How much arsenic is in your brand?

www.iatp.org/documents/playing-chicken-avoiding-arsenic-in-your-meat
Have you ever wondered how much arsenic is in the chicken YOU buy?  How about at your favorite fast food place?  This report shows many popular brands and how they tested for arsenic.  Check it out!

Lego Llamas Return win regional tournament! We're going to state!

We had an awesome time at our regional tournament.  We met so many kids, saw a lot of cool robots and the day was made even better because we won the research and core values portions of the tournament!  We also came in 2nd in programming!   We know our hard work has only begun because we are going to the state tournament in January.  So we will continue to talk to legislators about our bills and get more information on arsenic in chicken. Plus we are making some changes and refinements in our robot.  Lots to do!  Check out the photo from the great time we had at the FLL regional tournament last Saturday.

Last Lego Llama practice before the Food Factor Challenge Competition

Here are some photos from our practice tonight.  We all got together and practiced our missions, our presentation and ate pizza.  Then some of our parents and brothers and sisters arrived and we showed them a few of our missions and did the presentation for them.  They asked lots of questions.  I think we are ready.  We are excited to compete tomorrow and see what all the other teams are doing.  We will keep you posted on how the day turns out!

Meeting with Rep. Joe Atkins

On Wednesday we met with Representative Joe Atkins to share our presentation and find out more about how legislation is passed in MN. He was great and gave us lots of information. He has passed a ton of bills in MN and can really help us. One of the things he told us is that it's much easier to pass legislation for consumer warning lables than it is to get a ban. We'd still like a ban on arsenicals but will probably start with trying to get legislation for consumer warning labels. Who would buy chicken that said "warning- may contain toxic levels of arsenic"?? Rep. Atkins even helped us get started by drafting two bills for us- one for a warning and one for a ban. We were really surprised! Stay tuned. We have our competition tomorrow and then hope to get to work on the legislation for a warning label.

Want to know more about a Free Range Chicken farm?

Check out this link to High View Pastures.  http://www.highviewpastures.com/pasturechickens.htm

High View Pastures is a good example of chickens raised without arsenicals.  These chickens do not need antibiotics because their immune system is not stressed.    They get their rich flavor from clover and alfalfa pastures.            

IATP petitions FDA to make new standards for arsenic in meat!

Check out this link from the IATP (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy) - they  are trying to get arsenic levels in meat reduced.  This is our mission too!www.iatp.org/blog/201112/arsenic%E2%80%94it%E2%80%99s-in-animal-feed-too

Our Goal

In case you are wondering what we hope to accomplish by all of this, we want to ban arsenicals in chicken feed. We also want all farmers to go free range, because then you do not have to use any drugs to prevent or treat coccidiosis because cocci pathogens in the soil give chickens low level exposure to it, like a vaccine, and make chickens almost immune to coccidiosis. If you do keep your chickens inside there are safe drugs you can use to prevent and treat coccidiosis. There are also other ways to prevent it like roosting chickens on wire so they aren't sitting in their feces, keeping water hanging on wire so it can't spill, stirring litter frequently, and avoiding overcrowding. You do these thing so that the feces does not get eaten by chicken or get wet, because cocci spreads through feces and is killed by dryness. The government can give farmers a year and a small grant to get rid of their roxarsone supply and buy new materials. Since the farmers would need new cages we thought about starting a cage recycling program. If we cannot get a ban, we want a law requiring warning labels on chicken that has been treated with arsenic. But our goal is to get a ban! Europe stopped using roxarsone in 1999, and many other companies have banned it as well. Why can't we? 

Happy Thanksgiving/Angiogenesis

Happy Thanksgiving! Is your poultry arsenic free? And speaking of that...
So, you know that roxasone makes the meat look pinker. That is because of the growth of extra blood vessels; angiogenesis. Arsenic promotes angiogensis, but it also does the same thing to human cells. Angiogenesis occurs in/causes many diseases, including cancer. It causes cancerous tumors by supplying tumors with the extra blood they need to grow.

Did you know that more than 95% of the Roxarsone fed to chickens is excreted unchanged in chicken waste, which is regularly applied as fertilizer in surrounding farm fields and commercial fertilizer? And exposure to inorganic arsenic has been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and decline in brain function- arsenic is in Roxarsone. In chicken feed they put Roxarsone (an arsenic containing chemical used to promote growth, especially of the breast and to make the meat appear pinker and healthier in the grocery store). In the Roxarsone the arsenic starts out as organic arsenic but inside the chicken it turns into inorganic, which is much more concentrated and toxic!

Interview with farmer Mike Webb

We recently interviewed a farmer named Mike Webb and he taught us a lot of things like that his chickens will get coccidiosis at some point in their lives because it's a pathogen found in the soil. Also, he told us about how the meat roosters only live for 8 weeks before they go to the processor, while the laying hens live for 2 years. We also found out that he uses this cool type of pen called a salaten pen. It's a 10x12 pen on skids that is able to move every day so the chickens can have a fresh piece of land every day for catching grasshoppers, grass, and other bugs.

A little bit about the Lego Llamas Return

We are doing this project for Lego League and this year the theme is food safety. We chose this topic of arsenic in chicken feed after one team member read about it in a book called

 "The Compassionate Carnivore" by Catherine Friend. This is the second year the four of us have been together on a team. We're excited to educate and inform you about how arsenic in chicken feed can affect the humans who eat the chicken. Stop back often for new information.

Are you dying to eat chicken? (U.S.)

Are Americans dying to eat chicken? This is our first blog about arsenic in chicken, and throughout the next month or so, we will be posting blogs about this major poultry industry bedate. The overview: Most modern day factory farmers feed their chickens roxarsone, whick is a antibiotic that prevents coccidiosis, which is a fatal disease among chickens. This roxarsone contains organic arsenic, but inside the chicke, it changes to highly toxic inorganic arsenic. Arsenic is a heavy metal, known to cause cancer, and when inorganic is HIGHLY toxic to whoever consumes it whether directly eaten or absorbed, or breathed in. Roxarsone is a chemical additive used by the poultry industry - they say they need it to treat dsease, but actually it allows the industry to grow chickens with more meat in a shorter time, and because it seems to make the meat look pinker. But it's also dangerous to public health and the enviroment.

Some info from: http://www.foodandwater.org/