T.M.I. Food Labels

Word comes today that food producers are going to start using words like ‘animal compassionate,” “free farmed,” or “certified humane,” on their products in the hope of luring the health conscious, recyclers, environmentalists and animal welfare sympathizers into buying more meat and eggs.

Whole Foods Market and similar stores are getting ready to roll out food with a label certifying that the animal was raised humanely before it was slaughtered.

It is apparently an effort to capture the compassionate carnivore, I would guess. Compassionate carnivore is like compassionate conservative....an oxymoron. How the devil can you eat meat if you have strong feelings about how the animal was raised in the first place?

I understand PETA people. They are vegetarians against the inhumane practice, they say, of eating meat or of mistreating animals. They don’t want us to touch anything with a face. I understand that.

But compassionate carnivore......that’s like being a little pregnant....you either are, or you’re not...you either eat meat...or you don’t....it’s either a pet or it’s food....can’t have it both ways.

And as always with new products comes a new price...prices for compassionate meat is going to be triple the cost of buying the less hypocritical kind of meat.

The new labels are apparently being pushed by animal rights groups including the National Humane Society.

Several grocers and restaurants are already touting the newly labeled meat and eggs and claim that it is a great selling point. Business is brisk, they say.

I’m sorry, if it bothers you that much, how can you stand by and allow the cow or pig or chicken to be slaughtered in the first place?

I don’t care how you raise it, the point is that it is food, period. Doesn’t taste or look any different. In fact, the only difference is probably the label, and of course, the price.

This is just T.M.I. on labels.

I won’t ask....you don’t have to tell.

Dolly Chops

Get ready, coming to a grocery store near you, cloned meat and milk, from cloned animals. Scientists are getting ready to carve up Dolly and sell her off as lamb chops, in the near future.

Dolly, you will recall, was the first animal clone ever made.

According to a published report today, the Food and Drug Administration is about to put its stamp of approval on the practice. Which means that you will soon be able to walk into Kroger and buy cloned meat, that is if they label it as such. You can’t really tell the difference from real meat or milk, say scientists. Clones, they say, are merely twins born a generation apart. Milk or meat from cloned animals is no different and is safe, just like what comes from real animals, scientists say.

Scientists also make a distinction between clones and transgenic animals....animals changed scientifically to answer some need in humans...usually medical problems.

The FDA calls transgenics, “New Animal Drugs.” That’s a whole separate category from Clones. Transgenics are not yet on the market. The operative word here is “yet.”

The International Dairy Association which represents food giants like Kraft and General Mills is fighting the move saying more study is needed.

I don’t know why this should upset us. We already eat genetically altered wheat, fruits and vegetables.

Chicken, and beef cattle are shot full of steroids to make them grow faster and bigger. Turkeys are so breast heavy now they can’t even stand up, all because everyone wants white meat at Thanksgiving.

Add in the fact that fish is full of mercury, what is there left to eat that hasn’t been tainted?

So what’s the big deal? I’m talking about progress. It happens, no matter what we think about it.

But I’m old enough to remember how a real tomato tastes versus one grown in a hot house. I remember scooping cream off the top of a bottle of milk. I remember the taste of real butter, not the waxy stuff called real butter sold today. If you want to know the taste, go find some Amish Rolled Butter. That’s the real deal. I buy it at Findlay Market at Mike’s.

I grow my own tomatoes and have grown other veggies in the past. It’s just so much work and that is the problem.

Convenience.

We opt for ease of living, rather than living the right and natural way.

We are slowly working our way to a day when all we will have is taste in a pouch, loaded with vitamins and minerals, no food necessary.