What’s with all the E.Coli????

I seem to be on a “beef” theme this week. I thought it was interesting that there’s been an increase in E. coli contaminated beef recently (25 million pounds in 2007 vs. less than 200,000 pounds in 2006). According to Consumer Reports (March 2008), it may be because:

1) We’re growing more corn for ethanol, and what’s left over is being used to feed cows. I wrote earlier this week that I would talk more about what happens when you feed cows grain. Basically, a cow isn’t meant to eat grain, and when they do, it disrupts their digestive system and makes it possible for the toxic strain of E. coli to flourish. They also get sick and have to be given antibiotics, which then end up in the meat and our water supply (more about that in some other post).

2) Then, the cows are taken to a slaughterhouse that processes too many cows too quickly (up to 390 per hour, more than 50 per minute!), which means, inevitably, errors occur. That’s my polite euphemism for saying that “shit gets in the meat.” I stole that line from the film adaptation of Fast Food Nation, a movie that I highly recommend for its depiction of what the meat-packing industry is like today. Not only is its treatment of animals suspect, it isn’t particularly humane towards people, either.

3) Nonetheless, the article concludes, “the main obstacles to preventing the spread of E. coli are inadequate government inspection and meat-handling practices, particularly in slaughterhouses, where contamination is most likely to occur.”

4) There’s also a couple of other problems. Most disturbingly for me, is that if meat tests positive for E. coli, it can still cooked and sold for use in products like tacos and pizza. I didn’t know this, and my gut reactions is “Yuck!” Of course, the cooking is supposed to kill E. coli, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this might be a potential source of cross-contamination.

What stands out for me, though, is again — sounding like a broken record here — cows are not meant to eat grain and we should be thinking more about how we raise and slaughter our animals. If cows were eating grass, there wouldn’t be enough E. coli to contaminate the meat. And if were treating the animals and the people who work in the slaughterhouses humanely, shit, contaminated by E. coli or not, would be much less likely to end up in the meat.

I’m not trying to convert anyone to veganism. Believe me, I still am known to eat a cheeseburger, and I made beef chili on SuperBowl Sunday. When I can, though, I try to buy grass-fed beef. It tastes better, is better for me, the environment, the farmer/rancher, the land, and the cow. I know it is more expensive, but I remind myself that 1) a portion of meat should only be the size and thickness of your palm and 2) quality, with animal protein, is more important than quantity.