Print Title: Arsenic, Benedryl and Prozac, too
Process: Solar Plate Etching
This print addresses issues surrounding food safety and the overuse of pharmaceuticals in factory farming. An April 4, 2012 headline on the Opinion Page of the New York Times caught my eye: Arsenic in Our Chicken? Yes. Arsenic is routinely fed to chickens to reduce infection and retain their pink flesh.
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But wait, there’s more. Seems our poultry is manipulated by caffeine to stay awake and eat. Benedryl reduces the anxiety. And fluoxetine, the active ingredient in Prozac, has been found in feather meal samples from chicken farmed in China. Flouxetine fed to chickens may be alarming, but it could be a better choice than Cipro, an antibiotic banned by the FDA in 2005, yet despite the ban, has been found in six of ten tested US samples. Antibiotics may suppress disease inherent with overcrowding but they overuse contributes to the real and severe threat of antibiotic resistance in humans. Critics contend that nearly 80% of all antibiotics sold in the United States are sold for factory farming.
Oh, and would you like french fries with that?
Oh, and would you like french fries with that?
More information by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Protection:
http://www.ncifap.org/
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