...Cannibalistic Cows America’s diet is in a great dilemma. Just ask anyone where their food comes from, and they will usually say that it comes from the grocery store. However, one might ask where the food in the grocery store comes from. To gain a better understanding of the issues facing American’s eating habits and where its food comes from, Michael Pollen researches these questions in his book, The Omnivores Dilemma. Through his research, he notes that the 100 million head of cattle breed for food are living on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (C.A.F.O.) are fed slaughtered cow parts. As a nation, we need to educate consumers on the dangers of consuming corn fed beef, begin pushing for agri-business policy change from the top down, and partake in the benefits of eating healthier meat; if these changes are not implemented soon healthcare rates will soar, along with e Coli and outbreaks of other diseases associated with processing infected beef. The main problems with eating corn fed beef are the dangerous health risks and hidden costs that are passed down to the public. Associated with these problems are the government policies that prevent change. Continuing to ignore these problems will result in increased obesity, heart disease, and other ailments; as well as economic troubles for those in agriculture, business, and consumers. However, if we properly educate people on nutrition, change the way the agriculture and ranching industry treat cattle, and buy grass fed beef...
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...“Food, Inc.” is a documentary that has brought light to several issues concerning the public in the U.S. related to the food industry. Issues such as infectious disease, nutrition, and occupational health and safety are addressed. I will discuss the issue of nutrition in relation to public health in this paper addressed in this film with regards to meat farming, fast food, and genetic modification and antibiotic use in the food industry. Infectious pathogens such as E. coli have also been quieted by large meat companies and are brought to light in this film and I have addressed this issue below. It is imperative that the way America handles food changes or there will be major implications for the health of our population. “Food, Inc.” provides...
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...Grass- Fed vs. Grain Beef Daniel Ray Meek Hotel, Restaurant, and institutional meat 10/10/13 Chef Bradley Randoplh-Adams Today, the cow was fed can have a major effect on the nutrient in the beef. The cattle was often fed in grains, the animal we ate have been evolution by roamed free and ate grass. Many studies that had shown the nutrients in beef can be varying depending on how cow eat. It not only important how we eat, it is important the food we eat. What the different between grass-fed and grain-fed cow? All cow starting live similar life. Once calves were born, they start drink milk from their mother. Calves starting to roam and eat grass, shrub or whatever edible plants they find in their environment. This continues for about six to eighth month, and then the farmer will conventionally raise cows to feedlots. Large feedlot are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations ( CAFOs). That where the crowing cow is and their dung on their feet. The farmer has feeding grain-based to the cow to rapidly fatty up. The grain-based was base of soy or corn. The conventionally of cow grow faster by given drugs and hormones to grow faster, and antibiotic to survive the unsanitary living condition. The cow will be staying there for few month then move into factory for slaughtering. Grain-fed beef does not contain appreciable levels of carotenoids, for the simple reason that grains don’t contain them. Compare that to grass-feeding cow, which the cow may continue to live...
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...What Are the Effects of Animal Cruelty? Dalvi Herrera English 135 Professor Michael Gurin August.25, 2012 Do you know what animal cruelty is? This is a common question where people would probably answer with the same response. The thing is that do you really know what animal cruelty is? Animal cruelty is not only physical abuse that animals receive but also on many other factors. This type of animal cruelty mostly occurs on industrial farms. You’re also probably wondering what an industrial farm is. Well let’s just say that it’s a bad thing. A traditional farm is a farm where they raise livestock the original way. What I mean by the original way is that the animals have freedom. Animals have the ability to roam around in big spaces and live how they want with human maintenance. With this freedom, they can grow up to be healthy. An industrial farm is the opposite farm. The purpose of an industrial farm is to raise livestock and then ship them out to be slaughtered. Animals here have no freedom and no right. Animals are made to live under very harsh conditions. The living conditions are very poor. They are forced to live in a small environment with the same kind of animals. It’s so small and crowded that animals could barely move. With so many animals living in a small area, they all live in their own manure. There is maintenance in the farm but sometimes animals just live in such a long period of time in their own manure. This causes many effects but I will explain them...
