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Let’s stop feeding poop to animals destined for the table, says a New Jersey senator.
June 17, 2024 12:56 pmEDT | Updated June 17, 2024 at 12:58 pmEDT
NEWARK, New Jersey — It’s called the “NO SHT Act” for a reason.
On Monday, U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a federal bill he has dubbed the No Stool at Herd Feeders (NO SHT) Act. If it crosses the finish line, the bill would prohibit food companies from giving animals feed that contains “intentionally added excrement.”
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Booker said the proposed law specifically targets the “alarming” practice of feeding poultry droppings (including dead birds, feathers and feces) to cows in farm lots and dairies across the country.
Does it sound disgusting? It’s a “surprisingly routine” sight on some of America’s largest farms, the senator said.
“We must end unhealthy factory farming practices that prioritize profits over public health, including feeding poultry droppings to livestock,” Booker insisted.
“Feeding livestock with animal waste is irresponsible and cruel,” added the senator, a well-known vegan and member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
The bill would not prohibit the use of livestock or poultry manure as fertilizer for crops.
Some independent farmers and advocacy groups have joined Booker’s call for change.
According to Michael Kovach, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, the bill would be a big step toward “reprioritizing our food system” toward healthy, nutritious food for Americans over profitability for the “big four” meatpackers. that currently dominate the beef industry in the United States. : Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef.
The practice of intentionally feeding chicken droppings to livestock is “horrible at best,” Kovach said.
“Given the current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza and its well-documented ability to cross-species with cattle and humans alike, it is an even more egregious and ill-advised practice,” Kovach said.
“Feeding cattle manure has to end,” agreed Bill Bullard of the United Cattlemen and Cattlemen of America Action Legal Fund (R-CALF).
“It’s a shame that the United States has to pass laws to ban what we already know is wrong and poses a potential risk to livestock and humans, but apparently we do,” Bullard said.
In other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, the practice has been banned due to concerns about the spread of diseases from chickens to cows, including some destined for tables, Booker said.
A pair of foreign experts backed the senator’s claims.
“In the United States, feeding poultry droppings to beef cows is a known factor in causing botulism in cattle, and is a risk in the case of H5N1,” said Steve Van Winden, associate professor of population medicine at the Royal Veterinary College.
“Flu can be transmitted via the fecal-oral route, so it is not an impossible scenario that chickens infected with H5N1 could shed the live virus through feces, which is then consumed by livestock,” agreed Brian Ferguson, associate professor of immunology at the University of Cambridge.
Other scientists have responded that there is not enough information available to link the two and have questioned how many cattle actually consume poultry droppings.
“A 2008 survey of more than 16,000 poultry producers nationwide, conducted by the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association and the National Chicken Council, suggested that only 1% of poultry waste was intended for livestock,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently told Forbes.
“FDA is not aware of any information indicating that this level of use has changed,” the agency added.
The FDA has also previously said that it is not aware of any data showing that the use of poultry droppings in livestock feed “presents risks to human or animal health that would justify restrictions on its use.”
“The science does not justify the ban,” a spokesman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said when discussions about similar national regulations arose in 2009.
The “NO SHT Act” is not the first time in recent history that Booker has launched a legislative crusade to reform the country’s food industry. He has also campaigned on issues such as biogas production, beef labeling practices and access to healthy foods.
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