From the January 2004 Idaho Observer:

It ain't America anymore: It's Animal Pharm

The food supply people depend upon for their health and well-being has been entrusted to the wrong hands. The quality of our food has been left to a handful of multinational corporations and the government agents who approve their deplorable production practices and rubberstamp as safe for consumption the abominations they sell to us as “food.” If it is a biological fact that an organism's viability is intimately linked to the purity of its food supply, then we, as a nation, are in big trouble.

compiled by The Idaho Observer

The age of the prion has arrived

Patricia Doyle, Ph.D. recently observed that our food has been genetically modified so extensively by Monsanto, Arthur Daniels Midland, et al, that it is affecting the DNA of those consuming them. “This, combined with excessive and consistent hormone shots, vaccines, antibiotics, weight gaining meds and, of course, protein supplements like cattle bloodmeal/blood plasma, has caused livestock to mutate. Here, too, what effects animal DNA will affect the DNA of the humans who consume the livestock,” Dr. Doyle wrote in her January 10, 2004 article, “Our Failing Planetary Home - Why It Is Dying.”

The problem of our adulterated food supply is complicated by what has been called the “four Ds.” Forty-eight of the 50 states allow biological matter from dead, dying, disabled and diseased animals to be used in pet and livestock feed. Cows, for instance, dead or nearly dead from a variety of diseases (including bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE], or “mad cow disease) are routinely slaughtered, rendered and added to pet and livestock feed -- to boost protein levels for labeling purposes.

A partial list of other material that can be added to pet and livestock feed (but not considered fit for the humans who will eventually consume many of these animals) is rancid fat, hair, hide, partially-digested stomach contents, bones, hooves, beaks, brains, other internal organs, sawdust, peanut shells, feathers and moldy or otherwise spoiled grains.

In corporate cattle ranching, it is customary for the 4D cattle to be slaughtered, ground up and their diseased flesh fed back to the herd from which they had been culled.

In corporate poultry farming, chickens are often packed together so tightly they cannot move; they are force-fed hormone and antibiotic-laced food and pass feces in the same small space for the few weeks of their miserable bioengineered lives. Then they are slaughtered. An estimated 5.5 million diseased, cancerous chicken parts are cut away each year while U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors approve them being earmarked for animal feed.

The stage is set for medical Armageddon

For millennia our world was, for the most part, untouched by the pollution associated with “progress” and the industrial Revolution. In just 70 years we have managed to spread pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, heavy metals, radiation, fossil fuels, solvents, chemicals and nuclear waste all over the world.

“Dr. Doyle believes all problems described above are “the root of prion mutation.”

Prions are the protein crystal causing what is popularly called “mad cow disease” in cattle, “scrapie” in sheep and goats, “whirling disease” in fish, “wasting disease” in wild game and “Creutzfeld-Jakob disease” in humans.

Prion diseases have been found in animal herds for centuries, but, prior to the age of modern animal husbandry practices which involve the use of hormones, vaccines, antibiotics and the recycling of animal waste in animal feeds, prion diseases were kept in check.

As an organic farmer in the UK, Mark Purdey resisted the order to spray his cattle with organophosphates for warble fly and went to court for a judicial review. He won and was exempted from using the spray. No cows born in his herd developed BSE.

“Cows frequently partake in the bizarre habit of eating their colleagues' afterbirths after calving, and I was particularly intrigued to watch my own home-reared, BSE-free cows positively relishing the delicacies of afterbirth tissues derived from a group of pedigree cows that I purchased into my farm in 1989,” wrote Purdey for the Healing Arts Quarterly of spring, 2000, in the article, “Myths and Truths About Mad Cow Disease.”

Purdey went on to explain that, “Though the majority of these imported cows went on to develop BSE, it is interesting that BSE has not surfaced in my home-reared cows, despite their overzealous exposure to the allegedly “infectious” blood and lymph found in the afterbirths of the BSE cows. Other farmers sharing the same experience report the same outcome.”

Purdey described another anecdote from the farming community of Shetland. Even though scrapie has been prevalent in their isolated sheep herds for hundreds of years, these island folk are free of Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (the human form of BSE), “despite their ancient custom of eating 'potted sheep's brain,'” he explained.

