Pork From A Petrie Dish - Brave New Meat

The Globe and Mail's article today about Dutch scientists attempting to plate out meat, the way others plate out microbes, reminded me of this bizarre research which we covered sometime last year or the year before. I'd have to check our script archive to see the precise date this came up. We didn't do much on it - just a mention, and also that the edible mammalian tissue the scientists are growing doesn't have blood vessels.

I've plated out organisms in biology class. You grow the critters on a medium. There are different types of this substrate you can grow things on. Many of you will have heard of agar as a medium. It's a protein rich gelatin derived from seaweed (which isn't having the best time of it, lately). Not every critter can be grown on the same stuff. The medium you use in your petrie dish amounts to food for the growing organisms - usually single celled creatures, but you can grow fungus just as well.

And so I am wanting to know what the culture medium is, what elements go in to produce this so-called meat. What are they putting in to the growth medium?

Will the finished labmeat have the same B-12 content as normal meat? B-12 is a necessary nutrient found only in meat and to some degree in some yeasts. B-12 helps us make blood cells, which you need if you are going to keep breathing - not enough and you can get anemia. Of course the blood cells also carry other nutrients. If it has no blood cells then will it have any B-12 or iron at all? Iron is another thing that is found largely in meat. The heme form of iron is found in animal tissue - the non-heme form is found in vegetables and is harder to access. I know this from bitter personal experience as an anemic. I had tried to cut back on meat consumption but it didn't work - at least for me.

Being curious, I did some poking online and found a very interesting site, called VAT FOOD, which has various articles on growing meat in the lab, in a vat or via plate culture. This last linked article is from Popular Science. The site has articles from all manner of media outlets. It's pro-lab meat, there doesn't seem to be any questioning of what nutrients will be in the chewy in vitro veal etc. but worth a read.

In the scarily named journal Tissue Engineering" there is a paper entitled In Vitro Cultured Meat. It's all about the different ways in which the different kinds of skeletal muscle tissue can be grown. The easiest to culture are myofibres - these are the fibres muscles are composed of. Such a cultured meat product would resemble hamburger.

I'm not so sure this is what the doctor ordered for anyone with celiac disease, (which can cause anemia), or anyone with any other type of anemia.

Of course anything is possible. But how likely remains to be seen.

The work comes out of some of NASA's stuff on providing protein for space travelers. It's not really completely 'cruelty free' they use stem cells form the animals to engineer the meat. Read more about it here. The scientists working on culturing meat in vitroh ave said that nutritional profiles of meats could be improved by tweaking the nutrients that are added. But the stuff still has to come from somewhere - the added nutrients and the myofibre's cultural media. Some of them have formed their own non-profit company, called board members.

I wonder what farmers think of this plan for 'brave new meat' It doesn't look as if it will solve the dilemma of the remaining family farms. How sustainable is this lab meat? There will be nutrients needed. The lab meat does not come out of nothing.

Click here to see more on the problems with factory farming versus family farms and modern heavily profit-driven agricorp processing of meat and dairy production.

Anti-freeze & Lead in Medicine, Plastic in the Pork Chops

A 7 page special from the New York Times on how diethylene glycol - aka antifreeze, is being substituted for glycerin in medicines and some food products.

This article mentions that vitamins from are adulterated with lead.

And where are these from? The same place as the melamine, cyanuric acid, (a pool stabilizer) and aminopterin laced pet foods and animal feed mixtures: China. Yes, China, supporter of Sudan, stealer of Tibet, harvester of shark fins from live sharks, and organs from live political prisoners and the religious - I'm with this Stoney Creek man who's decided to boycott Chinese goods; given all the toxins that are being purposely added to Chinese exports to make a profit, it's a sensible thing to do for one's own safety.

Here are some sites with information on why and how to boycott Chinese made goods and products.

"Buying the Dragon's Teeth" was published in 2004. It outlines the reasons to boycott.

