Why organic meats are important

Some folks have questioned whether it is important to consume organic beef, pork, poultry and dairy products rather than to save money by sticking with the more "conventional" meats of most supermarkets and stores. Just for the sake of clarity, let me explain that by "organic" I specifically mean meat that is obtained from animals raised on organic feed, who are not fed hormones or unnecessary antibiotics (a sick animal should be treated, for instance, if needed, but antibiotics should not be administered "just in case") while alive, and who are allowed to be free range. In the case of dairy, this also means that the cows have not been given hormones to make them lactate.

A few years back, I had a very serious health scare. For some reason my annual physical's blood test showed my kidney function had plummeted. I'd been feeling tired and out of sorts, so I'd gone in for my annual check-up a little early. According to the blood test, I had good reason to feel tired; my kidneys were only operating at about 55% normal. Now, by itself that's not alarming. One test does not a diagnosis or a concern make. But when my kidney tests continued to show such low levels over a period of months, I was tentatively diagnosed with kidney disease. The scary thing was that we had no idea what had caused it or how to resolve it...or even if it could be resolved.

I turned out to be lucky. After a few months of mystification, it was revealed that I am among the very rare individuals who are so allergic to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, including aspirin, naproxin, ibuprofen and other such drugs) that their kidneys cease to operate normally. I'd been prescribed a new NSAID that was not supposed to irritate my stomach lining -- as all other such drugs had always done, or so we thought -- and it had worked very well. The condition (plantar fasciitis) for which I'd been given the drug was able to resolve so rapidly that I didn't need to use the entire prescription. During the time we'd been testing my kidney function, I'd been taking the drug; when I stopped for a few weeks, my kidney tests improved slightly. Then I put my back out...took the drug for two days to relieve the inflammation around the spine...and the kidney values dropped dramatically. Finding out that I had a reaction that can lead to a condition known as analgesic nephropathy, and that I most probably experienced vomiting and dizziness when on other NSAIDs not because of stomach irritation but because kidney function impairment led to my body literally poisoning itself, suddenly explained a great deal. Needless to say I don't touch the stuff at all anymore!

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what in blue blazes all of that has to do with organic meat. While I was having unexplained difficulty, and even after the extreme nature of my NSAID allergy was understood, it was determined that I could not stress out my kidneys any more than they had already been harmed. We didn't know if I had actually developed analgesic nephropathy in its full and worst form, which is a degenerative kidney disease leading to eventual dialysis and kidney transplant, nor was it at all clear whether my kidney function loss was permanent or temporary. Consuming foods with hormones and antibiotics in them could have had a negative impact on my kidney health, it was explained to me, so I went on an almost entirely organic diet. Again, I turned out to be extraordinarily fortunate; the loss of kidney function was environmental, not chronic, and over the course of two years I slowly regained nearly all of my normal status. I have permanently lost about 30% of my kidney health, but that's nowhere near life threatening, and the loss is stable rather than increasing over time.

That is why I began to eat a predominantly organic diet, but over time I have continued to do so even once my kidneys regained their senses (so to speak) for many other reasons. Every time I turn around, another news story indicates that the foods our food eat, we eat. If your beef cow is fed corn that is laced with pesticides, those pesticides end up in your meat. Maybe the concentrations are minute, but over years and years? No one is very sure how that impacts the human body, and it seems to me that it is at best naive to assume that there is no risk or damage. Here's one example of a news item worth perusing on the subject: Why has the FDA allowed a drug marked 'not safe for use in humans' to be fed to livestock right before slaughter? What an animal consumes must go through its liver and kidneys to be removed from its blood. If that consumption occurs right before slaughter, there's no time for the substance to leave the cow's body. So, as this article observes, if you choose to eat conventional beef you may be eating a livestock drug banned in 160 countries.

