Skinny Bastards. Chapter 10. Have No Faith: The Government Doesn’t Give a Shit About Your Health.

Chapter 10 Have No Faith: The Government Doesn’t Give a Shit About Your Health The USDA: It’s Not What You Think.

President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862—when the majority of people were farmers and needed to exchange information about seeds and crops. In other words, the USDA was created to help farmers.

Now, among other things, the USDA is responsible for “the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products.”455 Hmm. That’s weird. ‘Cause many high-ranking staff members at the USDA were employed by, or are otherwise affiliated with, the meat and dairy industries. And if the group responsible for “the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products” is run by people from the same industries they’re supposed to be protecting us from . . . well, that would be a conflict of interest. And it is. An enormous, ridiculous, outrageous, catastrophic conflict of interest.

One former USDA secretary was forced to resign amid charges of accepting illegal corporate gifts from seven different companies. He was indicted on thirty-nine felony counts, including tampering with a witness, accepting illegal gratuities, making false statements, and violating the Meat Inspection Act of 1907. (Tyson Foods, one of the companies that admitted to giving the secretary corporate favors, was required to pay $4 million in fines and endure four years’ probation.

A mere slap on the wrist, when the USDA could’ve barred Tyson from selling food to military bases and schools. That would’ve really stung, considering Tyson sold more than $10 million worth of food to the Defense Department alone in 1996. But friends don’t treat each other that way.) President George W. Bush’s Agriculture secretary from January 2001 until January 2005, Ann Veneman, not only had ties with the company responsible for producing the controversial bovine growth hormone, she was also linked to a major meatpacking corporation.

It doesn’t stop there. She employed a spokeswoman who is the former public relations director for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a chief of staff who used to be its head lobbyist, a former president of the National Pork Producers Council, and former executives from the meatpacking industry, just to name a few.

Safety Last.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder Veneman vetoed a program that would test all U.S. cattle for mad cow disease. In fact, out of the 35 million cattle slaughtered in 2003, the USDA tested only 20,000 for mad cow disease. (Japan tests all of its cattle killed for human consumption.)461 Of course it wouldn’t be in a rancher’s best interest to test all of his cattle. If they were inflicted with mad cow disease, he couldn’t sell their meat, and he’d lose money. Heaven forbid the USDA risk a rancher’s profits.

So, to appear somewhat concerned about the prevention of mad cow disease, the USDA often refers to an FDA ban, which prohibits the feeding of ground-up cattle meat to live cattle. Big whoop.

Banning cannibalism is a no-brainer. But why even bother banning cannibalism when they still allow the feeding of cattle blood to young calves? Stanley Prusiner, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on mad cow disease, refers to this practice as “a really stupid idea.” 462 Think about it: A cow dies from mad cow disease, but no one knows, because it wasn’t one of the .05714 percent tested. Cattle ranchers are now forbidden to grind up this dead cow and feed it to other cows.

But they can give its blood to calves as part of their feed. How fucking stupid, disgusting, and dangerous is that?

The USDA also likes referring to another “safety” program in place called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The NAIS is a system for identifying an animal’s origin so that if its meat is found to be contaminated, it can be traced back to a specific farm.

(Forget testing as a preventive measure. Implement a system for after someone eats contaminated meat and we need a recall.) Participation in this program is voluntary. Wow, the USDA sure has tough rules governing the safety of our country’s meat.

The USDA’s website describing the NAIS actually has a section on “confidentiality.” It reads, “The NAIS will contain only information necessary for animal health officials to be able to track suspect ani mals and identify any other animals that may have been exposed to a disease. . . . To help assure participants that the information will be used only for animal health purposes, the information must be confidential. USDA and its state partners will work to protect data confidentiality.”464 What the fuck? The USDA will protect the data confidentiality of farms that are supplying the public with contaminated meat? Why don’t they just give all the ranchers blowjobs, too?

Many savvy consumers are catching on, and they know they cannot trust the USDA. According to the Organic Consumers Association, “Lester Friedlander, a former USDA veterinarian, says he was told by USDA officials as far back as 1991 that if his testing ever found evidence of mad cow disease, he was to tell no one. He and other scientists say they know of cases where cows tested positive for the disease in laboratories but were ruled negative by the USDA.”465 Trust no one!


