this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Crazy how people will refuse to drink from plastic water bottles from fear of BPAs and microplastics but will happily eat the dead flesh of an animal that gorged on plastics for years. Our risk analysis is as broken as our morality.

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[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 33 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That video is crazy, glad he shared that. I had no idea pigs were eating plastic. I mean not in quantities like that, I assumed some plastic got in there like everywhere else. I am curious how plastics are on the approved list of pig feed though, that is bizarre. I wonder if it refers only two. The small amounts I was imagining since the states have those laws against including food wrappers.

[–] Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I am curious how plastics are on the approved list of pig feed though, that is bizarre

It's not really that strange - these laws and regulations are bought by the industry with mega bucks that citizen movements can't compare to. It's just ~~corruption~~ lobbying. It's perfectly legal for them to just pay the people making the rules because we decided corporations are people too. The agriculture industry gets away with a ton of bullshit through these means all over the place.

It saves them a lot of money to feed pigs trash. So they buy some wiggle room on the regulations, make a half assed attempt at cleaning it, pay people to say it's negligible or come up with some reason why it's okay, pay some more people to green wash it as "well it saves food waste!", then just have at it. The amount of money they'd spend to feed them real food far outweighs the cost of lobbying and misinformation campaigns.

[–] Nacktmull@lemm.ee 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

OP, please cross-post this to all the big news communities on lemmy. In the vegan bubble it wont have much of an effect.

[–] Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm actually a meat eater browsing all communities by Active and came across this so it's getting some outreach.

This is definitely going to make me buy more morning star bacon (ex girlfriend got me into it) and avoid bacon at restaurants.

EDIT: I was mistaken. It was cross posted to videos and that's what made it onto Active

While I appreciate you doing literally anything, it's not just pigs treated this way. The whole meat and dairy industry is full of shitty and inhumane practices.

https://watchdominion.org/

[–] amzd@kbin.social 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Legal limit of plastic in animal feed is 0.15% in the EU

A cow eats 25kg of dry food a day

25/100*0.15 = 0.0375kg = 37.5grams

A plastic bag weighs 6-8grams.

You are legally allowed to feed your cow 5 plastic bags a day (as a snack)

[–] Gladaed@feddit.de 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Legal limit doesn't mean you should do that. It means you must discard/waste the feed if it is violated.

Limits aren't guidelines.

Edit: a more sane policy for protecting consumers would limit the amount of plastic in meat. The nutritional value is 0 anyway.

[–] amzd@kbin.social 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

That limit is there for a reason. They found it acceptable to feed animals 0.15% plastic.

I personally think no plastic in food is acceptable.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

At this point, there will always be plastic in food whether put there intentionally or not. There's probably plastic in the water we use to water our gardens.

[–] amzd@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

You’re talking about micro plastics but that doesn’t add up to 40grams per day

[–] Gladaed@feddit.de 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So if a bag of a ton of feed were to rip you should be legally obligated to discard the feed? This seems excessively wasteful.

There are also limits on rodent poop in e.g. grains for this reason. Doesn't mean anybody puts poop in bread.

[–] amzd@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

That argument is nonsense as people are intentionally putting plastic in feed as shown in the post you’re commenting on and in many news articles.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Im curious how conservatives will defend this.

[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

that’s so sad. is this how they get the microplastics in?

[–] Szymon@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

Gotta make sure you have a generation ready to die of cancers over the next 40 years to drive pharmaceutical company profits somehow.

[–] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago

Dude, just fuck people

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can we assume all animal feed has similar regulations?

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago

Oh yeah, pet food is fucked up to all hell in the same way too.

One of the happy side effects of feeding the dogs I rescued a vegan diet (they're fine BTW, healthy as) is that their food is just food. I can eat it, no weird inferior ingredients etc. It wouldn't be healthy for me long term since I'm not a dog but I'm not feeding them ash and plastic which is in most pet feed.