Factory Farmed Chickens Fed Caffeine, Banned Antibiotics, and Prozac Often Without The Farmer’s Knowledge!

 

chickens-factory-farm

It’s no surprise that conventionally factory farmed chickens aren’t fed the best diet. We already knew that they were routinely fed arsenic. In fact, a 2004 study
from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy showed that more
than half of store-bought and fast-food chickens contained elevated
levels of arsenic. ~ Sarah Novak

Roughly 2.2 million pounds of it are being used every
year to produce 43 billion pounds of poultry. It’s called roxarsone and
it’s used to fight parasites and increase growth in chickens.

New
research not only confirms use of arsenic, but finds the addition of a
frightening elixir of drugs that includes caffeine, banned antibiotics,
and even Prozac!

Researchers started off testing just for banned
antibiotics but went ahead and looked for other substances because it
didn’t add to the cost of the test. What they found even surprised them,
according to a story in The New York Times.

Their Feathers Tell the Tale…

By
doing a test on their feathers, which is similar to that of human
fingernails in the way it accumulates chemicals, they found caffeine,
antihistamines, acetaminophen, fluroquinolones (banned antibiotics),
arsenic, and even Prozac (in chicken imported from China).
Fluroquinolones are illegal because they have been proven to cause antibiotic resistant superbugs.

Prozac
was added to feed because stressed out chickens produce tough meat and
brutal conditions often mean a constantly nervous bird. Chickens are fed
coffee pulp and green tea powder to keep them up longer so they eat
more food, according to a story in The New York Times.

Farmers Often Unaware…

But
even more surprising is that many farmers aren’t even aware that they
are feeding their chickens this extreme elixir, rather, they use a
certain food mix mandated by the food companies that buy their products.

Organic
chicken feed prohibits the use of roxarsone as an additive, so while
this is currently your best bet, it’s no perfect remedy because one
organic brand tested still showed traces of arsenic. So the next most
rational step is to give up the bird completely.

 

Sarah Novak – April 7, 2012 – TreeHugger

 

diggmutidel.icio.usgoogleredditfacebook

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes