Coleman?

Sleepy

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It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
-George Santayana (1863-1952)
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I don't think so........

Sleepy

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It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
-George Santayana (1863-1952)
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To further amplify the point Susan is making here is an excerpt from
the NYT article "Power Steer" written by Michael Pollan the author of
"The Botany of Desire''.  I had referred to this one in my earlier
posting.(http://tinyurl.com/o4t2d)
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Although the modern cattle industry all but ignores it, the reciprocal
relationship between cows and grass is one of nature's underappreciated
wonders. For the grasses, the cow maintains their habitat by preventing
trees and shrubs from gaining a foothold; the animal also spreads grass
seed, planting it with its hoofs and fertilizing it. In exchange for
these services, the grasses offer the ruminants a plentiful, exclusive
meal. For cows, sheep and other grazers have the unique ability to
convert grass -- which single-stomached creatures like us can't digest
-- into high-quality protein. They can do this because they possess a
rumen, a 45-gallon fermentation tank in which a resident population of
bacteria turns grass into metabolically useful organic acids and
protein.

This is an excellent system for all concerned: for the grasses, for the
animals and for us. What's more, growing meat on grass can make superb
ecological sense: so long as the rancher practices rotational grazing,
it is a sustainable, solar-powered system for producing food on land
too arid or hilly to grow anything else.

So if this system is so ideal, why is it that my cow hasn't tasted a
blade of grass since October? Speed, in a word. Cows raised on grass
simply take longer to reach slaughter weight than cows raised on a
richer diet, and the modern meat industry has devoted itself to
shortening a beef calf's allotted time on earth. ''In my grandfather's
day, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter,'' explained Rich Blair,
who, at 45, is the younger of the brothers by four years. ''In the
50's, when my father was ranching, it was 2 or 3. Now we get there at
14 to 16 months.'' Fast food indeed. What gets a beef calf from 80 to
1,200 pounds in 14 months are enormous quantities of corn, protein
supplements -- and drugs, including growth hormones. These
''efficiencies,'' all of which come at a price, have transformed
raising cattle into a high-volume, low-margin business. Not everybody
is convinced that this is progress.

''Hell,'' Ed Blair told me, ''my dad made more money on 250 head than
we do on 850.''

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Anil

Offended and me? Oh God hell no! Been pretty thick skinned. And yes I
will take the licking   LOL.

Anil