Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/beef/)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a first-of-its kind pill that reduces the amount of ammonia gas emissions in beef cattle and their manure. However, some critics are doubting its overall effectiveness.
The number of new concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have increased across the U.S. over the past six years - bringing the total operations just under 20,000, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. From 2011 to 2017, the United States saw more than 1,400 new large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) established. That’s up 7.6 percent. Here's a look at the issue in maps and charts.
The federal government has taken steps aimed at reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a serious health threat that sickens an estimated 2 million people in the United States each year. But nobody knows if those steps — many focused on monitoring the antibiotics given to cattle, hogs and chickens raised for food — are working.
Last week, several news outlets reported on a World Health Organization study that linked processed meats such as bacon and hotdogs to cancer. Industry groups were quick to denounce the findings, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which argued science does not support the findings.
Meat sold in the United States could soon lack a label that maps its origins. In 2009, Congress mandated that all livestock must include a country-of-origin labeling throughout what is commonly referred to as the COOL law. Under the requirements, the label must show where livestock was born, raised and slaughtered.
Authorities this month issued recall alerts affecting hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, including thousands of pounds of chicken contaminated with potentially deadly – and costly – bacteria.
Earlier this month, the Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that the California-based Rancho Feeding Corporation was recalling about 9 million pounds of "diseased and unsound" meat. At first, the recall only affected consumers in five states. Now, weeks after the recall was first issued, it has been expanded across the country.
Last month, former beef suppliers to the National School Lunch Program reached an agreement with the United States government and The Humane Society of the United States to settle allegations of mistreating downer cattle at the suppliers' Chino, Calif., slaughter operation. The settlement concluded a nearly five-year legal battle that started in 2008, which also involved the largest meat recall in U.S. history.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service announced changes to the process it uses to detect Salmonella in ground beef. Among the changes, beef samples that inspectors examine will increase from 25 grams to 325 grams.
Salmonella tainted ground beef could be the biggest challenge facing the industry, said a leading beef researcher. Scientists have realized they may have misidentified the source of Salmonella in beef cattle. They now realize it may be in the lymphatic system of cattle, making it harder to prevent than E. coli. As recently as March of 2013, Salmonella Typhimurium in ground beef was linked to more than 20 human illnesses in six states. In September 2012 nearly 50 people in nine states became ill from eating ground beef tainted with Salmonella Enteritidis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“It was always our working assumption that E. coli interventions should be controlling Salmonella,” said James Marsden, professor of animal science at Kansas State University.