Shiver Me Udders

The extent of my experience with raising cattle for food isn't limited to just buying some in a market or ordering it in a restaurant. I once drove by a slaughterhouse in Oklahoma City, which should count for something.

According to the news, some 3500 cattle have perished in Colorado and Kansas because of the recent storms. I have, as noted above, no idea how many cattle are killed every day to give us prime ribs and flank steaks, so I don't know how great a tragedy this is. On the news they showed some cattle standing in snow and receiving airlifts of hay (in cubes, not rolls), but I guess they aren't all getting it.

Those must have been the lucky ones.

Last year I began hearing about "grass fed" cattle, and the implication was that's the best kind. It's also more humane, or bovine. The livestock stuck in the snow weren't eating grass, and I guess that's the problem. Drawing on my wealth of cow-related knowledge, mentioned above, as well as the fact that whenever I drive cross country I always see herds of cows  mucking about,  I'm guessing there must be ten thousand cows trapped in dilapidated  housing for every one I see grazing. If not, there wouldn't be such a premium placed on this grass fed idea.

This week, at least, I'm not sure the corralled livestock wasn't faring better. Still, cows that eat grass are no doubt better off than the ones eating other cows' spinal columns, but I don't think that's as big a threat any more. From what I've seen there are plenty of cows eating grass and, besides, as has been pointed out, cows are merely digestive systems with legs.

Whether or not there's a God, and whether or not we're supposed to eat meat aside, nature could hardly have come up with a better source than cows. They're slow, they don't have much in the way of defenses, and they're square. If I were to design something to eat I could hardly do better. Other than legs and a head, they're all food.

At the moment cold food, but that just makes their milk taste better.