I ran across this article, which is a good example of what is upsetting in the way the government thinks about food safety. As you read through you find that the basic idea is that since salmonella is present in all chickens, it is a naturally occurring problem and we must be super careful to not die from the meat.
Well, wait a minute... if chicken is so dangerous, how did people use chicken for a meat for so many years, decades, centuries, before refrigeration. Something doesn't sound right here. And in fact, it isn't. Here is the article:
Salmonella Stays with Chickens, from Birth to Kitchen
I propose that the problem is not that chicken is inherently bad.. always filled with deadly bacteria. No, I propose that chicken itself is a clean meat, as safe as any. It is in fact the manner in which the chickens are raised kept and processed today in the factory farms that causes the problem with salmonella. If chickens are raised in such a bad environment that they can not be healthy (i.e. live) without a constant dose of antibiotics, then sure, they are going to carry deadly pathogens. On the other hand.. place the chickens outside, on pasture, green grass, sun, natural food, fresh air, and they do not have problems with pathogens.
Proof of this is in an old story I read about Joel Salitin in one of his books. Apparently at one point the government guys came in to shut his chicken processing down because he did open air processing. The state claimed it would produce "dangerous" chickens. He proposed that before they shut him down, they should run a test. His just processed chickens against fresh supermarket chickens. The government agreed and ran the test. To their surprise they found that joel's pasture raised chickens had less than 1/10th the legal limit of pathogens for chickens. The fresh "usda processed" supermarket chickens all exceeded the legal limit of pathogens, while sitting in the store!
the bottom line is.. in every situation it is important to evaluate why a problem exists before we consider that problem normal in nature. I am convinced that nature has it right, it is man's modifications to nature that create problems.
Well, wait a minute... if chicken is so dangerous, how did people use chicken for a meat for so many years, decades, centuries, before refrigeration. Something doesn't sound right here. And in fact, it isn't. Here is the article:
Salmonella Stays with Chickens, from Birth to Kitchen
I propose that the problem is not that chicken is inherently bad.. always filled with deadly bacteria. No, I propose that chicken itself is a clean meat, as safe as any. It is in fact the manner in which the chickens are raised kept and processed today in the factory farms that causes the problem with salmonella. If chickens are raised in such a bad environment that they can not be healthy (i.e. live) without a constant dose of antibiotics, then sure, they are going to carry deadly pathogens. On the other hand.. place the chickens outside, on pasture, green grass, sun, natural food, fresh air, and they do not have problems with pathogens.
Proof of this is in an old story I read about Joel Salitin in one of his books. Apparently at one point the government guys came in to shut his chicken processing down because he did open air processing. The state claimed it would produce "dangerous" chickens. He proposed that before they shut him down, they should run a test. His just processed chickens against fresh supermarket chickens. The government agreed and ran the test. To their surprise they found that joel's pasture raised chickens had less than 1/10th the legal limit of pathogens for chickens. The fresh "usda processed" supermarket chickens all exceeded the legal limit of pathogens, while sitting in the store!
the bottom line is.. in every situation it is important to evaluate why a problem exists before we consider that problem normal in nature. I am convinced that nature has it right, it is man's modifications to nature that create problems.
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