(AUTHOR'S NOTE 09/20/15: I created this webpage in 2007, but I had not looked at it for quite a while until I watched the movie Cowspiracy last night. It is available on Netflix and at www.Cowspiracy.com and I strongly recommend that everyone watch it. This movie has motivated me to check all the links below to make sure they are still active and up to date. While I have updated these links, I have left the names of cited officials and their contact information unchanged. Also, the email given at the end of the video below - SoylentBrown@Yahoo.com - is no longer active, but you can contact me at Trafn@Yahoo.com or 786-262-5750.)
created: 11/14/07
updated: 10/02/15
Soylent Brown
A Feces Farming Video
see all of Dr. Mitchell's videos for free at
http://www.YouTube.com/profile?user=Trafn
FECES FARMING AND YOU!
"The fact that the availability of the world’s raw materials is diminishing as population grows
exponentially, together with the real threat of global food shortages, contributes to a new
awareness of the need for conservation and the re-use of things which once would have been
thrown away without a second thought." - from: Feed From Animal Wastes: Feeding Manual; by Z.O. Muller; published by The Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; 1984, chapter 1, page 1.
It is a currently acceptable practice within the worldwide livestock industry to feed farm-animal feces to other farm animals. Cows are fed chicken manure, fish are fed pig manure, sheep are fed cow manure, and so on. For example, the United States Cattle Industry feeds chicken feces to both beef and dairy cows as a source of inexpensive protein. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not currently publish a position on this practice. However, its 1998 statement on this topic has been preserved at: (note - as of October 2008 this link may no longer work as the Environmental Health and Safety Online [ehso] website may have been discontinued)
http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/FoodSafety/chickenmanurefda.htm
It states that "recycled animal waste is a processed feed product for livestock derived from animal manure or a mixture of manure and litter. Animal wastes contain significant percentages of protein, fiber, and essential minerals and have been deliberately incorporated into animal diets for their nutrient properties for almost 40 years. Incorporation of this product into animal diets is a viable alternative to land application or land fill."
The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) is an organization of State, Dominion, Federal, or other government agencies on the North American continent that works to oversee the regulation of animal feed and seeks to achieve uniformity. FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine is a very active participant in this organization. AAFCO has developed feed ingredient definitions and model regulations that States may use to regulate the manufacture, labeling, distribution, and sale of animal feeds. Mr. Shannon Jordre (phone: 240-276-9229) is an FDA adviser to AAFCO. AAFCO is on the internet at:
In AAFCO's 2015 Official Publication there is a section titled Feed Ingredient Definitions. There, the following items are listed [AUTHOR'S UPDATE 10/02/15: the original version of this website used the 2007 version of this book. The list below is from the 2015 edition.]:
1. Dried Poultry Waste - DPW (ingredient 74.1, page 435). This is chicken feces with intermingled
urea (urine).
2. Dried Poultry Waste - NPN Extracted (ingredient 74.2, page 435). This is chicken feces with
the urea (urine) mostly removed.
3. Dried Poultry Litter - DPL (ingredient 74.3, page 435). This is chicken feces intermingled with
urea (urine) and floor waste such as feathers, dropped feed, and dirt.
4. Dried Ruminant Waste - DRW (ingredient 74.4, page 435). This is cow feces with intermingled urea (urine).
5. Dried Swine Waste - DSW (ingredient 74.5, page 436). This is pig feces with intermingled urea (urine).
6. Undried Processed Animal Waste Products (ingredient 74.6, page 436). Any non-human waste (feces with urine) not specified above that has at least 15% liquid component (urine, water, etc.).
7. Processed Animal Waste Products (ingredient 74.7, page 436). Any non-human waste (feces with urine) not specified above which has been composted, fermented, or treated with ammonia, formaldehyde or other chemicals (yummy!).
Though the practice of recycling animal waste can be documented back to the mid 1900's in the United States, its use has escalated dramatically since the turn of this century. Several 1997 news articles about this practice are preserved at: (note - as of October 2008 this link may no longer work as the Environmental Health and Safety Online [ehso] website may have been discontinued)
http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/FoodSafety/chickenmanurenews.php
Amongst these articles, on October 1st of 1997, Reuters published a story titled U.S. Group Says Ban Chicken Manure as Cattle Feed. It states that "18 per cent of Arkansas chicken farmers together feed about 2.6 million pounds of chicken manure to cattle each year."
