(NaturalNews) The USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently
issued a shocking report (http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/246...)
about the condition of the nation's industrial meat supply. It turns
out that a lot of the U.S. meat supply is tainted with veterinary drugs,
pesticides and heavy metals.

According to the report, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS, continues to fail at
properly monitoring the safety of the nation's meat supply. So tainted
meat is regularly being approved for sale, much of which ends up in
school lunch rooms where it is fed to -- guess who? -- our children!

What's truly disturbing about this is that the USDA knows why meat it
getting tainted but it's doing nothing about it. In fact, the agency
regularly allows toxic meat to make its way to store shelves
without even trying to stop it.

We're not talking about microbial pathogens here; we're talking about chemical contaminants that
cattle are eating and then passing on to consumers. These
contaminants are not cooked off like pathogens are, and they can
actually intensify when cooked and become more harmful.

Pathogens vs. Chemical Contaminants

It is important to make this distinction between pathogens like E. coli versus chemical residues like
pharmaceutical drugs and heavy metals. The public usually thinks about
food contamination in terms of pathogens but often doesn't consider the chemical
contamination.

The types of contaminants that are ending up in meat are things like veterinary drugs and antibiotics
that industrial agriculture uses to keep animals from dying before
slaughter. You see, industrial farming is so filthy and unnatural that
animals raised there wouldn't stand a chance without a steady stream of
drugs to keep them alive.

The irony about the excess use of drugs and antibiotics is that these things actually end up causing the
diseases they are meant to treat and prevent. But the conditions in
which these animals live are typically so horrendous that they probably
wouldn't make it to the slaughter without these toxic chemical
interventions.

Why aren't the regulatory agencies doing their job?

This is the same question being asked by OIG in its audit report. The FSIS is tasked with heading up the national residue program
with the help of the FDA and EPA, but none of these agencies are
actually doing their jobs.

These agencies are supposed to work together to establish tolerance levels for various pesticides,
drugs and toxins in an effort to minimize their presence in the food.
But according to the report, the agencies have not even established
thresholds for many of the dangerous substances being found in meat,
let alone test for them.

The agencies did jointly establish a Surveillance Advisory Team (SAT) and an Interagency Residue Control
Group (IRCG) to help them accomplish program goals, but since none of
them have actually committed to realistically achieving these
goals, the whole program has basically gone nowhere.

If it's broken, blame someone else

So which agency is actually at fault for the meat safety failures? Well, it depends on which agency you ask. They
all blame each other.

Every year, the SAT is supposed to bring together the FDA, EPA and FSIS to establish which residues they will
test for that year. But each year, no matter what has been agreed upon,
the FSIS continues to test for only one type of pesticide.

According to the EPA, the FSIS is refusing its requests to test for more
pesticides. The FSIS, however, claims that the EPA has not established
tolerances for many of those pesticides, so it can't test for them
(while also insisting that it just doesn't have enough resources to do
the testing).

For items that do get tested, the FSIS relies on the FDA to approve proper testing methods. However the FDA only wants to
use testing methods that are old and outdated. When newer, better
methods are recommended, the FDA is often unwilling or unable to use
them.

The methods of these various agencies often conflict with one another, which is why the SAT was established in the first place. It
was meant to be the coordinator of the three agencies to help them
communicate and get the job done. But instead of coordinating, it seems
to exist more as a formality while the three blame each other for not
getting anything done.

The agencies are generally run so poorly and corruptly that it is surprising they get anything done at
all. The only things they seem to have time to do is harass supplement
makers and shut down raw milk producers, all while turning a
blind eye to the industry players that are really causing most of
the problems.

Dirty secrets of the meat industry

According to the report, meat plant violations are not a big deal to the FSIS.
The agency routinely allows plants that are in violation to continue
operating.

In 2008, one meat plant had over 200 violations, but the FSIS still classified the violations as "not reasonably likely
to occur" and allowed the plant to continue operating as usual -- business
as usual in the meat industry, eh?

The meat industry gets away with a lot, and the things it gets away with are no small matter.
Take, for instance, the practice of cow "recycling". When a cow gets too
old or sick to produce milk, she is handed over to a slaughter facility
to be turned into meat. (The industry term for these animals is "spent"
dairy cows).

Why is this a problem? According to the report, the plants that process spent dairy cows represent over 90 percent of
the residue violations discovered in a 2008 investigation.

These same plants also process "bob" veal, or male calves that are born to
dairy cows. Dairy cows are given large amounts of antibiotics after they
birth calves in order to treat birth-related infections. Since dairy
producers are required to wait a certain amount of time after
administering the drugs before using their milk for human consumption,
they just go ahead and feed the tainted milk to the bob veal calves
in order not to "waste" it.

Since the drugs never got a chance to clear out of the system, it eventually ends up in the veal
meat at the store. So when you eat veal meat, you're essentially eating bovine
antibiotics.

And if the calves' mothers don't recovery quickly enough with the antibiotics, the producer may sell them off to
be slaughtered before they die. That way they will at least make some
money off those cows. Unfortunately, this results in even more
antibiotics going into the beef food chain.

Ethanol waste being used as food

Hold on to your (cowboy) hats... it doesn't stop there. Farmers are now actually feeding livestock the industrial
waste that is left over after corn is turned into ethanol fuel. It's
not enough that industrial producers are recycling old, sick animals
for human consumption, but now they are feeding them toxic bio-sludge as
well.

Of course they've given the sludge a politically-correct name, "distillers' grains", but it doesn't change the fact that it is a
waste byproduct that is harmful to animals forced to eat it.

