You’ll probably want to finish your lunch before reading this…unless it’s a hamburger.

The Washington Times reports that U.S. agriculture officials are investigating claims that cow brains, spines and “other risky materials that could carry mad cow disease” might be entering the human food supply “in violation of agency policy.”

And don’t even get started on what “agency policy” does allow. According to the Consumers Union, loopholes in the feed ban currently permit “cow’s blood, poultry litter and plate waste from restaurants” to be fed to cattle that ends up on our plates:

Calves taken from their mothers are fed milk replacers which often contain cow’s blood added as a cheap protein supplement. Poultry litter, which contains chicken feces, feathers, sawdust, and uneaten feed containing cow parts, and plate waste from restaurants such as leftover steaks are added to cattle feed as well.

Not lovin’ it? These practices are currently under public comment, and the chance of mad cow contamination is still quite slim. But it’s worth keeping the issue in mind, considering our Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns likely won’t be reminding you. As governor, Johanns opposed the Department of Agriculture’s policy of informing the public when the nation’s beef supply may be contaminated, and asked the DOA to reconsider their policy of announcing when initial tests of cattle show they may be infected with mad cow. (Johanns’s position ran counter to the conclusions of the USDA inspector general, which found the agency isn’t doing enough to protect the public from mad cow contamination.) Check out NotInMyFood.org for more.

A few days ago a friend said to me that her friend had just died of "Mad Cow Disease" which is the second one just in our little corner of the USA! Very sad. The press won't touch it either!! Bad press for the industry.

Thanks for posting this Phil--it was nasty to read about but very true. I once knew a man who was a meat butcher and he was vegetarian! I asked him why, and he said you can't believe how many "growths" they cut off of an animal and most of the time they either leave it on and let it through for human consumption or they only take part of it off. Even if they took it ALL off, the cancer is throughout the system of the animal.

Then we wonder why we are getting cancer at such young ages!

Dear Phil,

"Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so".

" Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is rapidly increasing. Those who use flesh foods little know what they are eating. Often if they could see the animals when living, and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculosis and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated" {PHJ, September 1, 1905 par. 2}.

God bless
Neville Appolus

Good points, Neville.
I was in the restaurant business all my life, and before conversion to Christ and His Present Truth, I was a big beefeater.
(I prefer good peanut butter these days, like "Black Cat"!)

The sad part is those who try to justify their tastes misusing OT standards of kosher, when we have had new light like you quoted and even witnesses from the secular press that there is nothing "Bible clean" or kosher in the market today.

I would think that anyone wishing to eat flesh food ought to raise it themselves so they can control what it eats. Of course there is the emotional attachment that might cause a beef cow to transform it's self into a pet

Same with eggs, raise your own and you will know what you are getting. And it's harder to have a pet egg.

Redfog

Good points, Redfog.
I find that we humans desensitize ourselves when buying/cooking/eating meat by imagination. We see the piece as a "food unit" like a can of beans or a wedge of cheese. We don't see that it was once a life.
I think it would be educational for "clean" meat-eating SDAs to go down to their local slaughterhouse for a nice Sabbath-afternoon visit.
Or take a stroll in a vegetable garden.
Pet eggs...hmmm...now there's a concept!

I guess there is still organic beef, but I'm not sure if there is a combination of organic kosher beef. If there is, it would be most expensive.

I know here in Michigan you can buy beef and chicken that have been allowed to run in the open and are allowed to graze outside. The feed they are given is organically grown etc. Supposedly it is leaner and better for you though I really have no desire to try it.

My brother buys eggs that are suppose to be better for you and cost a small fortune. I think they are sold under the England brand.

Redfog

You bet it's expensive!
Sadly, most meat-eating SDAs wrongly assume that they are eating "Bible clean" meats when they are not.
I think Gentiles should understand what kosher actually is. It means much more than which animal one can eat.

Two things make meat non-kosher:
1) if it comes from a non-kosher animal (such as a horse or an ostrich), or
2) if it comes from a kosher animal, but was not slaughtered and/or prepared according to Jewish law.

Kosher animals must be slaughtered according to the rigid regulations of shechita (pronounced sheh-KHEE-taw), Hebrew for slaughtering. There are literally hundreds of laws governing shechitah, all of which combine to produce a painless dispatch for the animal to be slaughtered and the freshest, cleanest meat you'll ever eat. But primarily, shechitah involves the shochet (kosher butcher, pronounced SHOW-khet) drawing a meticulously sharpened, imperfection-free blade swiftly and smoothly back and forth across the animal's neck, instantly ending its life in a most humane manner. Of course, before the shochet even becomes a shochet, he must be thoroughly versed in the laws governing the preparation and usage of the knife and the handling of the animal both before and after shechitah.

Kosher meat rules barely begin once the animal has been slaughtered properly--the fresh carcass must be salted, soaked, de-veined and otherwise prepared in a specific, almost militaristic order, again dictated by the multitudinously detailed rules of shechitah. Much of this centers around Negative Mitzvot Nos. 183-185, which explicitly prohibit the consumption of the sciatic nerve, any blood, or specific fatty deposits, respectively. The slightest violation of shechitah's exacting specifications make the animal non-kosher. Once the meat has been cleaned and rendered kosher, it is packed and shipped out to your friendly neighborhood supermarket or kosher meat store.

