Dear MOTHER: June/July 2015

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The presence of grazing animals, such as these cattle in Blanco County, Texas, is required to keep pastures and prairies healthy.
The presence of grazing animals, such as these cattle in Blanco County, Texas, is required to keep pastures and prairies healthy.
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The Brown brothers turned a 6-by-6-foot unused septic tank into a stellar root cellar.
The Brown brothers turned a 6-by-6-foot unused septic tank into a stellar root cellar.
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Growers work in a raised-bed garden built on a gravel parking lot in Cleveland, a city that has become a stronghold for urban farming.
Growers work in a raised-bed garden built on a gravel parking lot in Cleveland, a city that has become a stronghold for urban farming.
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Prep a profusion of pesto during peak basil season, then freeze it to savor later as a superb pasta sauce.
Prep a profusion of pesto during peak basil season, then freeze it to savor later as a superb pasta sauce.

Ruminating on Low-Cost Meat

I couldn’t agree more with Richard Manning’s points in The Many Benefits of Grass-Fed Meat in the April/May 2015 issue.

Most of the meat in U.S. supermarkets is raised in feedlots. This is in contrast to how we picture cattle happily grazing on lush, green pastures. The reality is cows crowded into filthy lots, eating some ungodly mixture that contains primarily corn, with numerous additives and antibiotics. The beef industry has worked hard to convince us that meat from corn-fed cattle is better.

Where did this idea come from? I read that the advent of synthetic fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals about 50 years ago led to an overproduction of corn. A sensible response to such surplus would’ve been a shift to growing a crop that was needed on the market, but the industry instead decided to find some other market for the overabundance of corn. Then, some folks had a bright idea: If we feed cattle corn instead of grass, we can fatten them for slaughter in nine months instead of two years. This put more money in many people’s pockets.

But we forgot that cows are ruminants and need to chew their cud to maintain their health. So what if we mess up the animals’ digestion? They only need to survive less than a year. So what if they’re not in perfect health? We can give them medicines and tons of antibiotics to keep them alive for the short time before they go to slaughter. Then we’ll sell meat from sick cows in the supermarket with a USDA stamp of approval.

  • Published on May 11, 2015
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