Ok, seriously. If you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, you really have to. Have to! It is blowing my mind, day by day. Folks may have noticed by now, but at this point in my life I am absolutely obsessed with our [America's] food and where it comes from. This book, like no other book - I swear it - makes me feel like getting radical. Like, let's get heinous on somebody's anus, because things are really really screwy.
It is interesting - once you start delving into food, where it comes from and/or how it was made, it is like the domino effect: one game piece collides into another and all of a sudden you have a full-out kaleidoscope of things to change and/or adjust. Going Green falls into a similar vein. You can't just change one thing. I like it, though it is sometimes hard to remember that it is a long-term project. I want change NOW.
Anyhow...I have distressed myself. Seriously, I have lost sleep over this. One of the big things that Pollan talks about in The Omnivore's Dilemma is corn, and how it has left the status of food and become a commodity. This concept fascinated me: I, too, saw it piled high in the streets of Small Town, Minnesota last fall. Kernels of corn, as high as a house. Nobody cares to keep it clean, because it will be processed to the point of no longer recognizing it as corn. Pollan says that Americans might as well be walking corn chips, with how much of it we consume.
Think of that 20 oz soda that most of cubeland drinks each day: 100% corn. Any kind of processed food: corn. CAFO beef: corn. CAFO chickens: corn. And now...CAFO salmon: corn?! That's what Pollan says. I've always heard, peripherally, the term, "corn-fed", like it is a good thing - but never paused to considered the implications. Like...feeding animals corn that were not designed to eat corn. Yikes. That is like us ingesting grass or twigs for a meal. Not good.
But here I am bumping into this again [and have realized that I will be stumbling upon this regularly, given the our current location]: our lovely neighbors, who are wonderful, generous, and kind, keep sheep. They have 50 or so ewes and 3 rams and sell the lambs for meat each June. This is our first spring here - the lambs were gone by the time we arrived last July, so we never got to see them. They are born in January and sold by late June, "when the market for lamb is hot".
We will be taking care of the sheep next week while our neighbors are on vacation. I went over there this weekend to receive our instructions. Water, check. Hay, check. But the lambs...what do you think these little baby lambs eat? Corn. "Is it hard on their system?" I asked with some hesitation. "Yes," he replied forthrightly, "they have to build up to it." And why? Because as ruminants, they are designed to eat G-R-A-S-S. Their poor little tummies!
Something is majorly effed up here, folks. What on EARTH are we doing?! Sometimes I feel strong, like I can take things on and make some kind of a difference; but other times, particularly when contemplating the magnitude of the problem, I want to curl up and go hide under a rock. What can I do? What can any of us do? Agribusiness and the High Cost of Cheap Food is flattening us like a steamroller.
But for now, I will take a shower and go to bed. Lambs eating corn, people. Lambs. eating. corn.
I've been reading your blog for a while wondering when this issue would arrive on your radar! :) I've been "enlightened" about this for over a year now and my family has since become very nearly vegan and we eat very low on the food chain.
ReplyDeleteTo even out the rage and hopelessness that The Omnivore's dilemma leaves, I suggest John Robbins' "The Food Revolution." He such a loving, positive force in the world and fills you with hope. I think you would enjoy his writing and wisdom very much.
Looking forward to reading more of your thoughts about food.
I reacted the very same way when I read the book as well. I lived on a farm until I was nine (and still have family who farm) and even *I* didn't realize immediately that feeding corn to all the animals isn't the right thing for them. My uncle raises cows now and I think he's pretty sick of me asking 1,000,001 questions about how he does things every time I see him.
ReplyDeleteOur food choices changed dramatically after my reading but it doesn't seem to be enough. I also have the "How can we get this information to everyone?" feeling which can really wear you down.
Have you seen King Corn?
ReplyDeleteOkay so one why do farmers feed corn to every animal--does it produce more healthy animals or something? is the premise that animals who are fed corn but eat plants are mistreated? This is why we should not eat them? Third, something about this issue strikes me as a bit absurd given that some human beings starve...or clients I work with had no heat all winter so they had to heat hot water on the stove to take "showers" and because the water was so hot one of the kids burned the skin off her arm. Maybe we all take on different issues right? What would our world be if every one spoke up about the same stuff? I do know that some farmers who stick it out consistently are earning some fair profits though. You got me thinking...
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI can answer your first question, but having no farming experience, I'm sure RainGarden can elaborate.
Feeding corn to ruminants does NOT make them healthy. It does quite the opposite. For instance in the cattle industry, young cows spend about a year in the pasture eating grass and being happy like in all the advertising. Then they are trucked to a feedlot to be brought up to market weight. They are fed corn because it creates nice marbling that people look for in a "good" steak. However, the cattle suffer the entire time because their bodies can't digest the corn.
