In America today, many farmers have resorted to taking short cuts when it comes to feeding and maintaining livestock in efforts to save money. We as consumers end up paying in the long run for the decisions that farmers make in sustaining these animals. The quality of meat is compromised, as well as the health of the animals when farmers choose to settle for less than what is necessary for the healthy upkeep of the livestock. The reasoning behind this is that farmers have become greedier. The alternative way of feeding the animals is the price we have to pay for their selfish decision. My project is based on the alternative feeding that farmers have found cheaper, rather than grass feeding that is essential for a cow’s healthy maintenance. I will discuss the consequences that we as consumers have to pay, and the effect that this cheap method has had on the cows we eat.
As the farming process developed over time, farmers began to see small changes they can make in everyday decisions to help them save money and time when it comes to production. One of the ways in which they made a compromise is in the feed of the cows. The original way a cow was and should be fed was through grass and perhaps grain. But when farmers decided to cut down on the feeding of grass to the cows, they chose to use methods of which many people don’t know of. Farmers began to use feed that contained high protein content. This meant using anything and everything they can find to simply toss into the food in effort to save money and time in the cow’s growth process. But these alternative feeding discoveries were soon found to prove that this method was not only harming the cows, but the people that ate the meat as well.
Cows have been fed grass from the very beginning of farming. Therefore a cow’s metabolism is meant to withhold only grass feedings. When asked about this issue, Steven P. Bjerklie an editor for the trade journal “Meat & Poultry”, said: [the cows] were designed to eat grass and, maybe, grain. I mean, they have four stomachs for a reason- to eat products that have a high cellulose content. They are not designed to eat other animals”. (Fast Food Nation: p202) This also leads to our other problem of feeding cows dead animals of all sorts. When farmers change the feeding methods, they compromise a cow’s health. This feeding process is what gave room to the spreading of diseases and made cows prone to sicknesses. This mistreatment of cows allows the meat we eat as consumers to be affected as well.
According to Eric Schlosser in “Fast Food Nation”, cows were fed things such as “rendered remains of dead sheep and cattle…[and] were also fed millions of dead cats and dead dogs every year, purchased from animal shelters.” (202). The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) actually approves of the feeding of things such as dead pigs and dead horses to be used when it comes to the cattle feed. Cattle blood has also been incorporated into the feed that American cows consume. Yet along with this is the insertion of growth-hormones, protein supplements and antibiotics in order to speed up the growth rate of the cows. Farmers have found that since using these methods of adding hormones, they can slaughter and process cows quicker in efforts to make money faster. Since the earlier productions of cows, the rate of a cow’s growth has gone up by 23% due to the use of such additives.
When cows are fed these alternative foods, they are found to be responsible for the widespread outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE a.k.a. mad cow disease) and E. coli O157:H7, amongst other diseases and sicknesses carried through the foods we buy and consume. An instance in which people have been affected by the harmful meat can be told in a story found in chapter 9 of “Fast Food Nation”. Eric Schlosser tells of a 6 year old boy named Alex Donley who died from the harmful effects of a tainted hamburger. This boy suffered from “abdominal cramps that seemed as severe as labor pains. It progressed to diarrhea that filled a hospital toilet with blood”. (200) The book then states that doctors tried to save his life by drilling holes into the boys head to release pressure, and place tubes into his chest to keep his breathing. This boy eventually died in less than a week from organ failure due to Shiga toxins from the tainted meat he consumed.
Stories like this are quite common in cases of E. coli O157:H7. According to Eric Schlosser in his article “Unsafe in Any Meal”, when it comes to children under the age of 5, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, “[they] face an elevated risk from food-borne pathogens such as listeria, campylobacter and salmonella”.
In “Fast Food Nation”, an interview was done on a government health official who compared the sanitary conditions in present day feed lots to a busy city in Europe during the middle ages in the way that health and sanitation was of no concern to people and which led to the spread of epidemics. The official goes on to say “You shouldn’t eat dirty food and dirty water, but we still think we can give animals dirty food and dirty water”. (202)
Since it is nearly impossible to inspect every feedlot and slaughter facility in the world, there have been multiple outbreaks of which we as Americans have not heard of. One in which was mentioned in the book “Fast Food Nation” was a case that occurred in January of 2001. In Europe, thousands of cows were contaminated with mad cow disease and a month later, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease spread throughout Great Britain. (271)
As outbreaks occur, many plants are forced to recall many products due to the diseases and outbreaks that occur because the lack of inspections of food. One incident told in “Fast Food Nation” required a plant to voluntarily recall 35 million pounds of ground beef produced by Hudson Foods in August of 1997. Yet by the time the recall was announced, about 25 million pounds of the beef had already been consumed. (195) However, this recall was not as large as the recall that occurred later on February 2008. Laurent Belsie included the story in her article in “The Christian Science Monitor” stating that “employees…drag[ed] so-called “downer” cows onto the killing floor. Federal officials determined the cows had not been properly inspected”. It had no problem taking the title of the biggest recall in American history recalling 140 million pounds of beef. This incident brought no lawsuits, but the two employees involved did face criminal convictions. The company eventually closed down as well.
Since the many outbreaks caused by tainted beef, companies have claimed to change their food-safety procedures. However, since the FDA shows no opposition to the feeding of dead animals to the cows we as humans consume, farmers see no wrong in using optional methods of feeding. Along with the feeding issues that bring bodily problems to the cows, there are also the lifestyle issues of the cows which affect their mental state and physical state as well. Farmers pack many cows into small locations and use tractors to roll them around on farms in some cases. We as consumers might not be aware of the problems since we are not closely linked to farms. Yet we are using this meet daily unknowingly to what extent the inspection of the cow went, and what conditions these cows have undergone.
The prevention of the infected beef has only gone as far as recalls. Several meat industries have announced the issues with their meat, yet the recalls sometimes aren’t enough to prevent the spreading of toxic foods. According to “Fast Food Nation” in the United States alone “everyday…roughly 200,000 people are sickened by a food-borne disease, 900 are hospitalized, and fourteen die”.(195) These are most likely Americans that have not been shown the conditions of which the meat is produced. Since farmers aren’t as thorough, or as careful as they used to be in the beginning when the meat inspection act was first passed in June of 1906. Farmers have now put their effort into saving money and producing goods quicker. In effort to produce meat quicker, a cows feeding habits are put aside for the selfish benefits of the farmers. Cows are forced to grow quicker at an abnormal rate, and Americans as well as other countries worldwide continue to consume and buy the meat.
In conclusion, the only way to prevent the spread of such diseases lies directly in the hands of the farmers. As consumers, one cannot simply stop the consumption of meat since it is essential for us as humans as well. Yet farmers keep this in mind and continue to slack in the production and inspection of meat. Perhaps it is not their intention to make consumers sick or give them illnesses, but one thing that is and should be clear to them are the alarming numbers in food-borne illnesses that affect people in the United States alone. These rates should be the drive to which they raise their standards in the treatment, upkeep, and feeding of cows. One can only wonder if the farmers are consuming the meat themselves.
Works Cited
Belsie, Laurent. "Egg Recall: Does It Rank with Other Major Food Recalls? - CSMonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2010. <http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2010/0823/Egg-recall-Does-it-rank-with-other-major-food-recalls>.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York, NY: Perennial, 2002. Print.
Schlosser, Eric. "Unsafe at Any Meal." NYtimes.com. Op-Ed Constributor, 24 July 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2010.
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