Beef Bunk and Milk Myths (article)

[Guest guest]

Another good article that you might want to save, to forward to friends who

hassle you about your vegetarianism, or to print out for family members who

worry about your vegetarian diet.

 

Best, Pat

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Beef Bunk and Milk Myths

By Angela Starks

 

http://www.satyamag.com/oct.99/sat.63.myths.html

 

There are plenty of tall tales out there about cows, beef and dairy,

most of which we take for granted.

 

Intensive grazing of cattle helps to maintain the land; they are

nature's lawn mowers, gently keeping grass and foliage from

overgrowing.

The overstocking and overgrazing of cattle may be the most potent

cause of desertification in the U.S. Over a billion cows are each

consuming at least 900 pounds of vegetation a month, disrupting the

natural balance of plant species and wildlife. In the process their

hooves compact the earth; this reduces the topsoil's ability to hold

water, so it dries out and erodes at an alarming rate.

 

It's good that we have all that manure from cattle farming; it's

needed to fertilize the land to grow crops to feed everyone.

A huge amount of animal waste is produced, leaving us with a costly

and hazardous disposal problem. It largely ends up dumped as

untreated

sewage directly into our water systems. Some manure is used to

fertilize crops, but much of the resulting plant foods are simply fed

back to livestock—not to people.

 

Down on the farm cattle enjoy the easy life...just chewing the cud in

large green pastures.

In intensive farming ranches, cattle are treated as mere industrial

products for the duration of their short, miserable lives. Many

suffer an array of pain and indignities, such as removal from their

mother at an early age, confinement in feedlots where they are

pent-up

side-by-side, dehorning, castration, force-feeding (perhaps with

sawdust, sewage and animal remains added to the feed), being milked

to exhaustion, suffering from infections, and then finally death by

slaughter.

 

Beef is an efficient and convenient source of nourishment since the

animal concentrates nutrients from whatever it eats into its own

flesh.

Cattle, the " Cadillacs " of farm animals, are energy guzzlers and one

of the most inefficient converters of feed. Only 11 percent of what

the cow eats ends up as actual beef. At least one-third of world

grain is fed to cattle and other livestock; just think how many

people that could feed!

 

Modern cattle farming helps to provide lots of cheap food for

everyone.

The real cost of factory farming includes massive government

subsidies, the demise of rural communities, the waste of natural

resources, pollution problems, and health risks from the products

themselves. These hidden elements have worsened rather than improved

poverty, malnutrition and disease both in the U.S. and worldwide.

 

The separation of the calf from its mother is not distressing to

either.

Professor A. Web-ster, an expert in animal husbandry, says " The most

potentially distressing incident in the life of a dairy cow is the

removal of her calf. " So that the cow's milk can be collected for

human consumption, most calves are removed as soon as possible; they

may remain together for only a matter of hours, whereas in nature the

calf would suckle for six months to a year. Most of these calves end

up in dark crates where they are purposefully kept malnourished and

unexercised in order to produce soft, white veal.

 

Efficient slaughterhouse techniques mean cattle suffer little

distress and pain on the killing floor.

Animals can see, hear, and smell the horrifying activity going on in

the slaughterhouse. `Downers'—the sick or injured cows—are kept

waiting at the scene to be killed last or are left for dead in a

pile. In the rush to kill as many cattle as possible, many may not be

properly stunned prior to the tortuous slaughter process and are

therefore still alive during the initial stages, often being hung

upside down writhing on a hook by one leg, which breaks from the

weight.

 

Inspectors monitor the standards in slaughterhouses, so that beef is

a safe, good quality product.

The National Academy of Sciences announced in the 1980s that

inspection procedures were inadequate to protect the public from

meat-related diseases. However, there are even more shortcuts in a

new

`streamlined' inspection procedure which will result in fewer

carcasses being checked and requires that beef need not be free of

all contaminants but merely `aesthetically acceptable.'

 

The antibiotics given to cattle do not show up in the meat, so

consumers have nothing to worry about.

Meat often contains antibiotic residues which are passed onto the

consumer, making the human population vulnerable to increasingly

resistant strains of bacteria. The industry claims to have

discontinued routine use of antibiotics in cattlefeed, but they are

still administered to dairy cows, which make up 15 percent of all

beef consumed in America.

 

Beef is safe to eat compared to vegetables, which are full of

herbicides and pesticides.

Beef is the most dangerous food in terms of herbicide contamination

as a result of the extremely high levels in cattlefeed, which

accumulate in the animals' flesh. Eighty percent of the herbicides

sprayed in the U.S. are for corn and soy which are used primarily to

feed livestock.

 

There is no evidence to suggest that the consumption of beef

increases the likelihood of cancer—that's just vegetarian propaganda.

Between cultures that eat beef and those that do not, there may be up

 

to a tenfold difference in the prevalence of colon cancer. Various

scientific studies confirm the correlation between red meat

consumption and cancer; the director of the largest study concluded

" the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero. " Diets high

in meat and dairy have long been associated with prostrate cancer,

and scientists are now linking red meat to breast cancer.

 

Lean beef is perfectly OK as part of a diet to reduce heart disease.

This recent myth is largely the result of a misinterpreted study

funded by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The research

actually showed that a red meat diet lowered cholesterol by only one

percent; the researchers themselves proved this to be statistically

irrelevant and that it could have been mere chance. By comparison,

research has shown that vegetarian diets can reduce cholesterol by

more than 20 percent, which is as effective as some

cholesterol-lowering drugs.

 

We get iron from red meat, which is why vegetarians and vegans are at

 

risk of anemia.

There are plant foods that are rich in iron, including dried fruit,

whole grains, nuts, leafy green vegetables, seeds, and pulses. It is

true that more of the iron in meat is absorbed compared to iron in

plants, but if dietary intake of iron is moderate, vegetarians are

compensated with an increased absorption rate. Vitamin C, which is

higher in plant-based diets, aids the absorption of iron. Studies

show that vegans usually have a high iron intake, on average two or

three times the recommended amount.

Their iron status is usually normal and they are no more likely to be

deficient in it than the general population.

 

Human anatomy and physiology are designed to digest red meat.

Even though we seem able to cope with some meat in our diet, the fact

remains that it is difficult for the human digestive system to break

it down completely. The average American may die with pounds of

undigested meat in his/her intestines. True carnivores, such as

lions, produce a more acidic digestive juice in their stomach in

order to break down the high protein content of meat. They also have

a digestive system that is much shorter in length than ours so that

the putrefying meat does not hang around inside them for so long.

 

Beef is a perfect source of protein—vegetarians don't get enough.

This depends on what you mean by `perfect.' Beef is high in useable

protein, yes, but regular consumption of meat provides far more

protein than the body needs and this overload is difficult for the

body to process. The `perfect protein' notion came about largely from

 

archaic, misinterpreted studies on rats whose nutrient requirements

are very different from humans'. Beef is not a good way to obtain

protein since it also provides us with excess saturated fat, a high

concentration of herbicides, and other undesirables. Studies show

that vegans consume, on average, at least the recommended amount of

protein (and no, they don't have to bother with `protein combining'

at each meal). Plant proteins also provide fiber and additional

nutrients.

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