Illegal hormones, which are suspected of increasing the growth of cancer cells in the humans who eat them, are regularly pumped into veal calves. The USDA has not only been accused of overlooking these practices but also of falsifying lab results, altering records, and pressuring staff to lie about events. Even the selfish assholes who eat veal don’t deserve that.

Business First.

None of us has deserved to be deceived all these years by the preposterous USDA Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid, either. In 1998, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) sued the USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services.

PCRM claimed that federal laws were violated when the USDA selected six out of eleven people with financial ties to various food industries to serve on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

The committee members’ affiliations included the American Meat Institute, National Livestock and Beef Board, the American Egg Board, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Program, the National Dairy Council, Dannon Company (yogurt), Mead Johnson Nutritionals (milk-based infant formulas), Nestlé (milk-based formulas, ice cream, condensed milk), and Slim-Fast (milk-based diet products). How dare they?

PCRM also charged that the Dietary Guidelines—which recommended dairy products—were racially biased because most nonwhites are lactose intolerant. According to Johnson & Johnson, lactose intolerance affects “over 50 percent of the Hispanic American population, 75 percent of Native Americans, 80 percent of African Americans, and 90 percent of Asian Americans.”469 Why does Johnson & Johnson care about the millions of minorities suffering from lactose intolerance? Because they can target these individuals for buying Lactaid, a product they hawk for aiding in dairy digestion.

Even though you are lactose intolerant and your body thoroughly rejects dairy products, eat them anyway. Just buy and take our drug so you don’t feel sick afterward. Ugh, that just makes us sick with rage.

Got $50 billion? The milk industry does, so they’ve got the USDA in their back pocket. The California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) was established in 1993 to increase milk sales in California. They were responsible for the campaigns that targeted children: “Got milk?” and “Milk. It does a body good.” The CMPB is funded by all California milk processors but administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board (Fluid Board) conceived of the “Milk Mustache” campaign, which targets young adults. The USDA’s Agriculture Monitoring Service administers the Fluid Board. Meaning, in essence, the California Department of Agriculture and the USDA are managing advertising campaigns for the milk industry. Under the guise of advancing health, they managed to dupe President Bill Clinton while he was in office into posing for their ads. They also had the audacity to feature the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, sporting that stupid “milk mustache.”472 The Secretary of Health and Human Services using her status and title to promote a commercial product! Would she appear in ads for Pepsi or Nike? Say it out loud:

conflict of interest. They’ve even got the U.S. Surgeon General in on the act. In the first-ever report on “the state of the nation’s bones,” the Surgeon General warned of an impending “osteoporosis crisis” expected by the year 2020. To ward off this potential disaster, the report recommended three glasses of milk a day. Guess who issued the report? The Department of Health and Human Services. Ughck. In 2007, the “Body By Milk” campaign suggested that three servings of dairy per day would help people lose weight. They even enlisted NY Yankee, Alex Rodriguez, to help out. But according to the Federal Trade Commission, scientific research did not support the dairy industry’s claim, and thankfully, the campaign was ended. Trust no one.

The horrors committed by the USDA could fill an entire book. But we shouldn’t be surprised. Although they don’t list it as part of their primary mission statement, the USDA admits to being “committed to helping America’s farmers and ranchers.”475 The same USDA responsible for “the safety” of meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs also promotes the sale of them. In fact, they even go so far as to purchase the products themselves, using our tax dollars. In 2005, the government spent $385 million on beef and cheese (yet only about $50 million for fresh fruits and vegetables). Farmers growing fruits and veggies received less than 1 percent of direct subsidies, while producers of meat, dairy, and feed crops got 73 percent! Between 1996 and 2005, meat subsidies reached nearly three billion dollars, and dairy product subsidies were 3.12 billion! Wow. It must be nice for these industries to have the USDA bailing them out whenever they have a surplus of items. What, exactly, do they do with all this food that we pay for?

Ever hear of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)? It’s a nationwide $8 billion scheme that allows the USDA to buy up all this meat, milk, and cheese with our tax dollars and then dump this crap into the bodies of more than 28 million school children. Ever wonder why school lunches are required to include milk? The NSLP directly benefits the meat, dairy, and poultry industries at the expense of our nation’s children. In 2003, over half of the USDA’s $41.6 billion budget was used for food assistance and nutrition programs for lowincome families and children.

