Re: how much melamine are you eating?

[Guest guest]

--- Suze Fisher <suzefisher@...> wrote:

> Since no one responded to my post about melamine in *organic*

> chicken feed posted on Weds I take it every one is satisfied with

> the amount of melamine they may be consuming in their organic meats?

Suze, I think the key is fully pastured meats. It's pretty hard to

get melamine into the grass

Pastured ruminant meats are also low in PUFA, which is good.

It's true that most " organic " chickens are fed a lot of grain and soy

and possibly as a result the chicken meat and eggs are relatively high

in PUFA and could have melamine contamination from the soy meal. Good

reasons not to eat too much chicken or eggs unless you know how they

were fed. Ideally, we want food from chickens that are pastured and

fed NO SOY and minimal organic grains. Easier said than done, unless

you raise your own chickens.

Thankfully, the McGeary Ranch where I get eggs feeds no soy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oz4caster/2929823719/in/set-72157607916721836/

I'd be more curious to know how much grain/soy feeding of chickens

affects the PUFA content of the meat and eggs. Wild boar has only

about 3.6 percent of calories as PUFA, whereas typical commercial pork

is more like about 6 to 7 percent. Since commercial pigs are fed lots

of grain and soy, the implication is that grain/soy feeding may

increase the percent of calories from PUFA, but I haven't seen

comparable data for chickens:

http://stay-healthy-enjoy-life.blogspot.com/2008/11/fat-follies.html

(see the tables under " PUFA in Meat and Dairy " )

[Guest guest]

I agree with as to the solution.

The naturalnews snippet I posted a while back about US formula... had an

interesting theory - that maybe it is the feed that US cows are consuming

which is causing the melamine in the milk.

The first thing I thought was... " not if they eat grass! "

-Lana

" There is nothing more useful than sun and salt. " - Latin proverb

On Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 9:59 AM, <oz4caster@...> wrote:

> --- Suze Fisher <suzefisher@...> wrote:

> > Since no one responded to my post about melamine in *organic*

> > chicken feed posted on Weds I take it every one is satisfied with

> > the amount of melamine they may be consuming in their organic meats?

>

> Suze, I think the key is fully pastured meats. It's pretty hard to

> get melamine into the grass

[Guest guest]

> Suze, I think the key is fully pastured meats. It's pretty hard to

> get melamine into the grass

Hi ,

I agree, but like you said, good luck finding fully pastured poultry. I eat

mostly red meat but I like to eat eggs and feed eggs and boney chicken parts

to my arthritic 127-yr-old Chihuahua, and I stopped doing that until I can

get confirmation from my chicken farmer as to whether any of the feed she

uses is from China. I only know of one farmer locally with chickens who

doesn't feed them any grain but I've not seen her offering eggs for sale and

I believe she said she had no feet when I asked for chicken feet for my

stocks and for my dogs. I'm mostly after the joint support from the boney

parts as well as good stock gelling. My hoof supply is very limited although

it has the same effect. I do use oxtail too, which also makes a good gel.

> I'd be more curious to know how much grain/soy feeding of chickens

> affects the PUFA content of the meat and eggs.

It's reflected in their fat profile just like it is in pigs and other

omnivores like us.

Suze

[Guest guest]

Not at all! Your post just made me happier to own free-range chickens and dairy

goats. :-)

Since no one responded to my post about melamine in *organic* chicken feed

posted on Weds I take it every one is satisfied with the amount of melamine

they may be consuming in their organic meats?

.

[Guest guest]

we just got chickens back in the spring and do feed organic grains.

everyone i spoke w/ told me that it was necessary to supplement w/

grains because chickens can't get what they need being on pasture

only. plus what to do in the winter in a cold climate?

anyone out there have eggs shipped to them? I may consider it because

I cannot find decent eggs here and we don't have enough chickens to

get the amount of eggs my family eats. maybe i should think about

cutting back on them, i guess.

lisa

>

> I agree, but like you said, good luck finding fully pastured poultry.

>

[Guest guest]

Ours are melamine-free - we feed them wild bird seed instead of

chicken feed. It was cheaper than the other corn- and soy-free

blends. It's not organic, but I don't know how much they spray milo

and millet and the oil sunflower seeds anyways.

>

> we just got chickens back in the spring and do feed organic grains.

> everyone i spoke w/ told me that it was necessary to supplement w/

> grains because chickens can't get what they need being on pasture

> only. plus what to do in the winter in a cold climate?

>

> anyone out there have eggs shipped to them? I may consider it

because

> I cannot find decent eggs here and we don't have enough chickens to

> get the amount of eggs my family eats. maybe i should think about

> cutting back on them, i guess.

>

> lisa

>

>

>

> >

> > I agree, but like you said, good luck finding fully pastured

poultry.

>

> >

>

[Guest guest]

In a perfect world they would be fed only kelp that had been tested for

arsenic too.

It's very dry here in California so my chicken lady's eggs are probably

eating only grains. I have to travel 120 mi round trip to get eggs from

a green grass area. Hope I can do it. Will see if still have a job

after Christmas. Might eat dirt.