Speaking of those who bite into their hamburger not realizing it was once a live animal...you know how a picture can tell a thousand words?

I saw a picture just within the last several months in our Newspaper. It was a picture from the state of Alaska. It shows two young first graders, a boy and a girl. The adult in the picture was showing them how to "gut" or clean a salmon.

It showed them cutting the head off the salmon, etc. but you should have seen the faces of those two little children--looks of horror and shock!! You could read their little faces like a picture book. Obviously they were upset that the adult killed the salmon and proceeding to cut into it.

I believe if we knew how animals were killed so they could be consummed, we would react with loathing. The same is if we could see what we are really eating in that burger--we would react the same way.

I'm so glad in Heaven our pets and animals will be safe from all harm.

Convincing a non Adventist to abstain from flesh could be quite hard. Jesus himself ate flesh and so did the angels when they met with Abraham. It would be hard to tell someone that they are committing a sin by doing the same thing Jesus did. It would seem to them that we are calling Jesus and the angels sinners.

It would be easier to convict them over the kosher diet, however, as that is found in the Bible.

I know that in todays aggroculture industry that chickens are given steroids to maximize profits by reducing the timeto fully grow in half. An example is that it takes 3 months to get a baby chick to look fully grown vs 6 months\1year.
Animals know when they are going to be killed since they can smell blood, and it may be very well possible that they hear what can be happening. They are not as stupid as many would like us to believe.
My point is that today meat is a risky thing to eat look at the avian flu, diseases caused by farming salmon, foot and mouth, mad cow, all sorts of stuff to do the following:
1. Supply the general public
2. Get the product (meat) out to the consumers in less time by using science..weird science if you will.

God has given man dominion over all the creatues and the land, and we are destroying it and abusing creatures. I would not eat meat because of the above reasons, and also kosher meat is tasteless from what I have heard.

The same proteins, and oils, and nutrients can be found in theplant kingdom.
God Bless & Happy Sabbath,
Will

Dave True, it would be easier to urge a Adventist-style meat eating diet (but it is in no way kosher! Ask a Jew.) But is easier God's way? Do we want to perpetuate what Sunday-keepers claim we are, "Judaizing Christians" on the "kosher myth" as well as our Sabbath-keeping??

However to make a non-meat diet a matter of salvation is not Adventist either. I think we should lead by example, not by what's easier. Yes, Jesus eat lamb and fish (that's all we have record of) but He also wore sandals and cloaks: should we? God sent the SOP for our day for a good reason, one of which is that the health reform message is vital for our day.

Willy Great reasons for not eating meat. Yes, kosher meat is pretty tastless (I worked in the food industry all my life and grew up with Jews), so that's one reason you see pickled meats and peppered meats, pastrami, corned beef etc. in kosher delicatessens.

[ May 28, 2005, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: Phil N. D'blanc ]

I think we as Adventists sometime get this idea that we are the only vegetarians. This could not be further from the truth, we are but a small minority of the vegetarians in the world. I associate on occasion with young people who are vegan/vegetarian for a variety of reasons; to protect the environment, a healthier lifestyle, preventing cruelty or they are living on a shoestring. (Paradoxidly (is that a word?) many of these same people will think nothing of smoking marijuana.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that if we want to convert people over to a vegetarian lifestyle there are many ways to convince them other than that we feel it is sin.

Redfog

I see the issue here is the way food is prepared. In bible times, unless it was a burnt offering, the priest and the person who brought their flesh offering both had a feast when it was sacrificed (and the fat belonged to the Lord--Lev. 3:16). This is why the best animals were offered--they were the greatest tasting and healthiest. The more solemn the occasion and the more offerings given, the more flesh foods were consumed.

Nowadays preparation is different. Chemicals and hormones are ruining just about everything. Even what we drink isn't safe. Speaking about unclean foods, our prayer meeting group last night had a discussion about "vitamin" D3 which is normally added to milk. According to a medical source http://vitamind.ucr.edu/milk.html people whose religion restricts what they eat have a dilema on their hands. "Vitamin" D3 may come from swine's flesh.

"Vitamin" D3 may come from swine's flesh?

Is there any way of knowing whether it does or whether it doesn't?

The best way is to buy the organic milk! It will tell you exactly what it contains.

Ah...but maybe the best-er way is giving up the moo-juice altogether! Dark green leafy veggies, sunshine and home made soy milk will take care of any D vitamins lacking.
Soy milk from a factory is lousy, and it's real easy at home.

Better and convient are two different things however. Even more so, better and pleasing are poles apart.

I can just picture Dave's face when he was posting about soy milk! Rice milk is another good alternative, since some people have problems with soy products and rice is considered an all round non-allergenic product. I always thought commercial soy milk used to taste rather like plastic overshoes. It has improved quite a bit in recent years. It's a hard change for a lot of people to make though.

I've never eaten plastic overshoes, but think I know what you mean

Soymilk is better-tasting these days. I'd have a hard time getting along without it.

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Quote: posted by Daryl Fawcett

"Vitamin" D3 may come from swine's flesh? Is there any way of knowing whether it does or whether it doesn't?

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I’ve read that Vitamin D3 can also come from fish oil. Or, there’s always sunlight.

Jeff