Sprol Again: This piece, our most popular, originally ran May 14th. It’s been updated with a few more links. Do you know of a large feedlot or other industrial facility near you? Tell us.
If you’ve ever driven between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and you were in too much of a hurry to take the coastal route, you’ve probably smelled this place before you saw it. This is what 120,000 cattle look like from space. You don’t need any fancy chemistry lessons or to imagine deadly radiation or dioxins slowly building up in your system here. One glance tells you that this is pretty disgusting.
It’s what goes into these animals that’s the really gross part.
This is the gigantic cattle feedlot in Coalinga, California along Interstate 5. Aside from the state prison, it’s the largest employer in west Fresno County, employing 1,500 persons in the feedlot, slaughterhouse, and fancy steakhouse. Vertical integration.
A feedlot is a confined area for controlled feeding of animals. This one is the largest in California and has several characteristics that are typical of the modern cattle feedlot in the United States. The cattle here are bound for places like McDonald’s, California Safeway stores, and precooked pot roasts and TV dinners. Lock ‘em in. Fatten ‘em up.
You’ll note that there is no shade, shelter, or grass on the ground. Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they would primarily graze on grass. Cattle in feedlots, however, are fed grain, and are often implanted with a series of steroid hormone implants inserted under the skin behind their ears. It makes them grow faster and can increase profit by $80 per steer. That this has the effect of poisioning the water, as well as every burger eater who snarfs one, is a fact that millions of dollars per year go to supressing.
After all, at 120,000 heads, we’re talking almost ten million dollars extra, every few months. Just for a few steroids. Just for this lot. They’re performance enhancing! Not okay for pro baseball but just fine for your 8 year old.
Cattle have four stomachs designed to process the cellulose fibers in grasses. Grain mixed with garbage like chicken feathers and bone meal really isn’t what these beasts are supposed to be eating. The food combined with regular doses of antibiotics cause the cattle to put on so much weight that their internal organs fall out and have to be stuffed back in by the ranch hands. No veterinary care is provided.
I spent countless hours stuffing 25lb of cow back inside the animal and then sewing the wound, the whole force of a 600lb heifer straining against me. source
All of that homones, antibiotics, and other garbage in the meat isn’t very good for people. It turns out that the hormones in the meat cause estrogen levels to rise in people who eat it. Even though the EU won’t allow it, the USDA insists that the rise in hormone levels is safe. Especially for children.
Do any of your friends have daughters who have experienced premature sexual development? You’d better not ask them.
Many doctors maintain that things like elevated levels of oestradiol, a powerful sex hormone, in your beef can cause all sorts of problems, such as the increased levels of cancers in the prostate, breast, and ovaries. Incidence of these diseases have been rising since the 1950s as beef consumption, heart disease, and obesity have all skyrocketed.
However, when one clicks on the link, one gets the following information, “The clear international scientific consensus is that these approved and licensed products are safe when used in accordance with good veterinary practice. Even the EU’s own scientists agree with these findings.”
We think that it’s SAFE that your homone levels rise, is what they are saying. Read it again.
the harris feedlot. here it is, picture- on the other side of the fence- dude, gag me with a spoon, it stunk!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53528766@N00/19005441/
It all boils down to one problem: OVER POPULATION. The beef industry is choosing the most “efficient and economical” method of feeding a growing and consuming human population. This is the only “economically feasible” way to deliver meat to this population at a price it can afford with it’s current rate of consumption.
And, when you handle an item in this quantity, you loose empathy. In the US it’s cattle, in India and China, it’s people. I speak from first hand experience when I say the value of human life, the empathy for human life in these countries is very low.
With the growing world population, I second Anonymous’ post: “Give me some of that Soylent Green!”
In all this gloom and doom, that brought a smile to my face.
Informative article. More people need to learn about the dangers of hormones in cattle.
The daughter of an old teacher of mine experienced this premature development. 2 years before she should have started puberty they found sists where her breasts should have been developing. The doctos said they were caused by hormones in the milk she was drinking.
