>> > This is a tougher one. It is *possible*, I suppose, >> > that if an >> > animal is grain-fed, some of the grain protein is >> > not fully >> > digested, >> >> The presupposes that the animal's digestive system >> would not properly handle the grain protein. Is there >> evidence that this is so? > >Not that I am aware of. I can't think of any reason why a >ruminant animal such as a cow should have a problem with grain >protein. > >Todd Moody >[log in to unmask] > > Some grain would not be a problem for a cow, but a steady diet of corn, >may be a different story. > ` >[log in to unmask] Yes there is a huge difference between the seeds eaten with the enveloppe , the stem and leaves of the same plant during the very limited season of ripening of the grain, and the naked grain or worst flours or even worst pelleted cooked mixture of by product of oil and grain industry with some straw as lest. The huge diffirence is that an herbivorous animal can't stop itself to eat the 2nd one and will eat it to death if not artificially limited in quantity. In the 1st case the genetic recognition of the original food allow the cow to experience a stop when enough is enough Never allowing the digesting system of the cow to be overburden so not allowing any half broken down protein to pass the intestinal barrier. What we do to steers now, remind me of the French traditional way of making" foie gras". you take a goose give it an non original food ( grains again) and you stuff it thru its throat with the help of a big colander with a big screw .. The way that we process the food so we can " force "the steer to eat it , is becoming so remote from what a cow will be able to find in Nature that it must be different in its effect on the body . Why anyone will want to take the time and energy to do that if it is was not affecting their metabolism to the point of making them obese and worth their weight. jean-claude