I love to hunt and love to eat venison. My kids have been raised on it. I have always taken pride that the deer I eat lived a healthy life in the woods and fields. A better life than the cows that provide beef sold in the stores.
Lately I have started to re-think my views on meat quality. I sit and watch the neighbors fields get sprayed and sprayed with chemicals. We live in the midwest so our deer feed on corn and soybeans.
I am a homesteader and work hard to grow non chemically treated veggies, organic chickens and eggs. Then I feed my kids venison grown on genetically altered chemically treated crops. Feels a bit strange.
I do believe that my hunting is essential to help keep my local deer herd healthy and in check so I am in NO WAY saying we should not hunt! Just wondering about meat quality and health. Anyone else have this concern? Thoughts?
Good questions. I hunt the west coast, so don't have to deal with the GMO corn issue, but I have often thought of it as I plan to re-hunt whitetails again in the near future. I was raised on venison and always thought beef tasted funny growing up. And that was long before the gmo feed and massive amounts of hormones. Now with the way some of us go out of our way to eat only organic free range raised animals, could it possibly be that game animals are less healthy? I'm hoping someone with more knowledge of the situation can chime in. This is very a interesting topic to me.
We now have cwd and rite in the area I mainly hunt.
I haven't read up on I much but it is a concern. When I seem your post I thought you was from pa. Cause it's a big thing now. Last year they started seeing cases. Has allot of folks worried.
I don't know how animals process these chemicals in there bodies,or how much of it gets in the meat. I've thought about the water they drink also. I know they talk about fish that get larger in the sea like tuna having higher levels of mercury. I think this stuff is just all over today,it's the world we live in. I think the more careful you are you will get less,but are always going to be ingesting something that's not good for your body.
Definitely this is a concern. My brother in law hunts here in central PA and also in Iowa, and there is a visible difference in the color and fat content of the meat (from the grain-based vs greens-based diet). There is no doubt in my mind that this translates to the chemical composition and nutrition of the meat.
Still wouldn't keep me from eating it though, like all things, in moderation.
I think that your concerns are very valid. I personally feel that 90% of cancers, diseases, and problems that both people and animal are caused by the crap we do to our food and water. Its a shame it is this way and that you and all of us have to deal with this. Makes me wonder how our children's children will remain healthy. But I would hope that the lower amounts of toxins we get thru wild meat would help us build an immunity towards them. That's how I justify it in my mind. I need to eat meat and think its a requirement for healthy living. And from the meat choices we have available I will take venison over beef any day and still believe that is the safer healthier choice.
This is a great thread and extremely important. It's bad enough we have to worry about GMO supermarket foods. Now comes "Attack of the Monsanto-Deer!!" LOL. I dunno. More urban deer seem a definite concern. I wonder if the more rural stock has got to be better than what we buy in the meat section by a long ways? I hope so anyway.
I agree this is interesting, but I have another thought regarding possibly tainted venison. If there were any validity to this, why haven't the rabid anti-hunting crowd jumped on the bandwagon? It would seem this to be a perfect tactic to slow down or even ban hunting in some areas.
I look at it this way: The beef animals are having the stuff fed directly to them. The deer still eat a variety of plants, including natural materials like acorns, nuts etc.
You are still better off with the venison.
I agree with dirtguy, I believe if you are putting up your own food rather it's vegetable's or your own meat and or fruits, your better off.
Now if I see a sick deer cow, squirrel or whatever no thanks. Like the say knowledge is power so if we know how to provide our own food even if it comes from a store and its fresh its better. If we rely on other to put in a box it's probably not that good for you.
Katie, our deer meat has to be way better than any store bought meat. I understand where you coming from.
Like other have said corn/beans are only part of what they eat.
doug77
QuoteOriginally posted by dirtguy:
I look at it this way: The beef animals are having the stuff fed directly to them. The deer still eat a variety of plants, including natural materials like acorns, nuts etc.
You are still better off with the venison.
x2.