The USDA has known since 2008 that animals who eat distillers' grains are more likely to
harbor danger..., but has stated that it would
not regulate the use of distillers' grains as cattle feed.

Since the ethanol fermentation process requires a lot of antibiotics to
control it, antibiotic residues are plentiful in distillers' grains.
And not only that, distillers' grains are loaded with mycotoxins
linked to an oxidative imbalance in pigs called Mulberry Heart
Disease (MHD) that can cause them to die suddenly.

No wonder pigs are sicker than ever; they're being fed toxic waste as food! But
large hog producers don't really care because it saves them money, and
the USDA doesn't care because, well, they basically represent the
interests of the animal slaughter industry (the pork, beef and chicken
industries).

As long as the ethanol producers are happy, the hog producers are happy, and enough organizations continue to sing the
praises of distillers' grains, then there's no need to protect the
public from the dangers of the tainted end result, it seems. Nobody will
notice, right?

These are just a few of the many violations that the FSIS, FDA and EPA seem unconcerned about. And this isn't merely my
personal opinion: These things are stated in the report itself as
fact.

Nothing to see here, folks, just move along

The casual way in which the USDA report highlights the failures and gives
lip service to fixing them would be humorous if it didn't have such
disastrous consequences. For example, much of this meat ends up in the public
schools.

The tainted meat usually comes from low-grade providers, so schools are quick to snatch it up and feed it to children
because it's dirt cheap. And fortunately, it's labeled, "Suitable for
human consumption."

Millions of American children, who are still in their developmental stages, are eating cheeseburgers filled with
antibiotics, pharmaceutical drugs and toxic chemicals -- all thanks to
the greed of powerful industries and the inexcusable depth of corruption
within agricultural regulatory agencies.

This tainted meat also makes its way to grocery stores, big-box warehouses and even
restaurants. Anywhere you're buying hamburger meat (or just hamburgers),
you're likely to be chowing down on meat laced with toxic chemicals,
antibiotics and other pharmaceutical drugs.

Yet, amazingly, these issues are never addressed publicly. The general public has no idea
that industrial meat contains a cocktail of dangerous toxins.
They have no clue that the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be
protecting them can't even properly communicate with each other, let
alone protect the public. Most people have no idea just how bad
things really are.

Whenever there is a recall, nobody talks about why the meat got tainted or how it managed to pass
by regulators without being stopped. There is never a discussion about
the underlying flaws in the meat system itself that encourage
contamination. Instead, regulators unleash a chorus of whining over how
underfunded they are and how everything would be fixed if the entire
food supply was simply irradiated before hitting store shelves.

Except irradiation doesn't destroy heavy metals and pharmaceuticals. It only
makes the meat appear to be safe in the short term because it
doesn't make anybody sick the very next day.

Food "safety" laws will only make things worse

The response to food contamination has been to devise food "safety" bills that experts claim will solve the
problems of the food system. But a closer look reveals that the bills
actually do more to eliminate the good guys than to punish the bad guys.

Just last summer, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2749, the
"Food Safet... and a Senate version of the
bill is likely to be voted on this summer.

But these food safety bills don't actually make food any safer.

Basically these bills will give more power to agencies like the FDA (who are already failing
at their current tasks) while greatly increasing the regulatory burdens
on small growers and ranchers who produce high-quality, safe food. Such
bills completely avoid addressing the root causes of food
contamination and instead create larger bureaucracies with more
unchecked power that will only be unleashed against small operators
rather than agro-industry giants.

The idea is utterly insane, but as long as it claims to deal with "food safety", most people will
blindly accept it as something good. After all, the politicians and the
corporations that sponsor them wouldn't lie to us, would they?
(Chuckle...)

So how can food really be made safer?

The entire food system itself will have to be radically reformed in order to
truly make food safe. Mass-produced food that's factory-made by
corporate conglomerates will never be the kind of thing we truly wish to
feed our children. Government subsidies for cash crops must end.
Policies that favor Big Agribusiness while destroying smaller growers
and ranchers must be reversed.

It's important for us all to oppose any and all food "safety" bills that threaten to eliminate the
very operations that produce safe food. Protections for local and family
farms must be present in any legislation, otherwise they will be forced
out of business. The Cornucopia Institute is doing a lot of great work
in this area, so be sure to check their website for regular updates: www.Cornucopia.org

Conscious consumers must also start seeking alternative sources of food that are
not produced out of the current corrupt system. Local farms, food
cooperatives and community supported agriculture (CSA) are great sources
of safe food, and they offer the opportunity to develop a relationship
with the people who raise the food.

You can also choose to grow your own food at home. Whether urban or rural, there are workable
solutions to raising your own food at home, regardless of your
situation. Even those who don't have any yard space can grow sprouts on a
kitchen counter. (That's food, too!)

Knowing the source of your food and how it has been raised is crucial to ensuring food safety for
yourself and your family. And remember: You vote with your dollars. It's
up to you to choose food products from small, local growers rather than
the corporate agro-giants that would much prefer to just shove their
dirty, contaminated beef down your throat at every meal.

Cheeseburger, anyone?

About the author: Mike Adams is an award-winning natural health author with a
strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of
nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of
articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health
and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that
is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is
a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional
fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. He has created
over 100 CounterThink cartoons and produced several popular hip-hop
songs on socially-conscious topics. He's also a noted technology
pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software
currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams is currently the
executive director of the Consumer
Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as
Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known
on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission
statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org