By comparison, in February of 2007, Amy Sapkota (phone: 301-405-1772) and her colleagues at the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and the University of Maryland published a paper titled What Do We Feed to Food-Production Animals? A Review of Animal Feed Ingredients and Their Potential Impacts on Human Health. It is online at:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1867957
In the section of this paper titled Animal Feed Ingredients and Feeding Practices, they state that "in 2003, it was estimated that approximately 1 million tons of poultry litter were produced annually in Florida, and an estimated 350,000 tons of this litter were available for use in feed." That means that from the 1997 Reuters article to Sapkota’s 2007 paper, using an interstate comparison, there was a 269 fold or 26,900% increase in the use of chicken feces as cattle feed from 2.6 to 700 million pounds (350,000 tons equals 700 million pounds).
This practice is by no means limited to just Arkansas and Florida, as even the State of Texas documents it on their Office of the Texas State Chemist Feed License Application, which is available online at:
http://otscweb.tamu.edu/Forms-Fees/Forms/NewFeedLicenseApplication-11-06.pdf
On page 1 of this form, in section 2 which is titled Type of Operation, one of the three options available is Distributes products containing toxins, chemical adulterants, or poultry litter. The current President of AAFCO, Mr. Ricky R. Schroeder, is also the Supervisor of Feed and Fertilizer Registration at the Office of the Texas State Chemist (phone: 979-845-1121, ext 114).
J.P. Fontenot (phone: 540-231-5136) of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Animal and Poultry Science sent a letter to the FDA in 2004 which stated that "poultry litter has been a valuable, economical, and safe feed ingredient for beef cattle. It is estimated that at least 25% of the poultry litter produced in the USA is fed to beef cattle. There are about 8 million tons produced per year, hence, 2 million tons of poultry litter are fed to beef cattle per year. Most of the poultry litter is fed to beef cows and limited amounts are fed to stocker cattle weighing 500-750 pounds. Very little poultry litter is fed to fattening cattle. Beef cow diets may contain up to 70% poultry litter as percent of dry matter." Two million tons equals 4 billion pounds. The entire letter is available online at:
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/dailys/04/aug04/081704/04n-0264-c00108-vol20.pdf
Mississippi State University publishes their own rations for feeding poultry litter (which they call broiler litter) to cows, and these go as high as 80% manure contents. See Table 1 in their publication #M1146 - Poultry Nutrient Management Through Livestock Feedstuffs - at either (note: sometimes one of these links does not work):
http://msucares.com/pubs/misc/m1146.htm
- - or - -
http://msucares.com/pubs/misc/m1146.pdf
Though AAFCO sets the rules on this practice within the United States (see above), the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) openly acknowledge that it is a part of our agriculture industry. Their Form #3537 (updated 05/07), the DHHS/FDA Food Facility Registration Form, is a prime example of this. The form itself is available on the internet at either (note: sometimes one of these links does not work):
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~furls/nfm3537.pdf
- - or - -
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/ReportsManualsForms/Forms/UCM071977.pdf
In section 11B on page 5 of this form [AUTHOR'S UPDATE 09/20/15: on the most recent version of this form revised November, 2014, see section 10B on page 7], registrants who make animal feed may select from 26 different types of manufactured foods for animal consumption. Number 20 of these 26 categories is titled Recycled Animal Waste Products. I contacted the FDA regarding this form and requested a list of the individuals and/or corporations who had checked off item number 20 as part of their registration with the FDA. Assuming that this would be public information obtainable by a Freedom of Information Act request if need be, I was astonished to be told that the FDA would not release this information to the public as it had been classified as a homeland security issue.
Michael Greger, M.D., (phone: 202-676-2361) of the Humane Society of the United States is more open about this issue than is the FDA. He is the author of Bird Flu: a Virus of Our Own Hatching. Of particular interest in his book is chapter 2, part 3, section D, titled Offal Truth, which is available online at:
http://birdflubook.com/a.php?id=53
There Dr. Greger states that "ecologists assert that animal fecal wastes pose public health risks similar to those of human wastes and should be treated accordingly, yet in animal agriculture today, fecal wastes are fed to other animals. Although excrement from other species is fed to livestock in the United States, chicken droppings are considered more nutritious for cows than pig feces or cattle dung. Because poultry litter can be as much as eight times cheaper than foodstuffs like alfalfa, the U.S. cattle industry feeds poultry litter to cattle. A thousand chickens can make enough waste to feed a growing calf year round. A single cow can eat as much as three tons of poultry waste a year, yet the manure does not seem to affect the taste of the subsequent milk or meat. Taste panels have found little difference in the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of cattle from steers fed up to 50% poultry litter. Cattle from animals fed bird droppings may in fact even be more juicy and tender. Cows are typically not given feed containing more than 80% poultry litter, though, since it's not as palatable and may not fully meet protein and energy needs."
