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- #81
Those who hunt and eat what they kill have no means of assessing whether what they kill carries a disease unless the animal looks obviously sick.
We tend to assume that the chicken we buy is disease free and trust various legislation to ensure that drugs used in the rearing of food for human consumption are safe.
History shows that our confidence in disease and chemical free food is unfounded. As science discovers more about the possible effects on humans of the techniques used to provide us with food through intensive farming methods the long term health consequences to humans is being called into question. This is after all one of the factors that drives backyard chicken keeping; it's not just the appalling conditions food animals are kept in, it's reasonable doubt about the effects of the way they are fed and the drugs used to try to prevent diseases spreading through a flock that may comprise thousand of chickens.
Other creatures and other cultures do not have the same view regarding what is fit for consumption. Travel through Asia and Africa and you can see in the markets cuts of meat hanging around the stalls covered in flies. Local people eat this without any apparent ill effects in the majority of cases.
So I can't help wondering if it's our perception of the condition of our food rather than hard evidence of it's health effects that determine what we will and won't eat.
There is also a view that by over sanitizing our food supply we are in fact laying ourselves open to possibly fatal consequences from pathogens that other cultures with less stringent sanitation might cause a mildly upset stomach. A bit like the chickens defense to coccididiosis, they build an immunity over time.
An example of how perception rather than reality influences peoples food choices comes up on BYC from time to time from people mentioning that their friends, or whatever won't eat the free range eggs they offer.
I tend to believe it's peoples perception rather than a realistic assessment of risk that influences whether or not they would eat a chicken that died from an injury or old age with regard to the health aspect.
The emotional response to finding it impossible to eat a creature you have become fond of I find more understandable. I do have problems with this, but on the other hand if I was really hungry I would suggest to those people around me that they kept moving.
We tend to assume that the chicken we buy is disease free and trust various legislation to ensure that drugs used in the rearing of food for human consumption are safe.
History shows that our confidence in disease and chemical free food is unfounded. As science discovers more about the possible effects on humans of the techniques used to provide us with food through intensive farming methods the long term health consequences to humans is being called into question. This is after all one of the factors that drives backyard chicken keeping; it's not just the appalling conditions food animals are kept in, it's reasonable doubt about the effects of the way they are fed and the drugs used to try to prevent diseases spreading through a flock that may comprise thousand of chickens.
Other creatures and other cultures do not have the same view regarding what is fit for consumption. Travel through Asia and Africa and you can see in the markets cuts of meat hanging around the stalls covered in flies. Local people eat this without any apparent ill effects in the majority of cases.
So I can't help wondering if it's our perception of the condition of our food rather than hard evidence of it's health effects that determine what we will and won't eat.
There is also a view that by over sanitizing our food supply we are in fact laying ourselves open to possibly fatal consequences from pathogens that other cultures with less stringent sanitation might cause a mildly upset stomach. A bit like the chickens defense to coccididiosis, they build an immunity over time.
An example of how perception rather than reality influences peoples food choices comes up on BYC from time to time from people mentioning that their friends, or whatever won't eat the free range eggs they offer.
I tend to believe it's peoples perception rather than a realistic assessment of risk that influences whether or not they would eat a chicken that died from an injury or old age with regard to the health aspect.
The emotional response to finding it impossible to eat a creature you have become fond of I find more understandable. I do have problems with this, but on the other hand if I was really hungry I would suggest to those people around me that they kept moving.
