I'm not talk about the old "brown cow makes chocolate milk" joke-- I'm referring to cattle eating chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The Organic Consumers Association carried an article large scale farmers feeding their cattle new byproducts as the price of corn goes up. Byproducts? Corn? What's being fed to cows, anyway? Well, feeding corn to cows is a common practice because corn is (was) cheap and fattened up the cows nicely so they were ready for market faster= higher profit. And it is a better option than feeding them dung and slaughter house waste, which is also done. The byproducts are currently being added because the price of corn has gone up. So the farmer in this video fed his cows "leftovers" from Hershey's and Mar's corporation-- yeah, that means his cows are eating reject M&M's!
Does something seem wrong with this picture?
Cows stomach's and natural habits are made for eating GRASS, not corn. The obstacle of feeding grass to cows on a large-scale operation is that a lot of acreage is necessary. Feeding grass to cows also means they take longer to reach market value. So it is a higher cost, and the beef you buy from a grass fed farmer will cost more. But buying that beef also will mean that your cow lived it's life outside of a cramped stall, and in a pasture! And there are nutritional benefits to grass-fed beef-- it's leaner.
This video reminded me of the economic, environmental and social costs it takes to raise beef. This is another reminder that we are voting with our pocket-books everyday about what we value.