On Dec 7, 2008, at 8:59 AM, wrote:and

Thankfully, the McGeary Ranch where I get eggs feeds no soy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oz4caster/2929823719/in/set

-72157607916721836/

I'd be more curious to know how much grain/soy feeding of chickens

Parashis

artpages@...

artpagesonline.com

[Guest guest]

Millet is bad for you. Must find the article that said so.

Hard to find anything with no soy, corn, millet.

On Dec 7, 2008, at 4:27 PM, haecklers wrote:

Ours are melamine-free - we feed them wild bird seed instead of

chicken feed. It was cheaper than the other corn- and soy-free

blends. It's not organic, but I don't know how much they spray milo

and millet and the oil sunflower seeds anyways.

Parashis

artpages@...

artpagesonline.com

[Guest guest]

my local farmer ships soy-free eggs. He is listed in the 2009 WAPF shopping

guide -

Grazin Acres 608-727-2904. they do supplement with organic grains.

>

> we just got chickens back in the spring and do feed organic grains.

> everyone i spoke w/ told me that it was necessary to supplement w/

> grains because chickens can't get what they need being on pasture

> only. plus what to do in the winter in a cold climate?

>

> anyone out there have eggs shipped to them? I may consider it because

> I cannot find decent eggs here and we don't have enough chickens to

> get the amount of eggs my family eats. maybe i should think about

> cutting back on them, i guess.

>

> lisa

>

>

>

> >

> > I agree, but like you said, good luck finding fully pastured poultry.

>

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Suze,

That article says that several " 'organic' " farms in France ordered

feed from China that was contaminated. It does not say that the

chicken feed was organic, and I'm skeptical that any chicken feed from

China is certified organic and exported to US organic farms.

I'm curious how much animal feed in the US is imported from China.

It's a sorry state of affairs if this is common practice, given how

much grain we grow on our own soil, and China's poor track record with

food contamination.

Tom

[Guest guest]

On my organic co-op list, somone posted that they purchased some organic frozen

veggies at Whole Foods that said it was a product of China and had the USDA

Certified Organic label on it. But, further research indicated that the USDA

doesn't have anyone in China to certify it.

It is indeed a sorry state of affairs that we are importing any grain, AND

subsidizing our farmers not to plant certain crops.

The pet food disaster was contaminated wheat. What is the bread basket of the

world doing importing wheat?

Kathy

---- Tom Jeanne <tjeanne@...> wrote:

=============

Suze,

That article says that several " 'organic' " farms in France ordered

feed from China that was contaminated. It does not say that the

chicken feed was organic, and I'm skeptical that any chicken feed from

China is certified organic and exported to US organic farms.

I'm curious how much animal feed in the US is imported from China.

It's a sorry state of affairs if this is common practice, given how

much grain we grow on our own soil, and China's poor track record with

food contamination.

Tom

[Guest guest]

Suze-

> Since no one responded to my post about melamine in *organic*

> chicken feed

> posted on Weds I take it every one is satisfied with the amount of

> melamine

> they may be consuming in their organic meats?

Yep, that's a logical deduction. Clearly I'm happy to eat

melamine. ;-)

-

[Guest guest]

-

> Pastured ruminant meats are also low in PUFA, which is good.

Actually, the PUFA content of ruminant meat is pretty close to

constant regardless of diet, and if anything, it might be slightly

higher in pastured ruminant meat than in grain-fed meat, though I

wonder whether that's an artifact of slaughter times, in which case

perhaps older pastured ruminants will have slightly lower levels of

PUFA in their fat. Regardless, absolute PUFA content isn't a good

argument in favor of consuming pastured ruminant meat.

> It's true that most " organic " chickens are fed a lot of grain and soy

> and possibly as a result the chicken meat and eggs are relatively high

> in PUFA and could have melamine contamination from the soy meal. Good

> reasons not to eat too much chicken or eggs unless you know how they

> were fed. Ideally, we want food from chickens that are pastured and

> fed NO SOY and minimal organic grains. Easier said than done, unless

> you raise your own chickens.

Unfortunately, it seems virtually impossible to find chickens and eggs

which aren't fed any grains and/or legumes. The caloric requirements

of modern chickens are just enormous. Perhaps potatoes would be a

workable substitute...? Has anyone tried this? Still, potatoes are

much more expensive than grains and soy.

-

[Guest guest]

I wish I could! I'm in a city. Sometimes I think it would be cool to

raise rabbits for meat, the city counts them as pets, but then we'd have

to deal with slaughter and butchering, and I don't have a lot of room in

my apartment. Plus rabbits just aren't high-fat enough. We can get

around that with dairy but then we're right back to the

buying-animal-stuff-from-others bit again.

Jon and wrote:

> Not at all! Your post just made me happier to own free-range chickens and

dairy goats. :-)

>

>

>

> Since no one responded to my post about melamine in *organic* chicken feed

> posted on Weds I take it every one is satisfied with the amount of melamine

> they may be consuming in their organic meats?

>

>

> .

>

>