The sists caused great alarm and the high estrogen forced her body into puberty before her body and brain were aligned for the change. It affected her greatly.
I was young at the time and couldn’t understand all the fuss but looking back can only imagine the horror it caused her family.
Everything worked out and she’s fine but needless to say that started the family ban on all food containing hormones and any GE products as well.
Keep on Bloggin’
Prior to Ann V. departing for ‘greener pastures’, we sent a letter asking her if she consumed the sickness or allowed her family to eat the poisons that have been shown to exist in beef and dairy products. She did not reply. Hmmmm.
Keep on throwing those old cow chips
Robert. Perhaps ‘dung hill’ will collapse some day.
Sandra and Conrad.
How sad for these poor animals! What an unnatural life, and for what? So Americans can gorge on unhealthy meat.
My husband & I are vegans, no beef for many years. Our doctor says we are the healthiest people in his practice! There are lots of yummy vegan foods, there’s no excuse for these horrible feedlots. It’s a disgrace and a blight on the planet. All that grain to millions of cattle could feed the hungry of the world…
If you read Genesis in the Bible we were made to be vegetarians. It was after the flood that we were allowed to eat meat and our life spans went down dramatically.
Four Years ago I was on a Greyhound bus riding South on I-5 from Seattle, WA to Los Angeles, CA. I was day dreaming as we passed this large factory farm (this very one!).
I had three disturbing thoughts..
1) If these cows were human, we would call them slaves.
2) We eat our slaves.
3) Cowards have others do the killing for them (i.e. Butchers).
Ever since that day I have been a strict vegetarian.
~Edofin
As a “North Plains” Native American I can tell you we see the dis-ease the wacicu brings upon its society through greed and fear. We have always “smoked the pipe” with the wacicu, so much so they called it a”peace pipe”! If they only knew! Anyone who smokes the pipe with deception or malace in the heart will fall victim of their own hands. Seem like this “beef” deal and many others are proof our old Chiefs were right! You all go ahead and eat, eat, eat that beef! We will still be here on our land long after you are nothing but a very bad memory!
Ever notice that more and more of your children are having sex identity problems? Guess what? For those who are wise, I give you this message: How can you tell when the wacicu are lying? Anser: When their lips are moving! Just listen to the Shrub in Wash D.C. You talk about someone who don’t know nutt’in he don’t ever suspect nutt’in …. and that’s your chief? Poor you! Hehetcetu Alo!
Aho Kola! We have Tatanka as our gift from Grandfather. We take greaat care to use each part. Our Tatanka are free ranged and protected by our warriors on our land. We have no need to be poinsoned like the white man is doing to himself, we value our lives and our old ways to much to be fooled by the white lies! We are the Buffalo Nation, as the buffalo goes so do we its people! Our elders live indto their 80′s, 90′s and 100′s. This despite eating buffalo fat, fry bread and smoking tobacco! Not until the whites came did we start dying through massacre via psychopaths like Custer (who wore arrow shirts! Cuater got Sioux’ed!)who put our women’s genitals on his saddle as he rode through towns to the cheering of other whites. Dying through disease measles, small pox, etc. With the advent of suger, came Indian Diabetes, with the introduction of alcohol came sever alcohol dependance. Despite having our children kidnapped by th eCatholic Church, taken to Penn. and there had their hair cut and denied the ability to speak their language and wear their clothes or see their parents who were in the Dakotas many mile away. All in the name of GOD, the POPE nad the US Gov’t! We did not get our religious freedom in this country until Congress passed the Native AMerican REligious Freedom Act in 1978! 1978! 1978! Aho! Here in the “land of the free” and the “Home of the bullies, er I mean the brave” if we were caught dancing our Sun Dance or the Ghost Dance before 1978 we would be found guilty of treason against the US Govt and be sent to Federal Prison! Time for the Blacks and Judiasm to move over! We can compare holocosts with any of them! But who’s counting? Who has the media buy the tail? We have only just started the ball rolling with programs like “Thunderheart”, “Dances With Wolves” – Sunkmanitu Tanka O Waci, “500 Nations”, “The Native AMericans” and no currently on television TBN “In to The West”
Wacicu even poison the mind of their offspring by teaching lie to them in school about their leaders, their country, and it’s legal owners! America, now that you’ve seen it’ spoiled it, go back to where you came from! Your names are “writ in the sand”!!!
