Prime Rib with a side of E. Coli, please?

The subject matter for this week’s readings concerned the process involved in getting beef to the table- literally from a calf’s birth to the purchase of its meat from the local grocery store. In order, the readings were a chapter called “The Feedlot” in The Omnivore’s Dilemma; “Where the Beef has Been,” an excerpt from the “Meat and Potatoes” article of Rolling Stone; and “Tenderloin’s a Steal, But at What Moral Price?” from Best Food Writing 2008. I, of course, did not think that this order had any significance (which it did, as it would chronologically follow the life of a cow), and effectively read them “backwards.” However, I am glad that I made this mistake because I started my journey in the familiarity of the supermarket, only to be astounded as I traced the meat’s path back through time.

Although even John Kessler, the author of “Tenderloin’s a Steal, But at What Moral Price?,” admits that questioning the ethics of his beef in the meat aisle seems somewhat ludicrous, he brings up a valid point that all shoppers should consider: should we think about more than just the price in our purchasing decisions? He weighs the benefit of cheap beef and the ability to indulge our carnivorous side more often against the inhumanity of a cow force-fed a diet it was not created to digest. He decides to buy the meat. I have to admit when I read his decision I was slightly annoyed. Not only because here was one more individual contributing to a cycle I so vehemently disagreed with, but also because I would have done the same thing. It is difficult to see that one little action could really make a difference in the whole scheme of life, but that is just an excuse to choose the easy path. As a lover of variety myself, I can appreciate his justification that this purchase would allow him to buy other food items as well. That is, however, until I read on and fully understood what that piece of meat consisted of.

The next article from Rolling Stone was a detailed description of a meat-packing plant. This struck a particularly tender chord with me because I had read Upson Sinclair’s The Jungle in high school which chronicled the squalid life of a meat-packer in Chicago at the turn of the 20^th century. I was horrified to see that slaughterhouses are little better now than they were then. Specifically, the article discusses the high rate of injury and the all-together filthy environment in which freshly slaughtered beef is often contaminated with its own excrement. It goes on to explain that many consumers become ill simply because “there is shit on the meat.” I find this appalling and am brought to ask, in the 21^st century, how is this excepted as common practice and allowed in our “developed” society?

Finally, we arrive at the place where it all begins- the cattle farm. Here calves with specific genetic traits are bred and then moved to feedlots for the duration of their growth. This is the part that shocks the scientist in me. Since corn is cheap and ideal for fast growth, the cows are forced to eat it combined with pharmaceuticals and fat products (usually remnants of bovine fat from slaughterhouses) even though their systems are compromised because of it! This diet is truly awful and leads to the spread of fatal viruses such as E. coli. How can the government subsidize an environment that breeds viruses and compromises the welfare of society? Not to mention feeding beef to cows is wrong in and of itself.

I never really ate beef before reading this, but I can now say with confidence that I will not be consuming it in the future.