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Greener Choices Home >
Food & beverages >
Meat, dairy, and eggs buying guide 5/09
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| Meat, dairy, and eggs buying guide 5/09 |
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Are you looking for more sustainable meat, eggs or dairy products? A simple way to think about sustainability is to think about how an animal would live if it could choose what to eat, what to drink and when to move around. Animals raised in a sustainable way are not crammed into gigantic production facilities; they spend time in the fresh air; and do not eat or receive animal byproducts, daily antibiotics, hormones, steroids, genetically engineered inputs, pesticides, arsenic-based drugs or sewage sludge.
Sustainable vs. Conventional. In order to make direct comparisons between sustainable and conventional animal products, it is important to know what the government allows in feed or to be used in conventional production of the following animals:
• Dairy cows—antibiotics, pig and chicken byproducts, hormones (for growth), pesticides, sewage sludge
• Beef cows—antibiotics, pig and chicken byproducts, steroids, hormones, pesticides, sewage sludge
• Pigs—antibiotics, animal byproducts, pesticides, sewage sludge, arsenic-based drugs (growth hormones are prohibited)
• Broiler chickens—antibiotics, animal byproducts, pesticides, sewage sludge, arsenic-based drugs (growth hormones are prohibited)
• Egg laying hens—antibiotics, animal byproducts, pesticides, sewage sludge, arsenic-based drugs
Know your meat terminology:
• Antibiotic—A drug or other product used to treat people and animals infected with pathogens, to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. Also added to animal feed or injected to promote growth.
• Animal byproduct—Most parts of an animal that do not include muscle meat are considered to be byproduct including organ meat, nervous tissue, cartilage, bone, blood and excrement. These byproducts are heated to a high temperature and fed back to food animals.
• Hormone—An active chemical substance formed in one part of the body and transported by blood to other parts of the body where it stimulates or suppresses cell and tissue activity. Recombinant bovine growth hormone is an example of a lab-made, genetically engineered hormone that is used in some conventional dairy cows.
• Steroid—Any hormone affecting the development and growth of sex organs. Synthetic steroids are also made in the lab and often administered to animals raised for meat (except poultry).
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