Mmmmmmmmmm animals taste good!
Check out http://www.insidedairyproduction.com for more information about the California Dairy Industry.
Where have all the flowers gone
Long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone
Long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Gone to feedlots, every one.
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
I was in france recently doing a little cycling. Some of my favorite dishes were Steak Diane, beef bourguinonne, Beef Richelieu with Madeira Sauce, French Braised Stew, hachis Parmentier, Chateaubriand, Tournedos Diables, Steak Tartare, French Dip Sandwiches, Steak au poivre, Beef Bourguignon. Ahh, French cuisine.
I’m fortunate enough to get a great deal of my meat from the woods and the water. Sure there are some pollutants in even wild food, be it plant or animal, but its better than what’s in the food store.(“only take what you can use”). As long as there are people, there are going to be problems like this; and if there weren’t people, there would be other problems; but then–we wouldn’t know about them, would we?
what about the suffering of these animals? Doesn’t anyone care?
(I shall add this; I do know a few people who SHOULD BE treated this way for their cruelty to both animals and other people)…
By the way PETA, when you all have a free moment away from glamorizing ‘cruelty to fifi and fido’, why don’t you really pull up your silk sleeves and enter the fray of mass animal cruelty, you know, the real world stuff…….
This suffering does not go without consequences. As we sow, so do we reap. Karma is as sure as gravity. The catch phrase “Where’s the Beef?” has a whole new meaning for me now! Stuffing eviserated innards back into cows all day long??? Lord have mercy on us.
And to think I ate beef for lunch and dinner yesterday…
Gross!!! That’s why I eat Australian, free range, grass fed beef only. After the first mad-cow case I stopped eating beef. After I found out about the Australian beef I tried it(reluctanly I have to admit) and I reliazed(sp?)it tasted better than “normal” beef. I also eat fish (almost always wild caught),clams , oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, frog legs, lobster, shrimp, pork and chicken. I prefer seafood to all else. I also prefer wild caught fish and shrimp. Oh, to all you PETA (the real ones) hippies don’t give me your eating lobsters (clams, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, shrimp or fish) is cruel ****. I like fish and clams, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, shrimp. By the way clams, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, shrimp are invertebrates and have primitive nervous systems (In fact they don’t have too much of a brain to speak of.)
Farmers’ cost-cutting practice of mixing bits of dead sheep’s neural tissue into the feed of cows, who are naturally herbivorous has resulted in the development BSE. The human version of the disease mainly Sporadic and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease which has been contracted by humans and with reported cases in the U.S. people should be worried.
Treating animals in this manner is not only inhuman but also encourages the development of a disease which will eventually kill us..nows that poetic justice!!
If you are a meat eater, then it serves you right if you contract CJD. Hope you ‘fat americans’ experience all the suffering and pain these poor cows have gone through.
That’s why I eat Australian, free range, grass fed beef, to minimize the risk of CJD. Oh BTW the Jakob part of CJD is pronounced Yakob. just so you know. I also eat fish (almost always wild caught),clams , oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, frog legs, lobster, shrimp, pork and chicken. I eat the above mentioned foods because there is little to no risk of brain wasting diseases, like BSE (Proper name for Mad Cow Disease) or CJD.
El hombre el ser más pejudicial para la Tierra.
