Just Say Hay: Feed Cows Grass, Not Corn, to Avoid E. Coli
January 20, 2008
From The Chicago Sun-times, November 8, 2007, “Letters to the Editor”
The followin are just bits and pieces of the whole article. I’ve tried not to take anything out of context.
“For nearly 10 years, we’ve known how to prevent E. coli contamination of our food supply. And yet we continue to wait for an illnuess, and then reall any meat that might be contaminated.”
“The E. coli problem lies in what happens inside the cow’s stomach. When corn replaces grass as the primary diet, it changes the bacteria inside the rumen, the “final filter” of digestion. With a grass diet, most of the microbes never make it past the stomach acid. But inside the corn-based bacteria lurks a man-made cuprit. It was discovered in 1980: a new strain of a common intestinal bacterium, E. coli 0157:H7. It causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps and even death.”
“In 1998, scientists from Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that grain-based cattle diets promote the growth of this acid-resistant strain of E. coli. They observed that changing the diet from grain to hay – the natural, dried-grass diet of cattle – for only five days before slaughter could reduce E. coli bacteria by 80%.”
“What are we to think? Headlines about meat recalls seem commonplace. Solutions range from irradiating meat to cooking at high temperatures. But the easiest and least expensivbe is changing the diet from grain to hay for the final five days before a feedlot harvest. Andy yet it is not among the options being considered by the beef industry.”
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