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Monday, June 14, 2010

Of Hermaphrodites And Sausage Kings

"Corporate" farming is causing an outbreak of hermaphrodites! That's what a self-described "fearless branding rebel" and essayist says in a post in the Dedham, Mass., Daily News Transcript.

Julie Nardone claims that "pharmaceuticals, herbicides, pesticides and hormones pumped into the animals and food we eat" have lead to a rise in animals and fish that are both male and female. (Wouldn't this make reproduction easier? Just asking.)

She also apparently supports starving much of the world population, believing that small, local farms are going to feed the globe's 6.7 billion people, and she's quite ignorant of U.S. food production. Nardone repeats many of the lies spewed out by groups opposed to modern food production, including this one: "over 50 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States end up in the feed of factory-farmed animals to bulk them up and to treat sickness brought on by that feed." (You can comment on her screed by clicking on the link above.)

She urges "food-conscious citizens" to "stop patronizing supermarkets that sell food containing harmful substances" and to "ask legislators to ban chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides on corporate farms."

The facts are that modern technologies and science have allowed the U.S. to produce the safest food in the world. They have allowed farmers to precisely use animal health products, fertilizers and pesticides -- all of which are strictly regulated and many of which are safer than the naturally occuring varieties.

On a sad note for the pork industry, sausage king Jimmy Dean died yesterday.

Dean, who also was a country singer, founded the Jimmy Dean Meat Co. in 1969. Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp. bought the company in 1984.

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