The hidden story behind the beef recall

You'd have to have been living under a rock not to have heard that last week the US had the largest meat recall in its history.

Over 143 million pounds of beef produced by Westland/Hallmark Meat of Chino California were recalled, an absolutely unprecedented amount that will ultimately extend to dozens of products which used even small amounts of the meat, including soups, sauces, burritos and boullion cubes.

But there's another part of this story that's not getting nearly the attention it deserves.

How did we find out about the problem at Westland in the first place? Due to a courageous whistle blower who used a hidden video recorder to document what was going on at the factory. And that's the really, really horrific part.

Cows too sick to walk were literally kicked and beaten into submission, forced to limp along to the slaughter. Workers used cattle prods on them-- the cow version of tasers-- to make them feebly hobble to their deaths.

It's a scene of such horrific animal cruelty that it could make you weep.

All the media talked about was that "sick" cows were processed into meat causing a clear and present danger (sick cows are more likely to have Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease). No doubt.

But this story also tells us a lot about the conditions under which factory farmed cattle- not to mention pigs and chickens- are "raised" got almost no attention.

And that part of the story got almost no attention.

All of us who deeply love and honor animals have long been appalled by the conditions of factory farming, or what Michael Pollan calls "feedlot" farming. (Just rent "Fast Food Nation" if you want some visual images to illustrate.)

Which leaves many of us- like me- with a personal and moral dilemma.

On the one hand I don't want to contribute to or support the cruelty these animals are routinely subjected to. So I don't buy feedlot meat.

On the other hand, I truly believe that we humans do better with some animal products in our diet.

What to do, what to do?

Each person has to draw the line for himself. Some won't wear fur but will wear leather. Some won't do either. Some will eat certain animals, but not others. Some will eat fish but not fowl.

There's no perfect answer to this dilemma, but I'd like to share mine.

I only buy and eat grass fed beef that have lived relatively stress free lives on the open range grazing on pasture, and die relatively painless, quick deaths.

And because there are no such conditions for pork that I know of, I don't eat pigs, who are subjected to perhaps the most cruel conditions of all, particularly considering that they are highly social animals and as intelligent as dogs.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's the only one I've been able to come up with.

Now if by chance you don't care about animals, there are still selfish reasons to care about the conditions under which they're raised.

Feedlot (factory farmed) animals are fattened up with tons of steroids and hormones. Because they're forced to give milk almost constantly instead of in keeping with their natural cycles, they're fed huge amounts of antibiotics to keep them from getting infections on their udders.

Because they're fed an unnatural (for cows) diet of grains, they have almost no omega-3 fats and are high in inflammatory omega-6's. And because they die in highly stressed situations where they're treated- well, like cattle- their meat is laced with hormones secreted during stress.

I'm glad that people are concerned about the potential contamination of the meat from sick cows.

But I also wish the untold story of cruelty to animals that routinely takes place in these feedlots got a little more ink.

Warmly
jonny