Grass Fed Cows: Safer for All of Us

Farmers and food producer have a responsibility to provide us with the safest foods and protect us from contaminated food. E. coli outbreaks have caused the pulling vegetables and meats off shelves to protect us. But what if the farmers could do more to protect our health from E. coli. Shouldn't they be responsible to do just that. Several study over the last few years have suggested they could do more for us. A study in the March 28th, 2000 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that as many as one out of every three cattle may play host to the deadliest strain of E. coli bacteria ( 0157:H)

What's causing this? Well, an explanation in "Why Grass-fed Is Best!", feeding cattle grain instead of their their natural diet of grass greatly increases the risk of disease transmission.

Why? First, it increases the overall bacteria count. Second, it increases the bacteria risk of becoming acid resistant. Acid-resistant bacteria are far more likely to survive the acidity of our normal digestive juices and cause disease.

Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," explains:

"Most of the microbes that reside in the gut of a cow and find their way into our food get killed off by the acids in our stomachs, since they originally adapted to live in a neutral-pH environment. But the digestive tract of the modern feedlot cow is closer in acidity to our own, and in this new, man-made environment acid-resistant strains of E. coli have developed that can survive our stomach acids - and go on to kill us. By acidifying a cow's gut with corn, we have broken down one of our food chain's barriers to infections."

The first graph below illustrates the absolute numbers of E. coli bacteria found in grass-fed versus grain-fed animals. The second graph shows how many of the bacteria are likely to withstand our gastric juices. You should still take the normal precautions when handling and cooking grass-fed meat, however. As few as ten E. coli bacteria can cause disease in people with weakened immune systems.

Note: Grass-fed animals have so few acid-resistant bacteria that the number fails to register on the scale of the graph.

(Diez-Gonzalez, F., et al. (1998). "Grain-feeding and the dissemination of acid-resistant Escherichia coli from Cattle." Science 281, 1666-8.)

So, why did they do it? Money! Feeding cows corn is faster, and so more profitable. Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are 14 or 16 months. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones to take a calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds. The cost to the animals and our health is not worth their profit.
As an Ethical Omnivore, it our responsiblity to protect both our health and the animals. Chosing grass-fed beef is safer for our health and allows the cows to be in their natural environment. Shouldn't the farmers also take the responsibility to protect us from E. coli by choosing the natural diet for cows.