Glenn Lynch
March 26, 2005
GLS420
Professor Klimova
Research Paper

"Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner:

America’s beef consumption, its ever expanding fast food culture and unyielding urban expansion has created a global ecological crisis, stripping the land of its natural resources, diverting food and water away from human use and onto livestock, displacing indigenous peoples for economic gain, decimating native plant and wildlife species and increasing the likelihood of spreading resistant strains of bacterial and viral disease on a global basis.

Each year the average American consumes approximately 69.5 pounds of beef making the U.S. the single largest consumers of beef in the world. According to a 2001 study by the U.S. Beef Industry, Americans consumed beef products 77.8 million times each day, a figure they expect to increase six percent by 2004 (NCBA). In order to produce that much beef vast quantities of natural resources are consumed. Over 70 percent of the grain and over half of the water consumed within the United States are used in the production of livestock. Environmentalist Dave Tilford suggests that 165 pounds of plant and animal matter must be destroyed in order to produce just a single quarter pound of beef. By the time a steer is ready for slaughter it has consumed over 2,700 pounds of grains and weighs over 1,000 pounds (Robbins). That same amount of grain could sustain the inhabitants of an entire Indian village throughout their lifetime (Shah). It takes nearly 157 metric tons of cereal and vegetable protein to produce just 28 metric tons of beef, making it one of the most inefficient food sources available and by far, the most inefficient source of meat (Robbins). Consumerist Richard Robbins suggests that the ecological impact of a livestock cattle’s diet are unnecessary, that the dietary intake of cattle has been altered in order to produce a marbleized effect on the meat; a trait that was preferred by British aristocracy during the periods of American Colonization. The natural diet of North American cattle herds, as Robbins points out, would produce a much leaner quality of meat and have less of devastating impact on the environment. Modern cattle growers are challenged with an ever decreasing source of grazing lands; most have abandoned large ranches in favor of smaller, more controllable feedlots. Waste from these feedlots, which used to re-fertilize the open ranges once occupied by cattle, has to be disposed of through non conventional means. Corporate farms have largely abandoned the practice of purchasing cow manure from cattle feedlots; preferring genetically engineered modes of fertilization instead. As a result, huge mounds of manure have accumulated across the country waiting for a means of disposal. In January, 2005 CNN news reported on 1,500 foot high mound of manure in Nebraska that had been burning for a better part six months, giving off fowl smelling fumes and smoke which settled upon a neighboring town. The feedlot owner was engaged in a drawn out legal battle with the state on the environmental impact of this burning waste which was estimated at nearly 2 million pounds.

To support a growing demand for beef in Great Britain, the beef industries within the American colonies were eager to up their production but first, they had to overcome a few obstacles. The American Indian and large herds of American buffalo occupied the range lands cattle growers needed to expand their herds (Robbins). In the span of ten years, from 1870 to 1880, millions of buffalo were hunted to brink of extinction to make room for the growing cattle industry. Cattle ranchers also feared sharing the plains with the herds of buffalo because of the effects a disease called brucellosis; a disease that causes abortion in livestock and is often transmitted through bison’s expelled fetuses or birth fluids. When cattle and buffalo share the same habitat, the spread of brucellosis can cut the birth rate of cattle in half (NCBA). With the near extinction of the buffalo came a rapid decline to the American Indian populations who relied heavily on the buffalo as a central part of their cultural way of life and as a primary source of food (Robbins). Several tribes were forced onto reservations while others fought with starvation and increasing military pressure. Once the American Indians were displaced to reservations, the range lands of the American prairie were primed for the taking and the farming and cattle industries quickly moved in. The new land acquisitions enable the American farmer to grow vast quantities of corn which were in turn sold and used by the cattle rancher to produce the fatty beef preferred by the British. Corn was a cheap source of feed and even today corn prices are closely linked to the price of cattle (Robbins). Today, seventy percent of the corn grown in America’s Midwestern region has been genetically engineered to take advantage of cheaper pesticides and fertilizers. However, to produce these superior plant varieties, farmers must license the seeds they plant from huge agricultural firms. Seed varieties that do well in the Midwest are then exported for testing in foreign environments as feed for livestock in other countries (Foster). While a majority of these altered varieties of maize and corn are used in conjunction of livestock, some has been engineered as a food source; especially within the Latin American Region where corn is a dietary staple (Tilford). The incorporation of genetically engineered feed has created a dependency on multinational corporations by American farmers and foreign countries who rely on American corn as a supplementary food source (Tilford).

