The Cost of Meat

Several months ago on the radio four programme, Farming Today, there was a brief item that science showed that the Meat and Dairy products from grass fed animals were better for us nutritionally than the products of livestock fed purely on concentrates. These concentrates are made from grains and are the way that big industrial agriculture produces meat and dairy products. Then today on the food programme, same station, was an expansion on that research, that livestock allowed to forage, and feed on grass and herbage are more nutritional than the industrialised meat and dairy we are often forced to consume.

Now at the time of the first mention of this research, it did cross my mind that in the past it we did not seem to have the same health problems with food that are prevalent today. While it is probably true that the link between problems like cholesterol had not been discovered then, the main rise in these foods causing us problems coincides with the rise in industrial agriculture.

While there are people that will argue that intensive farming has given us cheap meat, cheap food, I would say that this has only been possible because the real costs have been hidden.

It was the need to feed a starving Europe following the Second World War that many of the practices that have blighted farming came into being. To induce people to return to the land quite high subsides were paid to farmers, also to ensure that farmers had the income to invest in agriculture; farmers were guaranteed a minimum price. That enabled farmers across Europe to feed a population devastated by war. Also new techniques were used along with new discoveries. Anti-biotic greatly helped by treating disease in livestock, nitrate chemicals boosted yields, and mechanisation reduced the labour costs of farming.

Yet the warnings given by the scientists at the time were ignored. Even the developers of Anti-biotic warned about the over use of this medicine, and that failing to use Anti-biotic with care would produce resistance. Yet they are still routinely given to livestock as it boosts yields, they grow faster. This means that often humans are ingesting medicines without realising it. Also by controlling disease in this way it enabled a much higher stocking rate in enclosed factory systems than could have ever been possible.

Equally, the use of Chemical Nitrates, derived from petroleum, boosted yields, but as nitrates make for a much more leggy crop, they were more prone to fungus infections and insect attack. No problem says the chemical industry use these poisons. Well they were used and still are and we now regularly eat food that has a residue of these poisons in it. While individually each of these toxins may be at safe levels, the accumulative effect is unknown. Further, when the Chemical Nitrates were first used extensively, scientists warned that over use of them would lead to degradation of the soil and loss of fertility. Just as is now happening across Europe and North America.

All this without any mention of the environmental impacts all this cheap food has had.

If the Industrial Agricultural system had to pay the real costs of it practices, our food would not be cheap. If we just take Mad Cow Disease as one example, in Europe it cost billions all paid by the taxpayer. Yet the practice of feeding an herbivore the remains of dead, diseased sheep (infected with Scrape), saved the Industrial Agricultural system thousands and provided millions in extra profit.

The real cost of cheap food is in higher taxes to provide health care and clearing up the environmental mess that Industrial Agricultural systems leave behind.