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I am neither an animal rights activist nor a vegetarian, but Mike Ervin’s story cries out for a few comments. First of all, Mike, you should really read Diet for a New America by John Robbins–it would cure you of the notion that a cow with a six-inch gaping hole in its haunches is “the envy of all the herd.” Secondly, when Mr. Drackley told you about his quest to make “cattle more efficient converters of feed into milk,” you should have asked if that includes feeding them (and I quote John Robbins) “such delicacies as sawdust laced with ammonia and feathers, shredded newspaper, ‘plastic hay,’ processed sewage, inedible tallow and grease, poultry litter, cement dust, and cardboard scraps, not to mention the insecticides, antibiotics, and hormones.” This is what many cows raised in the U.S. today are actually fed.
I expect more than this from the Reader–you should help to expose and put pressure against the mindless, unhealthy practices in our food industries, not gawk at them with simpleminded wonder. It doesn’t take a professor of nutrition to know that the way to obtain the best milk is to feed cows a natural, chemical-free, unmanipulated diet and to refrain from cutting holes in them.
