THE SALMONELLA EGG RECALL: ANIMAL WELFARE AND HUMAN HEALTH

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Air date:

Mon, 09/27/2010 - 12:00am

The health hazards of factory farms - for animals and people

This past summer half a billion salmonella-tainted eggs were recalled. It turns out that these eggs were raised at huge factory farms in Iowa, where up to 300,000 hens are crammed into cages in filthy, rodent-infested sheds. The salmonella scare has made many people think twice about eating eggs, but according to Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, it's not eggs that people should fear but the disease-ridden conditions in factory farms where these eggs are produced. This week on Locus Focus we talk with Dr. Greger about how industrial-scale factory farms impact the health and well-being of people as well as the animals confined in these operations.

Dr. Michael Greger is director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture in the farm animal welfare division of the Humane Society of the United States. A physician specializing in clinical nutrition, Greger focuses his work on the human health implications of intensive animal agriculture, including the routine use of non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth hormones in animals raised for food, and the public health threats of industrial factory farms. He also works on food safety issues, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and plays a role in The HSUS's efforts to analyze and shape public policy concerning agriculture and nutrition.

Greger has been an invited lecturer at universities, medical schools and conferences worldwide. He is the author of "Heart Failure: Diary of a Third-Year Medical Student" (2000), "Carbophobia: The Scary Truth About America's Low-Carb Craze" (2005), and "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching" (2006).