A number of my readers buy eggs from us. We have 22 chickens, two guinea hens, and one rooster. Be reassured--not one of them is fed arsenic.
I didn’t know this, but some chicken farmers have been feeding their chickens a drug known as 3-Nitro, or roxarsone, for years. The drug, which contains arsenic, kills intestinal parasites in chickens and makes the meat more pink.
Unfortunately roxarsone remains in the chicken poop, which is often used for fertilizer. From there the arsenic leaches into the water supply.
The F.D.A. recently did a study and also found roxarsone in chickens livers. (Arsenic, by the way, is a known carcinogen.) On the basis of that study, the drug company Pfizer has decided to stop the sale of roxarsone.
It is doubtful that the F.D.A. will be doing more studies like the one on roxarsone. The agency asked for $183 million in additional funds for food safety studies for next year. The House Republicans have proposed cuts of $87 million.
For more info on this go to <http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ProductSafetyInformation/ucm258313.htm>.
Good!!!
ReplyDeleteLike them eggs.