What's Your Beef?

Harvest season is upon us and that includes for some, putting away a store of meat for the winter.   Hunters are out looking for their winter supply and knowing that those wild creatures have eaten wild grasses and berries without the addition of chemicals and hormones must be reassuring.  Have you considered buying some of your meat locally from a known source?  When meat is ordered locally you can ask what the animals are fed and where they graze. Seeing their living conditions can also be telling about the quality of the meat.  Several local producers have been present over the summer at the Saturday Market and smaller quantities are available from a number of farmers. 

The following information may give rise to extra thought about some of the protein in your diet.

Hormone-treated beef exports and CETA

http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4298

Monday, July 26, 2010

One of the Harper government's main objectives in the Canada-European Union

Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement negotiations appears to be ending

European Union restrictions on the import of hormone-treated beef from

Canada.

HEALTH RISKS

There has been strong opposition in Europe to hormone-treated beef due to

its associated health risks. Studies indicate that for women it can make

them more susceptible to breast cancer and other cancers, for pregnant women

it can affect the development of male fetuses, and for men it can lead to an

increased risk of prostate cancer. More on that in this London Daily Mail

news article from 2006,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-393666/Alarm-beef-link-breast-cancer.html.


More on the health impacts can also be read on the Beyond Factory Farming

website at http://beyondfactoryfarming.org/get-informed/health/hormones.


.