Sorry for the gruesome subject matter . However another thread led me to start a discussion about common sense food production , and how out of touch the average person is with what industrial agriculture is doing to the land , water , air , animals and to us . As we know a business is about profit so why let all that blood go to waste at the slaughter house , when you can feed it to newborn calves and save the milk for us ? Here is the link ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-greger-md/california-mad-cow-disease_b_1450984.html Many people become polarized when it comes to organic verses conventional farming practices . I don't care what the title is as long as it is common sense farming . Farming should be about healthy food not only a healthy bottom line . So whether it is biodynamic , organic , permaculture , who cares what it's called it should respect the land the animals and us . I know this is definitely off our regular topic , however we are all growers and feel a connection with mother nature , and are often in awe of what she can do as we see our little cuttings grow into trees giving us the fruits of her & our labor . She needs our help . John

There are people who care John, what is sad is that they are overlooked by many because the social and environmental benefits they offer are not as valued as a monetary alternative.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/15/162961073/how-fly-farming-may-help-more-fish-stay-in-the-sea

Sounds pretty bad....

the other day I read something about cooking chicken breast after covering it with egg and equating that with eating the mother covered in amniotic fluid...sometimes I want to be a vegetarian.

there is a line, I think giving blood to calves crosses that line. the way to protest is to "growtest" hopefully this summer I can grow all the fruit and vegetables we'll eat here at home.

Cow to Chicken to Cow to Human

Might sound crazy to some,
but this is how it works in some countries.

Cow dies from disease,

Cow is ground up and feed to chickens,

the bedding material from chickens,
with all the waste, spilled food, mold and antibiotics,
is collected, pressed and sold back to ranchers,

where it is fed to cows,

which are slaughtered and consumed by Humans.

Where can this happen you ask,

United States of America

Pretty disgusting stuff, all in the name of profit, where will it end

Search on YouTube :Cows eating candy . Corn got to expensive I guess.

Figs4life , That's nuts . Here's the link ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7xF300pPWw&feature=youtube_gdata_player John

Why waste the protein that is in the blood?  It is spun and dried, it is 100% safe.  It is allowed only from inspected cows that are fit for human consumption which means no sick or down animals.  You should like the blood it is organic after all.   Just because the thought of it does not appeal to you that should be a reason to not do it?  Please.........    You do realize when you eat a rare steak you are eating raw blood right?  Even medium rare is not hot enough to kill the prion that causes  spongiform encephalopaty  at least what is fed to the calves has been spun and dried a process that eliminates the prion.   People in India would think it disgusting you eat the cows in the first place.......should that cause you not to eat beef?   People in Africa drink the fresh raw blood of slaughtered animals.   What you have is people that are clueless about modern farming practices becoming outraged by the mere thought of something they have absolutely no clue about.  What is worse people make up lies about production practices put them on the internet and others read it and believe everything they read.  Educate yourself and stop believing every article you read just because it happens to fit your own personal agenda.  I will help you out with a bit of wisdom...not everything you read on the internet is true!!!!  

So now you have a problem with feeding cows candy?  Why?  Are you afraid the candy is infected with something?  LMAO.   It is simply fat and sugar.......  wait let me guess.....you also believe high fructose corn syrup is different than regular sugar right?   They are recycling a product and keeping it out of a landfill.  It adds fat and calories to the animals that makes the beef taste good.  There is no difference feeding the candy than feeding corn....it is just sugar.   

 

i like blood pudding, noir boudin, and korean blood sausage. in korea, coagulated blood is added to certain soaps. they taste like liver, but minus all the chewy parts. i love them. i love organ meats, pass me a plate of haggis! and i love veal, too bad i can't cook them. handling them will get me sick for few days. not sure why. eating them are fine, but handling and cooking them always gets me sick. one of the best meal i had was in paris, veal liver in cream sauce.. oy..

any way, i can see why this issue is not to everyone's taste. i mean, there are people who will tolerate almost everything, and there are people who can not stand to see people wearing leather shoes.

limit on what each person can tolerate is different. feeding cow blood to calves can definitely come off as distasteful. not me, i would love some veal liver right now.