In 1999, a ground beef plant in Texas failed a series of USDA tests for salmonella. The tests showed that as much as 47 percent of the company’s ground beef contained salmonella—a proportion 5 times higher than what USDA regulations allow. Despite this and the fact that high levels of salmonella in ground beef indicate high levels of fecal contamination, the USDA continued to purchase thousands of tons of the meat for distribution in schools. In fact, this company was one of the nation’s largest suppliers for the school meals, providing as much as 45 percent of the program’s ground meat.

Contamination aside, according to Michele Simon of the Center for Informed Food Choices, “One evaluation of the commodity foods program estimates that 70 percent of the items offered exceed the U.S. dietary guidelines for fat.”482 For decades, consumer advocacy groups have been horrified by this unhealthy, profit-driven arrangement. With the backing of countless parents, physicians, and nutritionists, they have battled to get soy milk and other healthier choices approved by the USDA for use in school lunches. But the USDA (aka the beef, pork, poultry, and dairy industries) wants no part in this, of course.

The USDA has fifteen food assistance programs, including ones for the elderly, homeless, military, and poor. It is estimated that one in five Americans will take part in this $53 billion program. Sounds like the USDA is helping to feed a lot of people, right? Right. They are feeding them fattening, unhealthy, artery-clogging, heart-stopping, acid-producing, contaminated meat, poultry, and dairy—with our money. How generous.

Organic or Not?

It’s not enough that they dictate all things meat and dairy, the USDA even sticks its big nose into our organic products, too. In April 2004, the USDA made sweeping changes to its National Organic Program (NOP) standards. The new rules infuriated organic farmers and consumers because: livestock were allowed to eat nonorganic fishmeal, even if it contained toxins or synthetic preservatives; cows and calves given growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs could still provide the public with “organic” milk as long as a year had passed since the drugs were administered; pesticides could be used even if they contained unknown inert ingredients as long as a “reasonable effort” had been made to identify them; and seafood, pet food, clothing, fertilizers, and body care products could be labeled organic without being monitored by the USDA. Not only were people livid with the actual changes but also with the decision-making process. By law, these types of regulatory changes are required to undergo a period of public comment before being enacted. There was no comment period, just an announcement of changes after the fact.

According to Ronnie Cummins, national director of Organic Consumers Association (OCA), “Rather than comply with regulations which uphold the integrity of organic food, corporate-run factory farms, who want a piece of the $11 billion a year organic industry, are manipulating the USDA and Congress to change the rules to suit their toxic-industrial style of farming. Allowing nonorganic and potentially genetically engineered feed to be included under the definition of organic is a major setback for the integrity of what is the fastest growing sector of the food industry in this country.”486 Thanks to the phone calls, letters, e-mails, and faxes of many pissed-off consumers, the USDA reversed all these changes in May 2004.

Even so, many people are still mistrustful of the USDA. The nonprofit group Center for Food Safety (CFS) claims that the USDA may be allowing “sham” certifiers under the umbrella of the NOP.

Their suspicions were aroused by the high volume of certifications issued within a short time. These worries were heightened when the USDA refused to provide CFS with requested documents, even though they were required to do so under the Freedom of Information Act.

Other environmental groups along with the OCA have joined a lawsuit against the USDA. Among their complaints is the fact that the USDA’s NOP created an additional category of certified products, which directly opposes legislation put in place by Congress. They state, “When Congress has spoken clearly on a subject, USDA has no discretion to rewrite the statute making exceptions that dilute the standards of the Act.”489 Can you believe the nerve of these USDA fuckers?

Going against laws created by our elected officials and making up their own rules? It’s fucking mutiny is what it is. Trust no one.

Surely you’ve seen the “organic” Horizon brand of dairy products in your grocery store? It is the nation’s largest supplier of organic dairy products. Well, it just so happens that Horizon has been accused of violating organic standards. The Cornucopia Institute, a watchdog group in support of organic agriculture, filed two complaints with the USDA. They allege that two major farms that supply Horizon with milk are confining cows in an industrial setting and denying them access to pasture, yet are still calling their products organic.

