Grass versus Grain

Cows; they are the source of where all our beef comes from. The source is the best place to start understanding where and how the fast food restaurants obtain their meat. How are cows feed? In Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser states that fast food companies purchase their meat from companies who feed their cows grain and sometimes other dead animals (202). Grain fed cows grow and develop quicker and are generally ready to be slaughtered and sold after about twelve to fourteen months. This allows the fast food companies to buy them at a cheaper price. Grain reduces the capital that agricultural companies must place into their business because cows do not need as much land because they are is no need for them to move from place to place because they are not eating the grass. In Jennifer Sygo’s article she provides evidence that because the cows are more stationary and do not have much exercise as well as their diet of only grain; they tend to be fatter thus making their meat have a higher percentage of fat.

Feeding cows grass has a surprisingly nutritious affect on their health. Overall, grass fed cows are healthier animals and live healthier lives, mainly because they are eating grass. A single grass feed cow needs around thirty to forty acres of land to survive and have plenty of food. This extra land has positive and negative effects for the company. It allows the cows more space to move around and get some exercise thus making them healthier and leaner. The grass they are eating is all-natural and comes straight from the earth, and there is nothing healthier than that. When cows are crowded together the sick and healthy have more contact with each other and that increases the possibility of the healthy cows becoming sick. Sygo provides proven evidence that cows that are grass fed have lower fat, saturated fat, calories, and cholesterol in their meat. These cows take longer to mature, around twenty to twenty-four months before they are ready to be sold. That causes their price to increase because it costs more money to keep them at the farm for an extra year. Fast food companies are always looking for the cheapest product so they go straight for the grain fed cows thus grass fed cows are disappearing rapidly as well as the health of many people who eat fast food (Fast Food Nation, 255-257).