Paper I wrote for English 213 almost complete no conclusion but what do yall think? Would you consider only Organic meat after reading this essay?
Organic beef is shown to be healthier than industrialized commercial beef they have large amounts of vitamins, and fatty acids that our bodies need to fight off many of the big health issues of today. The organic beef is also raised on grass or organic food, while the commercial cattle are being fed grain that depletes the amount of Omega-3 and 6 that also ward off things like cancer and heart problems. Cattle that are organically raised are not fed animal byproducts such as gelatin or rendered pork products. Although the commercial feedlots will do this to “recycle” and get rid of the large amounts of waste they produce. Organic beef has more giving potential when it comes to the human body in terms of vitamins and minerals that are a vital key to better or good health. Grass-fed cattle are similar to the organic cattle in terms of nutrition but the cattle can be treated with antibiotics to ward off diseases.
There are two main categories when it comes to choosing meat whether it’s locally grown or organic they tend to be healthier for the consumer. Organic means that the livestock have access outside and have been fed only organically grown food for at
least a year. The cattle are not allowed to be treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. Locally grown or raised only refers to food grown or raised within a hundred mile radius,
some places it’s two hundred and fifty miles. Another place it is simply defined as food within a “day’s leisurely drive from your home”( ). This however does not mean that the food you are getting locally grown or raised is organic. Farms located anywhere can use growth hormones and especially antibiotics for their animals health.( )
A huge difference between cattle, that are organic or industrial, depends on what is in the animals diet. Note that there is a ban on “feeding mammalian and poultry slaughter by-products to all organic mammals and poultry.”( ) The Industrial non-organic meat regulations allows this feeding to their livestock and cattle. Eventually in 1997 the FDA stepped in a little to prohibit cattle brain and spinal tissue to being fed to the cattle. They have only stated that they will ban blood, poultry litter, and human food wastes but no laws have been set and words do not always speak louder than action. Along with Gelatin, that comes from hooves of cattle and other species, rendered pork and horse protein, non-organic cattle do not sound appetizing to me. ( )
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements(IFOAM) is an organization that looks out for organic farming organizations. They put together a set of guidelines or “principles for organic farming”. Within this list of principles are : principle of health, principle of ecology, principle of fairness, principle of care. This set of guidelines are to show the world that they are concerned not just about the environment but of many positive things. They also do not condone feeding their cattle in feed-lots. Feed-lots are giant cattle feeding stations where the animals spend most of their
lives at. ( )
Some commercial feedlots feed old candy to cattle in an effort to reduce food costs. Milk chocolate and candy may contain 48% and 22% fat in each serving and that can increase size rapidly in animals. They are sometimes fed in their wrappers. Candies, such as stale gummy bears, lemon drops, or gum drops are high in sugar content are fed to some cattle to help them bulk up and keep their food costs low. This does not sound like a meal cattle should be ingesting.(Shaver) There is nothing natural about feeding farm animals candy and chocolates. Organic cattle cannot be fed any of this considering they are only fed greens and organically grown food.
One important fact about Organic beef is that it contains more omega-3 and Omega-6 than industrialized beef. Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids are very important in a healthy diet it promotes the prevention and treatment in some of today’s largest health issues. Some of these include cancer, arthritis, and coronary artery disease. In the research of Dr. Joseph Mercola, author of total health program, found that the levels of Omega-6 and omega-3 in Americans diets has effect on their health. When you have a ration of Omega-6 and 3 that in more than 4:1 ratio there is more of a chance of health problems. In non-organic beef there is up to 20:1 ratio of the fatty acids and in the Organic beef there is 3:1.( ) Not only is the Organic beef more enriched with Omega-6 and 3 fatty acids but its also very lean. (Queensland Government)
Omega-3 is also essential for the brain and people with good omega-3 levels are less likely to develop schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, and Alzheimer’s. It is
also known that this can boost your mood and help avoid depression. If America were to
change its meat eating habits to organic we may begin to ward off such a high amount of these diseases. Every day cattle the animal lives in the feedlots the amount of Omega-3 decreases a large amount. In the first twenty-eight days of the animal being in the feedlots there already has a decrease from three percent to two percent of the total body fat of the Omega-3 fatty acids. Studies show that only forty percent of Americans eat the advised about of Omega-3 in their diets. (Queensland Government)
There are all kinds of vitamins on the market today to get the customer to get their daily nutrients from a pill. These synthetic nutrients do not really compare with the
impact that it does when it is received in the way of healthy fresh food. Organic beef has over four hundred percent more vitamins A and E then grain fed. Vitamin A is extremely important for vision, bone growth, reproduction among many other important body
functions. Just as important as Vitamin A, Vitamin E has the ability to reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer. As for breast cancer, one of the most known cancers, it can greatly lower the risk for women when their diets are changed.
