By:  Craig Stellpflug  (2012)
Source:  NaturalNews.com

Arsenic in our food supply has a very rich ally and that ally is Pfizer. You see, arsenic is routinely fed to poultry because it increases the growth of the chicken and makes the flesh an appetizing shade of pink (a side effect of burst blood vessels). Of course arsenic could eventually kill the hapless chicken but usually not before the slaughterhouse gets them. All arsenic compounds have mutagenic potential and are known carcinogens. About 9 out of 10 broiler chickens in the United States had been fed arsenic, according to a 2011 industry estimate.

According to Dr. Michael Greger, MD, the NIH, and the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, there are “alarmingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the flesh of broiler chickens,” exceeding the EPA upper limit for arsenic in water by 6 – 9 times. Arsenic has no place in our food chain, much less on the dinner table. But thanks to the Pfizer drug Roxarsone, it’s in our chicken and pig feed, along with the resulting fertilizer, and is bound to end up on your plate one way or another. The European Union banned Roxarsone in 1999, recognizing the public health risks of the drug. So, why is it still used in the USA?

Follow the money

A hard-fought Maryland Senate bill banning Roxarsone recently had a two year battle facing opposition by the well-paid Pfizer lobbyists working with the poultry industry representatives vying to prevent the bill’s passage. They didn’t have your health in mind though when Pfizer employed Tim Perry, who made a cool million last year during a 90-day session of the legislature in Annapolis. Big Pharma and Big Ag are interested in the bottom line: fatter, tastier chickens, quicker.

Pfizer’s stand is that Roxarsone contains harmless organic arsenic. But scientific evidence suggests that the industry’s beloved arsenic transforms into inorganic arsenic and ends ups in human tissue.

Other “stuff” found in the feathers of chickens (only one way they got into the feathers folks) are:

  • The super-bug causing, illegal class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones
  • An antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl
  • Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol
  • The antidepressant Prozac
  • Caffeine

Why don’t the growers just stop feeding arsenic?

Arsenic has been fed to chickens to promote growth since 1944. Old habits are hard to break, but most poultry farmers haven’t a clue because they receive the chemical laced feeds from the Big Ag industry that contracted them to raise the chickens. This practice was pioneered by Tyson, who found that feeding the same formula to all of the chickens, no matter who the farmer is, makes for a consistent product. Each Big AG chicken plant has their own secret “proprietary feed mix” that is supplied to the contractors growing the chickens.

But profits dive when chickens die in the unnatural conditions of factory farming, bringing infestations of gut-eating parasites that stunt their growth. Chickens were never meant to be raised “Tyson style”- by the thousands in overcrowded conditions. These unhappy creatures are fed recycled feed from dead chicken carcasses, discarded offal (guts and pieces from rendering), chicken manure, and a multiplicity of chemicals and drugs. Can these chickens even be healthy? How about the human who eats them?

Chicken soup: good for what ails you

Chicken soup is good for what ails you and even helps the body’s immune system. Dr. Stephen Rennard and a team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center found anti-inflammatory properties in chicken soup that soothes sore throats and eases the misery of colds and flu. That is, in the chicken soup that grandma used to make…Grandma walked out to the chicken yard to hand-pick her free-range, organic chicken to serve up for a healthy carnivorous meal. Now with arsenic found in the store-bought chicken, you could find yourself facing one of 20 known cancers caused by arsenic.

If you know what’s good for you, you will find an organic source of chicken. USDA standards do not allow arsenic in organic-chicken feed.

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