Continuing on my theme from several weeks before...
So – we've established that at some point, about eight to ten thousand years ago, a new thing called "agriculture" butted heads with an older, herding lifestyle. If the story of Farmer Cain and Herder Abel represents any sort of historical metaphor, things got very violent back then (just as they did in the American West during the 19th Century).
Here's the thing; farming is a much more efficient way of producing food. You can feed a lot of people on a relatively small patch of ground (see my entry of 25 June). Ranching on the other hand normally requires a lot of land. Those cattle ranches in Texas and sheep ranches in Australia that could take you two days to drive across weren't that size by accident – they needed to be that big.
In Europe, there wasn't that much land available. Therefore, beef was an expensive delicacy, enjoyed only by the well-off and on rare occasions, by the middle class and working families (and usually stretched with other ingredients such as grains and vegetables). Then, around 1500, the Spaniards started arriving in America droves – and noticed that there was a lot of empty grassland. (It really wasn't that empty, but the hunter-gatherer Indian tribes and the buffalo that sustained them apparently didn't count.)
It's no coincidence that words such as ranch (ranchero) and buccaroo (vaquero) are from Spanish. They pretty much invented the American ranching industry.
By 1890 however, a lot had changed...and in the age-old conflict between agriculture and herding, farmers finally got the upper hand. (A lot of people don't realize that the "Golden Age of the Cowboy" only lasted about 20 years.) Meanwhile, Americans had developed a real taste for inexpensive beef. Problem was, there wasn't a lot of room to raise cattle anymore.
The solution, as you know, was factory farming. This led to a whole lot of problems in the beginning, which was graphically depicted in the 1906 novel, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Did you know that most U.S. military casualties during the Spanish-American War were due not to enemy fire, but tainted meat (gleefully sold to the Army by the Armor Meat Company)?
Teddy Roosevelt and his Administration did a lot to clean up the meat packing and processing industry side of things, but when it came to raising beef cattle, the operation by necessity got more and more concentrated.
If you have ever seen one of those factory farms, you'd probably swear off beef forever. I remember seeing (and smelling) one when I drove through a little town several years ago.
As awareness of the problems of such factory farming (not the least of which is animal cruelty) becomes more common, people in the U.S. seem willing to vote with their pocketbooks, buying free range beef. It costs a lot more – but it's better for the animals, better for the land – and better for you.
I'm not a vegetarian, and I have no problem enjoying a steak, roast beef or hamburger now and then. With all due respect to vegans, if meat consumption is such an evil thing, can I ask what you're feeding your pet cats and dogs? Are you going to condemn wolves and cougars for bringing down deer and elk for dinnertime?
What I am saying however is that perhaps beef shouldn't be a primary source of food for humans. Unlike members of the cat family and other carnivores, the human digestive system is set up to handle a wide variety of foods, primarily fruits, nuts and vegetables. We can produce a lot more of those for a lot more people than we can beef.
That said, when you do buy steak and hamburger for those special occasions, spend a nickel for quality and humane treatment of cows – and support your local free-range rancher.
Comments
I am sorry to see that you have been swept up by the anti-beef sentiment that is sweeping our country because of ill informed animal activists and popular media sentiment. The true story is that those of us involved in animal agriculture (I am part of a family cattle ranch) care deeply for our animals and regularly sacrifice our own comfort and quality of life in hopes that we can better our animal’s lives. My guess is that the average American rancher would love for the rest of the population to see us working on a bitterly cold February evening trying to save a calf instead of watching the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, media and YouTube sensationalism rarely find use in real animal husbandry stories.
It is true that most of our US beef is at some point cared for in a feedlot or CAFO like so many people love to call them. However, unbeknownst to popular culture, cattle only spend 60-120 days in one of these facilities as they are finished into a wholesome and tender beef product. This management and production system has developed over the past 100 years because of the American taste for tender and well marbled beef and not because of American farmers and ranchers lust for money and disdain for animals. I am here to support all types of production in beef animals and would caution the mainstream public against championing one type of production over the next. It takes all types of farmers and ranchers to support our ever growing world population by providing them an efficient and healthy protein feedstuff.
I would also like to caution use of rhetoric such as your claim that “farming is a much more efficient way of producing food [than ranching]” This is an ill advised statement since the true fact remains that 85% of the American land mass is unsuitable for farming (non-arable) and can in no other way be useful in creating feedstuffs for our growing world population. Cattle serve a valuable role in the ecosystem by converting the forages humans cannot consume into a nutrient-dense human consumable food. By converting the sun’s energy into a useful feedstuff for humans, they truly ARE one of nature’s most efficient protein producers.
There is also reference to your belief that feedlots or “factory farms” are inherently cruel to animals. This simply is not true. Cattle at these facilities are among the most highly cared for animals in our culture. As opposed to cattle on our western ranges (free range ranching as you call it), the cows and steers are checked for their health every day to ensure their comfort. Free range cattle on range may be lucky to be checked twice a week and are left to fend for themselves against the onslaught that nature can produce. The most interesting economic fact of animal agriculture is that a healthy animal is also the most productive and profitable. It is in any operation’s absolute best interest to have well cared for animals. This is resoundingly true in America’s feedlots as these cattle are fed a specifically prescribed diet by an animal nutritionist and given the utmost in care including an on-site veterinarian.
Furthermore, America’s western ranches are large because of the arid climate and environmental conditions. On our ranch, we can support 1 cow / calf pair for each 11 acres of pasture. This is actually a decently high stocking rate that can range up to 1 to 40 or even 80 acres in more arid regions of our country. Farming operations in these areas are simply not feasible unless irrigated. These irrigated farming operations do help create food, but do irreparable damage to water recharge rates and the sub-surface aquifers that supply fresh drinking water.
In conclusion, the American beef industry is not perfect. However, it is not an industry that should be demonized for bad practices. We continue to make large strides in animal husbandry, efficiency and our understanding of bovine psychology and physiology. Our industry has a long track record of continually improving its practices so that we can help create a nutritious product with less resources so that people around the world have a chance to eat a delicious protein product for a reasonable price.