This dioxin crisis amazes me! Our ancestors knew and followed a simple rule in animal husbandry, and hunting: "don't eat animals who eat other animals"! This is why we shouldn't eat wolves, and vultures, and such. We should always only eat herbivores. Why? Because of something called "bioaccumulation"!
Bioaccumulation is simple to understand by just knowing one fact. When an animal (or human) is exposed to a toxin, especialy a nasty one like a "persistent organic pollutant" also known as POP, a list that encompasses a few extremely toxic chemicals such as DDT and dioxin, the animal will, if unable to detoxifiy it, store this chemical in certain tissues mainly the liver, brain and fat tissue.
Now imagine a small fishy swimming in the sea near a contaminated river, its fat tissue is loaded with toxins. Along comes a bigger fish, and WHAM!... swallows it!
This bigger fish, will eat a few of such small fish a day, even if not living in a contaminated area, this fish receives so many toxins, its body will save itself by storing in it in its tissues, mainly fat.
So this big fish swims along, in clean waters... ladaladalada... until Wham!... it is caught by a big fishing boat, along with many others. These fish are perhaps fillet'ed and the leftovers, such as bones, liver, brain (mostly fat) is put aside. Take thousand or more of these fish leftovers, of which the industry makes... nothing less than... fish meal! Yes, fish meal... now possibly a concentrated slurry of contaminated fish... not only of POP's, no, add to that heavy metals like mercury and lead, and you have a genuine toxin party!!
So what is this fish meal used for you ask? Well... nothing less than... you guessed it... ANIMAL FEED! That's right, a major constituent of animal feed, and a source of cheap animal protein is fish meal! We're talking animal feed for chickens, pigs, sheep, cows,... and in the end... even for farmed fish!!
So now, here's a pig, a few weeks old, savouring his freshly prepared pig feed, scarfing it down with delight. Take this pig now 4 to 6 months later having eaten pounds and pounds of this stuff in his lifetime! All the accumulated toxins in his organs and fats, that began with the tiny little fish in the ocean. The pig is ready to be slaughtered, and so it is. Turned into a nice juicy porkchop and bacon that WE eat numerous times within a month, and countless times within our lifetimes! What was once a spec of toxins, have now acculated into a gigantic dose of toxins stored in YOUR liver and fat, just so you wouldn't die from it on the spot. This is called bio-accumulation folks! And it happens everywhere and with any class of toxin... pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, POP's...etc.
Fish farms, Laying chickens, meat chickens, grazing cows (with herbicides and pesticides), grain-fed cows, pigs, all of these when farmed conventionaly, are at risk of this process, especialy when fed animal or animal-by products, such as fish meal, bone meal, feather meal, blood meal, etc...
Not only do toxins become a huge problem, but also diseases, from viruses, prions, virions, that get recycled into the same species feed supply causing mad cows disease, pig flu, bird flu, and so on.
It amazes me that people are still scratching there heads, as to why we have so many emerging diseases, cancers, and obesity! I thoroughly believe that fat accumulation is a body protection mechanism against an overwhelming amount of toxins. It is not a surprise that the bad fat, which is accumulated around the belly, happens to be close to the liver, which is the organ that is in charge of detoxifying the body.
If any of this shows anything it is... be safe, go organic!
