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Column: Balancing Acts

Issue: February 17, 2009

Food and Peace, Part 2: Factory Farming and Health
by Tom Beutel
February 17, 2009

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"...you may eat [meat] within your towns whenever you desire... Only be sure that you do not eat the blood." Deuteronomy 12:21b,23 (NRSV)

In May 2008, we looked at the idea that food and peace are linked. This is true in a number of respects: our responsibility to feed the hungry, the way in which we grow our food and its effects on our health, where we choose to get our food from, and our eating habits and dietary choices. In part 1 of this series on food (May 2008) we considered our responsibility to feed those who are hungry. This month we will look at how the ways we grow our food can affect our health, particularly with respect to meat and related foods such as eggs.

The excerpt from the Law of Moses given above deals with the practices and rituals surrounding eating meat and grain. These and similar laws are presented as commands within a religious context; however, many of the Christian and Jewish faiths believe that these "dietary laws" were practical as well, promoting "best practices" with regard to human health.

This leads us to consider the issue of food and diet as integral to our faith. Once again the concept of shalom (peace) provides a helpful framework. Shalom incorporates healthy, right relationships with God, self, others, and the creation. However, many of the practices used today to produce meat and related products do not promote shalom. Another way to think of shalom is that "things are as they ought to be." It is certainly true that with respect to the production of meat and related products, things are not as they ought to be.

A major problem with respect to the raising of animals for meat and eggs is that of factory farming. In the last several decades the raising of cows, chickens and other food animals has moved from the open pasture to the barn and feedlot. This change alone has resulted in poorer quality products, products with lower nutritive value, products with residual hormones and antibiotics, and less-healthy animals. Meat from pastured, grass-fed cows for instance was "free of antibiotics, added hormones, feed additives, flavor enhancers, age-delaying gases, and salt water solutions."(1) Consider the following:

E. coli, a food-borne bacterium that infects hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat each year is thought to have evolved in cattle fed high-grain diets. (<http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2008-02-01/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Beef-You-Eat.aspx>)
Studies at the Ohio State University show that growth hormones given to cattle have been linked to cancer. (<http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/hormones091604.cfm>)
In cows treated with rBGH, significant health problems often develop, including a 50% increase in the risk of lameness (leg and hoof problems), over a 25% increase in the frequency of udder infections (mastitis), and serious animal reproductive problems, i.e. infertility, cystic ovaries, fetal loss and birth defects. (<http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm>).
The European Union (EU) has banned the use of growth-promoting steroid hormone implants in calves following studies that raise concerns about their safety; and has banned imports from the U.S. that use the implants. (<http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2008-02-01/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Beef-You-Eat.aspx>)
70% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are non-therapeutic doses given the animals; i.e. given to animals that are not sick. (<http://www.motherearthnews.com/Natural-Health/Meat-Poultry-Health-Risk.aspx>) The result is an increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria that infect humans.
Grass-fed meat is higher in vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene (<http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2008-02-01/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Beef-You-Eat.aspx>)
Free-range eggs (eggs from chickens that graze out of doors for most of their food) have 1/3 less cholesterol, 1/4 less saturated fat, 2/3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more vitamin E, and 7 times more beta carotene (<http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx>)

The facts above, frankly, only scratch the surface of the problem of factory farming and food distribution and related human health problems. The only solution for individuals is to either raise meat and eggs themselves or seek out sources of organic, pasture-raised animals. (Note: A number of grocery store chains including Wal-mart, Kroger and Safeway have pledged to sell only rBGH-free milk. rBGH is one of the growth hormones given to milk cows.)

You can find out more about these problems and what you can do to avoid using factory-produced meat and eggs by checking out the following links:

Mother Earth News Magazine/Real Food - <http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food.aspx>, search for "beef" or "eggs"
Eatwild - information on and sources for grass-fed food: <http://www.eatwild.com/>
LocalHarvest - Find local sources of organic food: <http://www.localharvest.org/>
Organic-food-for-everyone - information on organic vs. intensive farming: <http://www.organic-food-for-everyone.co.uk/meat-farming.html>
Sustainable Table - issues and alternatives: <http://www.sustainabletable.org>
Center for food safety - information on rBGH used in dairy cattle: <http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/rbgh2.cfm>
Organic Consumers Association - Hazards of hormone implants or injections: <http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/hormones091604.cfm>
Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production - 2008 report on public health, environmental, animal welfare and rural livelihood consequences of "industrial farm animal production": <http://www.ncifap.org/>

It is sometimes easy to get wrapped up in an issue and lose sight of the larger picture. It is worth remembering that the problems described are not problems that we as peacemakers can afford to ignore.

Shalom is broken on a number of counts in the production of meat and eggs by factory farming. Certainly we break shalom with ourselves and others as we subject ourselves and others to increased risk of infectious diseases and cancer or consume food that is not as nutritious as it is meant to be. We break shalom with the creation as we subject animals to overcrowding and disease. We break shalom with God whenever we act in ways that are harmful to ourselves, others or the rest of creation; when we are not good stewards of the "garden" in which God has put us.

(1) Mother Earth News, February/March 2008, p.74