Well, what are you gonna do? It's still has to be way better than the beef that gets fed on that stuff at the feedlot plus other additives.
I agree that they have a varied diet and that helps. My set-up allows me to raise grass fed beef it I choose. That is where my questions arise. I would much rather hunt my red meat than raise it;) Just wondering if raising my own beef would be healthier. :campfire:
Yes raising you own would be better, but you have to buy orgarnic(sp) calves/cows to start with and they are not cheap.
doug77
I need to get one first, then I'll worry about what he's been eating. I got skunked last year, hopefully I'll have something to worry about this year.
I'm just being light, I think your concerns are valid and like others have said the issue is much bigger than what the deer are eating. I also agree that even if the deer are feeding heavily at times on treated crops their meat is still healthier than commercial beef, if nothing else at least it's leaner.
I to have thought about this. I love the idea of completely organic, untainted meat, but I'm not sure it's even possible. Most water sources nowadays have at least some contamination. acid rain; even our air is not as clean as it once was.
Now that I've upset everyone, the upside: Deer are browsers by nature, and most of the year eat more native plants than anything else. I say eat as clean as you can and be happy. Venison is much leaner than beef also.
Would you be able to feed your stock 100% on organic grown feed, or would there be times you had to supplement their intake with "other" feeds. Lets say you feed our stock with 100% organically grown feed. What about rain runoff from the surrounding area? It will contain some contaminates also. We can scare ourselves to death worrying about this kind of stuff. The deer are healthier by a long shot than the beef in the market (even what they call 'organic beef'). It's part of the world we now live in and it's not going away. If someone is on a public water supply that is getting it's source from surface water, there are pharmaceuticals in there that would give you pause every time you raised a glass of water to your lips. Fortunately, right now it is listed as parts-per-billion in concentration. I talked to a Phd at a local University with a serious agriculture department(and an avid hunter)about wild game and he indicated that the data he'd read did not make him give up his venison or other game animals. Maybe in another twenty to fifty years we'll all have something to be concerned about. The water supply, whether it be surface water or ground water under the influence of surface water (GWUISW) is a great indicator of precursers we need to be immediately concerned about. I guess we have to ask ourselves if we are comfortable enough with our wild game to continue eating it. I truly believe it is hands-down much safer than 99.9% of the beef, pork and chicken (especially chicken) available at the market.
Of all the things that I eat, venison and wild meat is the least of my worries.
ChuckC
I have never understood what the genetic alteration actually does to the grain and subsequently to the meat of animals that feed on it. What are the health hazards?
QuoteOriginally posted by Sam McMichael:
I have never understood what the genetic alteration actually does to the grain and subsequently to the meat of animals that feed on it. What are the health hazards?
The way I understand it - we don't know....That's the problem. Just like we burned ethyl gasoline for years before we realized we were getting lead poisoning, and smoked cigarettes for years before we realized we were getting cancer, we could be doing something to ourselves by eating GM food that we may not realize for years. OTOH, it might be fine.
Sam, one of the main issues is that animals like cows and deer are ruminants. Unlike other mammals, they digest food by essentially fermenting (or ruminating) it in their stomachs. "Sweet" foods like grains turn sour in their stomachs and can cause health problems and change the composition of their meat (especially in terms of the balance of Omega 3/Omega 6 fatty acids). This is very well documented in cattle, and I'd wager it can be seen in farmed deer herds as well. These animals simply are meant to eat green, leaf-based diets (sometimes supplemented by grains etc.), not diets dominated by grains. This occurs whether or not GMO's are present.
There are many reasons why animals that eat grain-based diets have meat that is fattier and gain weight faster (and the opposite is generally true of wild game or grass-fed meat livestock). The availability of grains in the Midwest has certainly contributed to the monstrous bucks that live there.
The above is of course a simplification, and there are many factors one could consider when choosing what to eat or what not to eat. Wild deer are probably more wholesome than other options, but the quality of their meat is certainly affected by their feed.