Sino mirad en esta página de SPROL que con la ayuda de las fotos de satelite que Google facilita, nos muestra algunas trazas de lo perjudiciales que somos para este bello planeta. Por ejemplo podeis ver como tenemos hacinadas a 120.000 terneras pa…
I drove greyhound past there for years and used to warn passengers of the scent. We stopped at B”k” there in Coalinga Jct.for our break in the long trip LA to SF. or Sacramento. Im glad I moved to a State where the Cattle have pastures and grass to feed on. Thats what a hamburger is all about. Per. heart health I went on Adkins diet and my health is the best it had been in years tryglicerides, cholesterol etc. all down to normal BP great weight down and now holding at a very good level the meat thing gets too much hype keep the carbs low eat well. Avoid HAPPY DRUG loaded meats. And Respect the things the lord has made
I don’t have a problem with eating meat, as long as the animal that gives that meat is being treated as a creature worthy of respect and care while living. I think those of you who are eating Aussie meat should be sure and check it is in fact free-range, preferably organic – we have feedlots here too you know, and a lot of our export beef is from feedlot. Also even our free-range cows are treated pretty badly – shipped on trucks through extreme weather without rest or refreshment, to the slaughterhouse. Organic meat is however slaughtered on site, minimising the trauma to the animal. Also we eat wayyyy more meat than we need – cutting down on your meat consumption won’t kill you.
I grew up in an agricultural area and I can tell you the way these poor things live is cruel and unusual. Have respect for the animal that is giving you life through providing you with its meat and treat it decently!
[...] via BlogsNow via sprol [...]
I am American and I am truly ashamed of our way of life. I am also truly ashamed that many of us seem to be oblivious to the continuing and future damage to our planet–the one we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. I often wonder what my grandchildren’s lives will be like as we continue to look the other way as all the cruelty, waste, gluttony, greed and ignorance is causing our country to devour itself. Left to our own devices and abandoning our consciences, we will eventually self-destruct. I agree with the poster who said “we have met the enemy… and it is us.”
Regarding beef and animal consumption in general, with all the low-cost yet healthier and much more humane alternatives to the way many of these meat facilities treat their “living profit sources,” there is absolutely NO reason for any decent human being or company to resort to cruelty and neglect simply to fatten their wallets. If they TRULY cared, they could still produce their “product” to meet the demand of meat-eaters and yet not do so in a manner that causes animal suffering and disease and death to humans. When all is said and done, they can’t take their “profits” with them when their number’s up–but what they DO leave behind in their wake of destruction will affect immeasurable numbers of people. It’s all about sacrificing the future for short-term gain. That’s why this country is going to he** in a handbasket, and I hope those who willingly and knowingly perpetrate cruelty of any kind, for any reason, eventually reap what they sow. And those of us who know better and fail to make changes to reduce the need that drives these greedy people to continue their horrible animal treatment practices are guilty also: of turning the other way.
I’m not against all meat, nor am I a rabid self-righteous fanatic. I have succumbed to convenience and used my own poverty as a sorry excuse to condone these practices. But I am slowly making changes for the better and reducing processed meat consumption, as well as educating my kids, also, so that they can perhaps have the tools to contribute to this world, not just take from it.
I have not changed overnight, but each step I take toward healthier, more conscientious living makes a difference, and I will continue down this path as I take time to educate myself more and focus less about my own wants and more about the common good.
I am not here to point fingers, but only to express my own views on this subject. To each his own.
I spent twenty five years in the dark. The past five have seen light. I cant even begin to tell you what it is like. Cows are friends not food. It is as simple and glorious as the sentence reads. I hope more will choose light over dark. Think about it for a moment. It worked for me.
I like sea food… especially wild ones. I think eating factory farmed meat is disgusting, but it’s hard to find alternatives to factory farmed pork and chicken. Why can’t people eat more seafood,in some cases its healthier for you.
I suggest people do a little research on their own and not believe what one person writes on a website. Try visiting a feedlot or farm, the animals are treated very well. This is only makes good business sense; it is proven that animals will gain better and convert feed better when they are comfortable.
Here are a few facts concerning hormones to chew on (they are from a study at Michigan State):
The numbers below are measured in nanograms or 1 billionth of a gram. To put it in perspective 1 blade of grass on an entire football field.
