Help the Food Crisis: Stop Feeding Cows Corn!
6 May
I am sick of hearing news stories that are talking about the global food crisis in such narrow ways that suggest that part of the food shortage/high cost problem is due to the use of bio-fuels, namely more farmers using corn crop to sell as ethanol, and less to be used as food.
What occurred to me recently is that the issue is not just about ethanol. But many cattle farmers many years ago moved to feeding cows corn instead of grass. I found this film, which was apparently shown on PBS’ Independent Lens this year called King Corn, which describes the problem:
Before World War II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef. Raised on pasture, cattle reared before the 1950s usually took two or three years to be ready for the slaughterhouse. Steers were fed grain only occasionally and in small quantities, and farmers tended to use corn as a supplement—not a staple—of their livestock’s diets.
But as American corn production skyrocketed in the post-War era, and as the economic boom of the 1950s prompted higher consumer demand for meat, farmers and ranchers turned to a new practice: fattening their cattle on corn. Cheaper and more efficient than grass, corn enabled cattle to be brought to market in as few as 15 months. Moreover, it allowed farmers to feed cattle in confined pens or lots, reducing ranchers’ land costs and limiting their risk of losing livestock to predators and bad weather. With cheaper feed in the equation, beef prices fell, and Americans began to purchase more and more beef, most of it corn-fed. By 1960, Americans ate a yearly average of more than 66 pounds of beef each. By 1975, that number had grown to 88.5 pounds of beef per person, per year.
In 2008, corn-fed cattle are the norm. While most cattle still begin their lives grazing on grass, the vast majority—an estimated three-quarters of them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture—are “finished,” or fattened for market, in feedlots. There, they spend three to six months eating a diet composed of 70 to 90 percent corn. READ MORE:
The also have a resource page of articles to learn more, and a Youtube page with clips of the film. Here’s the trailer:
Tags: cattle, corn, cows, environmental issues, food crisis, high fructose corn syrup, independent lens, king corn, pbs
I have a degree in Agriculture and all of this is true.
Farming is by no means a million dollar business (speaking of the private farmer/family owned business) and there are lots of risks and debt associated with it. So, by no means do I intend to disenfranchise struggling family farms….and I am no vegetarian…However, the American diet is meat-obsessed. We eat more meat than is nutritionally necessary.
If we cut back to eating meat once a day (which is recommended by nutritionists - and all of the protein we need) we could reduce demand for beef/pork/poultry and hopefully the markets would follow suit. This cold bring down overhead costs for farmers/ranchers AND it could decrease the negative environmental impacts of big business agriculture AND help promote a healthier society.
Thanks for the info, Urban Scientist!
yes! agreed! and perhaps equally as important, cows are not made to eat corn! it leaves them more susceptible to foamy slime build up in their rumen (like a stomach) and all kinds of other diseases. which then means we have to hop them up on all sorts of drugs.
more good info here
Yes! That point, Maxwell, is what made me blog about this anyway, and yet I totally forgot to include it!
acidosis - that’s what it is called when cattle (or any other ruminants each too much grain. Like Maxwell said, they aren’t meant to eat just corn (though I am in favor of finishing them with corn - hey it’s how I was trained).
Acidosis is like stomach ache - akin to a little kid eating too much candy and not enough nutritious food.
Here is some more info about it - it’s from an Ag school, so it is biased (in favor of grain finishing to max out beef quality and yields.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/livestk/01614.html
I am a recent convert to Organic Milk. It is ridiculously expensive but makes my coffee taste so much better. My solution: consume less, enjoy more….