

Seafood Raised on Pig Feces Approved for U.S. Consumers - bcn
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/asian-seafood-raised-on-pig-feces-approved-for-u-s-consumers.html

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aaronbrethorst
I submitted the following link the other day and was disappointed it didn't
get a single upvote. Hopefully more people will see it now. Seems relevant
given the topic at hand. [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-
sickens-millio...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-sickens-
millions-as-industry-paid-inspectors-find-it-safe.html)

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mark_l_watson
+1 great article, thanks!

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DamnYuppie
This is silly and not at all new. I believe most crops require fertilizer and
until very recently in human history it was either decomposing trash or some
form of manure. Regardless they both contain nutrients that can be used to
feed and grow other things...the whole "circle of life" and what have you!

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greenyoda
The article is about fish and shrimp that are fed animal feces. Fish and
shrimp are not crops (plants grown for food[1]), they're livestock (animals
grown for food[2]).

" _The manure the Chinese use to feed fish is frequently contaminated with
microbes like salmonella_..."

"... _packs shrimp headed for the U.S. in dirty plastic tubs. He covers them
in ice made with tap water that the Vietnamese Health Ministry says should be
boiled before drinking because of the risk of contamination with bacteria_ "

Beef contaminated with even small quantities of feces would not pass USDA
inspection, so how could shrimp _grown_ in pig feces be considered safe? (Yes,
the shrimp are grown in water that has pig feces in it; there's no other way
to get a shrimp to eat something.)

That article doesn't sound in the least bit silly to me. It's saying that a
large fraction of our seafood supply is dangerously contaminated with
bacteria. Would you eat a shrimp that accidentally fell in your toilet and got
rinsed off with water?

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop>

[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock>

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salmonellaeater
I am not an expert on food safety, but I believe the stricter standard for
beef is because people often eat it rare. The bacteria in the shrimp is not a
big deal if you cook it. There are many meats that you NEVER eat undercooked
(chicken and pork among others); why not shrimp?

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greenyoda
As far as I know, chicken contaminated with salmonella wouldn't pass USDA
inspection either. While chicken should never be eaten when it's undercooked,
it's quite easy for that to accidentally happen (the outside of a piece of
chicken may be cooked completely, but the inside is undercooked). Not to
mention that raw chicken that has bacteria on it can contaminate preparation
surfaces in your kitchen, spreading the bacteria around.

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guylhem
What the point of such an headline?

Public outcry?

The agricultural industry needs to find new ways to make food more affordable
or more efficiently. Until we find a way to bioengineer proteins from say
bacteria, and keep a familiar taste like chicken, we will have to keep using
animals.

Finding a way to recycle pig waste to reduce the carbon emission and also
create seafood seems like a good idea to me.

What's the alternative? Letting the pig waste pollute natural resources and
keeping seafood price up???

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aashay
Where, in the article, did you see any mention of recycling pig waste? The
article is about food contamination, not sustainability.

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guylhem
That's just a bloomberg article, not a full cost benefit analysis. If some of
the pig waste goes to the shrimps, less of it will go elsewhere. I'd call that
recycling - a positive externality here.

Pig manure is causing problems in this world. For example, some serious effort
is made to find the best storage temperature to reduce methane emissions - see
www.engr.usask.ca/societies/csae/protectedpapers/c0209.pdf for exemple.

So anything that will reduce or convert the amount produced is a good thing.

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aashay
Including contaminating food? What's with this straw man? Pig waste might be a
problem but how does that justify feeding food sources with it? Are you
comfortable with the notion of feeding other non-seafood food sources (such as
pigs) with it too?

Again, all the context necessary is provided in the article. I'm not against
finding a solution to the "pig waste problem." I don't think feeding it to
food sources is a logically sound primary solution any more than feeding
children radioactive waste is (for the "radioactive waste problem").

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guylhem
It's a solution. Until it has been evaluated, can't say if it's the best
solution. It certainly is a way to consider however - like you, I'm not
against any solution.

But the radioactive example is a fun one- wasn't there a plan to reduce the
risk of radioactive materials by including them in construction materials, so
that the emitted radiation would be lower? Some believed that it was safer
than concentrating/burying them.

