What does a juicy burger, brie cheese, a latte, a stylish belt, manufacturing lubricants, and a bowl of organic steamed vegetables have in common? The answer is: cows! Those lovely creatures that dot the fields along the highway have for thousands of years provided humans with meat, dairy, fertilizer, clothing and much more. For both vegetarians and carnivores, it’s hard to escape our dependence on cows.
 The image stops here: A bucolic picture of grazing cows is about as much as most of us want to know about where our meat comes from. |
Yet, as far as our understanding of where our food comes from, the image of a grazing cow is about as much as most of us want to know. As Americans, we want our food fast, cheap, and without too much information so we can shop in blissful ignorance.
Even recalls of tainted beef are becoming so commonplace that the latest one on February 18 of 143 million pounds of beef may not do much to make the average consumer stop and think for long. The USDA report about the recall states that the meat was potentially unfit for human consumption because the cattle in question weren’t properly inspected. However, it is what the USDA report does not say that is most disturbing.
This recall is actually the result of a Humane Society undercover filmed investigation of “downed” dairy cattle that were too weak or sick to stand on their way to slaughter. Their video shows these downed cattle being jabbed with fork lifts, shocked with electric cattle prods, stabbed in the eyes, and sprayed with high-pressure hoses, in an attempt to get them on their feet so they could be legally sold for meat—all in the presence of USDA inspectors.
| Video from the Humane Society’s undercover investigation. |
The USDA report doesn’t even mention the horrendous abuses inflicted upon these cattle. In fact, USDA undersecretary Richard Raymond stated that, despite the recall, “We are very confident in our food system.” Well, Richard, I’m not!
I lost my confidence in the food system back in the 1990s while studying global agriculture as an anthropologist. Even though I had grown up on a dairy farm, I realized how little I recognized farming today. I learned that virtually all livestock is raised in large-scale confinement operations to cut costs and that abuse and suffering is an inherent part of this system.
With the burden of knowledge, I could no longer shop in blissful ignorance. I tried vegetarianism for eight years until I learned that laying hens suffer the most of all confined animals, and that the composted manure I used to fertilize my organic garden came from confinement dairies. There was no escape! Luckily, I spent several years living on traditional farms in France, which reminded me that farm animals can have good lives. My husband and I decided to create an ethical alternative to the factory farm model, and so we began raising beef cattle and chicken ourselves and selling it locally.
What else can a reasonable, thinking person do? Opt out of the industrial food system. Buy as much as you can locally. Go to farmer’s markets and talk to the farmers personally. Minimally, educate yourself about the origins of your food.
Don’t be fooled by the seemingly higher costs of local food. We actually pay dearly for cheap industrial food, in the form of taxes spent on agricultural subsidies, environmental pollution, tainted beef recalls, loss of farmland because farmers can’t survive on the low wages, and horrific animal cruelty in a system whose only goal is maximization of production. Thus there is no time for downer cows in a modern slaughterhouse where 6-7 cows are “processed” per minute.
It turns out that there is a very high cost to cheap food.
Elizabeth Van Deventer, her husband, and their three boys run Davis Creek Farm in Nelson County.