Now, why else should our meat, eggs and dairy be free of hormones and antibiotics? Did you know that the rise of multi-drug resistant bacterial diseases in recent years may have roots in the common human consumption of meats, eggs and dairy from animals that were treated prophylactically with antibiotics? Yes, there's a good deal of evidence to suggest that another source is the overuse of antibiotics to treat human illness as well, particularly the application of antibiotics when the sick human in question has a virus (upon which antibiotics have no effect at all). This evolution pattern is one reason why the kinds of bacteria picked up in labs and hospitals are often drug resistant. But there's also good evidence behind the likelihood that another source is the chronic low level of antibiotics that enters our food through unnecessary treatment of feed and animal by agribusiness. Here is one article, from the New York Times, on the rise and impact of such superbugs.

And what about herbicides? The application of herbicides to control weeds near and around crops that are grown for animal consumption has been shown to affect those fodder crops, resulting in animals meant for slaughter or dairying eating grains and silage that were indirectly treated. In Science News, the toxicity of one weedkiller commonly used by agribusiness to treat crops, including the corn fed to cattle, pigs and poultry (the weedkiller only affects broad-leafed plants like dandelion but does not kill crop plants)is discussed. Of course, this also affects vegetable and grain crops we eat ourselves, and not just those that could be fed to the cows, pigs, chickens and so on. It is particularly worth noting that the effect of the weedkiller in question, atrazine, disrupts the normal production and functioning of hormones in test subjects, most particularly affecting estrogen. Could the widespread use of atrazine on foods we eat, and on crops our animals eat, have been having an impact on the increase in human fertility issues over the last few generations? Atrazine acts on the pituitary gland. What might it be doing to us and to our livestock, to say nothing of how it affects all the wildlife in the areas that are treated?

The toxins so often used on the crops and fodder that eventually -- whether eaten directly or through meat, eggs and dairy products -- make it to our tables are poisons. There's no getting around that fact. Just consider the case of the Frenchmen whose exposure to pesticides nearly killed them. And before you decide to castigate me, or anyone else, for continuing to consume animals products, consider this article on how grass-fed cows could save the planet. It's true, large ranches raising cattle the more modern way are contributing to global climate change, and I am all for reducing my carbon footprint...yet another reason to eat, clean and wear organic as much as I can afford. But as this article shows, grass-fed and free range cattle give back to the environment more than they take...including having a negligible carbon footprint.

I have not, of course, really addressed the issue of the ethics of eating organic and free-range, nor have I mentioned that such food items -- particularly, I find, organic eggs and dairy products -- just seem to taste richer and better. I am very strongly in support of the ethical and humane treatment of all living things on this planet, including and perhaps most particularly those animals we herd and raise for our own survival. That organic farming standards require this level of care for the cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and so forth that are destined to be labeled as organically raised is certainly a significant portion of my choice to continue eating organic. I am not so naive, however, as to believe that this argument will actually affect as many people as I'd like. I am quite aware that most human beings are more interested in what will benefit them, rather than what will benefit others, particularly if those 'others' belong to a different species. For that reason I chose above to under-emphasize the issue of animal rights, and to focus primarily upon how the way we treat our livestock affects what happens to US.

And as for cost....I admit it...organic food generally costs more. A big part of that is demand, however. If more people bought organic, and required it to be made available as a viable choice at their area supermarkets (see, for instance, the organic foods available at the Martin's market in DuBois, PA), the costs would begin to decrease. Simple economics. Just look at the fact that it is now possible to purchase a half-gallon of organic milk for less than $5 in some stores...because that's what the buying public has required. Organic eggs, which I used to see sold for as much as $8 a dozen, can now be bought for as little as $3.50 for jumbo eggs and $2.00 or less for large and medium eggs. The rest of the reason for the higher costs is that the government doesn't subsidize smaller organic outfits the way it subsidizes big agribusiness...and it's those subsidies that allow us to have artificially low grocery costs for many of our staple items. So you  may pay less at the cash register for your conventional milk or eggs, but what about the costs down the line to your health? Is it worth the risk?

The choice is yours. Hopefully some of what I've said here will point you toward making a better informed decision. Bon appetit!