A look at Industrial Meat

For my first entry I will be discussing “The Feed Lot” chapter from Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and the industrial meat industry as a whole. In this chapter, Pollan follows the life 534, a beef steer that he has purchased, from its life as a young calf to its last months of life spent in the feedlot. Despite artificial insemination of 534’s mother, Pollan’s steer spent the first six months of its life grazing on prairie grasses with its mother just as cows have been traditionally raised throughout history. In the next eight months of 534’s life, which also turn out to be his last, he is shipped off to the feedlot and becomes a part of our modern meat industry. His feed is changed to corn, which will make 534 sick because cows are not evolved to eat corn. To keep the cows healthy, they are fed a cocktail of hormones and antibiotics. These drugs also protect the cow from the dangers of the feedlot environment. Not only do the cows spend all their days wallowing in their own filth, they are also kept in densely populated pens, which promotes disease. Pollan suggests that a large reason beef causes so many health problems is as a result of the combination of feeding cows corn, drugs, hormones, and the horrible conditions of the feedlot. The feedlot itself also causes major environmental problems because of the huge amounts of toxic waste that comes from the cows.

This raises the important question of what has driven the meat industry to this state? Pollan explains that corn is a major cause of this problem. Because of the tremendous overproduction of the government subsidized American corn industry, it is the cheapest feed available. The goal of our meat industry is to produce the most meat at the lowest price. Therefore, from an efficiency standpoint, corn is the logical solution. It is illogical, however, because feeding cows corn causes environmental problems and national health issues that all did not exist in the days when cows grazed on grass and meet was expensive. The meat industry has become a situation where all the actors have goals that result in a solution that is bad for everyone. The corn producers want to sell their corn, the meat industry wants to produce meat at the lowest price, and the consumer wants to buy food at the lowest price. In a discussion we had in class today, a classmate said that corn allows us to meet the meat demands of our population. I then suggested that maybe it is better if we do not meet our meat demands. To which several classmates replied that they would rather have meat. This exemplifies the overall situation because my classmates are unable to feel the negative effects of their decision, thus they make the logical decision to continue to demand meat. In my opinion, when these types of problems arise it is the job of the government to step in and create policies to advance a solution. Right now, however, we do not have a solution and we are paying the price. The question that we need to answer is what is the best course of action to solve this problem?