BIG CATTLE (Sorry, just have to vent!)

So I got this little gem in my inbox today from a close friend:

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I'm sure those of you who aren't in the cattle business don't understand the

issues here. But to those of us who's living depends on the cattle market,

selling cattle, raising the best be ef possible... this is frustrating.

As far as my family, we don't eat at McDonald's much (Subway is our choice

of fast food), but this will keep us from ever stopping there again, even

for a drink.



The original message is from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association



American cattle producers are very passionate about this.



McDonald's claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their

restaurants. Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are looking

to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the people of the

USA are the ones who made McDonald's successful in the first place, but we

are not good enough to provide beef.



We personally are no longer eating at McDonald's, which I am sure does not

make an impact, but if we pass this around maybe there will be an impact

felt.



Please pass it on. Just to add a note:

All Americans that sell cows at a livestock auction barn had to sign a paper

stating that we do NOT EVER feed our cows any part of another cow. South

Americans are not required to do this as of yet.



McDonald's has announced that they are going to start importing much of

their beef from South America . The problem is that South Americans aren't

under the same regulations as American beef producers, and the regulations

they have are loosely controlled.



They can spray numerous pesticides on their pastures that have been banned

here at home because of residues found in the beef. They can also use

various hormones and growth regulators that we can't. The American public

needs to be aware of this problem and that they may be putting themselves at

risk from now on by eating at good old McDonald's.



American ranchers raise the highest quality beef in the world and this is

what Americans deserve to eat. Not beef from countries where quality is

loosely controlled. Therefore, I am proposin g a boycott of McDonald's until

they see the light.



I'm sorry but everything is not always about the bottom line, and when it

comes to jeopardizing my family's health, that is where I draw the line.



I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at

least ten more (30 x 10 =

300) ...

and those 300 send it to at l east ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so

on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will

have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!



I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting

together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass

this message on.



David W. Forrest, Ph.D ., PAS, Dipl.



ACAP Department of Animal Science

Texas A&M University

Phone (979) 845-3560

Fax (979) 862-3399

2471 TAMU

College Station, TX 77843-2471

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This was my reply (can you tell I'm trying to be nice?):

I think that's a bunch of crap personally. :P The USA's standards on raising beef are incredibly loose compared to Europe's. We get to use all kinds of chemicals and hormones and insecticides. Plus, blood & bone byproducts from cattle are fed to chickens whose byproducts are fed back to cattle which has the potential to spread disease just like feeding cattle to cattle. Mad cow disease can potentially be spread that way, that's why Europe outlawed all of that type of feeding. Just my two cents! :)

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How stupid! The whineass big cattle ranchers are getting mad because they're losing their market, so they turn it in to an "imported cattle is bad for you" bit. Oh please. Maybe they should wake up and learn to give the consumer what they want (through small-scale quality cattle raising) and then they wouldn't have so many problems. I am all for Made in the USA, but on this one I have no sympathy.

Thoughts?