Safety of beef in US

[alejita]

HI all,

I want to discuss a topic that worries me: is US beef safe to eat. Also, what about the other animal proteins. Don't want to extend this to a vegetarian discussion, because I'm not veg

A long time ago read a lengthy article by a reporter who bought himself a steer and followed it all the way (almost) to the point it became the steaks we eat. We (husband and I) were so shocked and grossed out by the description of what the industry appears to do (such as feeding corn to cows, who can't digest it so they get sick, locking them in "feed lots" where they are walking -- ill and kept around by antibiotics, it seems -- on their feces...) that we pretty much laid off beef. Follow this with the mad-cow disease thing and we're not too happy about any beef in any form. I KNOW there has only been 1 case of mad-cow disease in th US but this illness is very slow to develop and we sort of feel the beef industry is not likely to come forward with bad news unless there is a crisis. Not different from any other group, I guess.

Comments? We LOVE the taste of beef (I was born in Argentina )!

[Behemoth]

Comments? We LOVE the taste of beef (I was born in Argentina )!

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I buy my meat from a local farming family that raises the cows on grass. I'm in the rural midwest so that is the closest option for me. If I were in a city I would buy organic from Whole Foods, I guess. It is more expensive, so we just eat a little less of it, and try to waste as little as possible. According to most of what I've read, a lot of the risks of eating beef come from the large processing plants and icky diets. So, I am hopeful that I am reducing the risk a little. But to be honest, the main reasons are a) to cause as little suffering to the animals as possible and b) to support local small farms.

[Tracy K.]

If you are concerned about your beef, you can always eat Kosher beef. It will be more expensive, and depending on where you live can be difficult to locate. However, Kosher standards are more strict than the government's. (To steal a line from Hebrew National, "We answer to a higher authority.")

[alejita]

If you are concerned about your beef, you can always eat Kosher beef.  It will be more expensive, and depending on where you live can be difficult to locate.  However, Kosher standards are more strict than the government's.  (To steal a line from Hebrew National,  "We answer to a higher authority.")

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We had plenty of Kosher beef in Israel (the only kind there is, as far as we could see) and it was, to be frank, tasteless, compared to regular beef. So we ate other things.

I'd love to know if others on this site share the worry about the beef we eat (from sources like the supermarket).

[helenjp]

This is my outside opinion...as long as the US does things like trying to force Japan to re-open their markets to US beef, instead of upgrading their BSE inspection and testing system, I won't be buying US beef.

I gather from eGullet postings on this topic which I have followed in the past, that this is a minority attitude.

It's not just safety that I'm concerned about...it's what that anti-reform attitude says to me about the beef industry's self-respect. It sounds to me (and I know I'm over-simplifying) that this is an industry that would rather bend Japan's rules than shape up. I don't much care if the US wants to let its beef industry sink, but I'd rather they just abandoned the Japanese market if they don't care to observe its requirements.

What shocks me even more is to hear from a north american (who trains people in cutting and packing meat, and has his own business as well) that he and others are pushing for reform in this area (testing and inspection, hygiene and processing standards, and enforcement of standards and regulations) and getting slapped back.

I admit that I don't much like grain-fed beef anyway, so I'm not suffering a great deal.

Also sorry if I upset anybody, but I wanted to make a stand for some of the rest of the world, in the spirit of an honest exchange of opinon...

[LurkerLoo]

I agree with helenjp--what little I've read in the US media about the beef industry's response to the one reported case of mad cow does NOT inspire confidence. (Funny how sparse the news coverage has been. Not to sound too paranoid, but could it be that pressure is being applied to keep this topic off of the national news radar?) I'm also nonplussed by the way the industry is preventing independent farmers from testing their beef; sounds like big business is afraid of the little guys. And I can't help but remember that whole Oprah brouhaha years ago.

As a benefit of my boycotting of beef since just before Xmas 2003, I've lost 15 pounds! A small compensation for doing without (I grew up in Iowa and LUV beef), however.

My hope is that this situation won't last long, but the ways things are going, it doesn't look like the beef industry will be making major reformations any time soon.