Why is all this allowed to happen? Don’t our elected officials know what’s going on? Why don’t they try to stop this? Some do. But many politicians are in bed with the evil industries. In 2000, more than $34 million was made in campaign contributions. Hate to sound like a broken record, but trust no one.

Is Everyone in the FDA on Drugs?

This greed-induced immorality isn’t applicable just to Congress or the USDA. The Food and Drug Administration is a pathetic facade, too. In 1990, the Monsanto Company sought FDA approval for Posilac, a commercialized form of bovine growth hormone (BGH, used to increase cows’ milk production). Even though the test study linked the hormone to prostate and thyroid cancer, the FDA approved Posilac. Of course, these damning test results weren’t made available to the public until 1998, when a group of scientists conducted an independent analysis of the study. They found that the FDA never even reviewed Monsanto’s findings! More recently, BGH has been linked to increased levels of Insulin Growth Factor-1, a cancer promoter. But the FDA has no interest in these findings, either. Or the fact that both the World Trade Organization and The United Nations Food Standards Body refuse to endorse the hormone’s safety. And they certainly don’t mind that BGH milk is banned in all of the European Union, Canada, Japan, and every other industrialized country in the world. Fucking dumbasses.

Why would the FDA knowingly allow a cancer-causing hormone into our milk supply? One theory highlights the fact that the FDA deputy commissioner at the time of the Posilac approval was a former Monsanto lawyer. And during his tenure at the FDA, this same deputy commissioner wrote the policy exempting BGH from special labeling. Yet, fingers also point to a former top scientist with Monsanto, who was hired by the FDA to review her own research, conducted while she was working for Monsanto. This little beauty also allowed a hundredfold increase of antibiotic residues in milk.

The FDA’s bad behavior isn’t singular to the dairy industry. It also has a sketchy history with monosodium glutamate (MSG). One former FDA commissioner testified before the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition that MSG was safe, citing four sources. It was later dis covered that two of the studies were nonexistent, and the other two were incomplete!


Secrets and lies. It’s just too much to bear. So let’s also play the “I’m not telling” game. Ever see the words “natural flavors” on food packaging ingredient lists? Yeah, that’s because the FDA allows companies to be vague and doesn’t require them to tell us exactly what we’re eating. The FDA has a list of approximately 300 foods that meet a “standard of identity,” meaning companies aren’t required to spell out their ingredients. For example, ice cream manufacturers can use any of twenty-five specified additives without listing them in their ingredients. Who wants to put something into his or her body without even knowing what it is?

You Are Your Only Chance.

If you want to get healthy/buff, you can rely on only yourself. If you adapt only one practice from this book, let it be this: Read the ingredients. Forget counting carbs, adding calories, and multiplying fat grams. Just read the ingredients. It doesn’t matter how many calories or carbs or fat grams something has. You don’t need the government’s asinine recommended daily allowances to tell you how to eat. Just read the ingredients. If they are healthy, wholesome, and pure—dive in. If there is refined sugar, white or bleached flour, hydrogenated oils, any animal products, artificial anything, or some scary looking word that you don’t know—don’t eat it. We can’t make it any simpler. Just read the ingredients and completely ignore all the other gibber-jabber bullshit the government calls for on the packaging. Fuck them. Trust no one. Get ripped.

And no matter what, do not fall prey to clever adjectives used on the packaging. The companies that call their products “wholesome” or “nutritious” can be the same ones that add hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, or synthetic preservatives. Just read the ingredients of everything you buy. It’s not a big deal, assuming you are literate.

There is so much bureaucracy and red tape surrounding health-related government agencies that you are much better off fending for yourself. After all, why would anyone take nutritional advice from organizations that let color dyes, hydrogenated oils, chemical preservatives, and artificial flavors into the food we eat?

The EPA Makes Us Sick.

StarLink corn, a genetically modified organism, contains an insecticidal protein deemed unsafe for human consumption. But the Environmental Protection Agency allows the use of StarLink for livestock feed. Let humans eat the animals who ate the corn? That’s safe? Duh.

