A Midwestern feedlot advertisement proudly boasts, "Raised respectfully for health and flavor."

Respect. Health. A little bit of research easily cuts out those two. Flavor. Well, maybe, but keep reading.

It's time to look into the compromises that you are making when you eat beef. Look into what it is that you are trading in for the fleeting enjoyment of the taste of fats and salt (which, by the way, can easily come from plants). It can be said that in order to consume beef one has to cast aside concern for the ethically sound treatment of animals, concern for the integrity of the ecosystem, concern for the integrity of fair social structure, and concern for the integrity of one's own health. If you ask us, those are some hefty compromises.



Treatment of "Feedlot Animals"

A cow that is unfortunate enough to be born to live his life on a feedlot will spend his first six months to a year in a pasture with his mother. This is the only time in the cows life where he will be allowed to do anything natural, like breath fresh air, feel the sun on his body, or feel grass under his hooves. While grazing on the pasture, it is rare that cows will get any adequate veterinary care often leading them to die of infection or injury. In the winter, cows often end up freezing to death if they are living in colder states. In the summer, cows collapse due to heat stroke or heat exhaustion if they live in states like Texas or Arizona.

After six months to a year of facing the elements, he is traumatically separated from his mother, loaded on a truck, and shipped to live out the rest of his life on a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation. On the CAFO, otherwise known as a feedlot, the possible 20 year lifespan of this cow will be shortened to a dismal 20 months.

Before he gets a chance to explore his new feces encrusted and heavily overcrowded living space he will be given what is commonly referred to as a "cow makeover." After being restrained, cows will first have a very painful hot fire iron brand pushed into them, usually causing third degree burns. To add to the pain, an equally painful cutting or burning process to remove his horns will follow this. Next he will receive a steroid implant behind his ear. The final phase of this brutal makeover will be castration, in which he will have his testicles ripped from his scrotum. All of which are done without anesthetics resulting in the cow being fully aware of the excruciating pain he is in.

For the next (and last) few months of his life this animal will be fed a diet of mostly corn grains mixed with growth hormones and antibiotics to fatten him up. This diet will lead him into great discomfort and sickness. For cows, who have a digestive tract evolved for simply eating grass, the typical feed offered induces bloating that can be severe enough to cause suffocation. The lifestyle and diet that the cows are restricted to has been compared to confining a human to a small room and feeding them only ice cream. The cows get very fat and very sick. According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science, the unnatural diet fed to cows on feedlots causes potentially fatal liver abscesses in up to 32 perfect of cattle raised for beef.

Due to living amongst huge piles of manure, cows are forced to breathe in large amounts of ammonia, methane and other noxious chemicals. From the constant fumes, cows often develop respiratory problems bad enough to make breathing a painful task.

After a few miserable months of disgusting, overcrowded living conditions, malnourishment, and sickness the day comes to move from the feedlot to the slaughterhouse. It is a long, overcrowded, painful journey and cows often arrive to the slaughterhouse crippled, or even dead. (Read our slaughter section about the vicious treatment that comes next for the cow as he is put to his death.)



Environmental concerns

The choice to eat a cow's flesh has vast environmental impact. Impact is a fair word, but destruction is more appropriate. The industry surrounding the raising of cattle for food has been noted for decades as being either the first or second highest cause of carbon release into the air; making factory farming one of the leading contributors to global warming. Factory farms produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and methane per year, the two major greenhouse gases that together account for more than 90 percent of U.S greenhouse emissions. In the air pollution race the cattle industry takes the cake, even beating out the auto industry!

The cattle industry has no rival when it comes to water pollution. Factory farms cause dangerous bacterial runoff from feces, drug-laden urine, steroids, and antibiotics, not to mention, pesticides and other poisons used to grow the feed for the cattle. This results in potential pandemic inspiring disease adaptations and it all ends up in streams, the ocean, and your local water supply.

