You Are What Your Animals Eat

[Guest guest]

You Are What Your Animals Eat JoAnn Guest Feb 04, 2005 17:45 PST

by Jo Robinson

http://www.eatwild.com/articles/youare.html

 

In my investigation into pasture-based farming, I've stumbled upon an

alarming state of affairs: few animal scientists see any link between

animal feed and human food.

 

" Feed animals anything you want, " say the experts, " and it makes no

difference to their meat, milk, or eggs. "

 

Because of this mindset, our animals are being fed just about anything

that enhances the bottom line, including chicken feathers, sawdust,

chicken manure, stale pizza dough, potato chips, and candy bars.

 

Here's a glaring example. A 1996 study explored the desirability of

feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in

its aluminum foil wrappers.

 

Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net

benefit---at least for the producers. I quote: " Results of both

experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to

safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers

with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility. "

 

In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and

aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a

nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum

was deposited in the various organs of the cattle.

 

Not to worry. The aluminum content was " within normal expected ranges. "

As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the

resulting meat.

 

When I first read the bubblegum studies, I assumed that no one would

actually feed bubblegum to their animals, despite the " positive outcome "

of the research..

 

Then a professor of animal science drove me by a Beechnut gum factory in

upstate New York where dairy farmers bought truckloads of bubble gum to

feed to their cows.

 

The view from the other side of the fence is just as sobering. Most

experts in human nutrition are equally blind to the feed/food

connection.

 

To them, beef is beef, eggs are eggs, and milk is milk.

 

Thus, when the USDA says " eat less red meat, " the edict applies to all

red meat, whether it's a fatty steak from a grainfed cow, or a lean

steak from a grassfed cow with its invisible bounty of omega-3s, vitamin

E, beta-carotene, and CLA.

 

I've spent the past four years trying to forge the missing link between

animal and human nutrition. It's been tough going, especially when it

comes pasture-raised animals because virtually all the studies focus on

feedlot animals. To fill in the gap, I've searched through yellowing

journals published before the advent of factory farming, pieced together

small studies financed by farmers, and combed through the research from

Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand—parts of the world where animals are

still kept home on the range.

 

Finding the amount of vitamin E in grassfed meat has been one of my

biggest challenges.

 

I began tthe search when I learned that grass has 20 times more vitamin

E than corn or soy. Given the magnitude of this difference, I reasoned

that meat from grassfed animals must have an extra helping of vitamin E.

 

 

At long last, I located one American study that broached the subject.

The impetus for the study came from disgruntled Japanese buyers who

complained that American beef spoiled more quickly than Australian

free-range beef.

 

Knowing that vitamin E helped prolong shelf life, the American

researchers investigated the amount of vitamin E in the two types of

meat. Lo and behold, they discovered that the meat from grassfed cattle

had three to four times more vitamin E than feedlot beef, thanks to all

that vitamin E-rich grass.

 

Now, what did the researchers do with this finding? True to form, they

began studying how much synthetic vitamin E to add to synthetic feedlot

diets. I doubt that it even occurred to them to investigate

pasture-based ranching.

 

Why this lack of interest in the natural model? Much of our animal

research is funded by commercial interests—specifically the grain,

chemical, pharmaceutical, farm equipment, and meat-packing companies.

 

Together, these vertically integrated behemoths have a multi-billion

dollar stake in perpetuating factory farming. The USDA, meanwhile, aids

and abets the feedlot industry by focusing virtually all of its

efforts---and our tax dollars!---on tweaking the system.

 

For example, the USDA Meat and Animal Research Center in Lincoln,

Nebraska, is more willing to spend $100,000 researching how quickly

feedlot manure seeps into the water table than to spend a similar amount

of money investigating pasture-based ranching, the holistic model that

keeps the contamination from happening in the first place.

 

What will it take to draw more scientific attention to pasture-based

ranching? Pressure from an enlightened public.

 

And what will it take to enlighten the public? The national media.

 

I have a fantasy how this might happen. First, a prominent media source

such as " 60 minutes " or The New York Times will decide to spotlight

pasture-based farming.

Building on this ground-breaking work, an award-winning TV producer will

create a documentary that deepens the discussion. The program will

conclude—as it must—-that raising animals on pasture is better for

consumers, the animals, the environment, and small farmers. Before long,

dozens of news shows, newspapers, and magazines will follow suit.

 

As the momentum builds, grassfarming will become the talk of the town.

Serving organic meat won't win points in Los Angeles anymore unless it's

grassfed as well.

 

Meanwhile, Ted Turner will stop sending all of his bison to feedlots to

be fattened like cattle, and by 2005, his " Turner Reserve Grassfed

Bison " will be the thing to serve at celebrity gatherings.

 

Propelled by this groundswell of interest, private and government

institutions will finally devote more time, money and energy to

exploring pasture-based farming.

 

Will grassfarming ever become the darling of the media? Only time will

tell. But even if the media misses the boat, the good news about

grassfarming will keep spreading on the grassroots level, one satisfied

customer at a time!

 

 

--

 

 

1) Wolf, B. W., L. L. Berger, et al. (1996). " Effects of feeding a

return chewing gum/packaging material mixture on performance and carcass

characteristics of feedlot cattle. " J Anim Sci 74(11): 2559-65.

 

Note: I wrote this article in 2000. Since then, pasture-based farming

has been featured in:

 

The Smithsonian

The New York Times

The Washington Post

The Wall Street Journal

The Dallas Morning News

Mother Earth News

Wine Spectator

The Oregonian

The LA Times

The San Francisco Chronicle

CBC News Marketplace

Delicious Living

House and Garden

The Atlantic Monthly

The National Review

National Public Radio

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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