A Cow Story

[Rebecca]

Quick, picture a cow in your mind…what do you see? If you’re like most people, you’ll picture a cow contentedly grazing in an endless expanse of green grass.

Cows have eaten grass ever since the first cows walked the face of the Earth. This is because they are ruminants. Ruminants eat GRASS. Their digestive systems are designed specifically to digest GRASS.

What happens when you feed a ruminant grains? They gain weight really fast. That’s also what happens when you eat a lot of grains. The problem with a ruminant eating grains is that it makes them sick and quite bloated. So bloated in fact that a hose must be put down their esophagus to relieve the pressure or the cow will die. Of course this causes some amount of stress on the poor cow. The cow also becomes much more prone to disease. Stress and incorrect diet have a tendency to do that. So now we have a fat, miserable, sickly cow who is then given massive amounts of antibiotics just to keep it alive until it can get to the slaughterhouse. Millions of pounds of antibiotics are added to animal feed in the US every year. Animals get more antibiotics than people, and people get a LOT.

An interesting thing about these antibiotics is that they a) screw up the animals intestinal flora, and b) cause antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria to flourish. Even more interesting is that they do the same thing to YOU.

This here picture is of a typical feedlot. These animals are crowded together, fed corn and other far grosser stuff like chicken litter (feces, feathers and bedding) blood, ground up pigs and chickens and of course “downed” animals (just guess), supplemented with antibiotics, and possibly artificial growth hormones.

Corn also causes the rumen to become unnaturally acidic which causes all kinds of problems including diarrhea, bloat, ulcers, liver disease, and weakening of the immune system that leaves the cow vulnerable to other diseases. As the acids cause deterioration of the rumen wall, bacteria enter the bloodstream and collect in the liver causing abcesses.

A corn-fed cow also has a new, acidic environment in its digestive track, unlike the alkaline environment of the grass-fed cow (its natural diet, remember?) Guess what grows well in this acidic environment?
If you guessed:
Escherichia coli 0157 (thats the one that can make people really sick or even dead)
and who wouldn’t …. ? You guessed correctly!!! Oh and there are a few more problems with corn-fed cows::

Measurable amounts of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengesterol acetate, all hormones, are found in meat!
These chemicals do not biodegrade, they simply stay around forever causing proven sexual abnormalities in animals and humans.
OK while we’re on a roll here let’s a look at fat. Specifically the fat from a corn-fed versus a grass-fed cow.

Grass-fed cows produce 300 to 400% more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a natural and very beneficial fatty acid which your body requires for many purposes, one of which is to fight inflammation. Corn-fed cows on the other hand have insignificant levels of CLA but high levels of omega-3 fat, which promotes heart disease.

Another consideration is the source of the corn, which is quite often GENETICALLY MODIFIED. You might just want to switch over to organic and grass-fed now…

Do you know how much of your supermarket meat is treated with carbon monoxide? Probably not, they don’t exactly display this information prominently. Or at all. I think they forget to tell you about the irradiation too. This is to keep filthy meat from sickly cows nice and sort of sterile. Did I mention growth hormones?

All of this pertains to pigs, chickens, turkeys etc, and you can watch the following video (if you can stomach it) to give you some idea of not only the filth and poisons you are ingesting with your meat, but the cruelty involved in the promotion of feedlot animals.

OK, I am not trying to discourage anyone from eating meat, although most of us could cut down. Everybody must make their own personal choices here. I do eat some meat, lots of farm fresh eggs, and I drink only raw milk from grass-fed cows. The thing is, you want to get your meat, eggs, and dairy (milk, ice cream, cheese, etc) from FREE ROAMING GRASS-FED animals. Well in the case of poultry they do eat bugs and some seeds and grain. LETS BOYCOTT THE FILTH, CRUELTY AND TOXINS FROM FEEDLOT ANIMALS. Here are some good books to read:

Pasture Perfect

Fish, Meat and Poultry: Dangers in our Food Supply

[Emett]

So much GM corn and soy just for the cows and the pigs! It's just terrible. All a needless waste because people want to eat some bacon and some beef, and other people want to make as much money as possible selling them more, creating it faster and cheaper, selling them on the idea of more, selling Americans and others on the "need" for meat. Sadly, since it tastes good, and people get hungry, its an easy sell. Please, people of the world: buy less meat and seafood, and avoid all "cheap meat." The true cost is hidden...