Loss of the buffalo caused wolves to turn their attention to farm animals, leading to organized efforts to exterminate them. Now they are an endangered species and subject of a controversial reintroduction program. As a result of livestock grazing, numerous plant species throughout the prairies were also decimated. In fact, hundreds of species were likely eliminated from many areas at the onset of heavy grazing in the late 1800s, even before knowledge of their existence could be documented (Callenbach). Livestock continues to have negative impacts on plant and flora life in the Western part of the U.S. where three out of the five plants placed on the 1992 national endangered species list were subjected to heavy grazing (Callenbach). With the decline of the American buffalo, ranchers may have missed out on a better overall food source than cattle as the buffalo are much better adapted to North American winters than domestic cattle are, and that they are less likely to overgraze their pasture as cattle tend to concentrate on the patches of best forage and overgraze those patches, causing erosion; buffalo graze more lightly and then move on. A recent study by the National Science Foundation shows that grazing by buffalo increases biodiversity of the prairie habitat (Callenbach). The selective grazing of the buffalo and their natural process of fertilizing the prairies through their manure provided ecological stability to a number of indigenous plant and animal species (Callenbach). During the dawn of the American cattle industry, much of the natural methods of utilizing bison manure had been lost as insect and animal species that once capitalized on its use faced extinction through the diminished buffalo population, the overgrazing by cattle, and the fragmentation of the landscape (Callenbach). As the cultural desire for beef and the misconception that beef is a cheap source of food continue to proliferate on a global scale the overall ecological impact of raising livestock has become a global problem.

Morgan Spurlock’s film documentary “Super Size Me” touches on the global reach of the American fast food industry. Today, McDonald’s has nearly 30,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and plans to expand by another 2,000 restaurants a year for the next five years (Spurlock). McDonald’s is the largest holder of real estate in the world and the world’s most recognizable brand; its influence into global cultures is hard to ignore (Shah). In some of the world’s urban centers, McDonald’s offers the only playgrounds for children and their marketing budget, with children as the primary demographic, is larger than the economies of some third world nations (Shah). American tastes and cultural preferences have had profound and lasting effects on foreign societies who are anxious to further idolize the Western way of life. Japan, for instance, is on the verge of outpacing American beef consumption; consuming nearly 80 pounds per capita most of which is imported from New Zealand (Shah). Japanese beef consumption continues to rise despite increased costs due to importation limits place on the industry during the 2003 “mad cow” disease crises (Shah). The demands and influence of the fast food industry on the world's food supply, and its impacts on society and the environment, its interests in global economics are considerable.

Cattle occupy 24% of the land on the planet and consume more than a third of the world’s grain harvest (Shah). Breaking that down a bit, people consume almost all of the rice, but approximately 50% of all the wheat and nearly all of the corn produced globally are used as livestock feed (Shah). In South America, fifty-five square feet of rainforest are destroyed, including 20 to 30 species of plant, 100 species of insects, and dozens of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians to produce a quarter pound of beef. Putting this figure into perspective, if the average family of four consumes a pound of beef per day, six hundred and sixty pounds of life would be destroyed in its production (Cousins). Since 1960, over 25% of the rainforests in Central and over 35% of the rainforests in South America have been destroyed in order to create grazing pastures for cattle. In doing so, billions of tones of carbon dioxide have been released into the ozone contributing to the planet’s global warming problem (Cousins). Unchecked, the continual degradation of our planet’s ecosystem through the process of livestock production could lead to another significant extinction; our own.
If we think of such social, economic, health and environmental effects of livestock productions as output costs, the costs of of these outputs would far exceed any cost benefits associated with beef production. For example, costs of human health, environmental reparations, economic problems, etc. are most likely footed by taxpayers and ordinary citizens, while the industry just pays for the means to make more money (acquisition of feed, slaughter costs, etc…) “If you added the real cost of industrial food production, its health, environmental, and social costs, to the current supermarket price, not even our wealthiest citizens could afford to buy it,” (Windell). The effects of beef consumption on human health will bear the most significant costs.

