25 Dec 2003
Madness

The amount of sheer ignorance expressed by consumers (and by the reporters themselves) in this brewing brouhaha is nothing short of incredible.

For example, it is true that the USDA banned the use of downer cattle carcasses in feed to prevent mad cow outbreaks. Neither article and none of the experts quoted in them even raises the obvious question: why are we feeding cattle meat and byproducts in the first place? They're herbivores, after all, not prone in the natural state to browsing about animal protein.

We feed them that way beause, in order to maintain the production level of the "factory farm", we deprive them of nearly all natural grazing activity and force them to slaughter weight in an inordinately short period of time.

There are only 5 major feedlots in the US, processing something like 80% of our beef. One infected animal in this enviroment is a big deal - especially since it should be obvious that, with an incubation period measured in years, one known case probably represents thousands yet undetected.

I raise Scottish Highland cattle: I have ten beasts on 12 acres, and I rotational graze them with like minded farmers locally. None of our cows is ever fed even grain, much less meat byproducts: they eat what cattle are supposed to eat, the natural grasses and legumes that adorn my tended pastures. None of them, nor any of their ancestors, have ever even so much as seen a commercial feedlot. They're as natural a cow as you can get - takes three years to get to slaughter weight, instead of the 18 months for "modern" breeds and methods.

Oh well: I have a freezer full of perfectly safe beef. I can guarantee it because I raised it myself, and hauled it to the local slaughterhouse myself, and supervised the processing myself. My customers can rest as easy as I do with their beef, too, as they can (and most have) visit the farm at any time, and see the entire operation from stem to stern. Open source farming - and like open source programming, it not only produces a better product, but a more secure one as well.

We are paying the price for decades of consolidation in agriculture. This is the end result of driving the family farm out of business, and replacing it with corporate entities devoted solely to production at the lowest possible cost. The chickens have come home to roost in the feedlot.

After mad-cow find, concern with prevention. Critics say US can do more to safeguard US beef. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

Diseased Cow's Origin Is Traced as Nations Ban U.S. Beef. Federal officials raced on Wednesday to find out where a Washington state cow, apparently infected with mad cow disease, was born and may have been infected. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link