Anyone who has opened a newspaper or read a food blog recently knows that the majority of the beef we buy comes from industrial feed lots, or CAFO's, that cram thousands of head of cattle into tiny metal sheds and stuff them full of a hearty blend of corn silage, animal tallow, and of course delicious antibiotics. While this completely undigestible blend of chemicals and genetically-enhanced grain has been a standard in the industrial cattle industry for decades, the rising price of food, and by food I mean corn, has been skyrocketing, and these industrial feed lots have had to get creative in finding cheap and fattening commodities to replace the now too expensive corn.
So to all of you I present a report filed by the Wall Street Journal Online on August 27th, 2008, about what CAFOs are doing to inexpensively fill the void left by the corn they are no longer able to afford. Apparently, not only is it easier and cheaper to feed our kids junk food, but our feedlot cattle as well. Please enjoy.
Video-Farmers feeding cattle potato chips, M&M's
In the spirit of fairness, this report only interviewed one industrial feed lot owner, so it might be possible that this is an isolated case. But...Let's be realistic. It seems as though these feedlots are intent on feeding their cattle with ANYTHING except the grasses they were born to eat. Oh, but don't worry. They still get to snack on all of those tasty antibiotics. Thank goodness those are still so cheap.
Thanks are owed to the good people at We Like It Raw, where we first stumbled upon this story.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
What the %*^& is going on?
Posted by Joel at 7:37 PM
Labels: cattle, feedlot, m and m, potato chips
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7 comments:
Jeez, it's just getting more and more difficult to be a carnivore, huh? ;0 Bet ya this goes on everywhere in industrialized lots!
Eek! *Cringe* This gives new meaning to the principle that ignorance is bliss. In my household, we've been eating meatless meals 3-4 times per week for two years, and having read this piece, I can't say that I regret the change!
Sarah - Yeah, it's pretty messed up. Of ALL the normal things we could be feeding the cows, chocolate & potato chips? Seriously? Sadly, this is just the tip of a very large and scary iceberg. If there ever was a time to eat local, and even meatless, it is now. Thanks for stopping by!
I should probably be more alarmed, but meat's still too good to let something like this get to me.
Oh dear lord, there's just no end to human cruelty and stupidity, and greediness.
I have recntly posted about similar issues, here:
http://www.familyfriendlyfood.com/2008/12/with-respect-to-animals.html
and here: http://goodfoodandbadfood.blogspot.com/2008/12/can-we-eat-like-that-and-be-healthy.html.
We must post about these things! people need to know. Unfortunately, most people choose not to know.
Would you like to "guest post" this on my blog: http://goodfoodandbadfood.blogspot.com/ ?
let me know?
nurit AT familyfriendlyfood.com
Having read the problems that developed because farmers switched from grass to corn, ie. the cows stomaches became a lot more acidic to digest the corn, and now we are at greater risk for disease, becasue the disease that would previously been stopped by our stomachs more acidic envionment (relative to the cow's)are now able to thrive in a more acidic envonment and we are more exposed than ever to illness. Long way to get to the point, that this is an excellent and timely post.
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