Sexy Beef: Most Disgusting Sprol Post Yet

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Sexy Beef: Most Disgusting Sprol Post Yet

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.
http://www.sprol.com/2005/05/sexy-beef-most-disgusting-sprol-post.aspx

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
< http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4035/is_200404/ai_n9390468 >
and can increase profit by $80 per steer. That this has the effect of poisoning
the water
< http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2003/Feedlot-Alters-Fish-Hormones14dec03.htm >,
as well as every burger eater who snarfs one, is a fact that millions of dollars
per year go to supressing < http://www.beefusa.org/theassociation.aspx >.

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 insidethe animal and
then sewing the wound, the whole force of a 600lb heifer straining against
me. source http://tinyurl.com/9xzef .

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
< http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/policy/hormone2.html >.
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.

http://www.sprol.com/2005/05/sexy-beef-most-disgusting-sprol-post.aspx

Coalinga, CA 93210
USA
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=coalinga,+ca&ll=36.303763,-120.268922&sp....027680
{zoom in and take a look around...}