You know things are bad in the US industrial food system when Russia seems to know more about it than American citizens do.
Last week, Russia announced that it intends to ban US imports of beef and pork unless these foods can be certified free of the livestock drug ractopamine.
Racto-WHAT-amine?
Yeah, that’s what I thought when I first learned about Russia’s recent move.
Ractopamine was approved for use in pigs in 1999, cattle in 2003 and turkeys in 2009 – all largely unbeknownst to the public.
Ractopamine is a growth promoting drug which increases muscle mass by actively slowing protein degradation. Unlike other veterinary drugs which are withdrawn prior to slaughter, ractopamine is started and never withdrawn in the animal’s final days. It is given to beef cattle during their last 4-6 weeks, pigs in their last 4 weeks, and turkeys for their last 1-2 weeks.
Given that these animals are actively being given ractopamine immediately prior to slaughter and have been receiving the drug for some weeks preceding, there can be no doubt that a residue of the drug remains in the animal’s meat when it finally hits supermarket shelves.
Ok, so there’s some ractopamine left in the conventional meat of the 45% of pigs, 30% of feedlot cattle and an unknown number of turkeys.
What’s so bad about this drug anyway?
The Bureau of Veterinary Drugs, Health Protection Branch of the Health and Welfare Department of Ottawa Canada found that rats fed ractopamine experienced a cluster of birth defects such as cleft palate, open eyelids, shortened limbs, missing digits, enlarged heart, and protruding tongue.
In 2002, the FDA accused Elanco, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly and manufacturer of Paylean, the brand name for ractopamine for pigs, of a cover-up on the dangers of the drug in animals. There was no mention in Elanco’s documents submitted during Paylean’s approval process of numerous phone calls from farmers reporting that their animals vomited after consuming feed containing Paylean or that they had become hyperactive, overly stressed (“down and shaking”), or had died as a result of exposure to the drug.
Inexplicably, the FDA went on to approve ractopamine for cattle the following year even after it’s 14 page warning letter to Elanco on it’s blatant deception and abuse of the approval process of Paylean for pigs!
Even though the FDA rolled over on ractopamine, other countries paid attention to the scandal with the growth enhancing drug banned in Europe, Taiwan and China where an estimated 1,700 people were “poisoned” from eating Paylean-fed pigs.
Now, with ractopamine already banned in Europe, Russia is taking the additional step of banning US meat imports unless they can be certified ractopamine-free. While US meat producers are furious at the move, I applaud Russia for taking steps to protect its people from the ravages of exposure to this veterinary drug.
Parents of children beware. There is no doubt that ractopamine residue will eventually be linked to fast growth aka obesity in children and even perhaps hyperactivity as it has been in animals. Don’t wait for that day! Protect your children now!
Opt out of conventional supermarket meats that have a high chance of containing residue of this dangerous drug. Purchase clean, pastured meats for your family and buy locally and in bulk to get prices that are reasonable and fit within your household budget.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Who Says It’s Not Safe? US Cattle and Hog Producers Furious Over Russia Meat Ban
“Not Safe for Humans” Drug Being Fed to Livestock
I would be happy to buy locally grown and pastured meat except for the fact that it tends to be twice as expensive. When you’re close to living on food stamps, you rather have to go with what’s cheap in the stores. That’s one of the prices of ‘organically grown’ foods.
you could think of meat as treat and eat less of it..
Marlib, you David Satter, and Lipman reprsent the hedge fund types and finance criminals that make money from US corrupt agribusiness.
Stop lying and trying to hide your greed under human rights claims.
David Satter and Masha Lipman just support the US criminals that hurt Americans and Russians. They don’t care about anything but money to criminal businesses like agribusiness. Satter and Lipman represent the hedge fund types and investors that make money from agribusiness even though it is killing people and hurting animals.
They don’t represent human rights, for all their empty talk. They represent criminals who tried to hurt Russian people and American people.
American agribusiness wants to hide all their crimes, all their animal torture, all their poisoning of the meat supply by getting their corrupt legislators to pass ag gag bills that prohibit free speech and stop whistleblower undercover investigations that uncover their crimes.
Agribusiness is more corrupt than you could ever believe. The poisons they put in these animals, the sick practices, but they get billions of OUR taxpayer dollars.
