Beefs Effects on People, the Environment and Society

Written by Adam Shake

Most people know that eating beef is one of the leading causes of heart attacks, and colon cancer, along with a host of other bad things.

But that doesn’t keep us from eating it anymore than knowing that eating and drinking things laced with corn syrup, leads to obesity and diabetes.  It all just tastes so good!

But the fact is, that beef is a relatively new idea.  Oh, don’t roll you’re eyes, it’s true.  A hundred years ago, if people owned a cow, it was for milk.  You don’t eat your milk cow. Even if they were wealthy enough to own more than one cow, there was no refrigeration to store the meat. Not many people ate home made beef jerky, because most people were not wealthy enough to own more than one cow.  If people wanted meat, they killed a chicken or went hunting.

Lets take a look at the average family in the United States, one to two hundred years ago.  (A tiny amount of time compared to how long we’ve been here)  Most families were one of two things.  Either Native American, or first generation American.  Lets look at the non Native Americans.  If they settled in the city’s, they most likely worked in a small store or mill.  There were no huge corporations, and most people in the cities had small homes and tended large gardens.  They had none of the things that we consider “basic needs.” (Electricity, indoor toilets, running water…..) But they lived the good life, but they were the minority.

The majority of the people who came to this country, did so because they wanted land.  They came here to

beef cut diagram

homestead. Those homesteaders were on their feet, working, every day from sun up to sun rise, hoeing, planting, harvesting, building cabins and fences, digging wells, raising chickens, running trap lines, and all the things it takes to walk into the woods and make a life for yourself and family.  People have lived like this for thousands of years.  And you know what?  They ate lots of meat, and they ate whatever they could get their hands on. If the hunting was good, they would kill so much meat that they would be forced to hang it in the rafters of their cabins, the fat dripping onto the floor.  This was a sign of success.

So why am I saying that eating beef is a bad thing?  Because if you’re reading this, you’re not living the same life they are.  If you are burning as many calories in a day, working as hard as they work, then you can eat whatever you want.  You can pound ice cream and soda’s down you’re throat all day and be none the worse for it.  People back then were burning between 4 and 6 thousand calories a day, and they did it for thousands of years.  It’s what our bodies are made to do.

But we’ve tricked our bodies.  The average person in Western Society, burns less than 2 thousand calories a day, but eats up to 4 thousand.  Were eating like we are doing the work our ancestors did, but were sitting behind computers and steering wheels and televisions all day.  If we want meat, we drive to the grocery store, we don’t go hunting for it!

But our bodies don’t know the difference.  Our bodies only know how to do what they are made to do.  Store those unused calories, because hard times may be coming and we may have to go awhile without eating much.  All that beef, and cholesterol (along with everything else we eat) sits in our guts as we sit in our chairs, doing bad things to us.

Beef Feed Lot

Things have gotten easy for us. Today, we have factory raised beef. We’ve completely taken the life aspect out of our meat.  Cattle don’t eat grass anymore.  They eat at feed lots like the picture to the left.  That big building in the background is the slaughter house.  Cattle ranchers sell the cattle and its shipped to these feed lots.  The one in the pic is actually a nice one.  Most of them have the cattle standing on open grates, for weeks at a time, so when they defecate, the manure falls into an open pit below.

We eat 64 pounds of meat a year.  You would think that were crossing the Oregon Trail.  But most of us cant climb 2 flights of stairs without breaking a sweat.

“The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of real food for real people, you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.”

– Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C.

So we know the cost’s to ourselves, but what are the cost’s to our society?  One of the biggest cost’s is through the feeding of all this cattle.  Ask youself a question.  What is a cow’s natural food?  Is it Corn? Nope. Is it grain?  Nope.  It’s grass. (and weeds)

Corn is King

So why are we feeding corn and grain to cows? One simple reason.  It makes them fat.  Fat is good.  Because there is less meat in a pound of fatty hamburger than there is in a pound of lean hamburger, and we like to buy in bulk.  We buy the fatty stuff because its cheaper than the lean stuff.  (Hello!, fat is cheaper than beef!)

Fatty meat tastes good.  It also weighs more.  If people could make money selling you a pound of fat, they would do it in a heartbeat.  But feeding cows corn causes bloat, ulcers, liver disease and a weakened immune system.  So why do we feed them corn if it makes them sick? Who cares? It’s just an animal!  You should care, because they are pumped full of antibiotics from the day they are born.

Less than a decade ago, the average beef cow lived to be at least 2 years old.  Now we can get them to weight in as little as a year. Hopefully, we can get them fat enough, early enough, so that they don’t die of what we are feeding them.

There are more antibiotics going into cows in this country than our entire human population!  And you guessed it.  You’re eating those drugs every time you eat beef.  Did someone say kids in this country are going through puberty earlier and earlier and that they are becoming immune to antibiotics? I didn’t think so.

In addition to this, it takes about 8 pounds of corn to produce 1 pound of beef.  How many people could be fed with 8 pounds of corn? So not only are we eating 64 pounds of beef every year, it takes over 500 pounds of corn to produce that beef.

How does this impact our environment?  We eat more beef every year, so we have to grow more corn.  There are only so many acres of land to grow corn, so Scientists try to figure out ways to increase the numbers of bushels per acre that a farmer can harvest.  To do this, they use Genetically Modified Seeds that kill the insects that land on them.  These insects (which are vital to the food chain) disappear and so do the birds, fish and other animals. They use more and more chemical and fertilizer.  This is not only not good for the insects, the corn, the cows or you, these chemicals wash into the water systems, killing everything in its path through the streams and rivers, all they way out to places like the Gulf of Mexico. (Which now has a dead zone in it the size of New Jersey)

Beefs effects on people – heart attacks, colon cancer, full of antibiotics, other medical conditions almost to numerous to list. (early puberty studies are still being done) Mass recalls of tainted meat (Coleman Natural Beef recently recalled millions of pounds because of E-coli, which is caused by poor slaughter methods and cross contamination with manure).

Corns effect on Beef – not its natural diet, makes it fat, makes it sick, makes it dependent on antibiotics.

Beef effect on the Environment – Pollution of waterways, aquifers and oceans, Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder, damage to the food chain, poisoning of every species of life from insects to humans

Beef’s effect on Society – Rising worldwide corn and grain prices, more corn grown in one area means that other food crops must be grown in other countries.  This leads to higher transportation costs, more fuel being used, global warming and lack of FDA control.

Beef, is it what’s for Dinner?
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