A layer of slime coats their stomaches creating lots of methane gas, pain and inflammation. They become sick and weak. So, they are pumped with antibiotics in an attempt to keep them upright so they can make their final walk to the production line. Many needs lots of "help" to get that far.
For me, the issue is mistreatment. I don't have a problem with someone humanely raising and killing their own animals for food, but the truth is that it rarely occurs anymore. Factory farming is the norm and it's cruel beyond most peoples' imaginations can tolerate.
That's my VERY brief understanding of the matter. It's a huge, huge issue involving many practices, products and industries that our society relies upon.
Emily, hi! Why aren't you on Facebook?
ReplyDeleteMany of your questions feed into a post that has been brewing in my mind. I plan to write that tonight after my sweet babes are in bed (as naptime is all but forsaken).
I will say, though, that this issue casts a dark shadow over much of society. The ethics of the proper care and treatment of animals is a strong consideration, but the problem is much larger than that - affecting all of society at large. Literally.
wow. it's all so true. my husband is a pacifist, yet gets so fired up about these particular subjects. if you've seen the future of food. Oh man, it turns this gentle guy into a wannabe suicide bomber. Ok...not that close, but seriously. Monsanto is his enemy. Love your enemies...hmmm.
ReplyDeleteMonsanto is frightening. Thinking about the power of this company and their products has kept me awake at night...seriously. It's so evil.
ReplyDeleteokay so I was talking to Eric's sister and I'm curious about the response to this: what if raising on a cow on corn trains its digestive system differently so it is not as hard for them to digest? has anyone ever talked to a farmer about this and why it is done--only to create the marbling? Does that make it more expensive or something? Thanks for taking the time to respond! I'm hooked and humbly wait for your responses. :)
ReplyDeleteiorxp@Emily -- Well, they can get "used" to it just as we can get "used" to eating things we aren't meant to consume, but it still isn't necessarily healthy.
ReplyDeleteReally, the only reasons for feeding grain to cattle are economic reasons. It increases marbling and gets them up to market weight a lot faster than grass. Additionally, it takes A LOT more land to grass feed all the cattle raised. I think 1 cow needs something like 1 acre. But in feedlots with thousands of head of cattle packed in tightly, there's no pasture. It's easier to drive trucks to pour grain into troughs.
The book I mentioned above, 'The Food Revolution," goes into this in a lot more detail. I really don't think there's any way to justify feeding grain to ruminant other than economics and marketability.
Emily!! Sorry this has taken me so long to respond - our computer has been in the shop.
ReplyDeleteRuminants can 'live' on corn, yes. But do they thrive? No. My understanding of the whole business is that they are slaughtered before the corn actually kills them. Interestingly, my neighbor's sheep...the ewes and the rams are not fed corn: only the lambs. They want to keep their herd healthy, to be able to produce more lambs.
I'm going to post on this soon.
Emily, I just realized that what I posted on this afternoon did not address your question at all. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteThe reason why ruminants are fed corn is because they grow much more quickly eating it than grass. Grass takes longer to "finish" them, i.e., get them ready for slaughter. The second reason is that it is a lot less expensive - commodity corn is cheap and plentiful (and, Pollan says, sold for 1 DOLLAR LESS that the cost of production - and that the taxpayer is actually paying farmers to grow it via government subsidies).
The third reason is because it enables massive Factory Farming to exist - thousands and thousands of cows wouldn't be able to live in ghetto-like conditions without it. That is where the "slaughter-them-before-it-kills-them" comes in, along with rampant antibiotic use - not to mention the conditions for the workers at these slaughterhouses. Imagine a modern day Jungle, as in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
And finally, for the small farmer who feeds their animals corn to "finish" them like my neighbor, I believe it is because it has "been that way" for so long that they don't know any different. I think, too, that Janna has mentioned the fact that the USDA or FDA or whoever they are has changed regulations to favor the marbling that corn-fed meat creates.
Unbelievable.
All in all, the best choice is to either NOT eat meat, or eat pastured animals. It is going to be more expensive, but we get what we pay for. There are many arguments as well on the quality of meat of corn-fed vs. grass-fed. There are higher levels of good fats in the grass-fed beef - the cattle who are eating what they should be eating. There is also a reputed taste difference.
Pollan talks about farmed salmon and how they are being bred to tolerate corn; salmon - a fish-eating fish, who would never run into grain in the natural system of things, being fed CORN!!! People say the fatty acids in salmon are so wonderful (and they are), well - it is because of their diet. Corn-fed salmon will similarly lose the healthful quality to their meat, just like the cow fed on corn has.
Does this make sense?