CLA or Conjugated Linoleic Acid is a key fat that reduces the chance of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a few immune disorders. CLA found in Organic Beef helps to lower the amount of LDL, or bad cholesterol, which can keep the arteries from clogging. In laboratory animals there are results showing that even a .1 percent of total calories from CLA reduced the growth rate of a tumor in them. CLA may be on of the most potent antioxidant substance in our bodies. Cattle that is fed on grass as opposing to hay or grain has a significant amount more of CLA in it. Larry Satter, who studies at the Dairy forage research center in Madison Wisconsin, conducted a study on these cows amounts of CLA
in their milk and he found that “Pasture grazed cows had 500% more CLA in their milk than those fed silage”. (Satter)This not only shows its healthier in the milk but overall this is another way to show that organic cattle are healthier all around than industrialized commercial cattle.
The government does not have as much control over the food we ingest as we may
think they do. Statistics show that more then one million children between the ages of one and five ingest more than fifteen pesticides every day. Farm animals in the U.S are
injected with 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics every year. Public health authorities have
concluded that there are large numbers of people who contract antibiotic-resistant infections due to the fact that the meat they are eating is treated with the same low level antibiotics. Organic cattle are not injected with these medicines or hormones therefore there is no risk for becoming resistant to that drug when its really needed. If someone is to eat a typical amount of beef(sixty-six and a half pounds a year) and switch to lean grass-fed beef they would save 17,733 calories a year. If that is consistent and there is absolutely no change in anything else about the nutrient ion habits or exercise habits, six lbs a year could be lost.( )
Just like steroids are used in humans to build beefy muscle, the American cattle producers use steroids to build the muscle up in the beef. Organic cattle are not even
allowed to have antibiotics therefore steroids are just as illegal to organic cattle as steroids is to an athlete in big competition. Even the European Union has banned imports of hormone treated beef. If some countries do not even allow that to be shipped in than why is most of America only eating that kind of beef. The producers of beef use the
steroids to change the way the cattle use energy in food. The use of these steroids is to avoid too much fatty tissue and produce a better marbled cut of beef to the consumer. This may look like a better cut but so far we have eliminated the amount of fat but the vitamins, body supplements in the beef have been drastically reduced, the amount of bad fat and calories has gone through the roof. ( )Are the health problems associated
with eating all this bad worth a little cheaper beef product?
About thirty years ago research found that synthetic estrogen or DES was causing
vaginal cancer to some women who had taken the drug to avoid miscarriage during the
pregnancy was also used in cattle. This hormone was also used, like the steroids, to produce a better marbled cut of meat with less fat. This hormone was allowed into our food system and is now banned from any food in the United States. From this statement I see that until they link it to cancer in a big way then there is nothing done about food that is fed to the general public.( )
Our beef has so much more in it then we are led to believe. I decided to ask random people I knew about where there meat came from. Most of them replied, “well before the grocery store I would assume a farm.” Cattle really only stay on the far for a year before they are bought my big business’s and pumped will of chemicals, and hormones. Sometime the cattle is as young as 6 months when it first enters the industrial
cattle feed-lots. Big industry beef producers give the synthetic hormones to non-organic beef by slow release pellets in their ears. This happens as soon as they arrive to the feed-lots. Their ears also become byproducts or waste so that the synthetic hormones do not end up on our dinner table. This seems like such an unnatural thing to be eating after all
these procedures.( )The hormones that are injected into the ears are regulated by two agencies the FDA( The Food and Drug Administration), and the U.S Department of Agriculture. They also do not allow the cattle to be slaughtered with the hormones in their systems and have to be chemically removed before sold to commercial stores. ( )
Not only do these industrialized companies condone the injection of antibiotics and steroids into their cattle they do not pay very well attention to the environment. They do however utilize the waste and manure produced by the company to reduce the amounts of nitrogen getting into anything and pollute it. Manure does help in organic farms when
applied to the land helps to create richer soil and in turn better food for the cattle. This also increases the market value of this soil.( )While mass marketing beef produce, with such a large amount of animals in the feedlot, there is a lot of pollutants that need to be disposed. A company in Minnesota got into trouble when their 750 cattle filled feedlots where leaking pollutants into the new by land. This problem is one of the many reasons why in May of 2002 they outlawed keep large amounts of manure kept in an open area(more than for fertilizing the soil). ( Minnesota Legislative Reference Library)
Works Cited
1.http://www.purdue.edu/dp/envirosoft/inject/src/feedlot.htm
2Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, revised on Sept 2006, http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/feedlots.asp
3. http://www.mercola.com/beef/cla.htmLarry Satter is at the USDA-ARS U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, 1950 Linden Lane, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706; phone (608) 264-5353, fax (608) 264-5147.
4.("By-Product Feedstuffs in Dairy Cattle Diets in the Upper Midwest." Randy D. Shaver, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Extension Nutritionist, Department of Dairy Science, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin)
http://www.eatwild.com/health.html#feedlot