U.S. State Department info on Organ Harvesting in China

Epoch Times list of all their reports on Trade in Organ Removal from Live Humans.

Boycott 'Made in China'

Don't Feed the Dragon Campaign

Melamine Used As Cake Additive: Chinese Chem. Plant Manager

"Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed," said Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province. "Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes."

There you have it folks - from the International Herald Tribune. It's at the very bottom of the article. And the Washington Post has the revelation that before melamine there was urea being added, for the same reason - inflated and bogus protein content.

Melamine scrap is used in North America as an abrasive blast medium. Sonapa sells recycled plastics, including melamine scrap with formaldehyde. Here is there ad for "Type III – Thermoset Melamine Formaldehyde: Melamine is engineered for stripping the most difficult surfaces while providing an effective stripping rate. Melamine is the most aggressive plastic abrasive, offering an excellent range of stripping capabilities. Melamine can be used as a replacement for glass beads and other harsh abrasives."

In China, melamine scrap is mixed into soymeal, and sold to feedlots and farmers. A manager with Tai'an Yongfeng Feedmill Co. Ltd in the coastal province of Shandong says that "The chemical plant next to us used the melamine scrap as waste for landfill and built houses on it. Then they tore down the buildings to get the scrap once the price rose. It is a very popular business here. I know people have been mixing this since 1991."

One article I read spoke of an online market, Alibaba.com, where companies sell and buy chemicals and which is very big in China.

Latrines & Farmed Fish

The picture above is from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and shows a latrine situated over a fish pond, in China. The addition of manure and other waste materials like sewage, is a common practice in aquaculture - see Auburn University's online site about it with pictures.

The FAO recommends in this instructional guide to would-be freshwater fish farmers recommends that latrines be located at last 10 feet from fish ponds to avoid the fish being unsafe to eat.

the Chinese and Vietnamese are using latrine ponds full of human and other wastes to raise fish which they sell to North American and other markets for export.

Aplastic-anemia.org has this information about imported fish: "According to the Catfish Institute, most of the catfish from Vietnam are raised in floating cages in the Mekong River or in "latrine ponds" in provinces along the river. Slow moving currents during the dry season adversely affect cage-raised fish and the Mekong River is subject to pesticide contamination... "Latrine ponds are depressions that employ the Chinese system of channeling human and other waste into ponds used to raise fish."

China Adding Toxins On Purpose; Motive May Be Sinister

Melamine is a plastic. Aminopterin is a toxic folic acid analogue and a rat poison (banned, at least in North America). Cyanuric acid is a pool chemical.

None of them should be on anyone's menu. But now pigs, (see here also), as well as chicken and fish have been found to have been fed food containing contaminated feed grade grain products - all from China.

The FDA suspects that China is adding nitrogen-rich toxins DELIBERATELY to grain products to jack apparent protein contents and they have found there way into our food supplies. And not just our pets' food.

Peachy.

Scientists have found that combining melamine and cyanuric acid produces crystals like those found in the pets who died after eating the contaminated food. Here is another report about the chemical reaction.

"Our food-safety system is broken," Rosa L. DeLauro, Chair of the US House Subcommittee that funds the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture, told UP reporters in this Science Daily article on the tainted farmed fish.

She's hardly understating the problem.

Meanwhile over on the Huffington Post, David Goldstein says he's having a crisis of faith in the US FDA, which he terms the faith-based Dining system. Some interesting quotes on that site.

The plot is very thick at this point - the motive - sell inferior goods for a fattened profit margin to the gaijin: The International Herald Tribune is reporting that Chinese chemical producers say it's common knowledge that ... for years feed producers in China have quietly and secretly used cyanuric acid to cheat buyers of animal feed. Two of the chemical makers said that Chinese feed producers used cyanuric acid because it is even cheaper than melamine and is also high in nitrogen, enabling feed producers to artificially lift the protein reading of the feed.