The public has been ignorant of all this because the USDA helps them hide it, rather than reprersenting the people.
MOSCOW – Since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin as president last May, Russia has taken a series of anti-American steps. In recent months, his government has ended USAID programs in Russia and banned adoptions of Russian children by American parents.
Russia on Wednesday banned imports of American meat and pulled out of an agreement with the U.S. on law enforcement and drug control.
The measures were widely seen as retaliation for a new American law that bans alleged Russian human rights violators from receiving U.S. visas or opening U.S. bank accounts.
Recent US – Russia Developments
January 30, 2013: Russia pulls out of 2002 anti-drug agreement with the U.S.
January 25, 2013: U.S. withdraws from joint rights working group with Russia
December 28, 2012: Russian President Vladimir Putin signs law ending U.S. adoptions of Russian children
December 14, 2012: U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Magnitsky Act, which penalizes Russian officials accused of human rights violations
September 18, 2012: Russia expels USAID
​​The Russian ban on American meat imports goes into effect in two weeks. They threaten about $500 million worth of U.S. exports of beef and pork.
David Satter, a Russia specialist at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said in Moscow that the move was in reaction to the new U.S. visa ban.
“This obviously is a form of retaliation. They want to hurt the American economy,” he said.
Russian health authorities said they are banning the American meat because some American beef and pork contain ractopamine, a feed additive that helps make meat leaner.
But Masha Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Center in Moscow, says that Russian health authorities often follow political orders from the Kremlin.
“I think it is being driven by the domestic developments in Russia, where anti-Americanism, anti-American propaganda has been used to discredit those civic activists who are defiant of the regime,” she said.
The law enforcement accord dates back a decade. It allows U.S. funding for joint U.S.-Russia action in combating drug trafficking, international prostitution, money laundering, terrorism and computer crime.
David Satter said, “This is one area of cooperation in which Russia can potentially be useful to the West. Russian organized crime, in particular, circles the world. And no one knows more about it than the Russian Ministry of Interior.”
U.S.-Russian cooperation is expected to continue in these areas. But Masha Lipman believes the Kremlin’s new step will send a flashing warning signal to Russian officials.
“Terminating cooperation in anti-drug activities is extremely unreasonable. I think there is a universal understanding that no country can actually do drug control independently of others,” she said.
Wednesday’s steps by Moscow come after the Obama administration announced last Friday that it was pulling out of a joint working group with Russia supporting civil society organizations.
Analysts fear that U.S.-Russia relations are falling into a Cold War pattern of tit-for-tat.
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If you would do a little more research instead of jumping on the bandwagon, you will see that the ban on US meat is not actually because they think it is unsafe. It is purely political and in retaliation to the US banning Russian human rights violators from getting US visas. They have also banned many other things, like banning US citizens from adopting Russian children. I suppose we pose a health hazzard to them! Even the Russian people do not want this meat ban because they are “hungry” over there, and this will just drive up the price of their food.
For those who don’t know where to find your local sources. Try http://www.localharvest.org/.
If you are on the Kansas City area, go to http://www.kcfoodcircle.org for a free directory.
This is a joke post, right? Satanists engaging in chemical warfare? That’s completely illogical and unfounded, and all of your statements will continue to bear the illegitimacy of these nonsensical comments.
Inflammatory organo-militant drivel. You can distort the facts and statistics any way you’d like, but the fact is you’re getting chemicals in your body just from breathing the air. The current population is healthier and has a higher life expectancy than any past generations; the supposed “increase” in cancer is due to an increased prevalence, not incidence. The number of people living with cancer is increasing, sure. Advanced medical treatments and better research and development have led to a significantly higher survival rate for many cancers. There are more people in the current population with cancer, but that’s just because they’re not dying as rapidly as in the past. The incidence, or number of new cancers per year, has been steady for decades. The organic/vegan/green trend is just as commercialized of a stance as the meat processing industry; you’re just advocating for a different facet of industry. You can go ahead with calling Americans “asleep” and “sheep,” but perhaps take a look at yourselves before you start slinging accusations.
Yuck!!!! Yet another reason to go VEGAN! If you don’t consume animal products, you won’t have to worry this junk 🙂