Yummy.

Asian Seafood Raised on Pig Feces Approved for U.S. Consumers
Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen and William Bi
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-11/asian-seafood-raised-on-pig-feces-approved-for-u-s-consumers.html

At Chen Qiang’s tilapia farm in Yangjiang city in China’s Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong, Chen feeds fish partly with feces from hundreds of pigs and geese. That practice is dangerous for American consumers, says Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety.

“The manure the Chinese use to feed fish is frequently contaminated with microbes like salmonella,” says Doyle, who has studied foodborne diseases in China.

On a sweltering, overcast day in August, the smell of excrement is overpowering. After seeing dead fish on the surface, Chen, 45, wades barefoot into his murky pond to open a pipe that adds fresh water from a nearby canal. Exporters buy his fish to sell to U.S. companies.

Yang Shuiquan, chairman of a government-sponsored tilapia aquaculture association in Lianjiang, 200 kilometers from Yangjiang, says he discourages using feces as food because it contaminates water and makes fish more susceptible to diseases. He says a growing number of Guangdong farmers adopt that practice anyway because of fierce competition.

“Many farmers have switched to feces and have stopped using commercial feed,” he says.

About 27 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from China.

And after reading this lovely little bit of information, exactly 0 percent of the seafood I eat will be coming from China.

Also see http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=212616

I guess I gotta stop saying white people eat poop. Looks like all of us are eating poop these days. Damn son.

I think those who eat organic American food, minimally, better not watch to see what is used for fertilizer...

Forget China, thats going on right here.


A recent investigation into industrialized agriculture feeding practices has revealed some disturbing information of which many may not be aware. Commercial animal husbandry practices often involve feeding livestock mass amounts of animal waste, including chicken litter, which contains chicken feces, bedding, feathers, and other unknown residue.

What passes for waste feed today is a far cry from what it once was, containing all sorts of inedible and often dangerous waste material. Besides the obvious vileness of feeding cows chicken excrement, chicken litter contains other dangerous materials like toxic heavy metals, antibiotics, the flesh and bones of dead cattle and even nails and small shards of glass.

Chicken litter is not the only disgusting waste product being fed to cows that millions of Americans end up eating as beef. Feedlot operators are also feeding leftover waste products from corn-ethanol production. Such byproducts contain antibiotic residues and are implicated in prompting the proliferation of the E. coli virus.

Commercial catfish operations have cages for ducks and
chickens placed over the water so the poo falls in and
is eaten by the catfish. Nothing goes to waste. Bon Appetite!

Well, there goes my appetite.

Ewww! Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, there goes my appetite.

Next time you buy catfish filets be sure and note "farm raised" on the label.
BTW, all over Asis, rice paddies are fertilized with human and water buffalo
shit.

The fact that the fish are eating pig shit probably isn't bad, in a purely scientific sense. It definitely sounds disgusting, and if there aren't proper controls it can lead to introduction of pathogens. But any feed or even handling procedure or other process can do the same.

I think the big deal is whether or not the end product has any nutritional value or if it changes the nature of the food in any way.

Cows fed a grass diet produce beef that is actually as healthy as salmon and othe deep water, wild fish. High in Omega-3s and other nutrients. Cows fed a grain (mostly corn) diet produce beef that lacks omega-3s and even possibly has unhealthy fats.

I think the bigger problem is that a lot of our food production has become just another input/output process like any other product. The profit-oriented mega food corporations treat our food like Apple treats an iPhone. Anything that lowers the unit cost is good for shareholders. It might not be good for the consumer, or the labor producing it, or the environment, but as long as it's good for the shareholder, no further investigation or consideration is necessary.

Shrimp are now farmed in huge man-made ponds miles from any natural body of water, using a feed product that has no resemblance to their natural diet. I'm not sure how much of that shrimp is in our food supply, but it's about 80% of Europe's shrimp market, for example.

I'm all for finding ways to produce more food in a sustainable manner. But a lot of this is entirely about increasing returns for shareholders. Most of our food lacks the nutrients they used to have, because over time the increased 'efficiencies' have slowly squeezed out the things that made food good for us.

It has been said that the Asian people and the Asian restaurants are the filthiest places in the World. I would not eat there.