We at Next Generation Nutrition thought you, our Paleo-Pen-Pals, would find
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who sell meat)!

 The Solution to the E.coli Conundrum:  Let Them Eat Grass!
 (Reprinted from Food & Water Journal, Fall 1998.)

Finally, ³science is catching up with common sense as a new study published
in the journal Science demonstrates that the industrialized manner in which
we¹re feeding cattle may be the primarily cause of the nation¹s most
publicized meat safety threat: E coli.  A team of microbiologists at Cornell
University is reporting that grain-based feed elevated the acid level of
their colon and, thus, stimulates the growth of acid-resistant bacteria,
including E coli.  And once the E coli¹s acid-resistant genes are activated
in he cattle¹s colon, it allows them to survive the acidiity of the human
stomach, potentially triggering a serious illness.

When researchers switched the cattle¹s diet to grass or hay for just five
days before slaughter, levels of E coli in cattle dropped dramatically, from
about 100 million cells to 10,000, with ³virtually none² of the remaining
cells being of the dangerous, acid-resistant strain.

So, we¹ve found a solution to the E. coli problem, right?  Wrong.  The
National Cattleman¹s Beef Association (NCBA) reacted coolly to this study,
pointing to the importance of their ³economical²  methods of grain-based
feeding and the need to prove how grass or hay feeding ³might work in
full-scale farm and ranch feeding systems.²  In other words, if grass and
hay feeding won¹t fit into heir industrialized systems, forget about it.

The NCBA was also quick to flex its muscles and point out that the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) did not have the authority to force them to
make the switch to a more natural and safe diet for their cattle.  Proving
how thoroughly controlled our supposedly democratic regulatory agencies are
by corporate interests, the NCBA correctly reported that, currently, the
federal government could only ³recommend² such a diet change.

Even the Cornell microbiologists bowed to the corporate beef barons by
acknowledging that ³because grain feeding promotes both the production and
efficiency of cattle, it is unlikely that American cattle will ever be fed
diets consisting only of hay.²  Which is why the researchers attempted to be
more ³realistic² by only switching to grass feed for a mere five days.

But, interestingly enough, the same folks that are calling a switch to safe,
grass-fed cattle unrealistic are finding nothing unrealistic about allowing
the causes of meat contamination to flourish, only to then build hundreds of
$10 million irradiation facilities to blast the dirty meat supply with
ionizing radiation from nuclear waste products.

Thanks to the Cornell University researchers and generations of
grass-feeding common sense on the part of small farmers, the solution to
E.coli, and a big step away from industrialized meat production, appears to
be at hand. But, sadly, given the high-tech fixation and industrialized
nature of corporate food production, it looks more likely that we¹ll see
irradiated beef--rather than grass-bed beef--in the marketplace.  (Reprinted
from Food & Water Journal, Fall 1998.)

Rachel and Don