>    Date:    Thu, 15 Jul 1999 11:47:46 -0600
>    From:    Richard Keene <[log in to unmask]>
>    
>    Most of the odd things farm animals are fed
>    is because they do a cost/growth analysys
>    and the $/pound of sellable meat is better.

True. This is why corn/maize and soy are used,
in addition to standard supplementation with
synthetic lysine and other attempts at correcting
this basically unnatural animal diet.

>    
>    Thus we have cows eating cotton seed
>    probably because it is a waste product
>    of cotton manufacture and very inexpensive.

Cottonseed and its oil, in their raw state,
contain heavy contamination with gossypol,
a toxin which lowers fertility in mammals
(indeed, it has been used as a contraceptive
in China). Refinement supposedly lowers
the gossypol concentrations to "acceptable"
levels, but by then the seed meal or oil
has probably undergone significant oxidative
degradation.

Either way, cottonseed oil is probably the
least Paleo "food" oil on the market.