[LurkerLoo]

I agree with helenjp--what little I've read in the US media about the beef industry's response to the one reported case of mad cow does NOT inspire confidence. (Funny how sparse the news coverage has been. Not to sound too paranoid, but could it be that pressure is being applied to keep this topic off of the national news radar?) I'm also nonplussed by the way the industry is preventing independent farmers from testing their beef; sounds like big business is afraid of the little guys. And I can't help but remember that whole Oprah brouhaha years ago.

As a benefit of my boycotting of beef since just before Xmas 2003, I've lost 15 pounds! A small compensation for doing without (I grew up in Iowa and LUV beef), however.

My hope is that this situation won't last long, but the ways things are going, it doesn't look like the beef industry will be making major reformations any time soon.

[Hest88]

Alejita, I only buy grass-fed beef now, which may be closer in taste to the beef you're used to in Argentina anyway. I don't buy it for safety reasons, though, but for environmental ones.

[NulloModo]

hmmm. I don't really pay attention to which beef I buy at all. I buy whatever is on sale, or whatever cut looks the best on any particular day, I just don't have the money or the desire to make a stand for organic.

I personally don't worry about the risks at all though. Maybe there is some mad cow out there, maybe not, but the chances are very slim. 1 in a million might be too high for you, but by my odds it is an easy choice, bring on the beef ;).

[hannnah]

such as feeding corn to cows, who can't digest it so they get sick

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I'm sorry, that's just not true. Cattle can digest corn just fine; on average they digest between 80-90 percent of the dry matter in corn (this citation says 88%), as opposed to grass, which depending on the variety runs 40-60 percent digestible dry matter. Grass-fed beef tastes like it does because they're not getting as much nutrition, and thus aren't building up the same amount of intramuscular fat.

Cattle in feedlots get sick because of the conditions in which they're kept, not because they're being fed grain - this seems to be a fairly commonly held misconception. If you have happy healthy free range cattle, you'll have happy healthy good-tasting beef - and they'll taste even better if they're finished on grain rather than grass.

If you don't mind, could you post the author/title of the article you're referencing?

[Behemoth]

I think the article she is referring to is "Power Steer" by Michael Pollan (New York Times Magazine, March 31, 2002). The article is no longer free on the Times website, but I found a SFGate interview with the author on this subject, here.

Edited to add: farther down the google page, I found a website where two of Pollan's beef articles are reproduced. ("Power Steer" is further down the page.) link

Pollan has been one of my favorite journalists for a long time.

Edited September 21, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[kiliki]

I buy beef from either local vendors (at the farmer's market) or from small, family owned businesses who raise "naturally grown" (not necessarily organic) beef. This is widely available here in Seattle, and isn't even much more expensive, but in many places I imagine you would need to go to Whole Foods or a similar store. I don't do it for safety reasons as much as environmental. I also would rather support families that care about their product rather than corporate agribusiness who care about nothing besides profit.

"Power Steers" is a terrific article (and NOT anti-meat, if that possibility turns anyone off to reading it).

[trillium]

I buy beef from either local vendors (at the farmer's market) or from small, family owned businesses who raise "naturally grown" (not necessarily organic) beef. This is widely available here in Seattle, and isn't even much more expensive, but in many places I imagine you would need to go to Whole Foods or a similar store. I don't do it for safety reasons as much as environmental. I also would rather support families that care about their product rather than corporate agribusiness who care about nothing besides profit.

"Power Steers" is a terrific article (and NOT anti-meat, if that possibility turns anyone off to reading it).

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Just to avoid this being a "me too" post, I'll also point out that the dry aged, grass finished beef I buy from a local farmer tastes so much better then the choice grade stuff I can buy elsewhere that I just don't bother with anything else any more. It is more expensive, but it just means we eat less, and usually stick to cheaper cuts (chucks, shoulders, shortribs etc).

regards,

trillium

[Behemoth]

It's not just safety that I'm concerned about...it's what that anti-reform attitude says to me about the beef industry's self-respect. It sounds to me (and I know I'm over-simplifying) that this is an industry that would rather bend Japan's rules than shape up. I don't much care if the US wants to let its beef industry sink, but I'd rather they just abandoned the Japanese market if they don't care to observe its requirements.