In 4 oz. serving –
1.3 ng – beef from non implanted steer
1.9 ng – implanted steer
34 ng – milk
993 ng – 1 egg
2700 ng – cabbage
245 ng – potato
340 ng – peas
520 ng – ice cream
3400 ng – wheat germ
1,680,000 – soybean oil
Here are the nanograms naturally produced daily:
41,000 – male child before puberty
54,000 – female child before puberty
136,00 – adult male
480,000 – adult female
20,000,000 – pregnant female
Even a young boy would need to eat 16 lbs. of implanted beef daily to increase his hormone levels even 1%
There are no reasons to worry about the use of implants.
When all the meat eaters of the world go crazy and then die from mad cow disease, don’t say she didn’t tell you so in this article. Crazy!
Chris, thanks for the thoughtful comment. As most smart people know, the European Union is far ahead of the United States when it comes to the humane treatment of other living things like people and animals.
I suggest you peruse the practices required there, since they manage to raise food without mutilating animals, unnaturally feeding them to one other, and continously dosing them with medicines that could be put to better use.
Medicine is normally given to people or animals when they are sick.
These animals are dosed with hormones and antibacterial medicine continuously for their entire lives. They’re fed garbage containing other ground up cows.
Are they healthy? Would you trust the government to inform you if they were not?
The rhetoric of the ‘culture of life’ stands in contrast to almost every actual practice in our industrialized Orwellian society, including the death penalty, torture chambers, permanent detention, invading other countries, stripping people of citizenship, and… treatment of farm animals. You are what you eat.
Automatt,
I totally understand your concern with inhumane treatment of animals and am in agreement with you. But I guess we disagree on what is considered inhumane.
As far as animal treatment in the EU compared to here there really isn’t a whole lot of difference. Except the fact that raising livestock is done on a bigger scale here.
As far as feeding cows to cows, that practice has been banned for years now. Cattle are fed balanced rations that will maximize their growth. No, it’s not the all grass natural diet, but that just doesn’t work in large scale today. Plus the public wants grain fed beef as it has a different taste than grass fed.
Another point in the original article was that cattle are fed so much that their internal organs come out. This is total fabricatioin. The only time internal organs may come out is after a cow has a calf. This is called a prolapse, and is more common in first time calvers. No you do not need a vet to take care of this, after being educated on how to reinsert it and sew them up, there is nothing a vet would do differently than a ranch hand.
The chance of contracting “mad cow disease” is so minimal that it can hardly be measured. First, only cattle over 36 months are believed to contract the disease. The vast majority of cattle in the U.S. are harvested at less than 18 months. Second, you can only contract the disease from eating brain or spinal tissue from an infected animal. Very, very few people will eat these organs in this country anyway.
Yes there are some things that the general public will think is gross at farms and feedlots. But the majority of farmers, ranchers, and feedlot operators love animals and are concerned abuot their well being. The cattle at these facilities give the appearance of being content. Who is better to judge this? Someone driving by on the freeway or someone who works with and is around these animals everyday?
I know I won’t be able to change anybody’s mind concerning eating meat or not. But I would hope that people will research this a little more on their own and not just read PETA websites to gather information. This issue is going to continue to grow as people are getting further and further removed from the farm. And the misunderstandings and misconceptions will only increase. I ask that we can just agree to disagree and that people will try to “educate” the public with facts and not myths. I don’t have a problem with vegatarians, if that is how they want to live fine. I don’t like for them to promote their lifestyle using lies and twisting the truth which is too often the case.
God Bless
USDA finds 1,000 violations of mad cow rules
via yahoo news article
sexy
bahrain
tht was VERY SEXY BABY! YEAH!!!!!!!!!
tht was VERY SEXY BABY!
Reading stuff like this just makes me think everybody should stop having children, as the future is going to totally suck. Or at least limit it to one child per couple, after a few generations, there would be a lot less strain on Mother Earth…… Oh yeah, that would adversely affect the number of taxpayers and customers for governments and corporations. What was I thinking?
Feedlots and animal cruelty, genetically-modified plants and animals, pollution, deforestation and destruction of natural habitat, etc, etc, these are all problems. Why do something you think is good about one problem, then ignore other problems while acting holier-than-thou? Trying to blame the world’s problems on any one group, whether it’s meat-eaters, Americans, or even large corporations is not only stereotypical, it’s just plain INCORRECT.
