supermarkets and restaurants come from animals raised in “confined animalfeeding operations.” These immense, highly mechanized facilities are the reasongrocery stores can carry a large stock of ground chuck or beef rib-eye at anaffordable price. But if shoppers knew how these animals were treated and whatthey were fed, they would find that the price tag on that package of groundround doesn’t reflect its true cost.
As the atrocities occurring at these factory farmsmake their way into the public consciousness, consumers and farmers alike arejoining a growing revolt against industrial agriculture by supportingtraditional farming practices, like keeping cattle home on the range.
The life of a steer raised within the ag-industrialcomplex goes something like this: After it’s born, a calf is sent from a barnto a pasture sprayed with synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. When it ishalf-grown, the cow is shipped in an exposed truck or railcar to an enormousfeedlot. There, packed ass-to-elbow with other animals, it is stuffed with ahigh-energy grain diet and synthetic hormones to make it grow faster.
To cut costs, feedlot managers supplement thecattle’s feed with cheap fillers, like municipal garbage, chicken feathers,sawdust and stale chewing gum still in its aluminum foil wrapper. Biologically,cows are ruminants that thrive on a diet of fibrous grasses, plants and shrubs,so when they are fed grain, let alone aluminum foil, it’s like pumping dieselinto a car that takes unleaded gasoline. Their digestive tracts become moreacidic, giving them chronic stomach pain that causes them to kick at theirbellies and eat dirt.
Because of the unsanitary conditions it’s living inat a factory farm, the cow is administered nontherapeutic doses of antibiotics.Once it’s been fattened, the cow is trucked again, this time to aslaughterhouse, where it is butchered and shrink-wrapped.
It was only after World War II that the United Statesbegan confining cattle in factory farms. Until then, cattle grazed from birthto market on their native diet of grassas they still do in most of Europe,South America and New Zealand. Because the cattle are raised in anatural setting and at a natural pace, they lead low-stress lives where the useof antibiotics and growth hormones is unnecessary.
Some people will argue that animals are animals:They’re meant to be eaten and we shouldn’t expect them to be raised by humanstandards. Yet the quality of their meat directly affects human consumers.
When animals are 100% grass-fed, their meat has lesstotal fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories than feedlot meat. It’s alsohigher in omega-3 fatty acids, the healthy fats found in salmon and flaxseed,which studies suggest may help prevent heart disease and bolster the immunesystem. It also has more conjugated linoleic acid, which recent data indicatemay help prevent breast cancer and diabetes, among other ailments. In addition,it contains more vitamin E, beta-carotene and vitamin C than grain-finishedmeat.
More important is what 100% grass-fed meat doesn’tcontain. In the 1980s and ’90s, feedlot managers tried to save money by feedingcattle the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal, whichresulted in an epidemic of mad cow disease. Eating just one serving of beeffrom a cow suffering from the disease can kill a person. The overuse ofantibiotics in factory farming has caused more and more bacteria to becomeresistant to treatment. In addition, the acidity of a cow’s stomach caused froma diet of grain breeds an acid-resistant form of E. coli that can spread from feces-contaminated carcasses to meatwe eat.
We need to end our society’s habit of learninglessons the hard way. Raising our livestock on the least-cost basis common offactory farms puts our health and the well-being of animals at risk. Whenconsumers choose to buy products from animals raised on open pastures withfresh air and sunlight, where they can feast on a natural diet of grass, theyare improving animals’ welfare, maintaining environmental sustainability,supporting family farms and serving wholesome food to their friends andfamilies.