Helen, it looks like Japan may be yielding on this issue?

From what I've read it is probably not so much the cattle ranchers who are anti-reform...it is the fact that all the beef in this country is distributed by only four meatpacking companies -- Tyson/IBP, National, I forget the other two, it is in the article. Even if there is no active price collusion (though after the ADM scandal, who knows...), the control they have over the market forces prices down to the point that farmers have to use lousy cheap feed and hormones just to break even. Essentially, if with all the cost cutting you are still making about $27 per head profit in the best of times and possibly $3 a head in worse times, you are more sharecropper than cattle rancher. IMO regulators need to step in because this is a clear market failure, but until they do I can only protest with my wallet.

Grass fed beef may not be as heavily-marbled and tender as industrial beef, but we have a thousand years of culinary history that was built to address precisely these issues. The mark of a good cook is not what they do with a well-marbled filet, but what they can do with the tougher cuts. Now I am really craving short ribs, dammit...

Edited September 21, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[helenjp]

Yes, it does look as if Japan is yielding...oops, nearly got into a political rant there!

all the beef in this country is distributed by only four meatpacking companies

I also heard that's where the problems lie...what happened to farmers' co-ops and federations, or representation on boards of meat industry corporations?...Did such companies all get bought out by the independent biggies, or was there never significant involvement of ranchers in processing and distribution? If there was, are there any signs of resurgence?

I guess that primary producers are still not paying enough attention to distribution and gaining some control over it - my horticulture department English students in Japan are still focused entirely on growing a better crop, and have some notion of trotting off to market with a little covered basket, I think.

Living in Japan has made me re-evaluate beef, anyway...I now think that it's more reasonable to derive everyday meat from smaller animals. Large animals like beef cattle maybe deserve to be more of a luxury, selling at higher prices that reflect the longer production cycle.

[alejita]

I agree with helenjp--what little I've read in the US media about the beef industry's response to the one reported case of mad cow does NOT inspire confidence. (Funny how sparse the news coverage has been. Not to sound too paranoid, but could it be that pressure is being applied to keep this topic off of the national news radar?) I'm also nonplussed by the way the industry is preventing independent farmers from testing their beef; sounds like big business is afraid of the little guys. And I can't help but remember that whole Oprah brouhaha years ago.

As a benefit of my boycotting of beef since just before Xmas 2003, I've lost 15 pounds! A small compensation for doing without (I grew up in Iowa and LUV beef), however.

My hope is that this situation won't last long, but the ways things are going, it doesn't look like the beef industry will be making major reformations any time soon.

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Can't but agree that the beef industry is burying its head in the sand; I've also pretty much dropped beef from my diet and I must say I've lived without it without tears. Plus, I began exploring legumes as a tasty alternative and, guess what, I like it!!

Can anyone comment on practices of other animal proteins such as pork and lamb? Are they also stuffed with antibiotics and go through the feed-lot system, like cattle do?

[alejita]

I think the article she is referring to is "Power Steer" by Michael Pollan  (New York Times Magazine, March 31, 2002). The article is no longer free on the Times website, but I found a SFGate interview with the author on this subject, here.

Edited to add: farther down the google page, I found a website where two of Pollan's beef articles are reproduced. ("Power Steer" is further down the page.) link

Pollan has been one of my favorite journalists for a long time.

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Yes, that's the article. I was a sea change for us; haven't bought beef at the supermarket since.

[alejita]

hmmm. I don't really pay attention to which beef I buy at all.  I buy whatever is on sale, or whatever cut looks the best on any particular day, I just don't have the money or the desire to make a stand for organic. 

I personally don't worry about the risks at all though.  Maybe there is some mad cow out there, maybe not, but the chances are very slim.  1 in a million might be too high for you, but by my odds it is an easy choice, bring on the beef ;).