It’s individuals from all over the world, and their attitudes/apathy that is the problem. We enable and empower the governments, lumber corporations, major food corporations, etc. by our own attitudes and we vote with our money to keep things going this way.
As just one example: if we voted with our money by buying more recycled products, more companies would produce recycled products, because they make their profits by supplying us with whatever we will spend our money on.
But the only solution I can offer is to keep reading and educating yourself about all the problems out there, tell your friends and family, and come up with your own solutions that you can follow. If for example, you can’t afford to spend a little bit more on recycled products, you can at least recycle and reuse as much of your own garbage as possible.
There are always ways to help make a difference, if you just think about it.
The problem with the whole “vote with your dollars” approach to sustainability is this: How many votes do your great-grandchildren get? Since they don’t spend any money, their interests are not respected.
Apart from the appalling conditions and totally unnatural and unhealthy meat produced by these animals… where does the associated run off and effluent go ??? pity the poor receiving environment let alone the groundwater !!
It’s well known among my female friends that vegetarian men are better in bed – especially men over the age of 30! Even the younger meat eating guys just don’t have the stamina that young vegetarians do. As for older meat eaters, well, there’s a good reason viagra is selling so well.
Simply put, meat eaters may be able to get it up, but they can’t keep it up!
I love to shoot animals I eat their flesh and wear their skins. Sometimes I shoot animals just for fun.
And we wonder where breast cancer comes from.
Calendar Girl
You think the ariel view of this feedlot is bad? This is one sick and deplorable place. I pass it frequently. The smell is apparrant long before your eyes take in the sight. Cows standing in manure mountains, methane gasses in the air. It’s wretched……………
you people that complain and wine about meat are idiots and the reason this country is in the shape it is in. Find a hobby or better yet live your life and let others live theres and SHUT UP!
Humans are so selfish!!! We have no respect for anything anymore….earth or animals!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~”Plus, cows raised on small organic farms, where they can graze pasture as their bodies were built to do, make much better-tasting beef.”~
**Organic farms are still inhumane. Unless the animals go through your body alive and come out your ass and happily run back into the fields.**
~”… survival of the fittest…”~
**That’s what Hitler thought too. But no, might does NOT make right**
~”And eating vegies alone is not much healthier as most plants are now genetically modified and tampered.”~
**That’s why you avoid the GM’ed foods, duh. There’s still the animal, environmental, and world hunger reasons for going vegan**
~”Meat is an important ingredient in a healthy diet, however it does need to be consumed with caution.”~
**Most know that there is no nutrient you cannot get from a vegan diet. Even the American Meat Institute agreed when it said, “People are still going to want to eat meat, though we do agree that vegetarianism is the healthier diet.”**
~”By the way clams, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, shrimp are invertebrates and have primitive nervous systems (In fact they don’t have too much of a brain to speak of.) “~
**Tell that to the marine biologists and all those who’ve researched fish. Even ANTS have been discovered to be quite intelligent.**
~”I also eat fish (almost always wild caught),clams , oysters, crabs, jellyfish, mussels, frog legs, lobster, shrimp, pork and chicken. I eat the above mentioned foods because there is little to no risk of brain wasting diseases, like BSE (Proper name for Mad Cow Disease) or CJD. “~
**Have you forgotten bird flu (from birds), mercury poisoning (fish), and SARS (from pig farms)? And don’t forget the biggest problem: heart disease (all animal protein)**
By the way, did you know that many people went veg after 9/11 because they realized that the smell of burning human flesh smells the same as cooking meat (burning animal flesh)? Flesh is flesh, you might as well eat the bodies from the graveyards, at least they’re already dead and you won’t have to murder them.
Beef as well as all other meet is good no matter how it was grown or killed as long as there is meat, i’ll go to bed happy.
LOOKS LIKE DINNER TO ME WANT FRIES
LOOKS LIKE DINNER TO ME WANT FRIES