Oh, and while we are at it, the fda just granted permission to a company to sell a spray made of viruses, to spray on hotdogs and other meats. Live viruses, designed as "bacteriophages" to eat listeria. Now, you can run a clean slaughterhouse, or you can run a dirty one, rewrite the rules so that visible fecal material is not grounds for stopping the slaughter line, and then spray the dirty meat with viruses, that can possibly mutate, and damage one's intestines...what would you do? me, I'm all for spraying danger on top of filth. Oh, and the meat does not have to be labelled as such.

90% of the dna in your body is not yours. It's all the bacteria in your gut, on your skin, in your nose. It's not possible to digest and absorb most foods without them. Part of why babies intestines aren't so efficient is that they aren't colonized. This is also why breastfeeding is important- your skin bacteria is colonizing your baby, protecting the baby like it's protected you. So, do you really, truly want to eat a bacteriophage virus, and let it have free lunch inside you?

Now, in theory, every virus dies in your stomach. Except of course, when it might not work well- say, taking an antacid, which lots of old people do, lots of pregnant women, heck,lots of women. And then, it's not such an acid bath. And things pass through. Seriously, think about the mad popularity of "digestive aids" like papayin, and cleansing regimens with added enzymes. That's money proof that people know or think that their intestines could use some help, not some hurting.

Congress gets to put a leash on the FDA. Please call their office, if this bothers you. At minimum, they'll compliment you on being a good mom, since they compliment their constituents.

Also, I wonder if using migrant labor is a way of hiding working conditions. The last big recall was from an fda scientist who leaked it, when he realized the meat was sent to the elementary school where his grandchild ate school lunches. If I could n't speak the language, or feel connected, or safe talking to the editor of the local paper, or the FDA, or the cafeteria lunch lady, or a pastor, I'm not sure who would know how dirty, or unsafe, a place was.

ari

Here's a link: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/18/edible.virus.ap/index.html

Ew. Ew. Ew. I don't eat meat, but I still think that is a lowdown, criminal thing to do, all in the name of cutting costs for big business. Ew.

Yeah, this is enough to make me finally go veg I think.

Oh, that's just disgusting. :shake:

I had a teacher in college who was an avid bateriaphage advocate. Not that this is a proper usage AT ALL, but they can be amazing little critters as well. They are produced and cultivated from urine of people who have been effected in most cases, which has been freaking the FDA out for a while, so to many this may be seen as a step in the right direction.

Although I have to admit to not wanting to eat meat even more. OMG yuck!

Val

:drop: I'll be passing this on to my meat eating husband.

Read the article... I hate to disagree with you Tif, but I think this is a good step. It is targeting the Listeriosis bacteria which is only found in lunch meats and meats that you eat cold. Which is why it is being used to counter this. The one for E Coli and gound beef sounds more iffy, but at the same time, these little buggers are there already, they are just putting more of them there. The FDA standards are not being changed (at least not according to the article that was posted) and there for they still have to take all the same safty precautions that they were taking before, this is an EXTRA step... and a welcome one in my book and as a pregnant woman. Bacteriophage is a good thing my friends. Has anyone ever done urine thereapy to treat a really nasty infection for yourself? Sometimes it is the only natural thing that works! I have used it for reaccurant colds and for my cronic condtion that depleats the Vit K bacteria in my gut... bacteriophage don't kill the good bacteria, they ONLY kill the ones they have come in contact with already. (For those of you who have NO clue what I am talking about, you put 5 drops of urine in a warm glass of water and drink it every morning to get your own Bacteriophage in your body and counter attack the bacteria that is making you ill.)

Here are some articles on Bateriophage:
http://tahilla.typepad.com/mrsawatch/mrsa_bacteriophage_therapy/index.html

The main trouble I have with them using bacteriophage this way is that they are trying VERY HARD to find ways to MARKET it... (#1 reason why I sometimes don't like being an American.) When most of the time, the bacteriophage you need is already being cultivated inside you!

Anyway... just read more. You may come to a different conclusion than I did and still believe that the use of these is evil, but I strongly believe that this is a good step to getting bacteriophage into use. Hospitals all over the world are using cleaning products now with these little buggers (mostly derived from sea water but some are from human waste) into their cleaning products to counter the terrible "superbacteria" that we as a culture and the human race have built due to all of these stupid "antibacterial" products. (I haven't bought one in 10 years, not even if Pyrell is on Alex's school list. Don't fall for it... THAT is what is really gross and killing people.)

Thanks Val. Did not know. I could just picture someone's intestinal tract getting pithed.

The article I read was off line. It mostly stressed the benefits to industry, with a shading of indifference to consumers. Like "it won't kill them." Which is a long way from " It can help." Also, from what I've read, Listeria grows avidly in unsanitary slaughterhouses. Like, puddles, leaks, too fast kill lines, and so on. I've also read that the regs on clean slaughterhouses have been seriously compromised over the last six years. So you see how I can come to a conclusion of "yich."

Urinary fomites? cool.

ari