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cropsey, il 61731 | Does anybody here know how much and what type of antibiotics are in the feed? I hear this 'pump them full of antibiotics' talk, but no data. What do you guys see? I'll give two pieces of data, there are no antibiotics in the feed, water or in a syringe the last 21 days before shipping and animals are tested for residue at the packer. Also, exports while not at the record breaking levels we previously had in 8/2008 are still picking up especially at the end of the year (notice the cme hog price). Exports all hinge on h1n1 and political issues - can you blame china from being gun shy of even the rumor of a new flu after bird flu swept their country?
There is plenty of misinformation and assumptions being made that are not helping anyone except hsus and peta. It seems to go like this: "so markwright and agfarmer, when did you stop beating your wives?" - the statement tries to make an assumption that is not true and have you defend it. Even with carefully worded statements it's hard set the record straight so that everyone believes you. From the talk you'd think feed is 1/4 corn and 3/4 penicillin and that all the piggies are on a constant IV drip. You can't be more wrong than that yet it's what's said and puts growers on the defensive. Whatever you guys want to think I suppose is your business, but that doesn't make it true.
I think a point that gets missed is food safety is the number one issue and low cost production only is considered after that - talk to the peanut butter guys, there isn't a cost cutting measure that trumps people getting sick.
Thanks, Pat
PS: keep in mind people are rarely as evil as they are spoken of and often the folks pointing the fingers are looking for personal gain and not so much on the save the planet from dr. evil.
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Don't get CBS , but you guys do
