22 February, 2006 | Leave a Comment
That is the question.
We are in the grips of bird flu mania yet again. France has reported a wild duck killed by the deadly H5N1 virus and now Austria becomes the first country in Western Europe to find an infected chicken. Seven EU nations have found infected wild birds within their borders. The UK has so far been spared, but Italy has not been so lucky. With sales plummeting, the Italian government is subsidizing transport of Italian poultry to the UK. Yum.
Besides the obvious fears that bird flu could transmit to humans, the top priority of government bureaucrats seems to be the protection of the poultry industry. France is the largest producer of poultry in Europe, with 200,000 poultry farms. These farmers are on the verge of panic, and rightly so. It’s only been five years since many farms and rural businesses in Britain were devastated by foot-and-mouth disease.
The head of the French Poultry Farmers Federation told the BBC: “‘We have to do everything we can to convince consumers that there is no risk whatsoever to humans from eating poultry.’”
I wonder if there actually is no risk to humans? I don’t feel assured by these government health ministers who are urging citizens to go on stuffing themselves with KFC and chicken tikka. Do they know what they’re talking about? Or are the demands of thousands of angry farmers clouding their judgement?
The EU is now debating whether to vaccinate all birds to prevent spread of the disease. I try to eat organic poultry and this may be the industry hurt the most. If birds are vaccinated and if farmers are forced to keep them locked up, there goes the organic free-range label. And who wants to eat poultry pumped with all sorts of funky vaccinations?
I really think it would be easier to become a vegetarian. I’ve cut meat out of my diet but I still must have chicken and fish. I could not subsist on beans and tofu alone. So now I’m confused about whether to each chicken or not. On my last shopping trip I didn’t buy any. I’ve lost my appetite for it, at least for now.
Anglofille said @ 1:06 pm | food, news & politics |
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Anita Says:
February 24th, 2006 at 1:47 amI eat bird or fish or both every day that I breathe. What to do, what to do? I long for the summers at my great grandmother’s house. She raised the birds and wrung their necks, plucked ‘em and fried them and you knew where they’d been and what they’d eaten and their wasn’t a chemical or a flu within miles. Of course, after watching my great grandmother plunk the bird down, slap a board over its neck, step on the board and pull the fool birds body headless, this kid rarely wanted chicken for dinner.
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Eat, eat! Bird flu or not, if you cook chicken properly the virus dies. And you have to cook chicken thoroughly anyway, right?
Basic food hygiene and common sense is all that’s needed. Although I freely admit that I have no idea of the implications of a full-blown epidemic. But let’s face it, so far the only cases of transferrence to humans have involved strange practices like kissing the bloomin’ things. Not my style.
If someone I know has flu and eats some of my roast chicken off the bone, I’ll still chuck their leftovers in the stockpot. 100 degrees for a few hours and nothing short of anthrax is goona get through that…
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Anglofille Says:
February 24th, 2006 at 8:50 pmAnita, I’m surprised you can even eat chicken after that!
Jann, it’s good to know that cooking the chicken kills the virus. I feel totally confused and there’s so much misinformation floating around.
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I could not subsist on beans and tofu alone.
Sure you could. There are far more kinds of beans than there are kinds of flesh.
And have you ever tried Quorn, or some of Tesco’s line of vegetarian products? And then there’s tempeh, and TVP, and a load of other soy products, and seitan, a gluten product that’s sometimes called “wheat meat”.
I could go on. But get yourself a vegetarian cookbook and you’ll see what I mean.
Lecture over. Like the blog, btw, and your comments to ViL.
