Feedlot Ethical Dilemmas

Living in the Bay Area individuals have so many choices of food available to them. Food is something that gives one nutritional value and helps maintain growth and life. What a person eats today is highly influenced by our government and large industrial companies, but we as individuals of the Bay Area should can contribute to a healthy environment by eating ethically. Eating ethically means putting thought into where our food comes from and the impact it has on our health, animals, environment, and workers. Ethics of eating considers factor such as what we eat, the foods ability to nourish us, how much we eat, where and how it was produced, who produced it and how the farmers are compensated and how this food production and consumption affect

The feedlot animals release tremendous amount of methane in the atmosphere which is a major cause of global warming. According to Pollan, “Today the most serious environmental harm associated with the cattle industry takes place on the feedlot” (70). All feedlots animals are mostly raised and spend all their life in small shed eating corn all day. There is no proper hygiene followed, the cows are mistreated and dragged to the slaughter house because they become sick eating corn, which is indigestible. The cost of processed meat is cheap as these animals eat corn which is produced below cost and are injected with artificial hormones and antibiotics for rapid growth. As writer Peter Singer explains “The case against using animals for food is at its strongest when animals are made to lead miserable lives so that their flesh can be made available to humans at the lowest possible cost” (213). The naturally raised beef should be our source of meat is it is more nutritious and flavorful. According to Bill McKibben grass-fed beef is much better for a person, full of Omega-3 and flavor (231). I like to get my meat from free ranch farms in Brentwood. I believe people of Bay Area should not purchase meat from stores like Food Max, who have eaten corn all their life and cause harm to our health by having high fructose corn syrup and had suffered all their life. As Pollan said, “Yet this corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass (75). I am an omnivore and love the taste of meat, and we eat meat only on Wednesday, and weekends. I feel the issues to saving the planet and animals suffering cannot be resolved by becoming vegetarians but there are other options available such as buying meat from the farmers