Part of the problem now is the type of corn they’re fed. The corn that cows and people in the US eat now isn’t “natural” corn. Its genetically altered, so that there is almost no germ left, and it consists almost entirely of sugar. So while once upon a time when a cow ate corn it was eating a natural grain. Today, its basically eating sugar cubes. They get fat quickly with this sort of feeding, and they’re intestinal tact starts deteriorating, and infections become more likely.
Your source for this? I know many people who grow corn on contract for feed companies and I can tell you they are not out there splitting DNA in their fields. They plant the same seed from the same company they planted in the 1950s. They don’t care how much sugar it puts out, they care about how much they can grow in an acre and how much it costs to keep it watered properly.
but I have heard that they feed them too much corn, and that if they didn’t slaughter them when they do, that they would die anyways. Do you know anything about this? Otherwise, great points.
Yes, in fact I do. If you fed cattle the same diet they use in a fishishing lot, starting when they were weaned, you have have an enormously fat cow in more ways than one. It would look like a blimp with legs, and probably would not stay healthy very long. That’s why they are only the diet for 4-6 weeks. Before that time, when they are growing to weight and grazing on grass, you don’t want them fat, you want them healthy and strong. Meat from a cow like that tastes terrible, so before they go to meat, they have to be fattened up but in a proportionate way. It’s not like they’re giving them a bucket full of donuts just to fatten up - it’s a very specific, scientifically formulated diet. And yes corn is used. If genetically altered corn is used, I don’t know, I don’t know anyone growing the stuff, but I would point out that feed and feed stuff (ingredients of feed) are regulated and you can’t just toss in whatever you feel like it.
Suppose you had 100 parakeets each worth about $1,200. You going to let someone just waltz in with a new “seed” and let him give it to your parakeets? No way. Neither will finishers. The market is volatile and harsh enough as it is, it’s a HUGE gamble, and no one is going to do something to shave a few bucks (while risking tens of thousands) without some sound science behind it.
I’m sure that the parents wouldn’t find the title of the thread misleading - it was what they didn’t know that took the lives of their children - the contaminated hamburger.
Contamination wasn’t mentioned in the title, that’s all I said. I’m sure they are emotionally attached to the issue as I would be if it were my child. I’m not them. I contend the hamburger did not kill them, the contamination did, and it would have been a non-issue if it were cooked properly. Therefore I see blame not only on the contaminator, but on the cook. Both, not just one.
Not wanting to take the discussion to far afield: I do want to weigh in on your comment about the green onions and baby spinach - they were able to trace the source of the E. coli & Salmonella-contaminats in both these cases, as well as other veggie contamination to CAFO’s
Well I hope your basis for that is a source other than the general contamination statement you posted, given that the source of the Green Onion contamination was in Mexico. What is your solution to the food problem, should we do away with all beef and other food animals? Do you think that will end food contamination?
I would like to see us advocating for a change in the way cattle are raised - grass fed - not corn feed in CAFO’s
Please tell me your definition for what constitutes, exactly, “a CAFO.” I don’t know what precisely you mean by that term, and it can have wide differences in definition. As I have detailed in previous posts, most all cattle ARE grass raised, it is only in the last month they are fattened in a pattern and proportion that gives the best quality (grade) to the meat.
So… if you want to stop corn feeding, you have to do the following first.
- Convince the people who have been feeding corn for finishing for at least 100 years they are doing something unsafe.
- Convince the USDA to alter their meat grading scale, OR get all meat customers, individuals, restaurants, etc. to accept a lower grade product, all while making the same profit.
- Convince meat processors that they can buy skinny, bad-tasting meat and everyone will buy it anyways.
- Finishers really have little to do with it. They only exist because processors won’t buy skinny cows that taste bad, so fix #3 and you eliminate #4.
- Producers would LOVE to see you make these changes. Now we don’t have to pay someone else up to 20% of our profit to fatten up our strong, healthy cows. We don’t have to be as careful with what we do to them (innoculations, medicines, etc.) because we don’t have to keep later finishing in mind.
Just for everyone’s info, I am not against making changes. I am not against sound practices like sanitation and keeping contamination out of food, ALL foods. The only reason I’ve bothered to post half a book in this thread is because I hear this kind of accusation all the time, and frankly it is to me just like the “you Catholics are over there worshipping Mary” is to Catholics. It demonstrates by just saying “corn feeding cows is dangerous” that you have no idea what you’re talking about. If it was dangerous, we would have a history dating back to the 1800s of the same problems, but we DON’T. It isn’t corn, folks. Genetically altered corn? Maybe so. When we can see the trail straight from the genetics lab to the crop to the finishing house to the problem in the meat aisle, then I will believe it, but I’ve been watching the topic for years and have never seen it proven. Accusations? Oh they are all over, but proof? Where is it?
It’s always some one with a camera sneaking into a facility that is grossly in violation and that is presented as “how the industry is.” Okay, then if that be so, how’s it feel to be a Christian like Rev. Phelps is a “Christian.” Does he represent the Christianity of you? Those films don’t represent me or anyone I do business with. I want the best, healthiest beef I can provide, it’s what God has given me talent to do. People I deal with are like minded and would never put anyone at risk for a buck. I’ve shot cows when I couldn’t prove them healthy or healed at market time, and sucked up the loss when I could have made a few hundred bucks and hoped people use a thermometer when they cook. So yes, I get offended when the entire industry is tossed in with the nastiest among us.
So I’ll rest my posting in this topic with that. Thanks for reading.