Today, 1.2 billion people suffer from hunger and some 2 to 3.5 billion people have some form of micronutrient deficiency, yet some 1.2 billion people are obese (Spurlock). Michael Stephens, an advocate for Alternat.org, suggests that 36% of Americans are overweight; two-thirds of which are severely overweight or obese. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, obesity greatly increases an individual’s risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases. In 1996, the Surgeon General estimated that less than 25% of American’s consumed the recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables and that one in four Americans eat out on a daily basis. The Surgeon General also beliefs that for the first time in history, health problems related to obesity will be the number one killer of Americans; replacing cigarette smoking (Spurlock). According to the American Obesity Association, some of the common ailments associated with obesity include osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, birth defects, breast, gastric, colorectal, endometrial, and renal cancers, cardiovascular disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic venous insufficiency, daytime sleepiness, deep vein thrombosis, type 2 diabetes, end stage renal disease, gallbladder disease, gout, heart disorders, hypertension, impaired immune response, impaired respiratory function, infectious wounds, infertility, liver disease, low back pain, obstetric and gynecologic complications, frequent pain, pancreatitis, sleep apnea, strokes, surgical complications, and urinary stress incontinence. The Surgeon General estimates that one in three children born after 2003 will likely suffer from obesity and that eighty percent of children who are obese by the age of thirteen will struggle with obesity for their entire lives. For the first time in generations, parents are faced with the probability of outliving their kids (Spurlock).

According to UNICEF’s 2005 report on the State of the World’s children, more than one billion children are being denied a healthy and protected upbringing; ninety million of which are severely food deprived (UNICEF.org). A 2003 report from the World Food Program lists thirteen African and five Asian nations faced with famine conditions and food shortages calling for 2.9 million metric tons of highly nutritious grains and cereals to help fill gaps in food production for those countries. “Cattle have arguable caused or are related to the most environmental damage to the globe of any non-human species. Simply put, the resources necessary to make a cow could be put to better use by some of the planet’s other inhabitants, humans included.” (Tilford). If acreage devoted to beef production could be diverted toward the production of cereals and grains, which offer up to ten times as much protein as beef, food shortages throughout the world could be greatly diminished (Tilford).

Aside from the ill effects of obesity and the mass famine associated with ecological degradation, industrial livestock production has created other human and animal health conditions that continue to threaten our species. As cost cutting efforts have been introduced to the cattle industry, short cuts in the safety and health of the meat products has suffered. Genetically altered or High Yield seeds are engineered through a process known as “gene expression” which uses a virus vector to breakdown the plant’s natural defenses and introduce a mutation at the gene level. “By altering the genetic composition of the plant genome (the entirety of the genetic structure of an organism)., this process introduces new proteins into the human and animal food chains,” (Charnes). Diseases such as Mad Cow disease and foot and mouth disease, while not directly correlated with food alterations, continue to plague world livestock herds, many of which must be completely destroyed. Far from their natural habitat, feedlot cattle have become more susceptible to all sorts of illnesses. Increases in grain prices as a result of decrease availability has encouraged the feeding of less expensive materials, especially organically engineered substances with a high protein content that accelerate growth. About 75 percent of the cattle in the U.S. are being fed livestock waste, including the remains of other cattle, sheep, pigs, and chicken. Until legislative changes in 1997, cattle were even being fed the dead carcasses of cats and dogs from animal shelters (Stephens). The FDA banned such practices after evidence from Great Britain suggested they were responsible for the initial outbreaks of Mad Cow disease. The regulation changes did not, however, include the banning of pigs, horses, and poultry. The regulations not only allow cattle to be fed dead poultry but also allow poultry to be fed dead cattle (Stephens). Americans who spent more than six months in the United Kingdom during the 1980s are forbidden to donate blood, yet cattle blood is still being put into the feed given to American cattle. Gordon Spurlock’s research led him to the conclusion that each quarter pound hamburger contains beef from over one thousand different animals (Spurlock). In addition to animal parts, the feed can also contain a mixture of chicken and cow manure. One independent study by the journal for Preventative Medicine suggests that in Arkansas alone, 3 million pounds of chicken manure were fed to cattle in 1994 (Stephens). Instead of focusing on meat contamination, the feed being given to cattle, the overcrowding of feedlots, the poor sanitation of slaughterhouses, and the lack of stringent government oversight, the meatpacking industry and the USDA are advocating the use of irradiation or “cold pasteurization” to help eliminate the problems of food-borne pathogens (Schlosser).

