October 30, 2013
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Have you ever heard of ractopamine? Neither have most US food consumers though it is used in 80 percent of
US pig and
cattle operations.
The asthma drug-like growth additive, called a beta-agonist, has
enjoyed stealth use in the US food supply for a decade despite being
widely banned overseas. It is marketed as Paylean for pigs, Optaflexx
for cattle and Topmax for turkeys.
This month, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) have
sued the FDA for
withholding records pertaining to ractopamine's safety. According to
the lawsuit, in response to the groups' requests for information
"documenting, analyzing, or otherwise discussing the physiological,
psychological, and/or behavioral effects" of ractopamine, the FDA has
only produced 464 pages out of 100,000 pages that exist. Worse, all 464
pages have already been released as part of a reporter's FOIA. Thanks
for nothing.
CFS and ALDF have spent over 18 months meeting with
the FDA and seeking information about the effects of ractopamine on
"target animal or human liver form and function, kidney form and
function, thyroid form and function" as well as urethral and prostate
effects and "tumor development." The lawsuit says the CFS has "exhausted
administrative remedies" and that the FDA has "unlawfully withheld" the
materials.
Ractopamine's effects on animals are documented, say
the groups, but effects on humans remain a mystery. Codex, the UN food
standards body, established ractopamine safety residues on the basis of
only
one human study of
six people and one subject dropped out because of adverse effects!
"Data from the European Food Safety Authority indicates that ractopamine
causes elevated heart rates and heart-pounding sensations in humans,"
says CFS.
In an early
Canadian study, monkeys
given ractopamine "developed daily tachycardia"-- rapid heart beat.
Rats fed ractopamine developed a constellation of birth defects like
cleft palate, protruding tongue, short limbs, missing digits, open
eyelids and enlarged heart.
Two cousin drugs of ractopamine,
clenbuterol and zilpaterol, cause such adrenalin effects in humans they are banned by the
Olympics. Cyclist Alberto Contador failed a
Tour de France anti-doping test in 2010 for levels of clenbuterol which he said he got from eating meat. Clenbuterol has been banned or
restricted in meat after
human toxicities. "The use of highly active beta-agonists as growth
promoters is not appropriate because of the potential hazard for human
and animal health," wrote the journal
Talanta.
Certainly
the ractopamine label puts no one at ease. "WARNING: The active
ingredient in Topmax, ractopamine hydrochloride, is a beta-adrenergic
agonist. Individuals with cardiovascular disease should exercise special
caution to avoid exposure," says the label for the turkey feed. "Not
for use in humans. Keep out of the reach of children. The Topmax 9
formulation (Type A Medicated Article) poses a low dust potential under
usual conditions of handling and mixing. When mixing and handling
Topmax, use protective clothing, impervious gloves, protective eye wear,
and a NIOSH-approved dust mask. Operators should wash thoroughly with
soap and water after handling. If accidental eye contact occurs,
immediately rinse eyes thoroughly with water. If irritation persists,
seek medical attention. The material safety data sheet contains more
detailed occupational safety information. To report adverse effects,
access medical information, or obtain additional product information,
call 1-800-428-4441." This is used in food production?
Trade Travail
Ractopamine is banned in the EU, Russia, China, Taiwan and many other countries. In 2007,
China seized shipments
of US meat and charged that frozen ribs, pig ears and sausage casing
contained ractopamine. This year, when the US refused to comply with
ractopamine-free certification, Russia
closed its market to US beef, pork and turkey.
The
US calls anti-ractopamine restrictions unscientific and unwarranted
while its balking partners call the use of ractopamine unscientific and
unwarranted. "China says it’s worried about the higher levels of drug
residues that can be found in pig organs, which are part of a
traditional Chinese diet, and Russia claims the drug could pose health
risks," reports
Food Safety News.
In
2007 more than 3,500 pig farmers in Taiwan rioted because of rumor that
a ractopamine ban would be lifted. Demonstrators, some carrying pigs,
threw rotten eggs and dung at people and buildings chanting, "Get out,
USA pork" and "We refuse to eat pork that contains poisonous
ractopamine," reported
Taiwan News. After
Hou Sheng-Mou, the department of health minister, assured the crowd the
ban was still in place and touched a piglet, for unclear reasons, the
crowd left.
Last year, the riots were repeated replete with eggs
and dung when newly re-elected President Ma Ying-jeou reversed the 2007
assurances and proposed that
the ractopamine ban be lifted with
products labeled accordingly. Taiwan hog farmers fear "lifting the ban
could spark widespread health concerns that would affect consumption of
other meat products, undermining their livelihoods," reported the
Associated Press.
