On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 5:00 AM, Joseph McAllister <[email protected]> wrote:
> I recently spent almost two years on the coast of California west of Santa
> Rosa.
>
> I had to drive 34 miles to get to Santa Rosa, and another 70 miles if I
> wanted to go to San Francisco from there.
>
> On the coast, most of the land, hilly and golden, is dotted with grazing
> cattle, free to roam most anywhere except the roadways. Between Santa Rosa
> and San Rafael, both sides of Route 101 consist of green or golden
> grasslands dotted with cattle. No lots. No muddy pens. Just cows, grazing,
> getting fatter and happier every day. And the occasional diary farm, to be
> sure. You could watch the cows heading voluntarily to the milking bards
> every afternoon.
>
> The gentleman's ranch I worked on was smack in the middle of 5500 acres
> grazed by 200 - 500 head year round. One of my jobs was to keep them off the
> lawn around the house, and out of the garden and meadow on the 45 acres that
> was my responsibility. Watching the awkward playfulness of the newborns
> romping around up the driveway at times was a joy.
>
> Three times a year the rancher would come in with three long horse trailer
> type of transports and load them up with a selection two or three dozen head
> and haul them off to be sold for food. I'd help round up small herds on an
> ATV to help if I was available.
>
> Good times.
>
> You are probably thinking of the feed lots around the major processing
> plants, where all cattle go to recover from their trip in trailers, trucks,
> and trains, and be fed rich foods and supplements to put a few pounds back
> on and marble the muscle for a more tender steak. You probably have not seen
> those California cows. Nor the ones that dot the landscape here around the
> Snohomish river and the foothills of the Cascades in Washington. I could
> take you up in to the Cascades and show you the herds of tens of thousands
> of sheep that gauchos from Peru tend to in the very high county in the
> summer, grazing on the tender grasses and clovers that grow fast once the
> snow is gone in the spring.
>
> These animals have pretty good lives while they live, and in most cases, a
> quick death with a bolt gun to the base of the skull that turns everything
> off instantly. Better than being dragged down by a mountain lion or wolf
> pack. If you've ever spent any time around these animals, and I have, it
> does not take long to realize how dumb they really are. They do not live in
> fear. They are contented.
As I understand it, most cattle are sent to the feedlot at the age of
6 months, after being weaned from their mother. They are sent to a
feedlot for another 6 to 12 months to fatten before slaughter. This
does not sound like your description of a place where they put back a
few pounds after the long truck ride to the slaughterhouse.
Perhaps the farm you worked at and those in that area grew high end
grass-fed cattle? If so, that's great!
I continue to assert that most of the cheap meat that we buy at
supermarkets and restaurants (especially fast food restaurants) spends
most of its life in feedlots under horrible conditions.
A few years ago author Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") wrote
this piece about the life of beef cattle for the New York Times. I
believe it may have ended up a chapter in the above book. The article
is not for the squeamish:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/magazine/power-steer.html?pagewanted=1
BTW, Pollan is an omnivore, but only eats grass-fed beef and actually
goes to the farms to make certain the cattle is humanely treated.
cheers,
frank
--
"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
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