I may not eat beef for a long time if something is not done about it.
http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/whats-in-your-meat/If you eat feedlot meat, chances are you may be eating chicken waste! Cattle in feedlots across the United States are routinely fed waste from the floors of commercial chicken houses. In fact, 1 billion pounds of feces, feathers, spilled feed, straw, dirt and anything else on the floor under the cramped birds are shoveled in front of cattle on feedlots across America each year.
Life on today's modern, industrial farms has changed drastically. Today, many farms are dealing with 30,000+ animals with one simple goal: to fatten animals as cheaply as possible. So what exactly does that mean? While corn makes up 70-90 percent of the diet of feedlot cattle, the other 10 to 30 percent are often made up of floor waste.
Because cows eat what is in front of them and because chicken farmers have more waste than they know what to do with, feedlot owners have come up with a simple cost benefit. But where does consumer safety fall in to this relationship?
Humans are at the top of the food chain and are vulnerable to pathogens, drugs and contaminants consumed by the animals we eat. Put simply we are what we eat, which means that if we eat beef that is fed garbage and animal waste, then we in turn are eating the same.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), processed feathers and feces are considered an acceptable source of protein in cattle feed. Additionally, chickens are fed meat and bone meal from cattle, which in turn increases the risk of infecting cattle with mad cow disease when the cycle revolves and the cattle are fed chicken wastes.
Regardless of your dietary choices, no one (animals included) should be allowed to eat floor waste. It's disgusting, unsafe and inhumane. Urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice of feeding chicken waste to cattle -- sign the petition today!