Given the extraordinary amount of online internet data which demonstrates the pervasive use of chicken feces as a protein source in American cattle feed, one must ask about the possibility of health risks associated with such practices. While no deaths have yet been directly linked to this practice, it is of particular note that there is no indication that anyone either inside or outside the industry is considering the consequences of using such feed ingredients. The analogy between the current state of affairs and the decades of denial which preceded the Tobacco Industry’s admission to the link between smoking and cancer is not unnoticed. During the 1997 concerns over BSE, commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, the FDA wrote that they were "unaware of any research on this issue that would indicate that the agency should take regulatory action on poultry litter at this time." This quote comes directly from the United States Federal Register, volume 62, number 108, page 30940 (top of the left most column; date: Thursday, June 5, 1997). It is online at either (note: sometimes one of these links does not work):
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Images/6597bse.pdf
- - or - -
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/UCM054710.pdf
- - or - -
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1997-06-05/pdf/97-14682.pdf
The consumption of feces can lead to a number of diseases. This route for spreading disease is commonly called fecal-oral transmission, and it can be responsible for many illnesses in humans, including but not limited to AIDS, cholera, giardiasis, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, polio, shigellosis (bacillary dysentery), typhoid fever, and vibrio parahaemolyticus infections. Bird flu will likely be added to this list once it has made a notable footprint upon human health. In addition, many of these diseases are viral and untreatable by antibiotics.
The Topps Meat Company, one of the United States’ largest producers of ground beef recently went out of business due to a recall of E. Coli contaminated beef. Since E. Coli is a bacteria which colonizes the intestinal tracts of humans, cows, and chickens, one wonders as to the health risks posed by feeding chicken feces to cows. A New York Times article about Topps quotes one of the company's employees as stating that "the problem is the beef, not the company." The full New York Times article is online at:
The madness, however, does not stop there. For nearly 30 years, the United Nations has used two books to promote feces farming around the globe. These books are still used worldwide today and go beyond the use of chicken feces for cows to include all the ways farmers can feed every farm animal the feces from other farm animals. In 1980, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published Feed From Animal Wastes: State of Knowledge. This manuscript discusses in detail how to construct both large and small scale farms where all the animal feces is re-fed to the farm animals. It is available in its entirety online at:
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/X6518E/X6518E00.htm#TOC
I recommend that you download and print all of the chapters of this manuscript as I believe it will be withdrawn from the internet once many people start seeing it. Pay particular attention to Chapter 4 (see figure 6 about feeding pigs their own feces), Chapter 5 (see figures 11 and 12 on farm diagrams for large scale feces farming), and Chapter 8 (see the lists of all the ways to recycle animal waste between different farm animals - about 2 paragraphs below figure 15).
In addition to this, in 1984 the FAO published an actual recipe book on how to make feces-based feed for farm animals, including cows, sheep, pigs and chickens. It is titled Feed From Animal Waste: Feeding Manual, and it is literally a cookbook gone mad. In it, there are actual recipes for dairy cow feed that are made up of just chicken manure (99.2%) and salt (0.8%). An outline of this book is online at:
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/X6530E/X6530E00.HTM
Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, 2007, The Miami New Times, a free weekly publication in Miami, Florida, published a comprehensive article about feces farming that was written by Lee Klein. Lee pulls no punches in telling this story, and it is a very worthwhile read. It is located at:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2007-11-22/news/meat-you-might-not-want-to-eat/
Copyright 2007 The Miami New Times
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. Do not take my word for it. Go to the websites listed above and read the information there. Educate yourself and realize that almost every form of meat, poultry, fish and dairy that you buy and eat comes from diseased animals that have been purposefully fed feces their entire lives. In fact, if these animals were not given antibiotics throughout their short lives (the average beef cattle is killed before 2 years of age), they would probably have died from terrible diseases caused by eating manure and not have lived long enough to be slaughtered for your table.
2. Do not be misled by those who would tell you that plants eat feces, so animals should be able to eat it, too. Outside of a few fungi (mushrooms) and molds, there is little that can grow in pure feces. In fact, most plants will die if grown in pure feces since it is too toxic for them. When used as an organic fertilizer mixed sparingly into soil, feces is broken down into various nutrients that plants can then safely absorb.
3. Do not let your consumerism support industries that abuse billions of animals each year so they can sell you food from their diseased livestock. The agriculture industry will claim that there is no known scientific proof that feeding feces to farm animals has harmed any people. The tobacco industry fed us the same line for almost 50 years about the link between cancer and smoking. Then we learned that they had the proof and that they were hiding it from us. Educate yourself. Don’t be fooled, again.
