The Cattle Industry's Effect on our Environment

The Cattle Industry's Effect on our Environment

Before I began my research, I avoided beef for health reasons. During my junior year of high school, I reformed my diet away from my family’s very beef-laden diet into a more heart-healthy, Mediterranean-style one. My great grandfather started a revolutionary meat company in San Francisco, CA which later moved to Marysville, CA called DPM. Most of my family, including my father, worked in this company and its butcher shop for many years before it was eventually sold to an international corporation. Needless to say, my extended family has a strong love and passion for quality meat and cooking it is a large part of our frequent family get-togethers. I must continually defend my choice to not eat beef, and even though it has been many years since I first made this decision, many of them often seem to “forget” when choosing a menu. Since I stopped eating beef, I have been more interested in other related issues, such as the hormones and antibiotics we give our cattle, as well as the link to this nation’s huge obesity problem. I met a friend while I was living in Italy named Caitlyn who did not eat meat, primarily because of the impact it was having on agriculture, and the methods used in producing it. She told me briefly of her reasons, but never went into explicit detail with me; ever since then I have had a lingering curiosity to do my own research and come to my own conclusions.

When I first began my research, I knew of many of the issues with antibiotics and hormones that we give our cattle, and did not agree with them. As biology major, I have learned about this trend in school. Antibiotic resistance is a huge problem; there are already many infections that whil...

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...tions of nutrients in many of the crops. Organic farming today is closer to the way farming was in the days of old, with locally-minded people concerned with their community’s health and sustainability. If you want to make our environment better, buy grass-fed free-range beef and “Go Organic!”

Works Cited

Cheeke, Peter R. Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, Third Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. 155-181.

Goodall, Jane. Harvest for Hope. New York: Warner Books, 2005. 66-96.

Harper, Charles L., Bryan F. Le Beau. Food, Society, and Environment. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003. 162-201.

Lappe, Frances Moore. “Diet for a Small Planet.” Composing a Civic Life. Eds. Michael

Berndt and Amy Muse. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 454-459.

Wallace, Scott. “Last of the Amazon.” National Geographic Jan 2007: 40-71.