WillsC It's very simple actually . It's called Cannibalism . Would you feed your kid a bottle of human blood ? Don't worry it's been tested . Ever heard of mad cow desease ? Which was due to cows eating cows . And this is all happening , it is not just something I read about on the Internet . Everyone who questions the status quo is a conspiracy theorist ? This is just one of the many rediculous things being done in conventional farming . I chose this subject to get people talking . I think many people believe that there is someone out there in government looking out for us and if it is legal it's o.k . I believe we need to question anything that we don't trust . Remembe DDT , another legal insecticide ? Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's moral or safe . It just means a bunch of politicians said its ok . John

WillsC

Why should herbivores be feed blood products?

Is candy/corn optimal nutrition for a cow?

Is there a difference in the quality/nutrition of a cow that grazes on a variety of grasses in a pasture vs. a cow confined to a feedlot fed corn, hormones & antibiotics?

You have much faith in your government: 

"it is 100% safe.  It is allowed only from inspected cows that are fit for human consumption which means no sick or down animals."
" There is no difference feeding the candy than feeding corn."

You may be aware that recently in the E.U. consumers were buying "100% certified beef" products that had varying ranges of horse meat in them. And the issue isn't whether horse meat is safe or not. It's the fraud perpetrated on people who are told they are buying 100% certified French beef when it reality they are eating Romanian horse meat. 

From wiki regarding our regulations in the U.S.

Practices in the United States relating to BSE

Soybean meal is cheap and plentiful in the United States. The 1.5 million tons of cottonseed meal produced in the U.S. every year that is not suitable for humans or any other simple-stomach animal is even cheaper than soybean meal. Historically, meat and bone meal, blood meal and meat scraps have almost always commanded a higher price as a feed additive than oilseed meals in the U.S., so there was not much incentive to use animal products to feed ruminants. As a result, the use of animal byproduct feeds was never common, as it was in Europe. However, U.S. regulations only partially prohibit the use of animal byproducts in feed. In 1997, regulations prohibited the feeding of mammalian byproducts toruminants such as cattle and goats. However, the byproducts of ruminants can still be legally fed to pets or other livestock, including pigs and poultry, such as chickens. In addition, it is legal for ruminants to be fed byproducts from some of these animals.^[48] A proposal to end the use of cattle blood, restaurant scraps, and poultry litter (fecal matter, feathers)^[49] in January 2004 has yet to be implemented.^[50]

[edit]Regulatory failures

In February 2001, the USGAO reported the FDA, which is responsible for regulating feed, had not adequately enforced the various bans.^[51]Compliance with the regulations was shown to be extremely poor before the discovery of the Washington cow, but industry representatives report that compliance is now total. Even so, critics call the partial prohibitions insufficient. Indeed, U.S. meat producer Creekstone Farms alleges theUSDA is preventing BSE testing from being conducted.^[52]

The USDA has issued recalls of beef supplies that involved introduction of downer cows into the food supply. Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was found to have used electric shocks to prod downer cows into the slaughtering system in 2007.^[53] Possibly due to pressure from large agribusiness, the United States has drastically cut back on the number of cows inspected for BSE.^[54]

Thanks WillsC for your post.  I am a  long time cattle producer myself and am tired of hearing all the disinformation put out against the evil people who raise cattle.

Chapman , I don't mean to step on anyone's toes with this subject , it is not my intention to offend . Nor to talk only about the cattle industry . It was more to talk about industrial agriculture in general . I know there are plenty of farmers who wish they could do things differently but have no choice if they want to stay in business . And as far as disinformation , what has been written about here is happening so I don't know what you mean . I think as consumers we should be able to pick between the cow that has been fed blood , and candy bars or the one that eats like an herbivore should . We have lost the connection to where our food comes from , we need to get to know local farmers and see how they grow our food and support them and be willing to pay more for a better product , cutting out the middle men . This is better for both the farmer and consumer . I hope this is not seen as an attack on the farmer . It's the system that's broken . John