The sale of Smithfield foods to Shuanghui International this year, China's
biggest takeover of
a US company, also has implications for ractopamine. Smithfield is
converting it hog plants to "ractopamine-free" animals and announced
that by last June its operations would be 50 percent ractopamine-free to
please the Chinese markets. (Shuanghui is not guilt-free when it comes
to beta-agonists--it was
forced to recall its Shineway brand meat products because of clenbuterol fears.)
Penny Wise and Pound Cruel
Why
is ractopamine fed to animals? Why are antibiotics, hormones and
arsenic fed to animals in the US? Ractopamine is a growth enhancer and
livestock operations make more money with less feed.
Optaflexx
"served up 17 lbs. more live weight, 14 lbs. more carcass weight, 0.3
sq. in. more ribeye area, and 0.3% more dressing percent when fed
according to label directions," extolled
Beef magazine
said in 2005. Ractopamine wasn't implemented until cattle growers were
assured that it "wouldn't dilute quality grades" and didn't cause
"altered animal behavior," assured the magazine.
Both assurances were premature. Ractopamine has caused more harm to pigs
than any other drug. FDA reports link
it to a startling string of conditions in cattle and pigs like
respiratory disorders, hoof disorders, bloat, abnormal lameness and leg
disorders, hyperactivity, stiffness, aggression, stress, recumbency
(inability to get up) and death. Even the animal expert Temple Grandin
has spoken out. "I've personally seen people overuse the drug in hogs
and cattle," she said and "the pigs were so weak
they couldn't walk." Ractopamine causes such hoof damage, hooves have actually fallen off reports
Countryside magazine--a phenomenon
Grandin reports with the similar drug zilpateral (Zilmax).
And
meat quality? Turkey meat produced with ractopamine has "alterations"
in muscle such as a "mononuclear cell infiltrate and myofiber
degeneration," say a 2008
new drug application from
Elanco, ractopamine's manufacturer. There was "an increase in the
incidence of cysts," and differences, some "significant," in the weight
of organs like hearts, kidneys and livers. ("Enlarged hearts" had been
in rats in the
Canadian studies.) Happy Thanksgiving.
Spin Jobs
When
a food additive no one knew they were eating comes under scientific
scrutiny, Big Food and Big Pharma create an It's Innocuous fact sheet.
Meat turns brown just like an apple says a fact sheet from the
American Meat Institute defending
the use of carbon monoxide to keep meat red. “People would be more
likely to die from a bee sting than for their antibiotic treatment to
fail because of macrolide-resistant bacteria in meat or poultry," says a
brochure from the
Animal Health Institute defending antibiotics in meat.
Ractopamine is similarly neutralized by the
National Pork Board.
It "helps pigs make the most of the food they eat [thanks, guys!] by
promoting the conversion of dietary nutrients into lean muscle, which
helps produce a leaner meat product" and working "in the same way that
human health supplements do."
Ractopamine is also "green" says Colleen Parr Dekker, a
spokesperson for Elanco .
Moving away from beta-agonists would increase corn demand and
environmental impacts since the animals would need to eat more to
produce the same amount of meat!
Global AgriTrends, an industry
group agrees. If beef and pork producers dropped beta-agonists like
ractopamine, 91 million more bushels of corn would be necessary! The
green spin is reminiscent of the National Turkey Federation's Michael
Rybolt testimony that
antibiotics are green on Capitol
Hill. Without antibiotics, more land would be needed to grow crops to
feed turkeys and more housing would be necessary because the birds could
not be squeezed together, he said. There would even be "an increase in
manure," he threatened.
We're Eating What?
If
the Center for Food Safety and Animal Legal Defense Fund are successful
in prying 100,000 pages of safety information about ractopamine loose
from the FDA, there will probably being a collective, national "yuck"
sound. But meat producers may see the writing on the wall before that
happens. A beef industry conference in
Denver in August included
a pro-and-con discussion of the drugs with a video depicting distressed
cows struggling to walk shown by meat giant JBS USA. On the same day,
in an apparently unrelated event, Tyson Foods Inc announced it would no
longer accept cattle fed the ractopamine cousin zilpateral because of
cattle that had "trouble moving after being delivered."
Maybe
ractopamine will eventually be phased out like lead in gasoline or rBGH
in milk and for similar reasons. But, meanwhile, don't count on
Smithfield's ractopamine-free initiative benefiting the US like it will
China. “Americans aren't getting the ractopamine-free pork,” Elisabeth
Holmes, a staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, revealed.
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