Let’s face it, if you’re a meat-eater, meat tastes good. The only reason I eat any red meat these days is for taste, and I rarely eat red meat anyway. For all us meat-eaters, the next time we tuck into a juicy steak, a burger or throw some chops on the BBQ, here’s some startling info that might just make you think and feel differently about where your meat may have come from.

It is estimated that the world beef cattle population is around 1,040,000,000. Sheep number around 1,200,000,000. Goats number 94,266,000 and pigs 857,066,000.

Around 24% of the world’s landmass is now used for beef cattle production. While there’s no figures, we could guess how many people are exmployed in this industry, from raising and feeding these animals to slaughtering and processing them. And if you’re someone who simply doesn’t care where your beef comes from and how the cattle are treated before being slaughtered, consider these facts (especially next time you choose ‘grain-fed beef’, which is so prolifically marketed as better beef these days):

• Anytime you see and hear “grain-fed” meat, it should set off warning bells to you. Mostly only cattle are grain-fed, but sometimes also sheep. Neither of these animals eat any grain in natural conditions. Both are ruminant herbivores (they only eat grass!)
• Cattle fed on feedlots eat totally unnatural diets, which is bad for their health. They live in enclosures which are cramped – even the better farms are around 60 x 50m (roughly half a football field), housing 250 cattle. They stay there for up to 600 days. It takes 5-6kg of grain to produce only 1kg of meat, and 100,000 litres of water for every kg of food. Do the maths! It’s not economical, especially when 27,000 children die of starvation daily in the world.
• On the feedlots, antibiotics are regularly given to the cattle because they are so cramped. They constantly suffer low-level illness – the equivalent to us having a cold and feeling run down continously for 450 days of the year. Some feedlots give their cattle HGPs (hormone growth promotants) to help convert fat into muscle (meat) faster, mainly because the animals are standing around most of the time, ill and getting little exercise. Many other countries do not allow the use of HGPs, but Australia does.
• Cattle on feedlots are overcrowded and spend their entire time standing, lying down and walking around in their own faeces. All animals hate these conditions and avoid it at all costs in their natural environment.

Feedlots were originally developed to supply the Amercian people with more meat than has ever been eaten by any population in the history of the planet – most of it consumed as hamburger steak. Please choose grass-fed over grain-fed. Grain-fed is not better for us and is certainly a miserable existence for the cattle.