm Sanctuary newsletter
meanwhile asserted that “At least two British dairy farmers
whose cows had BSE, and who had been drinking milk
from their herds, died from CJD, the human counterpart to
mad cow disease…There is evidence to suggest that BSE
has existed in the United States for some time. In 1985,
several thousand mink at a Wisconsin fur farm died of
transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) which was
caused by their diet, primarily ‘downer’ cows. Research
done in the U.S.,” Farm Sanctuary continued, “has linked
BSE with the use of ‘downer’ cows… Scientists are now
concerned that the disease currently referred to by the U.S.
meat and dairy industries as ‘downer cow syndrome’ could
actually be BSE.”

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1994:

The Council for Agricultural
Science and Technology reported March 21
that advances in farming methods and the
growing popularity of vegetarianism could
mean a 30% decrease in the amount of land
used for food crops during the next 50 years
even as the global human population doubles.
The 64-page CAST study, commissioned by
the Program for the Human Environment at
Rockefeller University, was authored by
Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station
agronomist Paul Waggoner, who explained
that the calories and protein produced on pre-
sent cropland are already sufficient to feed 10
billion vegetarians, rather than the five to six
billion people who now eat a diet including
varying amounts of meat.

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Play (vegan) ball!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

DAKOTA CITY, Iowa––Among the dis-
tinguished vegetarians and semi-vegetarians in base-
ball have been Henry Aaron, holder of the major
league career home run record; Jim Kaat, who pitched
a then-record 26 seasons; former National League All
Star second baseman Dave Cash; and Tony LaRussa,
manager of five first place teams in the past 15
years––but they all used leather gloves, because there
were no substitutes.
There are now. Heartland Products has
introduced the first wholly nonleather baseball and
softball glove. A relaced edition of the popular Regent
fielder’s glove, made in China, the Heartland glove
features a vinyl palm with nylon backing and stitch-
ing. Little League-approved, it comes in two sizes,
the larger of which is suitable for adults with small to
medium hands. Break-in characteristics are compara-
ble to those of leather gloves.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

The USDA proposed March 9 to apply the same
sanitary standards to poultry as to red meat. Currently, no
trace of fecal matter is permitted on red meat, but fecal matter
is tolerated on poultry under a grading system that also consid-
ers the presence of bruises, feathers, and protruding bones. A
dead bird is deemed unfit for human consumption only if it
receives a failing cumulative score. Earlier, the USDA said it
would seek Food and Drug Administration approval of the use
of radiation to kill bacteria on red meats. Whether the request
would be extended to cover poultry too was unclear.

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Essay was “anti-meat”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1994:

SACRAMENTO, California––Under heavy public
pressure for alleged racist censorship, the California state
Board of Education on March 12 reversed an earlier decision
to exclude from state achievement tests an essay and a short
story by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, plus a story by
Annie Dillard. The Walker essay “Am I Blue?”, was pulled
from the exams because, according to board chair Marion
McDowell, “It was anti meat-eating.”
The essay concerns a woman’s reflections upon the
loneliness of a horse kept for years in a paddock. It concludes,
“As we talked of freedom and justice one day for all, we sat
down to steaks. I am eating misery, I thought, as I took the
first bite. And spat it out.”

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BOOKS FOR THE MEATOUT

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

Meat: A Natural Symbol. By Nick Fiddes,
Routledge Inc. (29 West 35th St, New York NY
10001), 1991, 261 pages, paperback, $15.95. ISBN
0-415-08929-8.
Former caterer Nick Fiddes, now a social
anthropologist, has had lots of experience with social
responses to food. He has found meat especially rich in
social significance. Like many other writers, he recog-
nizes its potential as a symbol of social, economic and
sexual dominance. But most of all, he believes, meat
subconsciously represents the human conquest of nature.

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1994:

MILK PRODUCED WITH RBST GOES ON SALE
Milk produced through the use of recombinant
(genetically enginneered) bovine somatotropin growth hor-
m o n e went on sale to the general public for the first time on
February 4, a month after a review of the scientific literature
on the production stimulant by the White House Office of
Management and Budget concluded that, “There is no evi-
dence that rBST poses a health threat to humans or animals.”
The Pure Food Campaign led anti-rBST protests in at least nine
cities. The drug boosts milk production per cow and extends
the time a cow can be milked between the births of calves. It is
bitterly opposed by many dairy farmers because in reducing the
number of cows needed to meet the demand for milk, it will
put some farmers out of business. Consumer advocates are
concerned that despite government assurances, residues may
get into milk, producing such effects as earlier puberty and
greater breast development in young women––and perhaps
stimulating hormonally triggered cancers. Concerned about
boycott pressure, the Food and Drug Administration warned
dairy producers and distributors that they can identify milk as
being produced without the use of rBST if they can prove it,
but cannot say simply “rBST-free,” since milk produced with
rBST is also technically rBST-free. They must also state on a
label that, “No significant difference has been shown between
milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows.”

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Diet & Health

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

Three new health studies rein-
force the arguments for vegetarianism
––especially for men who hope to remain
sexually active after the age of 40. A study
of Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry whose diet
consists mainly of tofu and rice, published in
the November edition of the British medical
journal The Lancet, suggested that tofu may
contain an ingredient that combats prostate
cancer. The study confirmed the findings of
an earlier study of U.S. Seventh Day
Adventists (more than half of whom are ethi-
cal vegetarians), which found that men who
eat a lot of legumes and fruits have a conspic-
uously low death rate from prostate cancer.
Prostate trouble is a leading cause of sexual
impotence––and the January 1994 issue of
The Journal of Urology includes the results of
the largest study of impotence ever. High
cholesterol consumption, heart disease, and
high blood pressure were confirmed as factors
frequently correlating with impotence; all are
closely associated with meat-eating.

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AGRICULTURE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:

World meat production is up from
177.2 million tons in 1990 to 184.2 tons in
1993, says the Intergovernmental Group on
Meat, an industry task force. Cattle produc-
tion slid from 54.3 million tons to 52.8, but
pork is up from 69.7 million tons to 73.8, and
poultry is up from 39.9 million tons to 44.2.
Total production in developed nations fell
from 104.2 million tons to 100.6, due mostly
to declines in the former USSR, but produc-
tion in developing nations jumped from 73
million tons to 83.6 million––an expenditure
of soil and water resources many of them can-
not afford to make.

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