Review: Food, Inc.

Just wanted to direct you all to a review I wrote over at LAist on Food, Inc. I wrote it a few weeks ago, and have since seen the movie twice.  Obviously, this is the type of film that I find incredibly important to see.

Check it out: FOOD, INC.

You can watch the preview here or on LAist.

deadly bacteria found in meat

In my book, there are two things at the top of my list for what you can do to help stop Climate Change. The first one, stop watching television, which requires a more lengthy discussion at another time. The second, stop (preferred option) or dramatically reduce your meat intake.

There are many reasons why I think you should get away from meat and you can go HERE for one of my articles on the topic. But it has been shown time and time again that the meat industry is, I think, the third leading cause of greenhouse gases, water usage, dead zones in soil, and the list goes on.

Yesterday, new data was released that highlights another reason that you need to stay away from meat: Tainted meats point to superbug C. diff in food, via MSNBC.

More than 40 percent of packaged meats sampled from three Arizona chain stores tested positive for Clostridium difficile, a gut bug known as C. diff.

Here is what C. diff is:
C. diff has long been a common, usually benign bug associated with simple, easily treated diarrhea in older patients in hospitals and nursing homes. About 3 percent of healthy adults harbor the bacteria with no problem. But overuse of antibiotics has allowed the germ to develop resistance in recent years, doctors said, creating the toxic new type that stumps traditional treatment.

About 80 percent of C. difficile infections now occur in hospital or health care settings — and the number of infections is rising. About 13 in every 1,000 hospital patients is infected or colonized with the bacteria, a rate between 6.5 and 20 times higher than previously estimated, according to figures released last week by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC.

Of course, the CDC says there is no link between tainted meat and the disease. This is the CDC that is under the direction of the Bush Administration and we all know their policies behind science. Meaning, don’t trust them. They are under a similar branch as the Bisphenol-A passing FDA.

One of the reasons the CDC feels so confident in their claim is that it takes weeks to get symptoms after ingesting C. diff, which makes finding it’s source nearly impossible. This bug is very hard to kill, in fact it DOES survive most cooking techniques.

In other words, this is not good and I highly recommend, if you do choose to eat meat, know where it came from.