Clearly, nothing is sacred to the group that allows rocket fuel in our milk supply. Yeah, you heard right. Rocket fuel. In milk. Thanks to the Pentagon, ammonium perchlorate, the main explosive component in rocket fuel, has been lurking around our environment for decades. It finds its way into water used for growing feed crops for cattle. Cows eat these contaminated crops, resulting in contaminated milk. Whether you are drinking milk or eating dairy products made with this milk, you are ingesting perchlorate. And the EPA actually makes allowances for a “provisional daily safe dose.”497 We’re sorry, but where we’re from— Earth—there is no acceptable amount to ingest where explosive components are concerned. Even if you believe any amount to be safe, tests revealed milk perchlorate levels well above the EPA’s index.

Studies conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, found every single milk sample tested in Texas to be contaminated. California’s own Food and Agriculture Department found that milk off the grocers’ shelves had five times the EPA’s “safe dose” of perchlorate. But, of course, the California Food and Agriculture Department did not release these results. Instead, they were brought to light by the EWG. Although both the dairy industry and government agencies acknowledge that there could be some health risks associated with perchlorate, they maintain that we should keep drinking milk for its “calcium, protein, and minerals.”498 We’ll let you use your own heads on this one.

Regardless of your political affiliation, please know this: The Bush Administration continuously asked for exemptions on behalf of the military and chemical companies, allowing them to continue this contamination and to shirk responsibility for cleanup. In fact, the Bush administration’s EPA was widely criticized on many counts of environmental pollution that affect our food and water supply. Like the USDA’s pathetic voluntary program, the EPA has its own version of letting agribusiness trample all over public health and safety.

Collaborating closely with the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the EPA developed a voluntary air-monitoring program. Disregard the notion that the EPA blames factory farming for 73 percent of all ammonia (fumes from all the shit and piss of farm animals) released into the air nationwide.

Never mind the fact that the EPA names factory farming to be the single largest contributor of polluted American waterways. Factory farmers do not have to submit to EPA monitoring programs. If it pleases them, they can volunteer. How civilized.

Outraged by the EPA’s lack of enforcement, opponents point out that the factory farming industry made $3.46 million in campaign contributions, benefiting mostly Republican federal candidates. The NPPC even went so far as to present President Bush with its “Friend of the Pork Producer” award in 2004, thanking him for his help in “shaping environmental policies impacting agriculture.”500 Yeah, um, thanks for that.

Trust No One.

Whether you love him or hate him, President Clinton’s administration tried to “implement a tough, science-based food inspection system,” according to Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation. Sad to say, however, these attempts were squashed when the Republican party gained control of Congress in 1994. Schlosser revealed, “The meatpacking industry’s allies in Congress worked hard to thwart modernization of the nation’s meat inspection system.

A great deal of effort was spent denying the federal government any authority to recall contaminated meat or impose civil fines on firms that knowingly ship contaminated products. . . . The Clinton Administration backed legislation to provide the USDA with the authority to demand meat recalls and impose civil fines on meatpackers. [But] Republicans in Congress failed to enact not only that bill, but also similar legislation [for four consecutive years]. . . .

Under current law, the USDA cannot demand a recall [of contaminated meat].” Can you fucking believe this? If a company decides voluntarily to recall contaminated meat, “it is under no legal obligation to inform the public—or even health officials—that a recall is taking place.”501 Now, we don’t mean to say that everyone working for the government is evil. There are some decent, caring, moral, intelligent, well-intentioned people working for the FDA, EPA, and USDA. One former staff attorney-turned-environmentalist said the EPA “hasn’t initiated one investigation in four years. They’re not doing anything.”502 See, she’s a “good guy”! She finked on the EPA. Unfortunately, however, the majority of good guys seem to be lost in the shuffle of politics and greed within these groups.

So do yourself a favor and trust no one. Read ingredients. Ignore everything else. And, if you’re totally incensed by what you’ve just learned, do something. Contact your representatives, senators, the president, and vice president, and demand reform of these crooked, self-serving agencies. Go to www.congress.org to send a quick e-mail to these politicians. While you’re at it, write a letter to the editor of your favorite magazine or newspaper and ask others to join the crusade. Visit www.congress.org and click on the “media guide” to access their contact information.