“One would have thought that all of those farmers and independent vets living and working in the front line with BSE cattle [and scrapie sheep] would have been the first to be consulted. But strangely, their observations have been completely ignored by officialdom,” observed Purdey -- an observation that described the U.S. “mad cow” hysteria as well.

Prions as a bioweapon

Prions were discovered in the 60s as being the agent responsible for a form of dementia called “kuru” that affected cannibals in New Guinea. The scientific literature reveals that prions have been of tremendous interest to the U.S. military/industrial complex and the government that supports its bioweapons research. Prions are not easily destroyed and transfer readily from the consumed to the consumer. They may also be passed through casual contact. It appears the prion's ability to cause damage in the host is largely dependent on the general health of the host and the levels of toxins (vaccines, antibiotics, heavy metals, organophosphates) being carried in his body.

Dr. Doyle noted that, while cases of mad cow appear to be in decline, in reality, “they are not declining.” That goes for both people and cattle.

Incidence of mad cow in livestock is on the rise, but the animal products industry has been able to keep the problem quiet; mad cow in people (CJD) only appears to be declining because U.S. doctors don't know the difference between CJD and Alzheimer's disease. “As long as U.S. doctors can diagnose a case of Alzheimer's disease when it really is CJD, we will have low numbers of CJD while Alzheimer's cases continue to soar. We see this happening now. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) simply accounts for the Alzheimer increase as a result of an “aging population.” They call mad cow in younger people, “early onset Alzheimer disease” or 'sporadic CJD.' It is a monumental lie,” commented Dr. Doyle.

A summation of science and experience

Prion diseases have been around for centuries. During times when the world was not so full of toxic pollutants; when our food supply was not contaminated with vaccines, antibiotics, poisonous chemical herbicides, pesticides and preservatives and; when humans were not carrying a burden of the same toxic chemicals found in the food we eat, prion diseases were kept in check. We used to call it “the balance of nature.”

But now that our air, water and land have become contaminated; now that our fruits, vegetables, grains and meat products are contaminated, nature is no longer in balance and the natural forces in place to restore balance are frustrated by futile human bureaucratic efforts to outsmart them. The problem is compounded by an apparent undercurrent to the entire scenario: The intentional development and deployment of “weaponized” prions by the military/industrial complex and the governments accommodating their sinister interests.

A way out

Like so many of the dire issues we face in our modern world, we perpetuate them with our own compliance and participation. The reason why our fresh and processed fruits, vegetables and grains are so contaminated is because a marketplace exists for them through our demand. The reason why our meats and dairy products are so contaminated and the animals used to make them are so ill-treated from the moment they are born to the moment they are slaughtered is because a marketplace for them exists through our demand.

Those who have even a small amount of space to grow some of their own food, should make it a priority to do so. Books teaching how to grow healthy, fresh, organic fruits, grains and vegetables in a small space are available. We also suggest that people buy organic foods wherever possible. Many are discouraged by the expense of organic foods, but they are nutritionally superior so one can eat less. Plus, the savings will play out over time as the benefits of robust health are felt in increased productivity and fewer doctor bills.

Instead of going to the supermarket and purchasing cuts of contaminated corporate meat and dairy products, take the time to seek out locally-grown, organic suppliers of these foods. Local butchers often have good meat and know where to find good cheese, milk and eggs. Local producers commonly advertise in local publications like “The Nickel's Worth.”

We have gotten in the habit of just buying food at the store to satisfy our appetites. We look for the cheapest, best-looking and best tasting food and, as a nation, do not place enough emphasis on the nutritional value of the food we eat. The result is an adulterated food supply and a world that is swirling with madness and disease.

It is also advisable to abstain from taking poisonous substances into the body -- even if they are sold as medicine. Most pharmaceutical preparations are really poisonous chemicals that have no business being prescribed or administered to the human body. People who eat healthy food find they are healthier and not subject to the illnesses that prompt pharmaceutical consumption and recover more rapidly when they become sick or suffer injury.