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On this week’s deep-dive, we talk about why:

🌽 American Beef Has A Corn Problem

Corn. It’s a symbol of American agriculture. It covers 90 million acres of U.S. farmland.

And it’s the reason why you’re unknowingly eating traces of antibiotics.

I’ll get to that in a second, but America’s corn fetish deserves a little more attention.

It’s in at least three out of every four items at the grocery store and often in products you’d never suspect of harboring the grain.

The obvious corn chips, grits, and syrup make up a tiny fraction. Clandestine corn products like perfume, toothpaste, soap, wax paper, and even the adhesives on envelopes balance out the rest.

You can’t escape corn when you enter American pop culture, either. Just ask 2022’s celebrity, Corn Kid. 

It’s enough to drive anyone a little mad. Stephen King was ahead of the curve when he wrote about cultish children living in the unending expanse of the crop.

Putting murderous youths aside, most consumers think we need to grow all that corn to feed hungry Americans, yet less than 11% of all corn grown in the U.S. directly ends up as an ingredient in human food. Of that 11%, less than a third turns into products easily identified as ‘corn-based.’

So where does the remainder go?

Some corn turns into fuel, and some of it ships to other countries. But the lion’s share turns into livestock feed.

Every year, we give animals 294 billion pounds of corn.

With an average semi-truck capacity of ~45,000 pounds, an end-to-end line of maxed-out 18-wheelers would wrap the earth’s equator nearly 3.5 times.

Making Corn-Fed Beef

Okay, we have a lot of corn. America also leads the world in beef production, so it’s working out pretty well, right?

If you’re a feedlot operator, corn-based feed is a PED for your financial success. It makes fat cows, and it makes them fat fast.

If you’re a cow… well, it’s more like the kid in Matilda that the principal force-feeds chocolate cake. Not bad at first. Then a recipe for disaster.

Cows didn’t evolve eating starch-saturated grains like corn. Over millions of years, they developed the most advanced digestive system in the world: the rumen. The four compartments in a cow’s stomach each perform their own little magic tricks that turn inedible grass into a full meal.

Those magic tricks are a big misunderstood secret to the general consumer… “Cows don’t eat grass!?”

Cows make bacteria break down the grass; then cows eat the bacteria. The bacteria give them all the protein, fat, and carbohydrates necessary to become a 1200-pound animal.

But things get tricky when grains come into the picture.

Starchy grains like corn make the rumen work on overdrive. Bacteria grow out of control. As a byproduct, cows have an abundance of food. Good right?

But the bacteria don’t slow down. They overpopulate the digestive tract, and feedlot operators must add low doses of antibiotics to the cattle feed and water to keep the problem at bay.

Oh, and that label on meat that says, “Raised Without Antibiotics”? Nearly half of the operations making the claim are giving their cattle antibiotics.

Throughout the entire process, the cows experience chronic stress. That constant state of inflammation accelerates weight gain and the fat deposits between muscles — which results in what we call ‘marbling.’ Lucky for you, that fat disguises the taste of stress chemicals.

And sometimes, the bacteria grow resistant to the antibiotics. Over time, the cow’s normally basic (high pH) stomach turns acidic (low pH). The rumen gets ulcers, and bacteria escape into the cow’s bloodstream.

The bacteria travel to the liver, forming abscesses (localized infections). Most feedlot cattle don’t live long enough to suffer the long-term consequences of a corn-based diet, but we can see the reality when the carcasses get to the meat processor.

In the recent explosion of grass-fed liver products, did you ever wonder why there’s never an option for regular, corn-fed beef liver?

That would be because roughly 30% of corn-fed beef livers are too abscessed and diseased to use. Disconcerting, to say the least.

Don’t Talk Problems Without Solutions

Corn-fed beef makes up about 95% of all grocery-store beef products, so it’s hard to escape the system as it stands right now.

There’s a saying about ignorance and bliss, but I think I might have passed the point of no return on that front.

If you’re motivated to eat healthy animals and would prefer to leave the trace antibiotics and inflammatory chemicals on the side, vote with your dollars.

Remember, “Pay now or pay later” applies to what you eat, too. Medical bills are typically the “pay later” part of diets.

If you want to source grass-fed, grass-finished beef, there’s never been a better time. Purchasing small quantities can get (really) expensive, so consider looking for a freezer chest and a local rancher at your farmer’s market.

If you have the space and the resources, you can secure 400 pounds at once for ~$7.50/pound, including steaks. Splitting with friends is a great way to make it happen.

See you next week, fellow earthings.

— Permacultured

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