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I have never been one to think I should be a vegetarian, I like chicken too much (chicken farms is a whole other issue). I often have a hard time eating beef though, if I think of what I am actually eating. Cows are adorable and I have always thought so, especially after being to the Royal (no beef for at least a week, just can't do it). I hadn’t thought of what the cows eat and that it mattered to those of us who eat the beef. So it was surprising to me in an article I read called The Top 10 Reasons to Eat Grass-Fed Meat (http://www.nrdc.org/living/eatingwell/top-10-reasons-eat-grass-fed-meat.asp) that there are grass-fed cows and grain-fed cows, and that there is a difference in the nutritional quality of the beef and the impact on the environment. There were a couple things throughout the article that made me think on a larger scale though considering possible chain reaction effects.  

Cows were meant to eat grasses and it is easier on their digestive system when they eat the proper food. Cow’s stomach are naturally pH balanced but when fed grains this make the cow’s stomachs acidic which allows E-coli to take hold easier and less resistant to antibiotics which in turn requires more medications. Grass-fed cows tend to be healthier and therefore don’t require the antibiotics that grain-fed cows may require. After finding out this I wondered: if grain fed cows breed E-coli, we have created our own problem with E-coli contamination in meats. So not only are we wasting a bunch of food during meat recalls due to E-coli contamination, we are also causing unnecessary medical costs when people who contract E-coli from their meat have to be treated in the hospital. That seems a bit backwards to me. I wonder if it would work out to be the same amount of money if the cows were fed grasses like they were supposed to and not have to be given antibiotics to combat E-coli and no meat re-calls would be issued and therefore no medical expenses incurred.

When the food source is considered only, grains cause more stress upon their environment for growing than grasses. Grasses draw nutrients from deeper in the soil compared to grains due to a deeper reaching root system. It is also cheaper to grow grasses since they don’t require as much maintenance as grains do – hidden costs with irrigation and fuel consumption (harvesting, processing and transportation). Cows also need to have water and shelter, there are costs associated with butchering and processing the meat, then packaging and transporting the meat. So choosing grass fed is a healthier and environmentally smarter choice but the more I think about this the more I think NOT eating beef may be a good idea. The environmental impact that is attached with beef farming is larger than I thought, and if other meat products I eat have similar issues perhaps going vegetarian may be something to consider.