Broiler litter – the manure, bedding, and other waste from
chicken facilities – is digestible by cattle and far cheaper than
feed grains. Feeding broiler litter to cattle has grown increasingly
common over the past several years. Some feedlots give cattle a
mixture of 50 percent grain and 50 percent broiler litter.
Meanwhile, Illinois State University is promoting the concept of
feeding cattle a combination of ground newsprint and table scraps
from university dining halls. On the grounds that their animals are
ruminants (mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, including cattle,
sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes), cattle producers are legally
entitled to feed their animals garbage and other products generally
banned as food for pigs and other animals.
– From Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus,
page 136.
Whenever I’m shopping in a supermarket, I can’t help but wonder how
many people would buy the animal products being sold – meat, dairy,
eggs, fish, etc. – if they realized how they are produced. Add to the
filth and cruelty involved in production, the obesity, heart disease,
stroke, diabetes, etc. that result from their consumption, and I begin
to wonder what it’s going to take to wake folks up to the fact that they
are really hurting themselves. I guess learned habits can be hard to
break, so most people choose to stay in ruts, even when they are
potentially destructive.
My husband Frank and I feel so blessed to have made the change to a
vegan lifestyle over twenty years ago. It’s so much easier to be vegan!
Also visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/index.html
For vegan health articles, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/health.html
For great-tasting recipes, photos, and information, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes.html
