Who dies first? The chicken or the egg – or you?
Where does salmonella come from? Maybe your Egg McMuffin?
The McMuffin part is delicious, the egg could kill you! (photo courtesy blog-tmcnet.com)
McDonald’s Egg McMuffin ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Because there are dead chickens in the hen house – and rats and flies and bugs. And the egg producers (not McDonald’s), recycle the dead birds into the feed, which goes into the chicken, which goes into the eggs, which goes into you, and then … surprise! Salmonella! If you’re lucky you just get sick from serious trauma in your digestive track. If you’re really unlucky you go into cardiac arrest. But the odds are in your favor because we’re talking about only a “few” bad eggs (no one knows how many) among hundreds of millions. There are over 280 million laying hens in the US, each laying more than 250 eggs a year. That’s a lot of eggs. So go ahead, have another Egg McMuffin. Or an egg custard or a big breakfast at your local restaurant.
What's in your breakfast? (photo courtesy dailyfitnessmagz.com)
What are the chances? Slim. But not slim enough for McDonald’s, who didn’t hesitate, yesterday (Dec. 13, 2011), to dump their big egg supplier, Sparboe Farms of Iowa. McDonald’s discovered a huge problem – for you. An undercover video, provided by ABC 20/20 and filmed by a member of Mercy for Animals (an animal rights group), exposed what no egg supplier wants you to see. And what no useless government agency or diligent corporation could uncover. Everybody needs to see this video. It’s about seven minutes long but could save you seven weeks or seven months of illness. Or worse. Watch it, it’s good for your health. And watch ABC 20/20 scheduled to air Dec. 16, 2011. Or go to their web and see it in the archives.
Wanted: Dead or Alive. It's about cost efficiency, not whether the chicken is dead or alive. At least this dead sister is now outside the cage. (photo courtesy flickr)
The question is: Is your government and your friendly, fast food corporation looking out for your best interests or are they simply playing the odds with your health. Granted, they’re long odds for anyone, unless you’re the one that gets the bad egg. Then the odds are zero. Speaking of “zero.” How did you like in the video where Sparboe Farms said they adhere to a “zero tolerance” policy and “scientifically acceptable” standards – used in the same sentence as “cost efficient?” Do you fecken’ believe it (DYFBI)?” Do they think we’re stupid? We know it’s all about “cost efficiency” – nothing else. But they count on us to play the odds, roll the dice and order another plate of ” … two eggs, sunny side up.” Never thinking it might be us who goes “sunny side up and six feet under.”
"Hey take a closer look, it's me the chicken. I try and lay good eggs but it's tough under these conditions. Nobody gives a damn about me or the eggs. Or you for that matter. Be a vegetarian – please!" (photo: filthyorphan.com)
BTW, in the video, McDonald’s state that they are changing to another supplier. Oh, oh! Who? Did you notice that another big supplier, Wright County Eggs, also from Iowa, was the target of a 1/2 billion egg recall in the summer of 2010? They too have “a long record of violations.” And it mentions that two states ban the “battery caging” of chickens. Two? How about 42? Or 50 states?
So who do we trust to protect our family? A small animal rights group with a very clever secret agent? I don’t think so. How about this? Since two of the biggest companies who are breaking the most basic laws operate in Iowa and right now there’s a GOP election running in Iowa, let’s ask each candidate what they will do to eradicate this horrendously unsafe and totally unnecessary practice of “cost efficiency?” Of course, the odds of it becoming an election issue are about as long as the odds of you dying from salmonella – maybe? Send a link of this blog to your Congressional representative and ask them what comes first: The chicken, the egg or you?
Watch ABC 20/20. And also watch the film Food Inc. and read the book Fast Food Nation. You may never eat again. Or, at the very least, you might become a vegetarian. Today there is new health rule: Don’t eat it if it has a mother or a face. Of course, the politicians and egg-head, cost-efficiency managers will argue that an egg isn’t alive so it doesn’t have a mother or a face and furthermore, we don’t know which comes first – other than it’s not us.
“People are the worst”
Coming 2026
My personal history is the stuff they write books about. And that's what I am doing. The working title, "Chains of My Father: Marry White."
"The ghostly image of the tragic mulatto trapped between two worlds." - Barack Obama
This perspicacious line from the Prologue of Barack Obama's "Dream from My Father" wrenched my aspiration into action. I started writing, furiously. Unlike Obama's perspective, my pain had been for the opposite reason: I was not seen by whites as a "tragic mulatto," rather I lived every day of my childhood hoping whites were not "searching my eyes for some telltale sign" that I WAS mulatto. This is my story.
It's historical fiction because I cannot find enough records to substantiate all facets of the story. I've combed the genealogy, traveled to my father and grandmothers' birthplace, walked the graveyards, searched the churches and ... well, all the facts aren't there. I have written three books based on the genealogy of other families but my ancestors emerged from a journey that left too few records – slavery.
My paternal, great grandmother was a "freed slave." My grandmother, Amelia, was born to a mixed race slave named Mary (we do not know her last name) and a white, French plantation owner, the Count de Poullain, in Grenada, West Indies. Amelia was raised in the "Big House" and in adulthood, in an attempt to escape her black heritage disowned her mother, telling her, "Get out and never come back." Amelia, as a mother of twelve children, enshrined into the family commandments, "Marry white." Many did, including my father. My mother was a lovely, white, Anglo-Saxon protestant born in England. They met in Canada where my dad studied and became a doctor.
It has taken five generations for the descendants of Mary to free themselves from the stigma of their black heritage but today my children embrace it. Unfortunately, the past 250 years have been a wasteland of bigotry, racism and bullying. But, on closer look, we see not only the brutality, fear, violence, and murder but also the self-respect, dignity, love, kindness, perseverance and indomitable spirit.
As of the spring of 2025, the depth of historic perspective and the sweeping inspiration of oppressed people has created a two-volume duology of which I have only arrived at the middle of the 19th century. 1840 is the year my great grandfather was born, the beginning of Volume II, and he's pushing me to make sure our story is published by the summer of 2026.
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