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What You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat Supermarket Beef Is an Unnatural, by Jo Robinson Industrial Product

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What You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat Supermarket Beef Is an Unnatural, by Jo Robinson Industrial Product WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BEEF YOU EAT Supermarket beef is an unnatural, by JO ROBINSON industrial product. The good news is Illustrations there are better and safer options. by KERI ROSEBRAUGH ou can’t see it. And you can’t al- suckling milk and grazing on grass. When for a couple weeks to enhance flavor and ways recognize it by reading the they were weaned, they were turned out tenderness, a traditional process called dry label. But the beef in your super- onto pastures. Some cattle were given a aging. The meat was then shipped in large Ymarket has gone industrial. moderate amount of grain to enhance cuts to meat markets. The local butcher di- Before factory farming took hold in the marbling (the fat interlaced in the muscle). vided it into individual cuts upon request 1960s, cattle were raised on family farms The calves grew to maturity at a natural and wrapped it in white paper and string. or ranches around the country. The pro- pace, reaching market weight at two to This meat was free of antibiotics, added cess was elemental. Young calves were born three years of age. After the animals were hormones, feed additives, flavor enhancers, in the spring and spent their first months slaughtered, the carcasses were kept cool age-delaying gases and salt-water solutions. Mad cow disease and the deadliest strain of More ominous, the beef also may be in- timing of conception, allowing all the calves WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT E. coli — 0157:H7 — did not exist. People fected with food-borne bacteria, including to be born within days of each other — a dined on rare steaks and steak tartare (raw E. coli 0157:H7. Some experts believe this “more efficient” process. In many ranches, ground beef) with little fear. toxic E. coli evolved in cattle that were fed herd bulls have been replaced by artificial high-grain diets. Every year, hundreds of insemination, which is a fast (read: more THE YOU What’s in Your Beef? thousands of pounds of beef products are efficient) way to improve herd genetics. BEEF EAT Today’s industrialized process brings cat- recalled. One of the largest recalls to date The goal is consistent size, tenderness and tle to slaughter weight in just one or two took place in October 2007 when Topps marbling. But industry insiders predict years. But it reduces the nutritional value of Meat company recalled 21.7 million that many ranchers will be using cloned the meat, stresses the animals, increases the pounds of hamburger because of potential cattle in five or 10 years. The mass-pro- risk of bacterial contamination, pollutes E. coli contamination. The massive recall duced calves will be carbon copies of each the environment and exposes consumers actually put the company out of business. other. The Food and Drug Administration to a long list of unwanted chemicals. And now there’s mad cow disease, a (FDA) granted preliminary approval of The beef contains traces of hormones, mysterious disease that is not destroyed by cloning in December 2006, declaring that antibiotics and other chemicals that were cooking and has been fatal. You could in- the meat is indistinguishable from normal never produced by any cow. That ham- gest “prions” (abnormal proteins) by eating meat, and is as safe for human consump- burger looks fresh, but it may be two even a well-done rib roast. These prions in- tion. In similar circumstances, no labeling weeks old and injected with gases to keep filtrate your brain, perforate it with holes, has been required. it cherry red. Take a closer look at that and cause death in a few years’ time. “guaranteed tender and juicy” filet of beef. The artificial manipulation of beef be- Goodbye Grass, The juiciness may have been “enhanced” gins prior to conception. Many cows are Hello Feedlot with a concoction of water, salt, preserva- treated with synthetic hormones, such as After the calves are born, they spend tives and other additives. “melengestrol acetate,” that regulate the the first seven to nine months grazing You can assume that search showing that even most of the beef in your trace amounts can promote tumor growth. At The Ohio supermarket contains State University, cancer re- searchers mixed human hormone residues. breast cancer cells with trace amounts of Zeranol, one of the five hormones used in U.S. cattle. Zeranol caused a significant spurt in tu- mor growth, even at levels 30 times lower than levels the FDA maintains are safe. The European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General has identified more than