In the months after Brexit there was much talk about a new trade agreement with the U.S.A., this all overtaken by the pandemic. Although the Conservative government wanted to put a positive spin on new trade deals beyond Europe campaigners in Britain quickly rose to the occasion by stating that the American government would certainly insist (and they tend always to get their own way) on flooding British supermarkets with factory farmed meat, particularly beef. This discussion drew attention to farm animal systems based on feedlots. Feedlots are large pens in which large numbers of cattle spend the last months of their short lives, generally slaughtered at 18 months for an animal that might naturally live for six to eight years. Some feedlots have concrete floors making foot and leg-joint disability almost inevitable. Feedlots were not wanted in Britain the campaigners argued.
Feedlots have not only been developed in the U.S.A. but also in Canada, Australia, Brazil (probably) and other countries I am not aware of.
For those wanting to research feedlots, as I did, there are lots of short videos available to view on the internet, generally aimed at promoting and justifying this system of farming as is the American psyche. Surprisingly, the American Humane Society is measured in its criticism of the system. It is true that for the first year or so of the calves’ life they graze on pastureland, albeit semi-desert scrub in the south-western states. They are then brought into the feedlots to be fed a scientifically determined mix of corn, nutrients, antibiotics etc. to force the cattle to put on weight as quickly as possible and to combat disease that would otherwise kill off a large proportion of the animals kept in overcrowded conditions. The animals waste rapidly builds up, partly because a grain based diet is unnatural to bovine intestines.
Feedlots are large-scale farm units needing large sums of capital in the first place. They are constantly seeking economies of scale because they have led to the production of cheap beef for the consumer, who now expects it. They have fostered over consumption of red meat by the modern consumer with the resultant obescity and related illnesses, often terminal. As no western government dear challenge the drive for cheap food, many think that the customer’s only response to immoral farming practices involving sentient animals is to stop eating meat.
(to be continued).