Did you know that a cow harvested specifically for beef only lives up to 18 months? The average cow usually lives up to 18-25 years! Today I will talk to you about the cruelty and chemicals that goes into the beef you are buying from your local grocery store. Not that I am in any way a vegetarian or against eating meat, but it is important for you to be informed about what goes into the food that you are putting into your body. You only have one, after all. There is no humane way to raise beef cattle to meet the world's growing demand. Let's take a look at one of the biggest beef based corporations in the world, Tyson. Tyson slaughters and packages 170,938 cattle every day! That number is not including any other of the corporations who are …show more content…
Every beef cattle produced is injected with steroids. With the injection of steroids it makes the cow grow at an alarming rate, and helps turn food into muscle at a quicker rate. But this is the obvious information. What are they putting into both dairy cattle and beef cattle that could cause harm to us? There is a harmful hormone called IGF. Now, this hormone is not directly put into the cattle. But, all cattle are given rBGH (to put simply it helps them produce more milk/meat). But, rBGH is directly linked to IGF, a hormone that mimics the effects of the growth of human hormones in dangerous ways. It is said that cattle containing rBGH produce 10 times to IGF than cattle without rBGH. “In a 2004 study, patients with above-average IGF levels had nearly a 50% higher risk of prostate cancer and a 65% higher risk of hormone-dependent premenopausal breast cancer than people with below-average levels.” says Carina Storrs of Health.com. Also, a lot of cattle are dosed with high amounts of antibiotics, like penicillin. It is said that a lot of the antibiotics that humans use become ineffective from being exposed to antibiotic resistant bacteria from eating beef! These are just a few of MANY drugs put into cattle. Do you see how consuming high amounts of beef could be harmful to
Swan, S.H., J.W. Overstreet, C. Brazil, and N.E. Skakkebaek. "Growth Hormones Fed to Beef Cattle Damage Human Health." Growth Hormones Fed to Beef Cattle Damage Human Health. N.p., May 2007. Web. 09 Oct. 2013. .
...armers’ markets, raise your own cow– the list goes on. These methods are all possible. But speaking as a “run-of-the-mill, suburban citizen”, even after knowing all the ills of factory farming, these methods are not appealing to me. We all like convenience and affordability, which these methods cannot offer AYYYY CITE And that is truly the issue here. The meat that we are getting– that convenient meat that none of us seem to want to live without– is quite frankly grotesque and unhealthy. But we keep eating.
Chickens are selectively bred and given feed with arsenic added to it to promote faster growth. A study conducted in 2006 found that 55% of uncooked chicken bought in a supermarket contained arsenic (Farm Sanctuary). Studies which have been completed focusing on long term exposure to arsenic showed that it can cause skin, lung, kidney or bladder cancers ("Scientific Facts on Arsenic."). Dairy cows are often repeatedly injected with bovine growth hormone, a genetically-engineered hormone that has been proven to increase the risk of health problems in dairy cows. The growth hormones used most commonly by dairy industries have been shown to notably increase the risk of breast, prostate and colon cancer in people who consume beef (Farm
In today’s traditional factory farms, beef cattle are being raised in cruel living environments. In an article written by Berry Estabrook titled Feedlots vs Pastures: Two Very Different Ways to Fatten Beef Cattle, published in “The Atlantic” written December 28th, 2011 says that most of Americas beef comes from factory farms. They are crammed by the thousands into crowded, confined dirt lots. The cattle have hardly any room to move around and are forced to live in piles of their own excrement. Due to the many cows, they are deprived from ve...
The abuse of livestock is a widespread problem that affects everyone who buys and consumes meat products. Most people are not even aware of how slaughter-destined animals are treated while alive, what chemicals are forced into their bodies, what they are forced to eat, and how they are slaughtered. Fortunately, an increasing number of slaughter plants and small farms have been conforming to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA), after it was passed in 1958, and amended to be fully enforced in 2002, but there are still slaughter plants that abuse, neglect, and provide poor conditions for livestock (“Humane” Animal). When looking at the realities of mass producing meat and animal products, two serious problems arise: the quality of life for the animals, and the possible negative health effects for the people who consume these products.
Ever since we developed farming, we have locked up our animals. We have impregnated sows and fattened piglets for the slaughter. The technique of farming is just different and on a larger scale. Because of innovations, farming methods have changed. There are also more people to feed in the United States. The prices of meat have to be kept low so that every family, even the poorest family can afford to have meat protein in their diet. Now that meat is available to poorer people, their diet has been better overall than it had been in the past (Deane, 2004). The activists who are against factory farming have blown the cruelty out of proportion. Yes, there have been factories that have deplorable conditions but those are few and far between. Legislation has been passed to protect the animals in the factory farms. They are not housed in the same ways as humans, because they are not human. Humans have always eaten animals and they always
Every year, humans kill over 56 billion farm animals, with 3,000 animals dying every second in the slaughterhouse around the world. In the United States, there are about 12.7 million people being diagnosed with cancer; eating red meats might be linked. Not only is the growth of the meat industry hurting the health of Americans, but also negatively affects the climate. As a society, we should be more educated about the food we eat and how it affects our bodies.
