
Banned Drugs in the Meat Supply? - prostoalex
https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/are-banned-drugs-in-your-meat/
======
cies
Meat has inherent risk when compared to plant derived foods, and this is about
"persistent toxins" (PTs). These toxins "build up" in our tissues and thus may
become a threat after consuming small bits of them over a long time span.
Since these PTs build up in our tissues, they usually also build up in the
tissues of animals. Thus eating animal tissue is exposing us to the buildup of
PTs.

As an example: it is observed that then some PT got into the environment the
small animals did not suffer from it, the slightly bigger animals that eat the
small ones also did not, but the larger predators (owls and hawks, iirc) were
dying because at their point in the food chain the build up of PTs reached
lethal levels.

Like another comment said: dose matters. But I like to add that understanding
persistence matters probably just as much.

~~~
euler_
Sure, bio-accumulation is a risk, but the vast majority of meat eaten by
humans is low on the food chain. Fish is a whole different story.

~~~
cies
If they get fed hi-tox soy/corn crop they may be "low" on the food chain as in
"not a predator" but the PTs still accumulate. They do not even live long
enough to develop the diseases: we do.

Also they feed animals each other: see mad cow disease.

------
Creationer
I wish the same energy currently being wasted on anti-vaxx was instead spent
on the pollutants in our food, air, water and soil.

These pollutants are unavoidable and have a clinically proven negative impact
on people, particularly children. DEHP in food containers and household
products is very worrying.

'Mom anger' combined with Scientific validity could produce some great
improvements.

Maybe the solution to the anti-vaxx issue is not to dismiss the rage, but to
harness it and direct it to a worthy cause?

~~~
Not_a_pizza
It would be nice to have independent reviews of vaccines from companies so
that consumers could make informed decisions. Vaccines are generally good, but
the accountability to keep them that way is not as strong as you'd think.

And yes, man made pollutants are still the disaster of this century. Just
because we've removed lead from gasoline doesn't mean everything else is
fixed.

------
drngdds
"What can be done to keep these drugs off our plate?"

The simple solution is to stop eating animals.

~~~
jackhack
Or raise your own food (plant and/or meat).

------
Scoundreller
In other words, dose matters. It's what separates water from being life-
sustaining vs. a quick-killing poison.

Equipment is getting more sensitive, so you find more cases if you're strictly
looking at a binary level.

We have different cutoffs for different foods for the same drugs. This does
make sense - while an animal may be given an antibiotic and need time to wash
out, you're probably not giving it to a shrimp, so why did it get there in the
first place?

~~~
reacweb
I have been dubious of effectiveness of homeopathy during many years. Now, it
is widely used in breeding to compensate for prohibited antibiotics. This
seems to prove that tiny doses also matter.

~~~
voldacar
can you source this claim?

~~~
reacweb
LMGTFY
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5256414/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5256414/)

In France, it is very very common that the veterinaries prescribe homeopathy.

~~~
Luc
For shame, really. A dereliction of duty by those vets.

Might as well base your health system on witchcraft.

~~~
reacweb
During many years, I was convinced that the only explanation of homeopathy
effectiveness was the placebo effect. The mind is very powerful. A couple of
years ago, I had difficulties to sleep and my wife gave me a pill. It has
worked immediately. Placebo effect can not explain the results obtained by the
vets.

~~~
vibrato
So you attest that the placebo effect is real yet attribute it to something
else.

~~~
close04
Lots of homeopathy fans here it seems. The guy claiming homeopathy works
(science be damned [0][1][2][every credible source]) gets upvoted, and the guy
questioning whether it's placebo or not gets flagged. As I said in my (also
flagged) comment, according to science homeopathy is to medicine what an air
guitar is to music.

> there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for any health
> condition [0]

> the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there’s no credible
> scientific evidence to support such claims. [0]

> Don’t use homeopathy to replace proven conventional care

> Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than
> the lower quality studies [1]

Anti-vaccination 2.0. Using low quality or disproved studies to support your
claims. Although I'm willing to bet most proponents would not actually want to
be treated with homeopathy for any life threatening illness.

[0]
[https://nccih.nih.gov/health/homeopathy](https://nccih.nih.gov/health/homeopathy)

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10853874](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10853874)

[2] [https://health.spectator.co.uk/the-debate-about-
homeopathy-i...](https://health.spectator.co.uk/the-debate-about-homeopathy-
is-over-these-verdicts-prove-it/)

------
solotronics
This does seem like a possible application of blockchain to me. Yes, this
could theoretically be accomplished with a database but if chain of custody
was written to a blockchain it would be immutable. Tracing food supply I think
is important to some people and this would provide a cryptographically secure
way to do so.

~~~
heyitsguay
"This hamburger has a ton of crack cocaine in it"

"Oh no! To the blockchain to find out who did it!"

"Nobody recorded adding crack at any point in the supply chain"

"But blockchain is immutable and cryptographically secure!"

~~~
solotronics
This is short sighted. You would at least be able to see exactly who was
involved along the line. It would be public knowledge to find unreliable
suppliers that had a higher rate of contamination. Also, it would be really
cool to see exactly what farm something came from.

It doesn't apply to a bag of cheetos but it definately does for a waygu beef
steak.

~~~
heyitsguay
That has nothing to do with a blockchain though - the data structure you use
has no ties to the physical entities entering data into it. If there's a
regulatory body enforcing compliance, why wouldn't that regulatory body just
maintain a database to track the supply chain? More energy efficient, and it
aligns the data with its oversight. If there's no regulatory body, then you're
back to the original problem - nothing about a blockchain prevents dirty Farm
A from entering Farm B into the ledger.

------
Halluxfboy009
The last comment there: "This article has already been condemned by the USDA
as rhetoric and untrue. There are no scienitific evidence for any of these
claims. Yikes!"

~~~
tastik
Yeah - I wish Consumer Reports would stay away from health related news. It's
almost always overblown in some way.

They really need to stick to their core mission - product reviews.

~~~
kevin_b_er
They are. Products I buy in the supermarket are still products.

