Soylent green?

I knew eating all that sushi would come back to kill me later.

I may be going crazy (and I'm not gonna look cuz I'm lazy, so forgive me if my recall is hazy) but did Consumerist already post about this earlier this week, or did I read this elsewhere?

"Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows," he added.

The guy has a sense of humor.

I guess no one should eat farmed fish anymore, right?

More info, please. How exactly are the fish fed cow parts? Do they just chum the fish ponds?

Just want to point out - PERFECT photo choice.

@ Coren: Yes, they did. My thinking is that this is confirming the issue exists - I think, maybe, that the last post was about the possibility of this being an issue...?

One thing I believe this is failing to elaborate on is whether the fish in question are herbivores or carnivores or omnivores - that information could make somewhat of a difference here. Fish do very well in the sea without eating cows, but if they aren't herbivores they're usually eating OTHER things, and fish farming can't provide for that; which raises the question of what to feed them.

It's a shame we don't have more sustainable options that the industry is willing to look at - like feeding the fish something that they might normally consume, but that don't cost more calories consumer per calories created (like in the current cattle industry).

NOT saying that I think feeding fish cows (which have shown to have issues) is the brightest idea, but just a thought.

Well, it says that they put cow meat and bone meal in the fish feed.

I'll have to say, sometimes I'm really glad I'm a vegetarian.

@Brent:

The bits that are too nasty to even go into "potted meat" are made into little pellets with corn meal or other filler. Pork is also used. They look like Kix. Meaty Kix.

First Else declares war on us. Now they're gunning for Charlie Tuna.
We oughtta take her to the back of the barn and shoot her. THAT'LL teach 'er!

@Trai_Dep: Darn. "they're" = "she's"

@icruise: That really sucks for the pescetarians who thought they were only eating fish

@icruise: It makes me really glad that I started paying attention to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium's fish pamphlets, and eat only trustworthy grass-fed meat.

Was veg for a while though.

@coren:
Slightly different story, about tuna. But it contained some of this content.

@Brent: Basically any remnant of industrially processes carcass is dried, baked and ground into a meal that is protein for animal feed. These can contain blood, crushed bone, and any other tissue and fluids left over. Since the meal is so highly processed, and only bound for animal consumption, the restrictions on contaminants and pathogens are different. Sickly and dead cattle can be used for this process, which is how prion-infested cow gets in there.

The FDA has some guidelines for protecting the food chain that prohibit feeding, for instance, cow protein meal back to cows because the likelyhood of transmission is very high. This extends to feeding ruminants to ruminants, since the prions need similar protein structures on the cells to take advantage of and eat your brain. You can, however feed it to chickens, or in this case farmed fish. The assumption is that he prions are not communicable via the vastly different recipient species, and that they can't act as carriers, but the actual research to prove that they are or aren't does not exist.

Aw come on, man, I got 200 tons of steer spines here, what do you want me to do with them?

Let me get this straight. A faculty member and two of his cronies are hard up for grant money so they generate a publication for the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease regarding Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. This article states that eating farmed fish that have been fed dessicated, highly processed, excessively heat treated, and pelletized cow parts that are not part of the central nervous system may or may not cause CJ in humans. They want to stop the decades old process of feeding various cow parts "just in case", but admit the probability of transmission of the prion is low. They also admit that it is really difficult to correlate the consumption of farmed fish with CJ because it may take decades to manifest itself. Something is certainly fishy here, I just can't put my finger on it.

@CornDoc: It does seem like a stretch to me. If you threw a cow carcass into the ocean, fish would feed on it. Cows do not normally eat other cows or any meat for that matter which scientists believe is a factor with Mad Cow Disease.

These scientists' entire hypothesis seems to be based on assumption and conjecture.

Maybe they should have just eradicated BSE in the first place instead of continuing to serve it up in burgers. That must be my spongy brain talking--it would have reduced profit by 5%!!

@TechnoDestructo:

Want some squirrel brains to go with that?

@Runs With Gophers: Thank you. You are this week's SG entry. It seems more and more that there are stories where a SG comment is apropos.

Now we just need an Idiocracy story and we'll be all set for this week.

If I'm not mistaken, dog food is also commonly made with cow by-products as well. In fact, most feed is. The problem here, (other than being gross) is that diseased cows can be used in this process.

I was going to point out that an alternative to fish feed can be dry dog food, but then I remembered the other bit.