Over a month ago when the pet food scandal first came to light, I held back from reporting what my gut and intuition knew to be true - that the toxins had been added on purpose. "Why would someone do that?" I wondered to myself. Also I had no hard evidence at that time - just a sneaking suspicion that since feed grains are eaten by more than just pets, the initial scandal was just the tip of the iceberg. I really truly wish I had been wrong. But no - the scandal keeps getting bigger and the plot has thickened and stinks considerably more than when I predicted it would get messy and ugly. It's not just wheat gluten, it's rice and corn and who knows what else in the Chinese grain department.

What are we feeding our animals? What are we feeding ourselves? Should we be trading with regimes that are unprincipalled enough to sell us garbage?

And why is ANYONE in North America buying wheat form the Chinese who have enough trouble feeding themselves, when Canada, the United States, Russia and Ukrainian are the largest wheat producers in the world??

Is it just all about money? Maybe not! There may be VERY SINISTER REASON the Chinese governemnt is allowing this if the expatriate Chinese journalists over at Epoch Times are correct. China has imprisoned several of the news outlet's reporters.

According to two speeches by CCP's former Defense Minister, Chi Haotian and published by the Epoch Times, China's government plans to exterminate US citizens. Here is the other article "The War Is Approaching Us". Chi was responsible for and in operational command during the Tianammen Square massacres in the 1990's. The Epoch Times is run by people who do a lot of investigative work in China. I hope they are wrong but my gut says this article is true. The country is strapped for space, they have annexed Tibet. They would stand to gain a lot of land and resources if they could take over North America. The Chinese government is not without a plausible motive to follow through on Chi's Mein Kampf-esque ideas.

Was Toxin Added on Purpose? Pet Food Recall Widens.

Another contaminated grain product used in pet food (and possibly other animal feed), has been discovered. This time it's rice protein concentrate. And it's contaminated, again with melamine.

Because of this the pet food recall has widened to include some brands that contain the tainted rice protein concentrate. This is because melamine has been found not just in imported wheat gluten but also rice protein concentrate; both contaminated grain products are from China, according to the Houston Chronicle's online news outlet, chron.com. The Chronicle also says there are South African press reports indicating that corn gluten, contaminated with melamine, has been found in that country's pet food.

Wilbur Ellis Co., which imported the tainted rice product, found the contaminant in rice protein from one supplier, Reuter's reports. They are voluntarily recalling all of the rice protein concentrate its feed division sold to pet food manufacturers.

The FDA is mulling over if the contamination might not have been deliberate. They say that adding melamine can boost the apparent protein content of the grain products.

Contaminated Chinese (Wheat Gluten) Blues

This article will 'dish' a bit on the 'joys' of globalization and on differing safety standards for food and feed products, and environmental standards. And by dish, I mean melamine. Eh? I hear you say. Keep reading!

Earlier this year I reported that the tainting of pet food with contaminated Chinese wheat gluten might be only the tip of a larger iceberg (albeit an iceberg made of contaminated Chinese gluten). That's because wheat gluten is used in a lot of things people and their pets eat. Now various news outlets have reported that the pet food recall has been expanded to include Hill's Prescription Diet DRY m/d pet food, which is manufactured by Menu Foods, as well a brand of dog biscuits as by an Alabama company.

The culprit this time? Contaminated Chinese gluten, once again.

This time the 'magic ingredient' is not aminopterin. This time it's melamine. Yes, that would be... plastic. Melamine is used in North America and in Europe to make plastic dishes and plates. And what do the Chinese use it in? Fertilizer. How terribly scientific of them! Just what plants need, a good dose of plastic. Right, suuuuuuuuure it is.

China Environmental Blog reports from an article in the Washington Post that
"Chinese environmental officers say they are proud of their progress and that Beijing should be judged not by international standards but by how much it has improved."