OK, People hold yer horses .  I just spent the last 8 days in NE Montana , Birthing 412 calves . I will be headed back there at the end of March and again in May . Now , I grew up on a cattle ranch until I was 20 and for the past 25 years I go back every spring and assist with the Calving . Here Is how it works . The newborn calf is fed Colostrum, milked fresh from the mother for the next 12 hours.  It is fed once an hour until it has consumed four pints. The Colostrum hepls the calf's immune system . It is fed colostrum for the first 4 to 5 days . It is encouraged to nurse . Now this is a hard truth , But 90% of the mothers refuse to let the calf nurse and will try to stomp and kick it to death. So we separate the mother from the calf  and put him/her in a calf hutch for 2 weeks where it gets cared for 24/7 .   Calves should be fed 10 percent of their birth body weight (1 quart of milk weighs 2 lbs.) Milk replacer should contain a minimum of 20 percent crude protein (Whey,Soy,Egg, Chlorella & Spirulina algae ,Rice, Legumes and yes BLOOD)  and 20 percent fat (We get ours from the local Dairygold plant. We buy 1,000 gallons of Ice cream at a time ) . It is fed the milk replacer/ Ice Cream mixture for the first 3-4 weeks . when the calf is 7 days old it is introduced to soft grain and weened off the replacer .

Bump . ( thread went to page 2 ) wanted others to see Cody's post . Great info Cody . Appreciate your input . Anybody else ? John

So I'm in the waiting room at the doctor's office who is late, of course.  I should charge her for my waiting time...... another topic. 

But on the big screen TV there are multiple programs showing.  Wow!  Tigers killing antelopes and tearing off their limbs and eating (And I ask the mother of the kid who is scared (4 year old with big eyes) if he should be watching this, and she says "Its better than most stuff on TV"..... Then the tropical fish!  OMG!  You would not believe what goes on under the ocean!  Just when it was getting interesting (destruction of hurricanes starting with Galveston...that one killed 6000), they called me in.  When they called the mother of that kid in, I made buddies with him.  He was so smart!  The entire waiting room enjoyed his stories and animation!

Point is.  We live in a world of carnivores.  I don't wish to change it.  Love my smoker and bbq!  I always serve veggies in many forms along with the main deal.

Hope you read this Cody!

Suzi

Call me insensitive, but I don't care what they feed our bovine friends as long as the rare meat stays soooooo delicious!!

I do care, and I try to buy local from the farmers and ranchers who care as well. I'd love to have enough land to raise a calf to slaughter. My husband is too much of a city slicker. He'd name him Herman and demand he stay as a farm pet.

This practice is how mad cow and other diseases are spread so even if I love meat, I would be concerned.  You can't be sure they really eliminated the prion in the best of processing. 

It's great to see everyone is not apathetic about this subject no matter which side they support . Cody talks from a perspective that most of us do not have and his input is greatly appreciated . The fact remains that cow blood is being fed to calves . I understand why they need to bottle feed , due to mothers rejecting newborns . But why not bottle feed with milk . As we all know and most people practice nothing is better than mothers milk for babies. Here is a link to the UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS which talks about animal feed , including blood . This is not some fringe group . These are highly respected scientists , many of them Nobel prize recipients. They voice their concerns on a wide range of topics . http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/industrial-agriculture/they-eat-what-the-reality-of.html#Plastics Suzi , thanks for your story . I have one also . Years back I was at a seminar and there was a gentleman there who was one of the speakers . He was in his sixties and had been a plumber in his early years . At that time hot & cold water pipes were covered with Asbestos for insulation . He said that when working and mixing the asbestos it would fill the air with fibers . Those fibers would choke you while you worked with it . So he did what everyone else did , he grabbed a ball of asbestos and chewed on it . Most of the fibers would stick to the ball in his mouth and not get stuck in his throat . He said most of his friends from back then have died from asbestosis . This may sound crazy to us now but back then it was considered safe . If something sounds wrong , well usually where there's smoke there's fire . So why risk it ? John

Another way to look at things is where are people living the longest and what do they do differently . Blue zones , are locations where scientists find that local populations have a very high rate of people reaching 90+ years of age . The island of Ikaria , Greece is one such place . Here is the first video in the Ikaria series . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nYlhguezhM&feature=youtube_gdata_player John