Food and Happiness. Alimentación y Felicidad

There is no doubt that in Europe food is a pleasure. Who does not enjoyed every meal everyday?? Eating is not only sth we have to do to survive, it is sth we make us happy. You cooked something last night and you bring it for lunch at work, preety usual right?? also, you think about your fantastic lunch several times that morning and then it is lunch time and you really fancy your meal. So typical... it is a pleasure not only cos of the meal but also it is due to the lunch moment, the conversation with folks, the coffee you take at the end..., it is probably one of the moments you really enjoy at work (of course you love your job, but you need a break). The conclusion I get is that food and the event surrounding the event makes me feel good.
But, are we making our food happy?? I mean, are our poultry, cows, porks... happy? Some years ago we use to bring them up more naturally, in freedom, without cages, without so much antibiotics, hormons..., we used to feed them with natural stuff like grain, grass... I really think they were happier than now and the most important healthier. "you are what you eat" I've heard this so many times. And it is truth. It has been scientifically demonstrated that some of the antibiotics or hormons we feed them, we end up eating them. A particular case is the clembuterol (officially forbiden in Europe but still allowed in the States). Clembuterol makes beef put on weight, retaining liquids in the muscles. Unfortunatelly not only beefs put on weight with it, but also does people. Another case are the antibiotics. Doctors are detecting from many years ago that we are becoming resistant to many antibiotics and when we really need them, they dont work.
"Infecciones como las provocadas por Salmonella o por la Escherichia coli podrían adquirir proporciones epidémicas de no brindarse a los granjeros otra forma de cuidar a sus animales.El comité Asesor de Seguridad Alimentaria del Reino Unido ha observado que algunas variantes de la Salmonella no responden ya a los antibióticos en un 95% de los casos. Otros trabajos científicos citaron en el pasado la del tipo Typhimurium DT104, muy infecciosa y difícil ahora de curar. Hace 20 años sólo un 5% de los pacientes tenía problemas similares. Lo mismo ha ocurrido con algunas de las infecciones hospitalarias más comunes. Un 40% de las veces no responde ni siquiera a los tratamientos más fuertes, denominados de última generación." Source: www.elpais.com
All of that homones, antibiotics, and other garbage in the meat isn't very good for people. It turns out that the hormones in the meat cause estrogen levels to rise in people who eat it. Even though the EU won't allow it, the USDA insists that the rise in hormone levels is safe. Especially for children.
Many doctors maintain that things like elevated levels of oestradiol, a powerful sex hormone, in your beef can cause all sorts of problems, such as the increased levels of cancers in the prostate, breast, and ovaries. Incidence of these diseases have been rising since the 1950s as beef consumption, heart disease, and obesity have all skyrocketed.
We are growing up our poultry in 40cmX40cm cages, they can not move. we have our cows in feedlots, and in most of the cases, they even can not move. They eat, they shit and they drink in the same place. They are kinda reactors, we put an organic input (even rests of other animals!) and we obtain a waste (concentrated purins) and an acummulation factor ("meat"). Do you really think this meat is gonna be as delicious as meat from a Non cage chicken?? and healthier?? and what about their lives?? Are we so superior that we dont have to care about animals? Are we animals?? Who is becoming rich with this bussiness??? what do we win, just cheapest meat???

Maybe we forgot we are animals, we are part of the environment and we should care about it. It is not weird that things like Creutzfeldt-Jakob illness happen.
Lets make them "happier" and we also will be for sure.