Prior to 1960, pork was the number one meat consumed in America; beef was a distant second. Changes in our dietary patterns since that time have been dramatic largely impart to changes in our culture. After World War II, more women joined the workforce, dual income families became more of the norm rather than the exception, and superhighways and urban development help create the perfect environment for the fast food industry. Regional, cultural, ethnic and family influences on diet began to fade in favor of the quickly prepared, cheaply made, and highly advertised convenience foods offered by fast food franchises (Schlosser). Fast food chains began to influence children through television and billboard advertising. The need for subsidized food programs in the schools opened the door for outside corporate sponsorships who introduced fast food options into our schools. Parents who were raised within this environment of television advertising, supermarket shopping, and convenience foods passed these traits onto their children. With the continual growth of international trade dependencies and the reach of global marketing on new markets, our fast food culture has begun to spread throughout the rest of the world. World food organizations and world banks recognize the relatively low costs of beef production and recommend beef as a staple food for developing nations; often subsidizing programs through grants and long term loans. As beef become more intertwined within the daily lives of millions of people across the globe, the environmental and human health impacts continue to mount while resources that could be used to solve a majority of the world’s food shortage problems are diverted to cattle instead. The plains of North America and the rainforests of Central and South America are forever changed with hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of species being threatened with extinction. The powerful myth that industrialized food production is cheap and affordable survives in part because all of the environmental, health, and social costs are not added to the price of industrial food. Corn and grain fed beef is not an efficient food source and it erodes away at precious resources that could be used to provide nutritional meals for our world’s entire population. By cutting beef consumption and by changing the feed habits of our livestock back to more natural methods, we can drastically free up massive quantities of grain and reduce pressure on our precious natural resources.

Works Cited

Berry Windell, et al. “The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture Myth Three: Industrial Food is Cheap.” http://www.alternet.org/story/13904 (2002).

Boseley, Sarah. “WHO ‘infiltrated by Food Industry.” The Guardian (January 9th, 2003).

Callenbach, Ernest. “Bring Back the Buffalo! A Sustainable Future for America’s Great Plains.” Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996

Charnes, Rick. “Genetically Altered Food: Myths and Realities.” Earth Save International http://www.earthsave.org/ge.htm

Cousins, Sterling. “Rainforest Destruction and Beef Consumption.” Vegetarian Society of Colorado http://www.vsc.org/0902-environment.htm

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States. FAO Statistical Database Website. “Cattle Stocks.” http://faostat.fao.org/faostat/servlet/XteServlet3?Areas=>862&Items=866&Elements=11&Years=2001&Format=Table&Xaxis=Years&Yaxis=Countries&Aggregate=&Calculate=&Domain=SUA&ItemTypes=Production.Livestock.Stocks&Language=&UserName (2004).

Goodman, Amy. “The Politics of Food.” http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20020726 Democracy Now! Radio Webcast (2002).

Goodman, Amy. “Fast Food Nation: An Interview with Author Eric Schlosser.” http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0157235 Democracy Now! Radio Webcast (2001).

National Cattleman’s Beef Association Website. “The U.S. Beef Industry: Demand, Spending and Consumption Factsheet.” http://www.beef.org/dsp/dsp_content.cfm?locationId=710&contentTypeId=1&contentID=249 (2001).

Robbins, Richard. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism Allyn and Bacon (1999). 203-228

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation; the Dark Side of the All American Meal Houghton Mifflin Company (2001).: 4 – 398

Shah, Anup. “Behind Consumption and Consumerism – Beef.” http://globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption/Beef.asp (2003).

Shah, Anup. “Causes of Hunger are Related to Poverty.” http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/Hunger/Causes.asp (2004).

Shiva, Vandana. “Stolen Harvest.” South End Press (2000).: 70-71

Spearman, Simone. “Eating More Veggies Can Help Save Energy.” San Francisco Chronicle (2001).

Stephens, Michael. “The Politics of Fat.” http://www.alternet.org/story/16343 (2003).

Tilford, Dave. “Biodiversity To Go: The Hidden Costs of Beef Consumption.” New American Dream http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/beefcost.php