The Saturday, August 23, Los Angeles Times included an important op-ed that gives us a great opportunity for letters to the editor. The piece, by Paul Roberts, author of "The End of Food," is headed, "The cost of steak; Factory farms produce cheap meat, until you consider the rivers of sewage, the contaminants and the superbugs." (Pg A 19)

Roberts opens with:

"If you are searching for signs that today's high food prices won't last, the latest report on the meat industry isn't promising. In May, a distinguished panel of scientists and meat industry officials concluded that the current 'factory farm' method for mass-producing meat poses so many threats to public health -- from contaminated water supplies to deadly epidemics of E. coli -- that the whole system needs to go. The good news: Even meat companies agree that change is unavoidable. The bad news: Replacing factory farms with something "sustainable" likely means an end to 50 years of falling meat prices.

"The report, from a Pew Charitable Trusts commission, takes a hard look at 'confined animal feeding operations,' or CAFOs, which produce most of the U.S. meat supply. These massive facilities house tens of thousands of cattle, hogs and chickens and generate not just huge amounts of meat but rivers of sewage, clouds of contaminated dust and nearly a fifth of all greenhouse gases.

"The crowded, often unsanitary conditions promote disease, which has led to the overuse of antibiotics and to a class of superbugs that are resistant to those same antibiotics."

In case you thought the antibiotics were to help the animals, we learn:
"Because small, steady doses of antibiotics kill the low-grade infections that normally plague livestock, dosed animals spend fewer calories fighting infection and thus have more calories available for building muscle and bone. When fed antibiotics, livestock can grow 25% faster on the same intake of feed -- a critical point, given that feed is a meat companies' biggest cost."

Roberts tells us that "our meat is cheap only because we don't count all the costs: Taxpayers spend $4.1 billion cleaning up livestock sewage leaks and $2.5 billion treating salmonella. All told, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, CAFOs may be costing taxpayers $38 billion a year -- costs that aren't reflected in the retail price of meat."

He tells us not to "expect to end CAFOs and keep super-cheap meat" given the longer growth to slaughter weight and the greater amount of land required.

You'll find the full article on line at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-roberts23-2008aug23,0,1032529.story
Or at this TINY URL
http://tinyurl.com/6aqz8a

It presents the perfect opportunity for letters about the horrors of factory farming from the standpoint of the animals raised in the system (visit www.factoryfarming.com to see shocking photos and learn more) and for letters from those of us doing beautifully on plant based diets who can make better recommendations than sustainably raised meat.

The Los Angeles Times takes letters at letters@latimes.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)

Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals" and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.