Downer Cows and Hamburger.

I heard about it in passing, read about it on my computer. I tried my best not to actually see it, but in the end, I couldn’t avoid the videotape showing cows being shoved to their slaughter with forklifts and cattle prods. I winced. I like cows. I’ve worked with cows. In college, I took a job at a dairy. Cows remind me of dogs really, playful, friendly, and kind of dumb (as in, happy-go-lucky, not stupid, definitely not stupid).

I don’t like people mistreating cows, but if that’s all it was, I could wince and let it go. After all, people mistreat people (which may be part of why I wince). But, this incident involves the food chain. People are being fed hamburgers made from cows too sick to stand up. It is against the law, and it is not a healthy thing to do.

Fortunately, government officials have recalled the meat, most of which, they say, has, unfortunately, probably already been consumed. They also assure us we probably won’t get sick. That’s a relief--except that they cannot know that. The fact that nobody is puking their guts out simply means no one has been infected (badly enough) with E. Coli. This is good. E. Coli can be deadly, especially to children.

But E Coli. is only one concern. Mad cow disease, a far more serious concern, can take many years to show itself, and one of its initial symptoms is loss of balance. This is why cows that cannot stand up are to be kept from the food chain.

Of course the employees responsible for the using the sick cattle have been fired, though no action was taken against the company itself. But we would be fooling ourselves to think this an isolated case. I suspect this is very much standard practice. And that should have consumers worried.

Americans must stop thinking with their pocketbooks--or more accurately, they should start thinking with their whole pocket book. Factoring in the price of illness--of insurance, of medical care, of lost wages, not even considering quality of life-- it quickly becomes more cost effective to spend a bit more for better quality food, for stricter standards, for better cared for cows.

A friend of mine would say it's all about who makes the money. As it stands, the insurance, health care, and meat industries are making the lion’s share. I like to think my glasses are still tinted too pink to believe it such a conspiracy, but if there is any truth to what my friend says, it is all the more reason those eating the meat must take things into their own hands and demand better. We can only be as healthy as the food we eat.

As for that E. Coli everyone fears: it wouldn’t even exist if cows were allowed graze grass the way they are intended. But they are pumped full of grains their digestive tracts can’t handle. Their intestines become inflamed and infected. The result is industry overuse of antibiotics, and the rise of an increasingly virulent form of bacteria.