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piggity
I thought that recycling animal waste into the food chain was one of the
suspected causes of CJD.

e.g. <http://rense.com/general10/MDSS.HTM>

It seems like a bad idea to me... (primarily from the unknowns, not the
knowns)

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guylhem
It's not every kind of animal waste - it's only waste containing neuronal
proteins, like the spine, the brain.

So it was banned.

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ComputerGuru
I suppose there will be the outcry from the Jewish and Muslim factions, as
this food is arguably non-kosher and non-halal.

It'll probably culminate in a law suite requiring these products to be labeled
as such, instead of slipping them in behind the scenes.

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Turing_Machine
Well, the shrimp is already not kosher. :-)

Google indicates that Islamic authorities are in disagreement as to whether
shrimp is halal.

Crustaceans eat all kinds of nasty things in their natural environment, btw.

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eternalban
It is Halal. /end fatwa

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mark_l_watson
Ouch, my wife and I are pescatarians (vegetarians who also eat seafood). I try
to buy Canadian and US seafood, but...

Good article.

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chunkyslink
I thought you were called a veg-aquarian.

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Turing_Machine
Of course, there's also a good chance that any vegetables you buy from
overseas were raised in animal feces of some sort.

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jimrandomh
Moderators, please change the title. It is extremely misleading. Here's what
the article really says:

"Ngoc Sinh has been certified as safe by Geneva-based food auditor SGS SA,
says Nguyen Trung Thanh, the company’s general director." "SGS spokeswoman
Jennifer Buckley says her company has no record of auditing Ngoc Sinh."

In other words, Bloomberg is accusing Ngoc Sinh of having disgusting practices
and lying about being inspected, which is a crime, while the title is instead
accusing the inspectors of not doing their jobs, which would also be a crime
but with a different party accused.

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option_greek
For people who don't consider this as serious, a reminder from one of the
older article: [http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/03-hidden-epidemic-
tape...](http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/03-hidden-epidemic-tapeworms-in-
the-brain)

It's bad enough to eat pigs with parasites but probably worse to come in
contact with their shit.

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ufo
Tapeworms are carnivore parasites. Regular tapeworms come from eating a cyst
in pig meat. The tapeworm eggs that give rise to those cysts you mentioned
come from _human_ feces.

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fleitz
Couldn't they just test the shrimp?

It definitely seems unsanitary on the front of it, but I wonder if it's
actually unsafe, or if there is some step down the manufacturing process that
makes it safe, such as cooking. On the front of it growing lettuce in pig shit
would result in lots of deaths but it doesn't which makes me wonder if it's
also a safe way to grow shrimp considering that they pretty much feed on the
fish shit anyway.

The article is chalk full of experts who say something is unsanitary, but very
light on data actually proving that whatever standards these operations have
are resulting in unsafe seafood.

It would seem to me that shipping seafood covered in pig shit would make a lot
of people sick really really fast and if it was unsafe would be REALLY unsafe
and generally noticed by people concerned with such things.

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jrockway
Evil foreign shrimp is evil, so stock up on some Good-Ol-American pork and
beef instead! Signed, the Advertisers.

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aaronbrethorst
Those aren't any better: [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-
sickens-millio...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/food-sickens-
millions-as-industry-paid-inspectors-find-it-safe.html)

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shardling
Please don't be _that guy_ who posts the same link on every comment in a
thread.

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prawn
It was posted in this branch once (where it's relevant) and as a direct reply
where I first noticed, read and appreciated it. One extra mention is pretty
easy to ignore. Not as though it's someone spamming their own blog.

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mistagrrr
Not exactly surprising news. If you eat seafood consider checking what you are
buying with Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch (website[1] or app).

[1] <http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx>

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aimatt
This sounds pretty much what they usually eat...

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arthurrr
What if pigs are raised on these shrimp that have been raised on pig feces
(recursive)?

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0wza
"U.S. Consumers"

So does that imply if the consumers were not in the U.S. this would not be
newsworthy? Or am I reading too far into the title?

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thealphanerd
Definitely not kosher

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jlgreco
It's shrimp...

