1,800 pounds of water are needed. Large chicken slaughtering plants, in fact, expend up to 100
million gallons of water daily, enough to supply a city of 25,000 people!- According to research published in Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 85, No. 15, April 9, 2007:
34-35, roxarsone, an arsenic-based additive used in most chicken feed, could pose health risks to
humans. Roxasone is used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve the color of chicken
meat. Under certain conditions, which can occur within live chickens or on farm land, this
compound converts into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic. This form of arsenic has been
linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and colon cancers, and low-level exposure can lead to partial
paralysis and diabetes. Of course, arsenic is also a deadly poison. Over 70 percent of the 9 billion
broiler chickens produced annually in the United States are fed roxarsone.
The meat production process is so wasteful and costly that, in order to survive, the meat industry
needs hundreds of millions of dollars in tax subsidies every year. You never pay only for the meat you
eat; the subsidies come out of your pocket. In 1977, the governments of Western Europe spent almost half
a billion dollars purchasing farmers' overproduction of meat and additional millions to store it. This trend
has not been different in the United States and is worsening each year. All this is precious money lost,
thereby heavily burdening every national economy. In this sense, meat consumption is directly
impoverishing the wealthy nations. Any wars fought in the future will revolve about energy, food and
water, all three of which are heavily wasted through meat production. The worldwide increase of meat
consumption is driving the world closer and closer to the brink of international conflict.
But Fish Is Really Good For You, Isn’t It?
Not quite so. Besides the above reasons for avoiding dead and coagulated protein foods, tests on both
wild and farm-raised fish have revealed that their levels of toxic chemicals and metals are endangering the
lives of pregnant mothers, developing fetuses and young children. Does this mean it is acceptable for
adults to eat fish? Scientists now say that salmon, for example— long considered to be one of the safest of
all fish—should be eaten only once per month. We are exposed to numerous other sources of indoor and
outdoor pollution almost all the time, not to mention the chemicals contained in most foods today. Our
immune system simply cannot afford such high concentrations of toxins as found in fish without
developing a toxemia situation.
Specifically, tests on farmed salmon uncovered high levels of toxins linked to cancer and birth defects.
These findings recently triggered a "scare-mongering" row as other experts insisted salmon was safe to
eat regularly—and important for a healthy diet. A study released in the journal, Environmental Science
& Technology, found much higher levels of some chemicals in farmed salmon compared with wild
salmon. The study, which is being considered the most thorough analysis of farmed and wild salmon to-
date, found in most cases that consuming more than one serving of farmed salmon per month could pose
unacceptable cancer risks. These standards for determining safe fish consumption levels are according to
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Farmed salmon were found to have up to 10
times higher levels of PCBs and dioxins than wild salmon. Farmed salmon are frequently fed antibiotics,
which contribute to the growth of drug-resistant bacteria. In addition, chemical are often added to their
food to color their flesh pink to resemble their wild cousins. Otherwise, they would remain an
unappetizing grayish-brown color.
Sales have increased up to 15 percent a year as more people eat oily fish to prevent heart attacks, or so
they are made to believe. But when samples from around the world—some from stores in London and
Edinburgh—were analyzed, it was discovered that levels of 14 "organochlorine" toxins, the most
hazardous of which include PCBs, dioxins, dieldrin and toxaphene, were significantly higher in European