The relationship between E. Coli and grain fed cows is something that I, even AFTER having a daughter that was infected with this bacteria, and my husband, who has worked in the Food Safety industry for over 15 years, were unaware of! The relationship between a ruminant's diet (which affects the pH of their stomachs) and the bacteria in their gut that thrive there can be extremely dangerous. Not until I watched Food Inc. did I learn (and research more) about the correlation between feeding cows corn, a grain that they are not designed to digest, and the deadly bacteria, E. Coli. There are many reasons for this change of diet and thus the industrialization of the meat industry--mainly, quantity over quality and MONEY become the main issues. If you would like more information about all of this, I suggest you read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He provides a lot of incredible and unbelievable information about our "food chain". You will definitely walk away thinking about things you've never thought about before.
Please check out the articles below. Whether you agree or not, it is still very interesting and I feel like there is a lot of validity to be found here.
This also helps to explain my passion for all of this. Since watching Food Inc., I have not eaten ANY meat that has not been organic and in the case of beef, grassfed. It is personal to me as the emergence of E. Coli, a bacterial infection that most likely was derived from cattle, has affected and infected my family. The inhumane treatment of feedlot animals is something I find truly disgusting and unsanitary. I could go on and on, but I'll save that for another post! ;o)
http://www.eatwild.com/foodsafety.html
=o)
Jen
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