4. Until feces farming is banned, reduce or stop eating all meat, poultry, fish and dairy. There are many great resources for non-meat (vegetarian , vegan) diets available online and in bookstores. If you continue eating meat, consider eating less of it. View livestock food products as a side-dish and not a main course, thereby cutting your consumption of diseased meats, poultry, fish and dairy by half or more. Alternately, some countries like the United States have regulations which define “organic” livestock as animals which cannot be fed feces. To learn more about the U.S. policy, go to the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program website at (sorry about this incredibly long link - that's government bureaucracy for you!):
5. This is a global problem that the United Nations has been promulgating for almost 30 years. It affects nearly every citizen in nearly every country, including the United States. Demand that your legislators take action and ban feces farming. Laws are needed that prevent this from continuing and require farmers to dispose of their animals' feces in an ecologically sound manner, including a reduction in livestock numbers to levels that allow for sound ecological management of farm animal feces. If you live in the U.S., you can find out who your State and Federal Representatives and Senators are at [AUTHOR'S UPDATE 09/20/15: The website below no longer functions like it used to in 2007. While I'm leaving it here as part of the original webpage, try using https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup instead]:
When you go to this site, enter your zipcode in the Find Your Lawmakers search box at the top of the
webpage and it will tell you who they are. Click on their names and it will give you their phone
numbers, mailing addresses and emails. Here is a sample letter or email you can send to them about this issue:
Dear (NAME),
Feces farming is the practice of feeding animal manure and urine to
agricultural livestock, including cattle, poultry and fish. In the
United States, over 4 billion pounds of chicken manure are fed to beef
cattle each year. Dairy cattle and other livestock share a similar fate.
We then consume the meat and milk products from these diseased
animals. The practice of feces farming is the worst case of mass-scale animal abuse in U.S. history, and it is a looming public health
disaster. Agricultural and governmental proponents of this issue claim
there are no documented cases of people being harmed by feces
farming. For decades, the tobacco industry made similar claims about
the link between smoking and lung cancer. I WON'T BE FOOLED
AGAIN. I urge you to learn more about this issue by going to
http://www.Trafn.com/FecesFarming.html and then I want you to propose
legislation to ban this abusive, unhealthy, and disgusting practice
within our borders.
Sincerely,
(NAME)
6. [AUTHOR'S UPDATE 09/20/15: I've left this item here as part of the original webpage, but I'm no longer on facebook, so I don't know if this group exits anymore. However, you can contact me at Trafn@Yahoo.com or 786-262-5750.] Join the FaceBook group Ban Feces Farming in the U.S.. You will have to join FaceBook first to get to this group, but it is free and only takes a few minutes. Then you can converse and exchange ideas with others who understand how serious this issue really is. Invite others to join the group, too. Also, you can get monthly reminders on sending emails to your legislators so as to keep this issue in front of them. The group is located at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7460361313
7. Realize that along with global warming and our ever looming energy crisis, this is just another, and probably the most bizarre example of the repercussions of human overpopulation. There are currently over 6 billion of us on this planet, and we are anticipated to reach the 8 to 9 billion mark by 2050. However, given our current dilemma, if we do not reverse our population growth, then before mid-century large numbers of us will likely perish from famines, epidemics, and polecon wars (wars based upon politic avarice and economic greed).
8. There is an alternative to famines, epidemics and polecon wars: advocate population reduction by taking personal control and responsibility. Consider doing the following to help voluntarily lower our population to under 3 billion people worldwide before the end of this century:
A) Women under thirty should not give birth to any children.
B) Women thirty years of age or older should bear no more than one child.
C) Men should not impregnate any women under thirty years of age.
D) Men who have fathered a child should consider having a vasectomy.
Use any reasonable means necessary to achieve these goals: abstinence, condoms, birth control pills, tubal ligations, and even first-trimester abortions. While this may go against many theological stances, remember that it was an intricate combination of religious, political and corporate policies which have brought the world to where we are today. Do not look to the clergy, congress, or corporations for all the answers. The most powerful answer lies within each and every one of us by taking individual responsibility and control over ourselves so as not to bring too many children into an already devastatingly overpopulated world.
9. If you do not understand any of this, or if you have questions, contact me. If you do understand and agree with this, then contact people you know and tell them about it. Share this website with them. Ask them to do the same with people they know. Also, contact me if you'd like to get involved in organizing local, national or international efforts to ban feces farming. Together, each one of us can make a difference.
Ignorance is ubiquitous . . . intelligence is an uphill battle . . . keep climbing.
[AUTHOR’S UPDATE 09/20/15: While updating this webpage, I found a fascinating letter online that I had originally written in late October of 2007 titled Open Letter to China and the U.S. Cattle Industry regarding Chicken Feces in Cow Feed. Although no one I sent this letter to ever responded to me, it did become the outline for the original draft of this webpage. I’m not sure how this copy ended up on an “Impeach George Bush” website (not that I mind), but you can still read it at
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.impeach.bush/mrfZx0w2LGQ ]