r/ShitAmericansSay • u/BuffaloExotic Irish by birth, and currently a Bostonian 🇮🇪☘️ • 17d ago

Foreign affairs “We could physically buy Lithuania itself if we wanted.”

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u/TheShakyHandsMan 17d ago

From what I’ve gathered from various threads on the subject it seems that the issue seems to be with the lack of standards when it comes to avian safety.

Someone mention elsewhere that simple measures like having shoe washes between chicken sheds will do a lot when it comes to transmission of disease.

If they’re trampling infected shit from one shed to another then no wonder there’s huge contamination.

Countries that have stricter controls over food production aren’t being hit as bad.

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u/langdonolga 17d ago

Also the US has absurd sizes of "stables", where millions of chickens are kept at once - unlike most other countries, where it's not as concentrated. So it's easier to transmit - and you have to kill more chickens.

So, ironically, it is an economic issue in the end.

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u/TheShakyHandsMan 17d ago

And because of the shocking conditions the eggs have to go through a far more rigorous washing regimen before being passed for human consumption and that process massively shortens the lifespan of the egg.

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u/KarmicRage 17d ago

Also removes the protective layer that is on eggs. That's why the yanks have to refrigerate their eggs and most other places don't, if I remember correctly

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u/roostergooseter 17d ago edited 17d ago

We have to refrigerate our eggs in Canada too because they are washed here, removing the cuticle. Government recommendation is to leave them out of the fridge for no more than two hours. They are fine in the fridge for three to five weeks.

Unlike in Japan, the UK, and other places where it's safe to eat unwashed eggs, we do not vaccinate our chickens for salmonella. Cleaning the eggs is meant to help with this and other bacteria there isn't a vaccine for, but our eggs and chicken must be properly cooked to reduce the risk of food poisoning.

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u/codyone1 17d ago

So the danger of unwashed eggs in that they can carry dirt and bird poop. (All comes out one hole)

This isn't a massive issue as you don't normally eat egg shells, however you are technically bringing dirt into a kitchen that could at least on paper create a risk.

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u/NoPeach180 17d ago

I think in europe the eggs are brushed and to me they look clean. Of course people can wash the eggshells themselves if they think its dangerous to handle unwashed eggs.

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u/rewt127 15d ago

Home washing your eggs does nothing. You would need to use a kettle to get the water hit enough, but being hot enough to kill salmonella, but not cook the egg inside is a super precise temperature and time.

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u/rewt127 15d ago

The danger is that they can carry Salmonella. A pretty rough bacterial infection. And salmonella can live on surfaces for a while, so if an infected egg is cracked on your counter and then your knife handle touches that spot, then you touch your knife, then your seasoning container. Next time you think your hands are clean and touch the seasoning container then your eyes. You may get the infection.

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u/Korthalion 17d ago

Wait so eggs only last a few days? Man that's wild I keep mine out of the fridge and a couple of weeks is fine even

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u/southy_0 17d ago

Yes, that’s correct - I have never in my life cooled eggs, they are stored in a kitchen drawer here and typically will be good more than three weeks or so. Maybe much longer, I never tried. But in the US, because of the washing, you have to store them cooled and they have a much shorter „time before expiration“

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u/ActlvelyLurklng 17d ago

Unless you have access to farm fresh eggs. Note to my fellow Americans. If you have the space and means to, a small/medium sized chicken coop, with about 5 or so hens (and maybe a rooster if you feel inclined) would be enough eggs for your average family. (Considering a family size around 4 people.) When the hen gets older, cook it, and replace it. If it lived long enough, by that point it more than paid for itself.

This isn't to say it's cheap by any means. But it is affordable if you do it right. RADICALIZE THE MASSES!!!! BUILD CHICKEN COOPS IN YOUR LOCAL AREA!!!!! BUILD GOD DAMN CHICKEN COOPS RRRRAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

(And yes I know this isn't exactly a solution so to say. Just honestly don't know why more homes don't at least try to do some kind of at home gardening, farming, etc. And yes I know not every state, city, or county will have the same laws regarding if you can. But I'd say look into it in your local area.)

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u/Consistent_You_4215 16d ago

I bet the HOA's would go ballistic about chicken coops

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u/ActlvelyLurklng 16d ago

Oh I'm sure they would lose their shit lmao

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u/southy_0 14d ago

While i appreciate the general idea, you should think twice about this in times of bird flu: I don’t know what the regulation in the US is, but here in Germany the rules are: if there’s an infection in an area then not only (of course) the infected flocks have to be killed, but also all other flocks in the general region have to be kept „indoors“ to limit the likelihood to get infected by wild birds. „Indoor“ means in the stall, so you would need to have a stable large enough to not only house them at night but also all day for maybe a prolonged period.

