…but, should they be used to produce the meat we eat?
Feedlots fatten cattle using a grain-based diet until the animals are just under two years old or weigh around twelve hundred pounds. Feedlots increase rates of gain by the use of pelletized natural and synthetic sex hormones that are implanted in the ear skin of cattle. According to Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, professor emeritus of environment and occupational medicine at the University of Chicago School of Public health, the hormones used in beef production are associated with an increased risk of reproductive and childhood cancer. He says that “residues of these hormones in meat are up to twentyfold higher than normal” and “still higher residues result from the not uncommon illegal practice of implantation directly into muscle.” Unfortunately, the USDA does not monitor the meat for hormone residues. Page 157, Foodopoly
“I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped. It was addicting, mentally addicting. Now I’m sick, and I’m scared. Ninety percent of the athletes I know are on the stuff. We’re not born to be 300 lb (140 kg) or jump 30 ft (9.1 m). But all the time I was taking steroids, I knew they were making me play better. I became very violent on the field and off it. I did things only crazy people do. Once a guy sideswiped my car and I beat the hell out of him. Now look at me. My hair’s gone, I wobble when I walk and have to hold on to someone for support, and I have trouble remembering things. My last wish? That no one else ever dies this way.” Lyle Alzado was one of the first major US sports figures to admit to using anabolic steroids. Alzado died at age forty-three.
Related articles:
As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving?
What Happened to the Meat?
Beef’s Raw Edges | Views on quality beef
Foodopoly by Wenonah Hauter
