U.S. Meat Production: Protect Your Health and the Environment

1. U.S. Meat Production: Protect Your Health and the Environment Gretchen Miller, Project Coordinator Campaign for Safe Food Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

2. Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility • National org. started in 1961by a group of physicians looking at the health effects of nuclear weapons. • Oregon chapter started in 1980 • Expands beyond nuclear bombs/war – global warming, environmental health, Campaign for Safe Food

3. Campaign for Safe Food • Established in 2003 – to advance a sustainable food system that does not use genetic engineering. • rBGH • Biopharmaceuticals • Sustainable Meat Production

4. Goals • ↑ awareness of problems associated with the U.S. meat system • ↓ negative health, environmental, and animal welfare impacts associated with meat production • ↑ support for sustainable meat purchasing

5. Industrial Meat System VS.

6. Industrial Meat System VS. • Large CAFOs make up only 5% of livestock operations but produce more than 50% of our food animals. • A large CAFO operation contains more than 1,000 beef cattle, 2,500 hogs or 100,000 broiler hens.

7. Industrial Meat Production • CAFOs/factory farms are where the majority of meat comes from – 67% poultry and 42% pork • Done to produce the highest output at the lowest cost • Requires many inputs for economic viability (pesticides, antibiotics, feed, etc.)

8. Impacts • Health • Environment • Animal Welfare

9. Health • Antibiotic Resistance • Diet Related Disease • Additional Concerns

10. Health - Antibiotic Resistance • What is it? • Bacteria develop ability to withstand the effects of certain antibiotics, making treatment difficult Slide adapted from Keep Antibiotic’s Working. Antibiotic Resistance – An Emerging Public Health Crisis

11. Health – Antibiotic Resistance • How does antibiotic resistance affect us? • Monetarily: Estimated that resistant infections cost $30+ billion annually • Health: Resistant infections and illnesses afflict millions each year • Campylobacter, Salmonella, MRSA Slide adapted from Keep Antibiotic’s Working. Antibiotic Resistance – An Emerging Public Health Crisis

12. Health - Antibiotic Resistance • Non-therapeutic antibiotics: • Administered in animal feed and water to compensate for poor living conditions and promote growth • Antibiotics also enter feed through crops grown on soil fertilized with manure (human food exposure as well) • Many of these drugs are the same or similar to what is used in human medicine

13. Health - Antibiotic Resistance

14. Health - Diet Related Disease • Diets high in red and processed meat are associated with greater incidence of Type 2 diabetes and mortality from cancer and cardiovascular disease • Saturated fats ↑ cholesterol levels which ↑ risk of heart disease and stroke • Animals raised on grain fed diets may have more total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories and less Vitamin E, beta carotene, Vitamin C, and omega-3 fatty acids

15. Health Additional Concerns • Cloned Animals • ↑ antibiotics and hormones • Few studies have looked directly at food safety • No long-term studies have looked at food safety • Genetically Engineered Animals • Allergenicity • Bioactive proteins/peptides • Toxicity from novel protein expression

16. Health Additional Concerns • Growth Hormones • rBGH - ↑ antibiotic resistance, possible increase in cancers • 6 other FDA approved steroid growth hormones widely used in meat production that may interfere with human hormones such as estrogen and progesterone – increase cancer? • Endocrine disruptors

17. Environment • Global Warming • Water • Land Degradation • Genetic Engineering

18. Environment – Global Warming • Livestock contribution • Worldwide – 18% - more than all transportation • U.S. – 3-5% on farm • U.S. emissions come from enteric fermentation, manure management, and soil management

19. Environment – Global Warming • Effects of global warming: • Drought: • Difficulties with accessing potable water • Loss of agricultural crops - ↑ food prices • Devastation to forests - ↑ wildfires • Rising Temps • Heat related illness • Endangered species • Flood • Displacement • Death

20. Environment - Water • Contamination • Nitrates and other nutrients, heavy metals, and antibiotics found in manure leak from lagoons, runoff from fields and contaminate water • “Blue Baby Syndrome,” spontaneous abortion, gastrointestinal problems • “Dead zones” (Gulf of Mexico 5-8k miles2 ) • Fish kills • In just 22 states, 35,000 river miles polluted with animal waste

21. Environment - Water • Overuse • Estimated that it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1lb. of meat • It take only 25 gallons to produce 1lb. of wheat • Irrigation for feed crops accounts for much of water use • It takes 10 lbs. of grain to produce one lb. of meat • ~80% of grain (corn and soy) in U.S. goes to livestock production

22. Environment – Land Degradation • Forests and native habitats are converted to crop and grazing land for animal feed • Unsustainable grazing practices lead to erosion

23. Environment – Genetic Engineering • Genetically Engineered Animals: • ↓ in biodiversity from reproduction with non-GE species (e.g., fish, insects, mice, etc.) • Genetically Engineered Crops for Feed: • Contamination, “super weeds,” harmful to beneficial insects, increased pesticide use • 80% of corn and 92% soybeans planted in the U.S. are genetically engineered • 80% of corn and at least 50% of soybeans go to livestock feed

24. Animal Welfare • Confinement/Concentration • GE & Cloned Animals

25. Animal Welfare - CAFOs • Confinement – Cannot act out innate behaviors, unable to naturally mate, aggressive behaviors • Sanitation – Increase in disease (directly related to antibiotic resistance)

26. Animal Welfare – Cloned Animals • Cloned Animals: • 90%+ prenatal failure • 50% Large Offspring Syndrome (LOS) • ↑ rates of diabetes and heart damage

27. Animal Welfare – Genetically Engineered Animals • Genetically Engineered Animals: • Variable/uncontrolled gene expression - illness and death • ↑in utero death, infertility, developmental defects • ↑ diabetes and parasites

28. What Can You Do? • Reduce your meat consumption • Meatless Monday • Abstaining from red meat one day a week could result in a 4-5% decrease in GHG emissions related to food intake in avg. household.

29. What Can You Do? • Move meat off the center of your plate/↓ portion sizes – USDA nutritional guidelines • $ saved can be used for increased fruit and vegetable consumption or purchasing sustainably raised meat.

30. What Can You Do? • Vote with your dollars: • Purchase sustainably produced meat – environmentally responsible, without antibiotics, humanely raised • Avoid products that are known to be GE or cloned

31. Sustainable Options • Third Party Certified Labels • Organic, Food Alliance, Humanely Raised • USDA Approved Label Claims • No hormones added, raised without antibiotics, grass-fed • Local • Farmers’ markets, CSAs, U-Pick, etc. • Make sure choices are sustainable

32. What Can You Do? • Educate others: • Friends, colleagues, students • Encourage change: • Hospitals • School Cafeterias • Senior Centers • Catered Events

33. What Can You Do? • Weigh in on the issues: • Submit comments on proposed rules • Write to your congress person regarding introducing or supporting legislation Sen. Ron Wyden Sen. Jeff Merkely Rep. David Wu Rep. Greg Walden Rep. Earl Blumenauer Rep. Pete DeFazio Rep. Kurt Schrader

34. Thank You! Gretchen Miller, Project Coordinator Campaign for Safe Food Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility gretchen@oregonpsr.org Office: (503) 274-2720 Cell: (503) 953-6804