Market Farming

[Sojourner <sojournr AT missouri.org>]

Elizabeth Pike wrote:
> 
> I received this reply from another source.  Any comments please??
> (This is what drives me nuts in farming.  I know, I know, part
> science, part magic.  At least I KNOW what's in my compost & manure
> from the start.)
> 
> > Hi Liz - any bone meal that can be purchased around here has been
> high pressure steam processed.  As a result it is as pathogen free as
> your home canned foods or pressure cooked meals would be...at least.
> And, it is FAR more pathogen free than compost or manure can be made
> yet we use them freely and even encourage their use, right?

Factual, well-stated, and I wish I could communicate this well.  <VBG>

A pressure/steam sterilizing process will kill anything, including the
prion that causes mad cow disease.  I forget the exact pressure/temp
required but you could find it via a web search if you need the exact
numbers.  (That's where I found the info a couple or three years back)

Prior to mad cow disease a steam-only process was frequently used; the
steam only process would destroy many or most of any prions present, but
what happened in Britain (and I don't know if this happened here too)
was that they went from the steam process to a chemical process that was
not sufficient to destroy prions present in infected material.  This
material was then fed back into the cattle population and they soon had
an epidemic on their hands.

As soon as they realized what was up the processing method was changed
to the current method of using pressurized steam, which does destroy the
prions.

That all happened in Britain, but the US adopted new methods for safety
here to make SURE we didn't have an outbreak.  And we haven't had one.

As for the practice of making carnivores out of cows - well, that's a
discussion for another list.

-- 
Holly ;-D
Contrary Peasant
sojournr AT missouri.org