Sweet Meat: Cows Forced to Eat Chocolate Candy Due to High Feed Prices

As ranchers across the country struggle to keep their cattle alive amid the worst drought in at least five decades, some have taken drastic steps to compensate for rising feed prices.

At Mayfield’s United Livestock Commodities, in Mayfield, Kentucky owner Joseph Watson is tweaking the recipe for success.

“Just to be able to survive, we have to look at other sources for nutrition,” he said.

His 1,400 cattle are no longer feeding off corn.  The prices, Watson said, are too high, so earlier this year he began to buy second hand candy.

“It actually has a higher ratio of fat then actually feeding them straight corn,” Watson said.

Which is important, because all of the cattle will be brought to slaughter.  Watson wants them to gain weight and by feeding them chocolate, it gets the job done.

“It’s hard to believe it will work but we’ve already seen the results of it now, so we’re pretty happy with it,” he said with a smile.

Source: CNY Central

Though as of yet untested with respect to the health effects, feeding candy to a cow will most certainly increase its weight. What we don’t know is whether or not this poses a health risk to cattle or humans. Should we soon expect to see diabetic cows popping up in the cattle population?

As was noted in the eye opening documentary Frankensteer, the meat industry has long engaged in feed practices that would make even those with the strongest of stomachs queasy. Everything from left over poultry parts, to roadkill and even other beef has been fed to cows being sold for slaughter and consumption.

Though perhaps not as horrific as Belgium firm Verkest including used motor oil in their feed, the meat processing industry is constantly being forced to implement new, yet not always safe or healthy, methods to keep up with the beef requirements of American consumers who don’t seem to care about the long-term ramifications of a toxic diet.

A 2008 report by Natural News indicates that feeding candy and left over junk food to cattle is not exactly a new practice:

That’s right. Farmers are feeding cattle potato chips and chocolate scraps. Ever wonder what happens to those broken potato chips and chocolate candies? It’s bad enough that many children are permitted by their parents to eat this kind of junk food. Now, to make matters worse, they are experiencing even more ill health-effects through a meat-based diet, courtesy of farmers whose primary concern is turning a huge profit.

While some ranchers will continue to care for their cattle responsibly, with drought threatening the livelihoods of ranchers nationwide we should come to expect that unprecedented methods will be used to keep meat businesses from going bankrupt and to satiate the appetite of the American public.

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