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WHAT TESTING DOES USDA DO? "The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service today will announce a new, more modern testing system that allows the agency to test for dozens of drugs, pesticides, and other potentially harmful compounds simultaneously, instead of only testing for one or a handful of compounds in each meat sample." (2012). http://lnkd.in/dAEzM7D View in LinkedIn

CHICKEN FARMING CAPITAL OF THE US: "Delmarva ... raises close to 600 million broilers a year. Most of the people raising the chickens don't own them. They are contract farmers ... all of which have turned the farmer into a modern-day serf. They bear the financial burden of the operation, have no say in how the chickens are raised or treated." http://lnkd.in/diHkyY8 View in LinkedIn

VANISHINGLY FEW USDA ARSENIC TESTS. "Between 2000 and 2008, the USDA tested only 1 out of every 12 million domestically produced chickens (or .00008 percent). In 2005 and 2008, the department conducted no tests for arsenic residues in domestically produced broilers." http://lnkd.in/dgKDrwk View in LinkedIn

CUMULATIVE ARSENIC BURDEN IN THE US "levels of arsenic that are above natural levels, but still well below danger levels set in federal safety standards, have been detected in commercially grown chickens (from) roxarsone and nitarsone ... Arsenic is a ubiquitous element present in American drinking water." http://lnkd.in/dB3MNvy View in LinkedIn

POLYPHARMACY TREATMENT OF CHICKENS: "routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics ... one-third of feather-meal samples contained an antihistamine that is the active ingredient of Benadryl. The great majority of feather meal contained acetaminophen ... And feather-meal samples from China contained an antidepressant that is the active ingredient in Prozac." (2012). http://lnkd.in/dwUZZPD View in LinkedIn

2012 STUDY FINDS RANGE OF DRUGS IN CHICKENS. "We were kind of floored ... It’s unbelievable what we found.” He said that the researchers had intended to test only for antibiotics. But assays for other chemicals and pharmaceuticals didn’t cost extra, so researchers asked for those results as well." http://lnkd.in/dwUZZPD View in LinkedIn

A RECENT STUDY found a surprising range of chemicals in chickens. This was a landmark study because nobody had ever thought to test for these substances in human food. This firestorm led to the discovery that the gatekeepers of food quality, whose job is to protect the public health, barely did any testing, and to this day, continue the practice. View in LinkedIn

ARSENIC MAKES FLESH LOOK PINK. "It turns out that arsenic has routinely been fed to poultry (and sometimes hogs) because it reduces infections and makes flesh an appetizing shade of pink. There’s no evidence that such low levels of arsenic harm either chickens or the people eating them ..." Carcinogens take decades to show their ugly effects. http://lnkd.in/dwUZZPD View in LinkedIn

UNNECESSARY HEALTH THREAT. "This study provides further evidence that continued use of arsenicals in food animal production poses an entirely unnecessary threat to public health." Not to mention that these drugs are not used in Europe for poultry. http://lnkd.in/dvw555e View in LinkedIn

ARSENIC RUNOFF FROM POULTRY FACTORIES. "Runoff measurements indicated that annual arsenic losses from these fields could range from 0.004 kilograms per hectare to 19 kilograms per hectare. Runoff with the largest arsenic loads was recorded in a ditch closest to a main point source of the contaminant -- a shed where litter was stored." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816095623.htm View in LinkedIn