The U.S. could feed 800 million people with the grain used to feed U.S. livestock. Beef cows are fed around 57% corn, and dairy cows around 39% corn, rather than forage as their main source of feed: these diets lead to a profusion of health issues.
Those who are familiar with what goes on behind the scenes on factory farms
probably know about greenwashing, where terms like ‘grass-fed’ and
‘cage-free’ are used without restriction, and usually don’t mean what the
average consumer assumes (big pastures, endless fields of grass, acres and
acres of land, as opposed to the realities of enclosed and crowded barns and
muddy pens). If cattle in large-scale animal agriculture operations aren’t
‘grass-fed’, then what are they fed? As it turns out, there is a whole world
being disrupted due to the unnatural diets designed to make the animals grow
as quickly as possible--and that is the world of the gut. Ruminating
livestock that are conventionally used for meat in the United States, such
as cattle and sheep, have digestive systems designed for specific diets of
grasses, clover, legumes, roots, weeds, and a wide variety of other plant
materials, and the inner biome of these animals is drastically disrupted
when they aren’t fed a natural diet.
The Natural Diets of Livestock
So what do cattle typically eat in a natural setting? Ruminants (such as
cows, sheep, and goats) are hooved animals with unique digestive systems.
They have four chambers to their stomachs: the rumen, the reticulum, the
omasum, and the abomasum. These four stomach chambers allow ruminants to
digest plant matter that monogastric (species with one stomach chamber, such
as humans) cannot. One of the ways they do this is through chewing cud (also
called ruminating). Chewing cud is when a bolus of semi-digested food is
regurgitated and re-chewed, breaking it up into smaller pieces, where it is
then re-swallowed.
This process makes it easier for the microbes of the gut to digest the plant
matter. Ruminants such as cows and sheep fall into the bulk and roughage
eaters category, meaning they are dependent on fibrous plants and grass,
called roughage. These animals also forage, which provides protein from
legumes, maximizes ruminating and cud-chewing (which leads to a healthier
gut) and minimizes potential health issues such as acidosis and laminitis.
Chewing cud is an indicator of a healthy animal, and foraging for roughage
is necessary for the internal workings of ruminants to function properly, as
phytochemically rich mixtures of grasses and plant-matter enhances health
and requires less antibiotics. Unfortunately, this is not how 70.4% of
cattle are raised in the U.S.
What Happens in Factory Farms
‘Grass-fed’ is a term that can be applied to cattle raised for meat when
they are raised in pastures for the first few months or first year of their
lives, but 96% are soon moved to feedlots to live in crowded pens with
hundreds, or thousands, of other cattle. They are fed diets of corn and soy,
which are highly fermentable and carbohydrate-rich, and often medicated with
antibiotics, growth hormones, and buffers. Beef cows are fed around 57%
corn, and dairy cows around 39% corn, rather than forage as their main
source of feed.
With these diets follows a profusion of health issues. Digestive diseases
are the second highest cause of death in feedlot cattle. Beef cows raised on
grain diets are less likely to chew their cud, which can create displaced
abomasums and twisted stomachs, as well as result in acidosis and laminitis.
Ruminal acidosis is a bovine metabolic disease that occurs when cattle are
fed a diet high in grains, and results in a high prevalence and accumulation
of acids in the rumen, or a decrease in ruminal pH, and an imbalance between
microbial production, microbial utilization, and ruminal absorption of
volatile fatty acids. To put it more simply: these highly-digestible
carbohydrate diets increase acid in the stomach and impact the microbial
balances that keep the body healthy. Without the proper roughage diet, the
inner system can’t function properly.
Acute ruminal acidosis is more common in feedlots, while subacute ruminal
acidosis (SARA) is more common in dairy cows. Symptoms include liver
abscesses, ulcers, dehydration and diarrhea, infections of the lung, heart,
and/or kidneys, neurological issues, and laminitis. In extreme cases, it can
lead to death. Laminitis is directly tied to acidosis, as it is caused by a
rapid increase in grains. When the acidity in the rumen increases because of
this, digestive organisms die off and release toxins into the bloodstream.
This causes the blood vessels in the hooves to swell, causing pain and
lameness. The science behind these diets is extensive, and it is evident
that factory farmed cattle are greatly impacted by having no access to their
natural diets. What factory farmed animals are fed also impacts human
health, compared to truly pasture-raised. And while one might not think a
cow’s diet impacts the environment–it does.
Environmental Impacts
How does the diet of an animal affect its environment? For cattle, it comes
in the form of their feed. The U.S. is the largest producer, consumer, and
exporter of corn, with 90 million acres planted yearly, of which 40% is used
for animal feed, as well as 70% of soybeans grown in the U.S. Monocultures
such as corn and soy require a greater usage of pesticides, herbicides, and
fertilizers, all of which impact the environment through the contamination
of soil and groundwater. Monocultures also contribute to soil degradation
and fertility loss, as one crop grown over and over again in the same field
quickly depletes the nutrients, requiring even further use of chemical
fertilizers to combat infertile soil. There is also a significant amount of
air pollution that happens as a result of corn farming, as well as water
consumption, as grain-fed beef takes over 26,000 gallons of water to produce
2 pounds of food, much of that going towards raising the crops that are used
to feed them.
So what would happen if all those millions of acres of corn and soy and
other grains that are grown to feed animals, were instead used to grow
produce that would go straight to the plate? It turns out, the U.S. could
feed 800 million people with the grain used to feed livestock. The
production of animal protein requires eight times as much fossil-fuel energy
as plant protein, and even if pasture-raised, truly grass-fed livestock was
our only source of meat, Americans would still get more than their daily
allowance. If the estimated 26 million tons of grains grown to feed
livestock on 30 million hectares in the U.S. were instead used to feed
humans directly, there would be no need for industrialized animal
agriculture, the environment would not be so greatly impacted, and meat
would be produced more sustainably and would be healthier.
Conclusion
Corn, soy, and other grains are not the proper diets for ruminating animals,
but natural diets such as fresh grass and roughage makes for happier and
healthier livestock, environment, and people.
Shay Schmida is a teller of tales, dreamer of dreams, and writer of all
things. She is a college advocate at FFAC, and is interested in illuminating
the issues of our food system through her writing.