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Category: In the News

Published on Leave a comment on Meat Contamination
Forest Hill Farm pasture raised chicken

A nation wide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN), drug resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus are present in meat and poultry from United States grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates. Nearly half of the meat and poultry samples (47 percent) were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, more than half of those bacteria (52 percent) were resistant to three classes of antibiotics. This is the first national assessment of antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. Food supply.  Researchers collected and analyzed 136 samples (80 brands) of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey from 26 grocery stores in five cities: LosAngeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff, and Washington, D.C.Click here for more info

And now a possible solution....

Animal Feed Lawsuit
source:  Iowa Farm Today, June 4, 2011

A New York lawsuit seeks to force the government to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal feed.  The basis of the suit is evidence that antibiotics in animal feed diminished the effectiveness of the drugs to treat people.  The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court on May 25, 2011.

The suit accuses the Federal Food and Drug Administration of failing to protect human health.  The FDA, in a 1977 study, concluded that feeding animals low doses of certain antibiotics was potentially harmful to people’s health.

Published on Leave a comment on Pesticide Exposure Lowers I.Q.

Pesticide exposure Lowers I.Q.

This explains it!

When I was a kid growing up in LaGrange Park, Illinois the mosquito abatement truck would drive through our neighborhood on summer nights fogging the area with pesticide. We’d ride our bikes alongside the truck as it sprayed our lawns and yards. Our parents would run through the house shutting windows so we wouldn’t breathe in the fumes.  Eventually, realizing we were still outside, they’d call us in and force us into the tub to wash off the spray.  Kill Joys!

Researchers at the University of California, Berkley’s School of Public Health have found that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides (widely used in food crops) is related to lower intelligence scores. Researchers found that every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother’s pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in 7 year olds.

Watch for pesticide and herbicide use to grow exponentially in the future.  A recent Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) report suggests that the rate of agricultural productivity must increase at a minimum of 25 percent per year to meet future demand and double agricultural output over the next 40 years.

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Meat Glue

As you'll see in this video Meat Glue is everywhere

We love filets wrapped in bacon.  When I pass the meat counter in the grocery store I’m reminded to take them out of the freezer. We wrap bacon around them, nitrate free bacon. They’re delicious.  Especially grass fed beef filets, REAL BEEF FILETS without “meat Glue” in the mix.
The FDA classifies Transglutaminase under the classification GRAS (generally recognized as safe) The EU has banned it’s use.  You can decide for yourselves.  Currently, Transglutaminase is not identified on the label.

Published on Leave a comment on Hormones in Meat

Forest Hill Farm does NOT use feed with antibiotics. We don’t use hormones either. The industry practice is to implant hormones behind the ears in cattle.  WE DON”T IMPLANT OUR CATTLE!  We don’t use any hormones.  We started raising our own meat Twenty years ago when we were expecting our first child.  Here's info on hormone implants in beef cattle

Here are our two most important reasons for antibiotic free, hormone free, non-GMO, grass fed, pasture raised meat...

Published on Leave a comment on Less Filling…Tastes Great!

Consumers Expect Better Taste From Grassfed Meats
Source:   Stockman’s Grass Farmer, April 2011

The research firm Technomics reported two out of three consumers think beef labeled grassfed will taste better than unlabeled beef.  The survey of 1500 consumers found that consumers found that lean and extra lean cuts of meat taste better while being healthier.

Published on Leave a comment on Is the Fox Guarding The Hen House?

GMO Self Regulation

According to Grist, the USDA announced in The Federal Register for April 7, 2011 its intent to let the GMO biotech industry conduct its own environmental impact studies, or pay other researchers to conduct them.  Here’s more from Grist

Published on Leave a comment on Iowa Daily Erosion Project
Spring snow melt

New data collected by the Iowa Daily Erosion Project (IDEP) strongly suggests that the vast crop acreage within the state is eroding at rates far greater than USDA estimated. The IDEP data is derived from new modeling techniques that for the first time estimate the soil lost to individual storm events.  Topographic and land use information captures the damage caused by high impact events.  Environmental Working Group concluded that the USDA underestimated the erosion rate on more than 10 million acres of Iowa’s farmland.  Here’s the site that updates the erosion maps daily

Click here for more info

Published on Leave a comment on Someone, PLEASE Shoot the Messenger!

Successful Farming Magazine’s May-June issue, had an article titled “Midlife Weight Gain Cuts Life Span.” Considering the information presented in the article, I have less than six minutes to live. Beginning in1976 researchers studied 122,000 women between the ages of 30 and 55. The research reveals that women who lived to at least age 70, without major chronic disease or serious health problems, did not gain weight between ages 30 and 55.
For each 2.2 pounds of weight gained, the chance of healthy survival decreased by 5%. Other studies show that the location of excess weight makes a difference. A waist circumference exceeding 28 inches indicates excess fat around major body organs. This is linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and diabetes.
In a study that I will be conducting, researchers, who report on women with waist circumferences greater than 28 inches, will have greatly impaired health due to tar and feathers that clog their pores.

Published on Leave a comment on Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Monsanto spent $2.46 million lobbying in the first quarter
Monsanto Co. spent $2.46 million in the first quarter of 2010 to lobby the federal government on a proposed change to agricultural issues that could affect the worlds largest seed company, according to a disclosure report. Monsanto’s lobbying expenditures are up from the $1.28 million they spent in the same period last year. At issue are seed patent laws that the Department of Justice is investigating to see whether antitrust laws were violated.

We Have A gift For You, But It’s Deadly
On another related note, Monsanto donated 475 tons of hybrid corn seeds and vegetables to Haitian farmers. “A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Jean-Baptiste Chavannes of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news of the donation. The seeds are treated with highly toxic pesticides, the MPP has committed to burning the donated Monsanto seed. Jean-Baptiste called the entry of Monsanto seed into Haiti as “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds ...and on what is left of our environment in Haiti”
The corn seed is treated with the fungicide Maxim XL, and the tomato seeds are treated with thiram. Thiram belongs to a class of highly toxic chemicals called, ethylene bisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). The EPA determined that EBDC treated plants are so dangerous to agricultural workers that they must wear special protective clothing when handling them.
Source: Acres USA, July 2010