Great conversation!
Ya gotta die of something! I'll take my chances with venison. Cattle other than those grown on my farm and others like me are pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and I'm sure the deer aren't!
I guess you could always hunt in the wilderness areas???
wish I had something constructive to add.
Your store bought meat, be it chikn', pork or beef(salmon too for the most part) has been shot full f growth hormones and anti-biotics, not so our deer.
Freshwater fishermen are watching studies showing fish turning up with confused sex identities, thought to be from flushed birth control pills or urine from women using them... lots still unknown there.
Our midwest deer will run into pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer, but not the other stuff. I won't throw up my hands and say there's nothing we can do, but I will take what precautions I can.
Eat it. It's fine.
Hey, I like the idea of having all my food be "organic" too (I hate that term because just about everything is organic - if it has carbon in it, its an organic compound - even pesticides are organic compounds). But the truth is that the world's population could not exist on "organic" food alone - and we would have to lose a lot more of our hunting grounds if we tried.
There's really no evidence that "organic" foods are any healthier. Check out this link
http://healthpolicy.stanford.edu/news/stanford_study_shows_little_evidence_of_health_benefits_from_organic_foods_20120904/
So eat that deer and enjoy it.
Yep - venison probably isn't contaminated by hormones or antibiotics. A big plus!
More on the GMO side note for those that are interested: http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=13-P13-00025&segmentID=1
From the bottom of that page you can download a PDF version of the full scientific report, if you're into that sort of thing. :)
Isn't it true that wild game does NOT have fat-marbled meat?
Their fat is all on the outside of their meat, or between muscle groups?
I do my own deer processing and always have. I trim all the deer fat off the animal possible because deer fat will...WILL turn rancid in the freezer!
Sarah's point about being ruminants is interesting. But wild animals don't survive long without balance. Unlike domesticated animals that lost all God'-given common sense, I'd think (hope?) that deer and other wild game "sense" when their diet is out-of-whack and eat what is best for them.
Having said that, some years go, pheasants (when we still had them in PA) carried a warning, as they birds were following behind corn PLANTERS and eating mercury treated grains (to prevent rotting in the soil before sprouting) and had mercury in their fat... so it was advised that one cook them on a trivet and throw away the broth! :eek:
That was freaky...but alas, no longer a concern as wild-bred birds are pretty much gone with clean farming!
Remove the fat and many risks are abated!
Doc is right about removing the fat. The storage of toxins in fat cells is a biological "defense mechanism" to remove the toxins from the bloodstream. Removing as much fat as possible is a good way to avoid eating the toxins that may be stored there.
Source: My mother is a nutritionist. This is the kind of stuff we talk about on a daily basis. :)
My concern is more about spring and early summer deer, ie: roadkill, because that is when the vast majority of the herbacides and pesticides, and some fungicides are sprayed on crops and trees. I was raised on a crop farm/ orchard and had the license to do so many years ago.
With that said the liver will filter out much of these contaminants so I don't think I would want to eat the liver in those months. Good thing I don't enjoy liver. By the time this time of year rolls around about the main spraying that would be done is herbacides to kill off grasses to make way for something else to be used for that area. I doubt that this is prevalent for the lyon's share of farms in a deer's range.
On the other side of the coin; I would be much more concerned about too much meat from deer consuming treated lawn grasses all summer.
What can ya do...... :dunno:
Dont eat the liver!!!!
QuoteOriginally posted by Todd Cook:
I to have thought about this. I love the idea of completely organic, untainted meat, but I'm not sure it's even possible. Most water sources nowadays have at least some contamination. acid rain; even our air is not as clean as it once was.
Now that I've upset everyone, the upside: Deer are browsers by nature, and most of the year eat more native plants than anything else. I say eat as clean as you can and be happy. Venison is much leaner than beef also.
Actually our air is much cleaner than 150 years ago. How do you think they heated homes and factories? Where do you think the tannery chemicals went?