After seeing where and how corn was growned, Pollan's brings us to one of the main application of corn, the meat industry. About 60% of it goes to feeding livestock. However, ruminants are made to graze grass and this radical shift to corn in this new industrialization era are causing many problems to the animals, the environment and in the end, us. When animals used to live on farms (now they are sent to massive feeding stations) waste ceased to exist. A closed ecological loop was in place. Nowadays, feeding lots are breaking this loop and are creating new problems. We now have fertility problems that we're trying to solve with chemical fertilizers and also pollution problems that we're not really addressing.
Ruminants would not be able to survive for more than 150 days if it wasn't for the enormous amount of antibiotics like Rumensin and Tylosin that are blended in the cows meal in addition to the liquefied fat (coming from other animals) and protein supplements. These additives cause manure to contain levels of nitrogen and phosphorus that are so high that it would kill crops if it was sprayed on them. This toxic waste ends up in streams and is concerning problems for the environment.
These corn-fed animals also end up being less healthy to humans because it contains more saturated fats and less omega-3 acids than the grass-fed cows.
In reading this chapter, I was able to see that Pollan wanted to display a major head to head comparison between grass-fed and corn-fed cows for us to realize how the farming industry changed for the worse. I feel sickened to know that these cows are getting so manipulated for efficiency that they barely are natural anymore. The fact that they would not live if it was not for the antiobiotics should be alarming to us. It means that we really need to change the way we treat those animals because we are barely keeping them alive. I personally think it should be considered animal cruelty.
We are also poisoning ourselves by poisoning what we eat. We might have the luxury as Americans to eat meat 3 times a day if we want, but the quality of this meat is now so bad that we are slowly killing ourselves. No wonder so many Americans have health problems.
So what are the incentives again of feeding those animal corn if it is causing so many problems around us? Corn offers the cheapest calories around and the excess that we have needs to be consumed. Cows raised on corn also reach slaughter weight faster that cows raised on grass. It is all about efficiency and money. Big companies are profiting while the cows, farmers, the environment and us are being affected negatively. I feel like if more people would be informed about these things, change could happen to save our planet and mankind because right now we are slowly destroying it.
Questions raised:
Would it ever be possible to go back and feed cows with grass like we used to? What would be the impact on our economy?
How many problems would it solve if we would completely stop eating meat?
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