Feeding the desire to consume cow flesh also comes in as the leading cause of deforestation. Almost all of the clear cutting of the world's rain-forests is for the purpose of creating grazing lands for the unlucky animals that are bound for fast food restaurants and the meat eater's plate. Rainforests are an incredibly bio-diverse area inhabiting 90 percent of all species on earth. The clear cutting of the rainforest not only creates more greenhouse gases through the process of destruction, but also reduces the incredible benefits that those trees provide. Rainforests have been called the “lungs of the Earth,” because they filter our air by absorbing C02, while emitting life-supporting oxygen. According to the Center for International Forestry Research, “cattle ranchers are making mincemeat out of Brazil’s Amazon rainforests".

Problematic air pollution, global warming, and deforestation are widely accepted as very serious issues; but the importance of access to clean water is non debatable. Turning away from beef and becoming vegan is an easy step to take towards solving all four of these daunting environmental and social issues.



Social concern and equality

If the ethical and environmental issues aren't enough to move you, let's add in the weight of social impact. Everyone deserves access to non-toxic air, sustaining foods, and clean water. Don't you agree? The dominance of a meat eating culture clearly stands in the way of these three things for a great deal of the world's population. Areas in the world in which people suffer from famine can more than likely thank the beef eating cultures. Reckless misuse of land, wasted food crops, and misallocation of water can all be associated with raising cattle.

Roughly 1/3 of all food crops grown and a large percentage of the drinking water go into feeding cattle in order to yield 1/16 the amount of food. For example, let's say we have enough food for 100 people. We currently put 33 of those people's food into a system that will only yield enough food for 2 people. We started by being able to feed 100 people but can now only feed 69.

It is a fact that by planting more efficient and more nutrient dense food crops and abandoning the idea of consuming beef and other animal products we could grow much healthier food for the population on less land using less water.



Health concerns

Assault and suicide together are responsible for roughly 2% of the deaths in the US yearly. Heart disease comes in at the top of the list at roughly 30%. Worldwide only cancer and the HIV virus come close to killing off as much of the population as heart disease. Instead of heart disease intervention hotlines, or heart disease prevention centers, we have large-scale industries supplying the foods most likely to promote heart disease. With help from government subsidies, these foods are also generally the least expensive and easiest to access.

In almost every case of heart disease there is a condition of poor health brought on by inadequate food choices or a lack of availability of healthy food choices. Heart disease is caused by a sedentary lifestyle combined with a diet that is high in overly dense proteins, complex fats including cholesterol, non-readily digestible minerals, and contains little to no fiber. Beef fits this description word for word. All other animal derived foods have the ability to match this description as well.

Aside from heart disease it is easy to compile a long list of other health problems associated with eating cow flesh.

Here are a few examples:

- Dioxins are considered to be some of the most toxic substances known to man. They come from the burning of organic matter (trash incinerators) and chemical plants (paper milling, chemical production). Dioxins disrupt hormones and cellular function and are linked to endometriosis, ADD, chronic fatigue, and immune system disorders. Most animal factory farms are located in industrialized areas near trash incinerators and chemical plants. It is said that all farm animals are affected by dioxins. A study revealed that, on average, one hamburger contains dioxins at 300 times the levels deemed safe by the EPA.

- A diet rich in difficult to digest dense proteins such as those found in beef can cause elevated calcium excretion in the body leading to bone density loss and kidney stones.

- Many studies show a relationship between meat consumption and infertility in both men and women.

- Deemed unsafe and outlawed for human usage, steroids are commonly used to advance the muscular growth of "beef" cattle. Synthetic hormones remain in the tissue to be consumed later by the meat eater.

- The average hamburger offers 13g of dense protein along with complex saturated fats, cholesterol, and little to no fiber or vitamin and mineral content. The average bowl of black beans and rice offers about 20g of easy to digest protein, no complex saturated fats or cholesterol, lots of healthy fiber and high vitamin and mineral content.



Have a veggie burger

It isn't hard to prove that eating beef is neither humane nor sustainable. Ask any vegan and they will tell you that the switch to a cruelty free diet is easier than you think. Every person choosing to eat plant based foods has the ability to greatly lessen animal suffering, work towards repairing our damaged ecosystem, work towards minimizing human famine, and be overall healthier.

It's time to go vegan.