Why oh why do people even do this?! I mean come-on! Mother Nature is tired of our idiocy already!

@Shoelace: "I guess no one should eat farmed fish anymore, right?" that's the just the beginning, my friend. The conditions "farmed fish" inhabit are often deplorable and come from markets where the safety controls are not up to FDA standards (think, China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.). The stress the fish endure living together in such crowded, unsanitary conditions create health hazards for the fish, which are in turn, "cured" by having massive amounts of antibiotics and iodine dumped into the water. There are dyes added for color, less than pure water, etc. You, in turn, eat these shrimp and fish. All these additives get stored in the fish, you ingest. Yum, yum. Please, do your peace of mind and your health a favor and eat farmed animals that are clearly marked from a local source or at least, "U.S.A."!

"Findings?" What have they found? It just seems like a less than educated guess.

Was that article a hoax? There is a lot of information about farmed fish available online - you wouldn't notice it until one of these crazy articles comes out and you find yourself searching for answers. The authors of this study are acting irresponsibly. They're making assumptions about the practices of an entire industry - and they're hypothisizing a trans-species health risk. Fish farming dates back as far as Egyptian times...but who can say what they were fed then? It looks like many farms now are feeding their fish a mixture of wheat, soy, rice, fish meal, etc. Did they say 'where' the farms that are using cow parts are located? I suppose, like everything else, it's important to know where your food comes from. I cared about this article because the ocean's fish supplies are in danger - and for nutrition reasons, I don't want to have to stop eating fish. It's a shame that these doctors may unnecessarily scare people away from a very healthy food source....our nation has more immediate health concerns due to our poor eating habits.

Not surprising, given what I've been reading in the Michael Pollan books lately. He even mentioned the beef being fed to the fish.

Some things are stupid to risk even if nothing bad does happen.

We've been buying grass-fed beef when we can for years because of superior taste and because of the issues with feedlots. See [eatwild.com] for how to get it near you (which is soooo not easy in some places).

@coren: Well, aren't you just as fresh as a daisy?

@nybiker:
I just rented Idiocracy but I haven't watched it yet. I'm looking forward to it. :)

@ranchgal: Because nowhere in the US are we cramming cattle into overcrowded spaces, feeding them inappropriate diets and filling them with antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to fatten up. Guess I just imagined that.

And no, I'm not saying all the US cattle industry is the same, but it is an undeniable problem. At least for the 'Happy Cows come from California' where I am.

@CornDoc: It has been proven it jumps species (sheep to cows to people) even if it takes a long time to do and therefore hard to quickly prove. We also know that mashed up dead animals is the state it was in when it jumped species before. So really, this isn't much of a stretch at all.

@citizensmith: It's guess-work. Fish to mammals is a bigger jump than mammal to mammal.

@HiPwr: Fish to mammal is probably well into the "Improbable" range to be nearly impossible. Fish and mammalian biology arent too similar.

@CornDoc: A prion protein is not a virus or bacteria and can not be destroyed in the same matter as other infectious disease. It is very possible for "mad cow" to transfer from bovine, to fish, to human. The root cause isn't with the fish food, its with the cattle.... and US cattle industries lack of concern for its consumers.

this is certainly worthy enough an idea to be looked into via scientific study, however this is a drop in the bucket compared with all the crap we ingest via pork, beef, even chicken. there's a reason strict veges live longer and have less chronic inflammatory disease (yes, studies have conclusively proved this fact)

I'm not a vege, but I strive to be as vege like as possible. Certainly, NO fast food joints (outside Chipotles) ie. no e coli infested burgers, thanks much.

@HiPwr: Transmission of prion disease from the digestive system to the nervous system is still poorly understood, too. Prion disease is transmitted through a misfolded form of the prion protein that is highly resistant to most forms of degradation or denaturation, so that's why normal forms of food treatment don't eradicate it the way that it would E. coli or salmonella, but I think the danger in fish is extremely low especially if there isn't a fish form of the prion protein, which is required to propagate the disease.

Yeah, sounds like a stretch. But still, better safe than sorry.

@icruise: Bone meal is commonly used in fertilizers for those veggies you love too, especially in organic food. I just love these veggie misfits that just don't get what goes into getting that salad or tofu on the dinner table.

Should I mention sewer sludge is another food fertilizer used in farms across the USA as well? Whoops, just did....sorry.

Mad Fish Disease!