"People who come here for the first time feel that the environment and the air is not good," said Yu Xiaoxuan, deputy director for construction and environment for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games. "But they do not know how bad the pollution was several years ago." Longtime Beijing residents say the change is striking. Bo Guoping, 60, a retired factory worker who on a recent weekend was flying a kite in one of the city's new parks with her grandson, remarked: "These days, we can see the sky. Before, it was all gray."" from China Environmental News Blog.

But before we leap to any conclusions, let's consider the situation in some villages in China near the Siberian border. Here is an excerpt from an excellent piece by the CS Monitor on how Chinese villagers are being poisoned by industry and are battling to clean up their environment so they survive and don't die early or have children suffering form severe fluoride poisoning because of disreputable industrial practices and terrible government environmental standards.

Here's part of it. I hope you have a strong stomach.

"...small towns like Leifeng and Puxing, which are just a few hundred miles away from those cities, have languished. Good intentions from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) can't solve every problem, and local officials often have little incentive to do the right thing.

The job of fighting for victims of environmental disasters is thus being taken up by growing ranks of activists and lawyers. SEPA did not respond to phone calls or written questions about the pollution in Leifeng and Puxing. "The problem is that despite all the positive rhetoric emanating from Beijing, very little has found its way down to the local level," says Elizabeth Economy, senior Asia researcher with the Council on Foreign Relations and author of "The River Runs Black," on China's environmental crisis.

"The grass-roots ... movement is where the energy is coming from in China," she adds. The plight of Leifeng and Puxing, long ignored by government and media, has become a perfect example of this larger movement. Under the direction of a legal center in Beijing as well as a local law clerk, Leifeng and Puxing villages are fighting for their day in court.

Villagers' concerns began in 2001, when hundreds of pigs and chickens mysteriously died. After Chinese New Year 2002, scores of people were stricken with illnesses ranging from debilitating headaches and severe stomach problems to heart palpitations. After wearing freshly washed clothes, many developed strange rashes. Those who worked at the factory started to talk about what went on inside and fingered the likely culprit: toxic waste.

"At first we didn't believe it," recalls Cao Qingren, a local law clerk who is fighting for the villages. "Then we realized the water must be bad.""

Just peachy.

Well then... Has it changed your mind, gentle reader? Thought not. Talk about use at your own risk! This reporter will be going out of her way to avoid purchasing ANYTHING with gluten in it and anything from China that can be ingested, given their laws on aminopterin and melamine use. Who knows what will be found next in Chinese food products. Plutonium? Arsenic? Well I certainly hope not but who knows? There doesn't seem to be a lot of oversight at this point.

Besides, think of all the energy that will be saved and greenhouse gases avoided not burning fuel to lug contaminated trade goods across the Pacific from China to North America.

Poisoned Pet Food Gluten May Be In Other Foods

In the last show, we looked at a study by medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania that found that meditation can help patients suffering from congestive heart failure. We also looked at an upcoming talk entitled 'Green revolution - Whose revolution? which is happening at Ottawa's Congress Centre on March 26th, starting at 7 pm and features African and Canadian plant biologists, farmers and members of NGO's from both countries and looks at who the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations investments in African agriculture will actually benefit.

We also looked at the Menu Foods mass poisoned pet food recall, at what foods were recalled, plus little on symptoms of kidney failure and the reason why kidney failure produces such symptoms and what people should do if pets showed these symptoms. At the time the show was written - Monday - the US's FDA was saying the most likely culprit was tainted wheat gluten. What it was contaminated with was still in question at the time of the broadcast.

Now investigators have figured out the gluten appears to have been contaminated with a type of rat poison that was somehow in the wheat gluten used in the pet food. The tainted gluten was from a new supplier.

For some reason government and Menu Foods are not releasing the name of the wheat gluten supplier. This is not a good thing. Why? Because gluten is used as a thickener in many foods - not just for pets but for human consumption. It is a major ingredient in meat analogue products such as vegetarian bologna slices, Tofurky, and the like and is used to bind ingredients together. It is also used in pretty much all commercially prepared bread such as Dempsey's, Weston's etc.

