HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '91, 1991-03-20, Page 23Farming '91
FARMING ’91, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1991. A23.
Livestock boon to environment as top recyclers
Reduce, reuse and recycle are
the three ‘Rs’ of the nineties.
Richard Johnson believes that live
stock are the best recyclers on
earth.
“Livestock are the most innova
tive recycling mechanisms that
we’ve ever come up with,” says
Johnson, Head of Soils Branch of
the Alberta Environmental Centre.
“They convert vegetable matter,
indigestible by humans, into a high
quality protein food. Then the
waste, mostly as bedding and
manure, goes back into the soil to
nourish it.”
According to Johnson, loss of
topsoil is a critical environmental
problem. “But what people don’t
realize,” he says, “is that the
solution to this problem lies in
perennial forage crops, grown to
feed livestock.” Johnson points out
that grasses, alfalfa and clover,
used either as pasture or as feed,
increase soil nutrients and water
retention to maintain rich topsoil.
When it comes to “reuse”,
livestock production is second to
none. Cattle, sheep and hogs
derive nutrients from our waste.
Less than half of our field crops are
edible by humans. The leaves,
stem and chaff of crops, along with
by-products from food processing,
such as flour, malt and sugar beet
operations, are fed to livestock.
Livestock processing is a model
of waste management because very
little is wasted. Every part of the
animal is reused. “We’re all
familiar with wool and leather
products,” notes Gail Royle of
Canada Packers, “but the number
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and diversity of everyday items
which use animal by-products
would surprise most people.”
•Edible oils are used to make
shortening and frying oils.
•Tallow from rendered fat pro
vides the cosmetic industry with
glycerin for lipstick, face and hand
creams, soaps, shampoos and
toothpaste.
•Inedible fats also are used in
detergents, liquid soaps, fabric
softeners, candles, tires, adhes
ives, crayons, chalk, explosives,
inks and matches.
•Gelatin from bones and hog
hides is an important ingredient in
many foods including marshmal
lows, ice creams and gelatin pro
ducts. It’s also used in animal
feeds, dog chews and in the
production of photographic film.
LIFE-SAVING SOURCE
Livestock are the source of
hundreds of life-saving and life
improving drugs. “Certainly insul
in is one of the more high profile
drugs derived from livestock,”
says Jan Eno, Director of Research,
Education and Services for the
Canadian Diabetes Association.
According to Eno, one-third of
Canada’s 500,000 diagnosed diabe
tics take insulin. “Prior to the
1980s, people with diabetes relied
totally on insulin supplies extracted
from beef and pork pancreas,”
states Eno.
She further explained that to
day’s improved technology has
developed a method of producing
insulin more closely resembling
that of humans’. This newer “hu
man pattern insulin” accounts for
about half of the insulin market.
The remaining half continue to use
animal insulin.
Other drugs made from animal
extracts are used in cancer re
search. in the treatment of aller
gies, anemia, respiratory diseases,
thyroid irregularities and in the
control of blood coagulation during
operations.
“Reduce” has been the watch
word of the meat industry for more
than a decade, most noticeably in
the reduction of fat. Beef today is
50 per cent leaner than it was 10
years ago. Recent nutrient tables
released from Health and Welfare
Canada show pork to be 23 per cent
leaner. This lean trend reduces the
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don’t empty it.
Talk to the
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amount of fat that goes into our
bodies and the amount scraped into
the garbage.
Changes at the packer and retail
levels have reduced ‘plate waste’
considerably. Twenty years ago
very few boneless cuts were found
at the retail counter. Today 75 per
cent of retail meats have had the
bone removed and reused for
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animal feeds. The fat trim has been
reduced from more than 1/2 inch to
1/8 inch in most chains. Much of
the internal seam fat also is
removed. All these improvements
translate into less household gar
bage.
Reduce, reuse, recycle ... when
it comes to the three ‘Rs’, the meat
industry deserves a passing grade.