You Are What Your Animals Eat
In my investigation into pasture-based farming, I've stumbled upon an alarming state of affairs: few animal scientists see any link between animal feed and human food . "Feed animals anything you want," say the experts, "and it makes no difference to their meat, milk, or eggs." Because of this mindset, our animals are being fed just about anything that enhances the bottom line, including chicken feathers, sawdust, chicken manure, stale pizza dough, potato chips, and candy bars. Here's a glaring example. A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.
(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminium foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit---at least for the producers. I quote: "Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility." In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminium foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater.
With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminium was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminium content was "within normal expected ranges." As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat. When I first read the bubblegum studies, I assumed that no one would actually feed bubblegum to their animals, despite the "positive outcome" of the research.. Then a professor of animal science drove me by a Beechnut gum factory in upstate New York where dairy farmers bought truckloads of bubble gum to feed to their cows.
The view from the other side of the fence is just as sobering. Most experts in human nutrition are equally blind to the feed/food connection. To them, beef is beef, eggs are eggs, and milk is milk. Thus, when the USDA says "eat less red meat," the edict applies to all red meat, whether it's a fatty steak from a grain fed cow, or a lean steak from a grass fed cow with its invisible bounty of omega-3s, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and CLA.
I've spent the past four years trying to forge the missing link between animal and human nutrition. It's been tough going, esp
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