Re: healthy diets

[Guest guest]

Cat,

I am no authority on this, but recently heard a radio interview of an author

who wrote " The WalMart Effect " . He talked about how WalMart can sell

" fresh " salmon cheap because it imports it from Chile year round. It is

farm raised and since it is raised outside of the country the feed given to

the fish is not regulated... and he thinks it is sub par.

Here's some more from the book I found on the web...

" Have you ever seen a hog farm? " asks Gerry Leape, vice president of marine

conservation for the National Environmental Trust, a Washington-based

environmental nonprofit group. " These fish are the hogs of the sea. They

live in the same sort of conditions, it's just in water. They pack them

really closely together, they use a lot of prophylactic antibiotics, not to

treat disease, but to prevent it. There's lots of concentrated fish waste,

it creates dead zones in the ocean around the pens. "

Lash is executive director of the Living Oceans Society, a marine

conservation group in British Columbia, which is one of two centers of

salmon farming in Canada. " Salmon are generally raised in open-net pens, "

she says. " There is a metal cage on the surface, with nets hanging down to a

netted bottom.

" The density of fish depends on the nation, but they grow tens of thousands

of fish per net, 1 million or 1.5 million per farm. Then they all go poo.

There is a huge amount of waste going into the ocean. People say, oh, that's

natural, all fish go poo in the ocean. But not in that kind of

concentration. It just smothers the seabed. " One million salmon produce the

same sewage, says Leape, as sixty-five thousand people.

The ocean pens suffer from another source of pollution -- excess feed. Any

food that isn't consumed settles to the ocean floor, adding to the layer of

feces. The waste itself contains residues of antibiotics and other chemicals

used to keep the fish healthy during the two years it takes them to grow to

harvestable size. "

Anyway, you get the idea...

I also found something about a lawsuit man is pursuing against WalMart

because of the red dye they put into their salmon to make it look more like

wild salmon.

I find it very frustrating to decide what to feed my kids after removing

what our kids are sensitive to... because of all the other issues that keep

popping up with other foods.

Then again, I went on a field trip to the zoo today, and as my son sat

eating his very healthy sandwich, dried apricot, grapes, carrot sticks and

bottled water, I looked around at the other kids eating lunchables, cheese

chips, ding dongs and twinkies and thought, well, we're doing better than

average.

Caroline

> From: catherine quinn <quinn.cat1968@...>

> Reply-< >

> Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 07:17:07 -0700 (PDT)

> < >

> Subject: RE: Grassfed Beef

>

> I am with you there. I firmly believe we need to go back to the type of diets

> we had as kids. It seems we were all healthier.

>

> I need to find a butcher that carries these kind of meats. The local Bi-Lo

> Supermarket or Walmart (the cheapest place to do your shopping) just will not

> carry grassfed, antibiotic free meats.

>

> I also have a question, fish....you can get Perch, and Bass packaged at low

> prices today, but I note that the package indicates fish caught and processed

> in China.

>

> any thoughts?

>

> cat