Pasture Feeding

Omnivores Dilemma – Position Paper

Pasture Feeding vs. Feedlots

Americans consume about 67 pounds of beef a year for each person- man, woman, and child. In chapter four of Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan talks about the feedlot, where cows are turned into corn eating machines solely for the purpose of gaining weight, which will then be turned into meat. Most of the beef consumed in the United States comes from such feedlots, where cattle arrive after living for six months on pasture and grass to be finished for another six months or so on a diet of corn and other grains. The alternative to this method is natural pasture feeding of these animals. This allows animals freedom and comfortable living conditions, but most importantly, a natural diet. I believe this is the healthiest, most humane way of raising animals for human consumption. However, there is good reason why feed lots have become the most common practice in producing beef, and for good reason.

Over the last 70 years, the beef industry has evolved into an intense, industrial enterprise designed to put as much weight on animals as fast as possible and get the resulting meat to market as quickly as possible. Beef was the king of the meat trade in the 50s and 60s. Despite the rumbling about health and diet, Americans still considered a thick steak for dinner to be as good as it gets. To keep up with the demand, cattlemen consolidated their production. It was during this period that feedlots began operations with tens of thousands of animals, and in the process sowed the seeds for major changes in meat packing. The demand for beef peaked in the mid 80s. To meet this demand, a new breed of industrial beef producer took advantage of several factors; Consumers wanted marbled beef, the kind of meat that you get when you fatten cattle with grain, grain prices in the 50s were low, so cattle feed was cheap, and introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics made it possible, for the first time, to keep...