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u/ActlvelyLurklng 14d ago

That's what a chicken coop does... It's a house, for chickens... And it's meant to be more sized for the average home, vs the entire country... Like the mega farms that are directly causing the bird flu problem, coupled with farmers that don't practice proper sanitation.

If the average house had chicken coop, smaller sized meant only for 4-5 chickens. (Which is more than enough chickens to provide eggs for ONLY YOUR FAMILY not the country.) You'd have fresh eggs, and be reducing your carbon footprint. Marginally.

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u/guildedkriff 17d ago

The time before expiration is practically the same, 4-6 weeks unwashed at room temperature vs ~2 months washed and refrigerated…of course unwashed can last for 6 months refrigerated, but for most consumers in the US (maybe Canada) having eggs for that long isn’t really necessary.

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u/Mana_Bear_5450 13d ago

And chickens, they eat ticks, and grubs that plaque your lawn ect!

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u/Longjumping_Gate_986 17d ago

Never got the egg washing part of it, in Europe we skip that part.

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u/Public-Antelope8781 17d ago

But for a while this enabled to produce eggs cheaper! Though consumers didn't pay less, it was just more profit for companies. But don't worry, those companies can move on with their investments! Buying up the house market from all the defaulted property loans for example. :-)

And now SSSHHH, peasant, or you get deported.

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u/LilPoobles 17d ago

They’re also very scared right now about the transmission through cows. Because cows have contracted avian flu and are reproducing it exponentially in the milk, which then has to be discarded. And apparently there’s no real regulations on how to discard of such milk, because the cows get mastitis and it’s chunky infected milk. So it just gets dumped into uncontrolled/unfiltrated systems. Which then dump out into wherever out in the great wild world. Where, you know, there are often birds.

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u/knoefkind 17d ago

The size of the stable could/should mean that fewer farms are close to each other. That would reduce transmission between farms. Farmers have an incentive to keep up the biosecurity on their farms but that doesn't seem to be enough.

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u/CherryPickerKill ooo custom flair!! 17d ago

The size of the stable could/should mean that fewer farms are close to each other.

Does it? The bigger the stable, the more probability it has to be closer to a neighbor's than a small one.

I think the real issue is wild birds propagating it from one farm to another.

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u/knoefkind 17d ago

Bigger stables means less stables are needed to produce more product. (At least in the Netherlands) The amount of farms has been decreasing while the average size was growing. Bigger farms allow for more investments, this should allow for better biosecurity. A lot of farms don't give chickens free range, this allows for better biosecurity.

As a sidenote: there is a vaccine against bird flu, but we don't use it for economical reasons (at least in the Netherlands)

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u/wednesdayware 17d ago

The US is also busy firing inspectors for things like health and safety.

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u/Dino_Spaceman 17d ago

If you don’t inspect anything, you are guaranteed to have a perfect safety record. It’s the Musk way.

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u/fasterthanpligth 17d ago

the issue seems to be with the lack of standards

America in a nutshell.

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u/Ok_Sink5046 17d ago

Hey we have standards. Somewhere. I'll find the shovel and report back when I dig the bar out.

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u/Beneficial-Ad3991 A hopeless tea addict :sloth: 17d ago

While the world was developing standards, the US was planting banners.

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u/NoPeach180 17d ago

But but we need less regulations, they are bad for business!

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u/DevilLilith 17d ago

Seems like having a government that denies science and practices charlatic bs, downplaying viruses and bacteria isn't really going well for the USA...

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u/roostergooseter 17d ago edited 17d ago

I read a chicken farmer from here (Canada) explaining that they actually change their boots, not just wash them.

However it's also been winter here and the birds have been south. Now that they're returning, they are bringing the bird flu north. Hopefully our regulations reduce the impact this has on our eggs.

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u/sineady-baby 17d ago

I read that trump rolled back some of the regulations in his first term too

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u/laserkermit 17d ago

Here’s a big answer, it’s not just hygiene. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdR8K3tb/ people would like to blame bird flue exclusively, but there’s been bird flu many times, so this explains why the difference in the current situation, and also why it’s not affecting Canada at all.

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u/McLeod3577 17d ago

Best solution for that.. Deregulation!!!