He said what?

Do you ever get door-to-door salesmen in your area?  Well, my dearies, have I got a story for you.  Yesterday we had such a person come to our abode selling steaks.  

If you know me, you know that I just had to ask him if the steaks were from grass-fed cows.  He said he didn't know, but he did know that he could give me a deal.  Now you know I appreciate a deal, but not at the cost of health.  I told him that usually grass-fed beef was usually marked as such because it is something sought after.  

I then explained that usually cows that weren't grass fed were fed stuff like corn, and of course, cows aren't supposed to eat corn, they're supposed to eat grass.  

Do you have any idea what he said next?  Do you?  My sweet people, this man said, "Corn is grass."  

Um, what?  I couldn't let this be shugged off.  (Perhaps I should have?)  I replied, "Actually...corn is a grain (seed).  Grass is...uh...grass is that stuff right there (pointing to the lawn)."  

"No, corn is grass." He retorts, still quite certain of himself.  

"Okay, so...", I begin, trying to think of a nice way to go on this, "You know how corn has like stalks, you know, out in the country, and it grows really tall and on a cob...that's actually different from grass..." and I trail off, raising my eyebrows hopefully.  

Pause.  

He looks at my college flag that I proudly sport out in front of my house (which is known for being an agricultural university) and says, "Hey, wait a minute.  Did you go to that college right there?  You must know a lot about this kind of stuff!  Wow!  Okay, then.  I guess you're right!"  

Okay, well, whatever it takes to convince you.  (Especially since I took exactly zero ag classes.)  "Yes.  Hey, you just come right back here if you get in a load of grass-fed steaks, okay?"  

Yes, I understand that the stalk may be considered a grass, but the cows aren't eating the stalks.  They're eating the seed - the little yellow bits.  That is not the same as pasture.  That's also why McDonald's pretends in the background of their commercials that their hometown farmers that they use are out wearing overalls while the cows mull around munching on lush green pastures.  It's because that's the way it's supposed to be.  

If they were advertising commercial agricultural feedlots where cows are standing in puddles of yuck, penned in, eating corn out of a bucket (or trough, etc.), with their faces in the hindquarters of the cow next to them since they've been packed in so tightly...well, it just doesn't give off the same kind of quaint flavor (or selling umph).

Perhaps it doesn't bother you very much about what the cows are eating, and I am not in crazy town suggesting that cows ought to be nestling up to fluffy pillows while their massage therapist works on their top round, but I do think we ought to realize that we are what we eat.  If we promote low-quality filthy cow quarters by putting our money into that basket, we are getting the results of that - animals who must have antibiotics (since they are sludging around in poo), animals who have gut issues (since we're feeding them a sugary grain instead of a lean grass), and likely a lesser quality of life than those allowed to act like the cows they were made to be out on pasture.

That meat makes it into your body and comprises what you become.  It is not for the sake of making cows sacred that they ought to be out on pasture eating grass, it is because it is just plain the right thing to do.  It is for the sake of profit that things are done another way - it is easier, it is cheaper, it brings in big money.  But is it giving you the best of health?  If the cows are eating genetically modified corn (and they are, unless the beef is marked "organic"), they are becoming altered - and that is passing on to you.  And we know how that translates within society - just look at all of the robust health everywhere.

Not.

Eyes open, peeps.  Let's do it right.

Peace, love, and pass the ketchup,
Ms. Daisy