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Oliver Saks (neurologist, wrote several very interesting and popular essay books) said in an NPR interview that, in his opinion, mad cow disease is the worst possible death you could ask for. One in a million is way too high for me. I can't afford the organic beef on a daily basis, so I've given it up, mostly.

[NulloModo]

Oliver Saks (neurologist, wrote several very interesting and popular essay books) said in an NPR interview that, in his opinion, mad cow disease is the worst possible death you could ask for. One in a million is way too high for me. I can't afford the organic beef on a daily basis, so I've given it up, mostly.

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That may very well be true, I'm sure that Mad Cow Disease is an extremely unpleasant thing to go through. However, just from my point of view, the risks are greater that I will get killed by a reckless driving on my way to work than they are I will contract Mad Cow Disease.

Now, that is not to say that I don't do things on a regular basis riskier than either of those things, but my view is that prolonging one's life at the expense of filling it with enjoyment is a relatively fruitless endeavor.

[alejita]

I'm sorry, that's just not true.  Cattle can digest corn just fine; on average they digest between 80-90 percent of the dry matter in corn (this citation says 88%), as opposed to grass, which depending on the variety runs 40-60 percent digestible dry matter.  Grass-fed beef tastes like it does because they're not getting as much nutrition, and thus aren't building up the same amount of intramuscular fat. 

Cattle in feedlots get sick because of the conditions in which they're kept, not because they're being fed grain - this seems to be a fairly commonly held misconception.  If you have happy healthy free range cattle, you'll have happy healthy good-tasting beef - and they'll taste even better if they're finished on grain rather than grass. 

If you don't mind, could you post the author/title of the article you're referencing?

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Well, I'm certainly not an expert on cattle and corn feed, but this article (by Michael Pollen on the NY Times magazine) spells out many dangers to the animals: (sorry for the long post but it matters). I quote:

"The shift to a ''hot ration'' of grain can so disturb the cow's digestive process -- its rumen, in particular -- that it can kill the animal if not managed carefully and accompanied by antibiotics"

"Compared with ground-up cow bones, corn seems positively wholesome. Yet it wreaks considerable havoc on bovine digestion. During my day at Poky, I spent an hour or two driving around the yard with Dr. Mel Metzen, the staff veterinarian. Metzen, a 1997 graduate of Kansas State's vet school, oversees a team of eight cowboys who spend their days riding the yard, spotting sick cows and bringing them in for treatment. A great many of their health problems can be traced to their diet. ''They're made to eat forage,'' Metzen said, ''and we're making them eat grain.''

"Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen. The rumen inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal's lungs. Unless action is promptly taken to relieve the pressure (usually by forcing a hose down the animal's esophagus), the cow suffocates.

A corn diet can also give a cow acidosis. Unlike that in our own highly acidic stomachs, the normal pH of a rumen is neutral. Corn makes it unnaturally acidic, however, causing a kind of bovine heartburn, which in some cases can kill the animal but usually just makes it sick. Acidotic animals go off their feed, pant and salivate excessively, paw at their bellies and eat dirt. The condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from pneumonia to feedlot polio.

Cows rarely live on feedlot diets for more than six months, which might be about as much as their digestive systems can tolerate. ''I don't know how long you could feed this ration before you'd see problems,'' Metzen said; another vet said that a sustained feedlot diet would eventually ''blow out their livers'' and kill them. As the acids eat away at the rumen wall, bacteria enter the bloodstream and collect in the liver. More than 13 percent of feedlot cattle are found at slaughter to have abscessed livers."

Yuk.

Other posts in this thread have links to the full article.

[deltadoc]

When I was growing up in Iowa, my uncle in Lost Nation raised cows. Every year when the pastures turned green and the cows, which had been eating hay during the winter months, were let out to pasture, every once in a while, a cow would bloat. I saw him take a knife and stab the cow to let out the air. Cow did fine. He even showed me in the Farmer's book, an illustration of how to do this.

What was more gross, was what he had to do when a cow got constipated. Now I know what those really long rubber gloves were for.

It is my understanding that MCD comes from the brain and possibly the spinal column, and the many outbreaks in England were primarily people who ate cow brains. Apparently it is more popular a dish in Europe than America.