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...corn grown and used to feed the animals which sustain us. You see in the super markets all the time now, organic carrots, corn, potatoes, lettuce, grain fed hamburger. What does all of this mean? Taking a step back and looking where it originated, we see cattle herding. Herding cattle is as old as Time itself. As old as when the first cattle where domesticated over 50,000 years ago, and as old as the cattle drives done in the Old West. Now imagine living back in the days of the “Wild West”. Being part of a cattle drive and moving the cattle from the East coast and “Going West.” The cook or the “Boss man” of the cattle drive was the “man who owned the cattle they were herding -- but everyone also knew the cook was the man even the boss deferred to most often. The outfit's chuck wagon was a rough equivalent of a traveling general store, and the cook was not only the chief clerk of that store, he was usually the closest thing the cowboys had to a doctor, surgeon, dentist, tailor, and fussy maiden aunt.”(Old West, 2012) You being the “Boss man” have to feed the entire crew and making sure that you have enough to feed all. Beans will suffice but at some point you will need meat to feed the hungry crew. As the Boss man the cattle that are being herd across the country are yours, so you get the pick of the herd to use a food, clothing and/or shelter. You and another crew member take the one cow aside, so as to not spook the others, and kill it. You take the hide of the cow, preserve...
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...Typically, when an individual hears the term “farm fresh” they picture wide open spaces, with happy cattle and poultry, and hardworking farmers. A few decades ago this image would be true, nowadays this is no longer the case. In Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he lifts the veil from what is really happening behind fast food corporations such as McDonalds and the meat franchises which supply them their meat. American citizens need to be more informed on what is going on behind closed doors, and the USDA need to be more closely monitored. Ranchers who typically had their ranches passed down from generation to generation ran into financial hardships. The average farmer now borrows around $500, 000 and earns around $18,000. Farmers could not...
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...Imagine not being able to move, communicate or interact, but have to stand in your own feces, for a minimum of a year. CAFOs, also known as feedlots, are tightly confined areas where copious amounts of animals are held and fattened up for 12 to 15 months before being sent for slaughter. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that there are around 15,500 CAFOs in the United States alone. There are different types of feedlots, many of them abundant of pigs and cattle. Cattle CAFOs should be more closely monitored by the government because of the antibiotic resistance being built up by humans from the meat and the inhumane ways the animals are treated. First off, the antibiotics used on the animals in CAFOs should...
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...fundamental point of view that protects animals from being exploited by mankind. Vegans choose not to consume animal products - cattle, pigs, all birds raised for human consumption, hens for egg-laying, feeder and dairy cattle. Vegans choose rather to eat natural products that don't involve the killing of animals and therefore live a more compassionate life. 1. Going vegan prevents the exploitation of all animals The exploitation of animals is not only cruel but inhumane. Living in cramped conditions and many times standing in their own feces, animals being raised for conventional slaughter can develop resistant strains of e-coli which is passed...
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...from becoming dirty. Cows also regularly have their horns removed without any type of painkillers. Cows, similar to humans, do not naturally produce milk, unless they are pregnant. To keep the cows constantly producing milk, they are artificially impregnated. Their gestation period is nine months, after witch they are re-impregnated within three months. Pregnancies are just as stressful on cows, as they are on humans, and often cause dairy cows to become ill or die. Dairy cows today produce more than ten times more milk than cows did a few years ago (“Cows on Factory Farms | ASPCA,” 2015). The rise in milk production is mostly due to cows being treated with artificial growth hormones. Farmers are also using selective breeding and grain only diet, to increase milk production. The over production of milk in cows causes a bacterial infection in their utters known as mastitis. This is a extremely painful infection, which causes massive amounts of swelling. According to (“Cows on Factory Farms | ASPCA,” 2015), 79% of cows permanently removed from farms, was due to mastitis. Cows, similar to other livestock, are treated with antibiotics. Milk is required to be tested for six different antibiotic residues, when a milk processing facility receives it. However, a recent anonymous test of 31 different antibiotic residues in milk, conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA Milk Drug Residue Sampling Survey,” 2015), showed that 0.78% of the 2,000 samples they took, tested positive for...
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...Why Don’t We Eat Dogs? Franklin Salcedo DeVry University 01-27-2013 Why Don’t We Eat Dogs? What makes some animals better than others? Or better yet, why do we eat certain animals while it is a crime to eat others? It is questions like these that many people would hope to ignore forever or rather avoid. But as humans, these are the type of questions which define us as better beings and often challenge us to think and act in a way that’s worthy of our better capabilities, intellect, conscience, and hearts. If only an animal would ever speak or rise up the way many human rights activist did in the past in defense of human equality regardless of race or skin color. Surely we would have massive protests and riots from pigs, cows, lambs, goats, and many other animals whose rights are just completely ignore by the vast majority. It is sad to see that these rights are only applied in favor of a handful of animals, while others are locked away and confined to feedlots where the powerful meat industry obliterates their rights and turn their lives into profitable pieces of meat. Though it is legal by law, culture, and trade, the maltreatment and killing of these animals to feed the inhumane and greedy meat for profit industry must stop not only because it violates animal rights, but also because it promotes an agenda of animal abuse, exploitation, and unhealthy human nutrition for generations to come. Instead, the Government should partner up with animal rights activist groups and...