a dozen additional studies that raise concern about the safety of the implants, including the possibility they might cause birth defects and changes in sexual de- velopment in children. Weighing all the evidence, the European Union (EU) has banned the use of implants. They also refuse to import U.S. beef from animals treated with hormones. Although EU scientists concede there is no clear proof that the implants are harmful to humans, they assert there also is no proof that they on grass, the same are safe. What’s more, they say, Europeans way calves have been raised have expressed a clear preference for hor- for generations. But when they reach mone-free beef, even if no health risks are 500 to 700 pounds, they are herded into implants returns five to 10 dollars in add- found. The World Trade Organization, at trucks and shipped to auction barns where ed gain for each animal in the six to 12 the urging of the U.S. government, now they’re sold to new owners and trucked months they spend in the feedlot. levies trade sanctions against the EU for to distant feedlots. The journey can take closing their doors to U.S. beef. up to a week. Upon arrival at the feedlot, Are Hormone Meanwhile, the FDA stands by its claim the stressed, thirsty and hungry calves are Implants Safe? that beef from implanted cattle contains herded down chutes and subjected to a Given the fact that nine out of 10 U.S. such small amounts of these drugs that number of procedures, which can include calves are treated with hormonal growth they pose no threat to human health. In dehorning, castration, branding and tag- promoters, you can assume that most of fact, the FDA is so confident in its ruling ging. Then they are dewormed and vacci- the beef in your supermarket contains that it does not require hormone use to nated against various diseases. A common hormone residues. The FDA has approved be listed on labels. practice is to mix antibiotics with the feed, five hormone implant growth promot- whether the now-stressed animals show ers for cattle. Three of them — estradiol, Grain and Antibiotics signs of illness or not. Tetracycline, an anti- progesterone and testosterone — are nat- Go Hand in Hand biotic important for humans, is one of the urally occurring hormones that are iden- Hormones are just one way to speed most commonly used medications. tical to those found in humans. Zeranol the growth of young calves. Another Lastly, the calves are implanted with pel- and trenbolone acetate are synthetic hor- strategy is to feed them an ultra high- lets that contain growth-promoting steroid mones that mimic natural ones. In addi- grain diet, the standard fare in most feed- hormones that lose their effectiveness in a tion, melengestrol acetate is approved as lots. One reason calves are switched from matter of months. Many animals are given a feed additive. Some implants contain a grass to grain is that grain is a more con- new implants of higher potency to replace mix of these various substances. centrated form of energy. Calves fattened them. The aggressive use of hormone im- Many consumers and advocacy groups on grain reach maturity months ahead of plants can add 110 pounds of lean meat are calling for a ban on these growth- grass-fattened calves. The less time cattle or more to a calf. Every dollar invested in promoting implants. They point to re- spend in feedlots, the greater the profit 76 MOTHER EARTH NEWS February/March 2008 they return. Corn is the grain of choice because it’s especially high in energy. Grain-feeding has another advantage: It keeps the as- sembly line moving steadily throughout the year. Grass becomes sparse during pe- riods of drought and cold weather, which slows the growth of the calves. Grain is available year-round, al- lowing calves to gain as much weight in So You Want Better Beef? January as they do in June. It also keeps Finding an alternative to industrial beef takes effort. The cattle industry is highly consoli- the meat cases stocked all year, a luxury dated, with the largest 25 feedlot companies now supplying 40 percent of all U.S. beef. we now take for granted. The packing industry is even more concentrated. The top four beef packers (IBP/Tyson, But unnatural high-grain diets have a Excel/Cargill, Swift/ConAgra and U.S. Premium/National Beef) harvest more than 80 per- major drawback: They make cattle sick. cent of the meat. By contrast, in the 1960s the top four packers slaughtered less than 30 To prevent or reduce the symptoms caused percent of all cattle. The trend is likely to continue, partly due to the fact that food giants, by grain-feeding, they are given a steady such as Wal-Mart and Safeway, cut costs by reducing their number of suppliers. Except dose of antibiotics in their feed — adding for a small section of the meat case devoted to “natural meats,” all the remaining beef yet another drug to the mix.
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