Crises of Faith

A time of crisis had occurred to me last week when my sister told me what she learned in her biology class at Berkeley City College. She was telling me how some factories are breading and treating cows badly. There are a few big companies that nurture cows these ways that are called battery cow farming.

I always thought all cows were raised in regular farm fields where they have a lot of space to run around and eat all the grass they wanted, until my sister told me otherwise. Sadly, they aren't. When cows are born, the people take the newborns right away or the next day from their mother. They are raised in the field for 6 months eating grass and this will be the last grass they will eat in their lives, then they are taken to the factories. The cows are in a confined space placed in a "cubical stable". A few companies are planning 16 new indoor dairy farms housing up to 18,000 cows in "cubicle stables" for 24 hours a day for eight months of the year. They don't even have enough room to walk around, they could probably take a few steps backwards, or stick their head out of the fence, and that's about it. The cows also have a poor diet. The farmers feed them corn, rather than grass, and antibiotics are added to the corn at every meal. They add antibiotics in their food to prevent the cows from getting sick, but later on they start to get immune to the antibiotics. If they do get sick the antibiotics will not affect them. Another issue with the cows is sanitation. The cows are crowded next to each other and they stand in their own feces, along with feces belonging to other cows. All the cows' feces are either put in a pile or leave it as it is. Why do they do that? Think about it. There are about four times more cows than the human population, so there is a lot of waste. The feces build up and are put into one large pile. The feces from sick cows also lead to diseases when it flows into the sewer lines and the water source becomes contaminated. My sister told me that a child most likely became handicap from drinking the contaminated water.

Companies feed their cows with corn and antibiotics, so they can grow faster and make more money. In fast food restaurants they sell their beef burgers fast and cheap. Since the cows can't use their muscles to move around in their confined spaces, it causes them to fatten and that's why the meat tastes so good. When the cows are sent to the slaughter house, factory workers cut the meat in pieces in fast assembly lines. The workers aren't very cautious when they cut the meat because the assembly line moves quickly and this gives a higher risk of not inspecting meat properly. Also, about 2 years ago someone had E. Coli from a burger at Jack In The Box. This was the first time they found E. Coli in a burger. The cows aren't even healthy or happy, but the advertisements on TV say that, "Happy cows come from California".

When my sister told me about all of this I felt a little disgusted and sad that the cows are kept in a confined space. When she mentioned how the cows were being raised way differently from what I expected, it makes me want to change my eating habits, but at the same time I don't want to because of the delicious beef out there. Now I'll try not to eat a lot of fast food because it's bad for your health. I need to be careful of what I am eating. It's so sad for the cows being they are so compacted in a small area and being tortured. It must feel like being in prison for the cows. These company owners probably don't care about the people and our health. All they want from us is to buy their beef, so that they could make loads amount of money. Why do this to cows when there is plenty of land filled with grass and good farmers who want to raise their cows in a healthy, clean and natural environment? These cows aren't even meant to be locked up for the rest of their lives. They should have some freedom running in the wide open spaces and eat all the green grass they want.