The Recall List

Menu foods makes a huge number of private label brands and has pulled all of the brands that were in the test.

All foods recalled were sold in pouch or canned form. A number of other companies that sell canned cat foods made by Menu Foods have also initiated voluntary recalls.

If your pet is showing signs of ill health, please call your veterinarian. Renal failure does not have to mean death. Prescription pet food is available and is the standard treatment for chronic renal (kidney) failure.

Here is the list (announced on the last show) of recalled pet food:

Proctor& Gamble which sells IAMS and Eukanuba is recalling the 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. of canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch "wet" cat and dog food products which were made by Menu Foods Inc. Emporia, Kansas plant
with the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197.

To read can product codes, look at the bottom of the can. The first four numbers of the second line of numbers are the date code, and the following four numbers indicate the plant code. For example, if the second line begins with four numbers from 6339 to 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, then the can should be recalled. For foil pouches, the code numbers are located at the lower left hand corner on the back of the pouch.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company is voluntarily withdrawing its 5.3 ounce Mighty Dog® brand pouch products that were produced by Menu Foods, Inc. from December 3, 2006 through March 14, 2007.

The Mighty Dog pouch products and pouches in multi-pack cartons have code dates of 6337 through 7073, followed by the plant code 1798. This information should be checked on the bottom or back panel of the individual pouches. Specifically,
if the code following the "Use By" date begins with four numbers from 6337 to 7073 followed by the plant code 1798, then the pouch is included in this voluntary withdrawal. The list from Menu foods website is extensive. NB: These are canned and wet cat pet food. NOT DRY.

Some companies are providing purchasers of the tainted pet food with refunds. Contact the manufacturer for further details.

For full information please call menu recall information line at:
1-866-895-2708

1. Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
2. Authority
3. Best Choice
4. Companion
5. Compliments POUCHES
6. Demoulas Market Basket
7. Eukanuba
8. Fine Feline Cat
9. Food Lion
10. Foodtown
11. Giant Companion
12. Hannaford
13. Hill Country Fare
14. Hy-Vee
15. Iams
16. Laura Lynn
17. Li'l Red
18. Loving Meals
19. Meijer's Main Choice
20. Nutriplan
21. Nutro Max Gourmet Classics
22. Nutro Natural Choice
23. Paws
24. Pet Pride
25. Presidents Choice POUCHES
26. Price Chopper
27. Priority US
28. Save-A-Lot
29. Schnucks
30. Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans
31. Sophistacat
32. Special Kitty Canada (POUCH)
33. Special Kitty US
34. Springfield Prize
35. Sprout
36. Stop & Shop Companion
37. Tops Companion
38. Wegmans
39. Weis Total Pet
40. Western Family US
41. White Rose
42. Winn Dixie


for DOGS:

1. Americas Choice, Preferred Pets
2. Authority
3. Award
4. Best Choice
5. Big Bet
6. Big Red
7. Bloom
8. Wegmans Bruiser
9. Cadillac
10. Companion
11. Demoulas Market Basket
12. Eukanuba
13. Food Lion
14. Giant Companion
15. Great Choice
16. Hannaford
17. Hill Country Fare
18. Hy-Vee
19. Iams
20. Laura Lynn
21. Loving Meals
22. Meijers Main Choice
23. Mighty Dog Pouch
24. Mixables
25. Nutriplan
26. Nutro Max
27. Nutro Natural Choice
28. Nutro Ultra
29. Nutro
30. Ol'Roy Canada
31. Ol'Roy US
32. Paws
33. Pet Essentials
34. Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
35. Presidents Choice
36. Price Chopper
37. Priority Canada
38. Priority US
39. Publix
40. Roche Brothers
41. Save-A-Lot
42. Schnucks
43. Shep Dog
44. Springsfield Prize
45. Sprout
46. Stater Brothers
47. Weis Total Pet
48. Western Family US
49. White Rose
50. Winn Dixie
51. Your Pet