Using bone scraper machines to extract the last bits of meat is one way that processed beef products could pose some danger, since they throw in the spinal column I think I read.

I also read that the cow has to be something like at least 6 years old to catch it. Veal should be safe, even if not totally politically correct in America.

I'm carniverous, so I eat beef. I think Alzheimer's is one of the worst ways to die.

And I think my chances of getting that are far greater than this cow disease.

doc

[hannnah]

"Compared with ground-up cow bones, corn seems positively wholesome. Yet it wreaks considerable havoc on bovine digestion.... " *snip*

"Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen...." *snip*

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What Pollan doesn't explain in the article, probably because it weakens the point he was trying to make about feedlots, is if you feed them too much of any single thing, you get the same effect. I've seen cattle bloat themselves on grass, cornstalks (without the grain), green pears, green apples, new growth of grass, and chocolate chip cookies - it's certainly not specific to feedlot rations. It's comparable to a human eating too much of one thing at one time, even if it's a comparatively healthy thing like fruit - it'll most likely give you a tummyache.

Large scale feedlot operators feed pure-grain hot rations because they pack on the maximum amount of pounds in the minimum amount of time, and damn the consequences. A small producer has a lot more flexibility to adapt the diet to add more or less roughage as the cattle need it - and trust me, it's easy to tell when they need it.

Eat beef, or don't - it's your choice. But don't write off the entire industry based on the practices of the big feedlots - there are thousands of producers out there doing it right, without full time antibiotics, without hormone implants, and without high-density confinement practices, who still deserve the support. And don't write off the industry on the basis of one article that doesn't tell the whole story.

[alejita]

Eat beef, or don't - it's your choice.  But don't write off the entire industry based on the practices of the big feedlots - there are thousands of producers out there doing it right, without full time antibiotics, without hormone implants, and without high-density confinement practices, who still deserve the support.  And don't write off the industry on the basis of one article that doesn't tell the whole story.

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Well, I agree with you on this. I'm sure there are worthy producers out there, but if I go to my supermaket, I have no way of knowing the degree of worthiness of what is offered. So, no supermaket beef, is my point.

perhaps, since you are obvioulsy familiar with the industry, you could let us know how to identify the producers we could support?

[cdh]

hmmm. I don't really pay attention to which beef I buy at all.  I buy whatever is on sale, or whatever cut looks the best on any particular day, I just don't have the money or the desire to make a stand for organic. 

I personally don't worry about the risks at all though.  Maybe there is some mad cow out there, maybe not, but the chances are very slim.  1 in a million might be too high for you, but by my odds it is an easy choice, bring on the beef ;).

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Word, yo!

Sacrifice of pleasure in search of long life will only make whatever time you're given feel a whole lot longer than it actually was.

Edited September 23, 2004 by cdh (log)

[hannnah]

Well, I agree with you on this. I'm sure there are worthy producers out there, but if I go to my supermaket, I have no way of knowing the degree of worthiness of what is offered. So, no supermaket beef, is my point.

perhaps, since you are obvioulsy familiar with the industry, you could let us know how to identify the producers we could support?

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Well, there are actually a couple of supermarket beef programs that are holding their producers and feeders to a stringent set of requirements - they're not certifiable as organic in that they're not asking that all the feed the cattle are fed be organic, but they're asking the producers to keep to an all-vegetable diet, and in some cases limiting what types of feed are used, as well as requiring that no implants or antibiotics be used.

The most widely available of these is probably Laura's Lean - most of the major supermarket chains in my area carry their products. I haven't tried their sirloins or ribeyes, but the less expensive cuts and ground beef are good.

The other program that markets pretty widely is Coleman Natural Meats, who also do lamb. I've generally seen them in organic markets like Whole Foods, but they also seem to have a significant presence in regular supermarkets in other areas of the country. Both the steaks and the lamb are good quality.

There's a lot of information on both these websites regarding their standards on feed, animal welfare, testing for pathogens, etc. Depending on where you are, you might also be able to find local producers who are using similar or more stringent standards in feeding and processing.