Unfortunately, most people do not see the connection between consuming meat and encouraging animal abusing. Animal abusing is described generally as any act or omission that causes unnecessary or unreasonable harm to an animal. The animals like chicken, pigs, cows and turkey are confined in tightly packed cages for twenty four hours a day without fresh air and sunlight. In the cages, animals are brutally attacked and tortured by the factory workers (PETA). The cows are repeatedly impregnated after every four months and boosted with hormones, so they can provide more milk. Most of the animals often experience stress, various diseases and contamination in their living sheds due to the congested area. The chickens are pumped with hormones that cause their body mass to grow rapidly, but their muscle does not grow as much as the body mass. As a result, chickens cannot stand or walk properly and are unable to compete with others to get the food; resulting in death. Additionally, when cows are useless, they are brought up to the slaughterhouses where their throats are incised with the knife, while they are still conscious (PETA). The animals are experiencing all these abuses for the taste of our mouth. Most people do not think about these inhumane practices while purchasing meats from the
The cattle industry produces vast amounts of strain in the environment. It is energy inefficient, pollutes water, occupies many acres of land, and deteriorates the health of the people who abuse its consumption. The government subsidizes this industry. Therefore, the price paid for meat doesn’t reflect the environmental hazards involved in the process. In order to protect our health and the health of the environment we should pay close attention to our food choices and make sure we don’t support industries that degrade it.
...farmers and ranchers today raise 13 percent more beef from 30 percent fewer cattle. The modern cattle rancher uses less water, produces less greenhouse gas, and is preventing overgrazing. Cattlemen today are more environmentally sustainable than they were 30 to 40 years. Although cattle farmers have a more efficient beef production today, producing 16 percent less carbon emissions, using 33 percent less land, and requiring 12 percent less water to maintain.
In fact, the amount of resources that go into production of animals for consumption is somewhat startling. When factoring in transportation, grains for feeding, etc. and directly comparing them to the output of protein for consumption, a vegetarian diet seems much more appealing. David Pimentel, a Cornell ecologist specializing in Agriculture and Life Science, stated beef production “requires a [fossil-fuel] energy output to protein output ratio of 54:1” and that 100,000 liters of water goes into just one kilogram of beef. Also, cows are notorious for producing large amounts of methane, totaling 500 liters per cow per day (Goffman 3). Methane traps heat in the environment, heating the surface of the earth causing problematic situations to occur all over the earth, including the ice caps melting and eliminating species. And when cattle, which are...
An abundance of Americans have no idea that most of the food that they consume are either processed or altered in one way or another. “Almost all beef cattle entering feedlots in the United States are given hormone implants to promote faster growth. The first product used for this purpose is DES (diethylstilbestrol) it was approved for use in beef cattle in 1954. An estimated two-thirds of the nation's beef cattle were treated with DES in 1956. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, Brazil, and Skakkebaek)” Many people enjoy the various meats that comes from a cow, but that would probably change if the consumers knew that cattle is one of the most processed meat source in the market today because of the synthetic hormones that the cows are given. “ The three synthetic hormones are the estrogen compound zeranol, the androgen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Swan, Liu, Overstreet, B...
Cows go through a cycle of impregnation, birth and milking. 9.3 million cows are used to produce milk while they're impregnated. "Cows spend their lives indoors, typically on hard, abrasive concrete floors, frequently connected to a milking apparatus" (Farm Sanctuary). Cows are slaughtered for beef in the United States. These cows used for human consumption live for an average of 5 years because they are exhausted after all the intense torturing. "Young calves endure a long and stressful journey to a feedlot, where they are fattened on an unnatural diet until they reach "market weight" and are sent to slaughter" (Farm Sanctuary). Animal abuse in the food industry has allowed the companies to get more money because of the food they
Cows are naturally very gentle and calm creatures. These smart and sweet natured animals have been known to go to great lengths to escape slaughterhouses. More than forty-one million of these sensitive animals suffer and die a painful death each year in the United States. When cows are still very young they are burned with hot irons, there testicles are torn or cut off, all without painkillers. Most beef cattle are born in one state, live in another, and are slaughtered in another. The cows who survive the gruesome transportation process are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung upside down by there legs, and taken onto the killing floor where there throats
There are strict regulations required to raise certified organic meat. The USDA defines “natural” meat as: “All meats raised for human consumption without additives and minimally processed” (Topline Foods, 2014). According to USDA regulations, any meat can be labeled “natural” if it contains no artificial flavoring, coloring, preservative or any other artificial ingredients. This means that producers raising natural meats may choose to eliminate the use of steroids, growth hormones and antibiotics from their animals. They may also be producing their animals in conventional feedlot situations full of steroids, hormones, antibiotics and GMO feeds. It’s all about the processing (USDA Organic,