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...at the dining tables of families. However, today, technology has allowed the mass production of food. Unfortunately, the market has taken advantage of technology, not letting us know how food is made, leading to the birth of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). GMOs are widely used in most foods today. Though most people are unaware of this, GMOs even exist in some of their favorite food products. Many reports tell that diseases, such as E-Coli and Salmonella, have been caught from GM-foods. Furthermore, researchers and doctors believe that GMOs carry a huge risk; although, some scientists claim that GMOs are completely safe for human consumption. GMOs should be banned because they have a negative impact on human health, and potential risks on the environment. Although GMOs were only introduced in 1996, the side effects can already be seen: there have been increased allergic reactions, antibiotic resistant bacteria and other toxic hazards. While these side effects of GMOs may seem minuscule in the grand scheme of things, the lasting effects can be much more drastic. More and more children are having life-threatening allergies, which can be contributed to increased GMO intake. Children that have been born with birth defects have been associated with the chemical, glyphosate. Glyphosate is an herbicide used to kill a wide range of weeds. This chemical alone can cause infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages and cancers. Researchers found that glyphosate “caused malformations in...
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...It ends guaranteed payments that farmers receive regardless of their harvest quality or crop prices. Ending direct payments are a positive for the taxpayer, but could have effects based on the market. The substitute for the direct subsidies were payments for crop insurance. The government makes cheaper crop insurance which covers less than previously. Though it makes farming risky, the risk shifts to the federal government, which are more responsible if crop prices plummet or if a disaster hits. Good for average farmers, but risky for the economy. Consumer Awareness The bill, in terms of the animal agriculture industry, took an incremental step in the right direction toward the consumer awareness problem. A passed amendment, according to CNN, “backs a new requirement that pork, chicken or beef sold in the United States must include details on where the animal was born, slaughtered and processed.” While this is an...
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...main concerns for human health arising from industrial agriculture? Firstly industrial framings produce large amounts of manure that pollutes water and air. This pollution may cause many human diseases for example ‘blue baby syndrome’ or E.Coli poisoning. Secondly, the animals in some industrial farms are fed with antibiotics to promote growth and prevent diseases. This was also proven to be a danger for humans as widespread use of antibiotics results in breading super pathogens (drug resistant bacteria).Besides antibiotics there are also other toxic substances which are used to feed the animals on these farms. These toxins may be contaminated in animal tissues and they create the risk for people who consume them. There are also indirect effects caused by these farms. As meat from industrial farms is reasonably cheap it is supplied to many fast food restaurants. As more and more restaurants of this type come to be in the market more and more people are at risk of unhealthy dietary consequences such as heart diseases or obesity. (Graces et....
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...net azou@mprm.com 49 west 27th street 7th floor new york, ny 10001 tel 212 924 6701 fax 212 924 6742 www.magpictures.com SYNOPSIS In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joe Salatin,...
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...Science) Prepared by: Victoria Campbell-Arvai Department of CARRS, Michigan State University August 17, 2009 Literature Review: A Comparison of Dairy Production Systems SUMMARY This literature review focused on studies comparing the effects of dairy production systems (pasture-based, conventional/confinement1, and mixed) on (i) environmental issues, (ii) social issues, (iii) economic issues, (iv) human health issues, and (v) animal welfare issues. The review was based on peer-reviewed research papers identified by experts at MSU, as well as (where specifically suggested) non peer-reviewed university and government reports. Additional studies were identified from the reference section of recommended papers, as well as via their citation index (primarily Google Scholar). A synopsis of each section is available below, as well as at the end of each section. There is a great deal of research –much of it based in the United States- on the environmental effects of all types of dairy farming, including intensive/confinement, mixed, pasture-based, and management-intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) operations. The vast majority of studies identified for this review focused on the fate and management of excess nitrogen and phosphorous, their effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and contributions to air quality and climate change. Many environmental mitigation efforts were suggested, including balancing nutrient inputs/outputs at the level of the farm, the watershed, and regionally;...
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