Why I chose veggies…. The Story of Cow No. 534 PART ONE

I just completed reading an article listed on Dr. Mercola’s website. The good Doc is a proclaimed holistic healer and rather good from my understanding; Michael Pollan In order to really get his hands dirty so to speak, Mr. Pollan bought himself a calf No. 534 to be specific. The story horrified me about as much as Sinclair’s The Jungle, which if any of you ever read unless you kill all thoughts and flavor of carcass you won’t eat a bite of a cow, pig or chicken again. I find myself drift back to my old eating ways from time to time, then I re-educate myself on why I quit in the first place and that’s that. Broccoli is back to being my best friend. I frequently get guff for why I try to eat the way I do, yes it is more expensive, yes it’s a pain however as all things in life you get out what you put in. In my case I want to live as healthy of a lifestyle as possible and give myself a fighting chance wherever I am able to.

Humanity as a whole in the US gets sicker every day. People are not ever weaned, we eat the flesh of animals that are essentially antibiotic fed cannibals and we drink polluted water. There are things you can help, there are things you can’t. I’ve already ranted on people not being weaned and drinking milk and those health concerns. Some milk from a healthy grass fed source is fine I’m sure, but daily from an infected cannibal… No…. Cattle during the 50’s to meet the feedlots for slaughter a the age of 5, now they meet it at 12 to 16 months at an increased weight of 20%!!! How do you ask? Corn… Not only corn of course, taking into consideration that the corn they eat is genetically engineered too, but Ruminsin which is a high powered antibiotic, which is HOW they are able to feed an animal that is meant to eat grass in the first place subsist on a strict corn fed diet without them dying. Now we know that the FDA banned the feeding of cow parts back to cows as a protein source in 1997 due to the Mad Cow fear, however they specifically banned “blood products” meaning that cow fat that has been rendered down is still feed able and not only a source of protein but calories. Not to mention they are able to feed Feather Feed which is pig parts, chicken parts, and chicken manure and lastly fish entrails. Are you sick yet? Oh wait there’s more, unless you want to live in sickly bliss.

The diet wreaks havoc on the quickly growing cows with a number of malfunctions, bloat, and essentially bovine heartburn, in some cases if not caught a cow will suffocate from the pressure of a bloated rumen against their lungs. However, feedlot individuals survey constantly to aid these creatures and protect their investment. A cow will consume 32 lbs of feed a day, 25 lbs of that made up by corn, the rest is silage (rotten alfalfa provided as roughage to give some aid to the digestion of corn) and of course antibiotic. To add to the growth a hormone is injected that increases their weight by 40 to 50 lbs. this hormone could possibly be linked to low sperm counts, and females aging earlier. Another lovely tip? If you get UTI infections commonly, well guess what, it’s the same bacteria found in the flesh of a cow.
The pens are about the size of a basketball court, about 1 foot deep in manure, and 90 cattle are located in this space.

Stay tuned tomorrow I tell you about the next step…