Posted on 08/25/2012 4:58:58 AM PDT by expat1000
COLUMBIA — When Eric and Joanna Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm, 12 miles north of Columbia, decided they wanted to raise and sell pigs this spring, they checked out Missouri laws on feeding.
What they discovered surprised them: It is illegal to feed vegetables to pigs if the animals are going to be sold to consumers in Missouri.
(Excerpt) Read more at columbiamissourian.com ...
I am surprised that there is a Missouri Law about anything.
It’s gone too far. Government is the greatest threat we face.
Eric Reuter said the two government veterinarians agreed with him that there was no risk.I'm imagining this would be GMO corn, oats, barley and soybean meal. Just more government control that is unhealthy for us. On a side note, I had some extra steamed-only patty-pan squash and since it doesn't keep, I gave it to our two dogs for the heck of it, and they LOVED it...
"Animals raised for commercial sale and introduction into the food system would typically be fed rations including corn, oats, barley and soybean meal," the statement read.
Good grief! Pigs are walking garbage disposals.
As long as you're not feeding them toxic waste, what bloody difference does it make?
It’s gone too far. Government is the greatest threat we face.Indeed! Feds succeed in destroying entire business of Amish raw milk farmer
Much better to feed them Twinkies.
“The Missouri statute that includes vegetables in the definition of garbage originated in 1959 after an outbreak of vesicular exanthema in swine across the country. The law was written to prevent the spread of the disease, which was eradicated in the U.S. in 1959, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual.”
In other words, the law was written to prevent the feeding of ‘toxic waste’ as you put it.
I’ve always given my dogs small amounts of vegetables from time to time (most raw) - they love slices of carrots even more than commercial dog treats, as well as bits of fruit (oranges are the favorite).
Possibly.
However, it should be pointed out that this is from a law passed in 1959, not some recent expansion of government power.
Also this is a state not federal law. Remember federalism?
However, it should be pointed out that this is from a law passed in 1959, not some recent expansion of government power.
It’s probably not the law that has changed, it’s the interpretation. Feeding garbage in general is not the same as feeding vegetables.
LOL! That makes no sense. It was eradicated in the US in 1959...so in the same year, Missouri wrote a statute changing the definition of 'garbage'?
-----
Anyway, I had to look up 'vesicular exanthema '.
From Wiki:
It was eventually stamped out in 1956 by a major slaughter policy combined with a ban on feeding uncooked garbage to pigs.
So the US ban is uncooked garbage, not vegetables, period.
Sorry. I still don't consider vegetables 'toxic waste'. IMHO, the farmers of Missouri are getting screwed out of their cash because the State is forcing them to spend their hard earned money to unnecessarily purchase 'approved' feed for their livestock.
Let them follow the ban, boil the veggies and feed the dang pigs!
I’ve raised and fed out over 250,000 pigs, so I know a little what I’m talking about.
We fed a lot of ‘unusual’ feeds, from gummy worms and snickers bars to steep water left over from the making of corn based sweeteners. Everything was scientifically sound, and safe.
When farmers have tens, or hundreds of millions invested in production facilities and livestock, they don’t want some little cheapskate getting front page news because he cut corners and released a bunch of dangerous food on the trusting public. We paid for the track record of safe foods out of our own pockets.
Unfair? Maybe, but all he has to do is get bigger, have his entire livelihood on the line, and then others in power will begin to take him seriously.
And by then he’ll realize what nonsense this idea of his is.
So the idea is that you can still feed a pig anything as long as it comes from an approved supplier ?
Hey, I’m a libertarian, but I hate to spoil your party. Sometimes the experts do know that they are talking about. It could well be that this is simply a sound policy that pervents epidemics whose current temporary absence is one of the miracles of modern life that we all-too-easily take for granted.
One of the traits of CONSERVATIVES is that we not inclined to monkey around with things that we do not fully understand.
The couple who were “shocked” to learn that it is illegal to sell vetables to commercial swine, may have been spared the ordeal of knowing they were responsible for a minor epidemic.
OTOH, this law, like a great many others, may have been an over reaction, using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat, and destroying the kitchen table and the china along with it. I don’t know, and I suspect you don’t either. I do know that needless suffering, disease and anxiety has been caused by ignorance and misinformation about childhool vaccinations, misinformation that was spread either by ignorance, or actual malice.
There are no ‘approved suppliers’.
There are only regulated unapproved methods and feedstuffs, garbage being one of them.
This is simply a case of some (I presume) hippy liberal who wants something to whine about. What he has come up against is people like me (before I retired) who have their entire life invested in providing Americans with good, wholesome SAFE pork.
Along the way we helped enact laws and regulations to protect the quality of meat that the general public was offered.
We, instead, had meetings with other producers, scientists, university professors, bureaucrats, and politicians. All pretty much behind the scenes, because we wanted decisions based on facts not emotions. These meetings weren’t closed to the public; it’s just that the public has little or no interest in them. We enacted regulations and kicked off ad campaigns (remember ‘the other white meat’?),
This guy got stopped by one of these regulations, and in typical whiny Liberals fashion he runs to the newspapers to whip up some sympathy.
Do you really want the quality of the safety of your food decided on emotion?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell you your business, nor do I advocate unsafe practices concerning the food supply.
My biggest issue IS the fact you have to 'pay for the track record of safe foods out of your own pocket'. It just seems a horrible waste of resources when you consider simple cooking kills the virus.
You obviously know what it takes to make food safe to eat.
Frankly, most consumers don’t.
I myself prefer my chops just barely done, and in that kind of cooking, it’s critical that the food be completly safe when it’s purchased.
My grandfather raised his own pigs (not many). He fed them himself and slaughtered them himself. Cooked them just like you did and fed us all. Somehow I made it past 60.
He pretty much had bacon and eggs every morning.
I knew there something I liked about Texans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.