All morals & principles are biased, self-serving - Exhibit 2 - The Dog and the Cow

[Loren Pechtel]

Without regard to the morality of the matter, the only advantage of eating a cow is there is a lot to eat, compared to any other domestic animal. Sometimes this is a disadvantage, such as for a small group during hot weather. Most of the meat will spoil before it can be processed.

Modern technology has pretty much eliminated that problem, but in terms of economic input for the amount of meat produced, beef is the least efficient use of resources. In pre-modern times, a cow was a grass processing machine that provided the raw material for cheese, butter, and yogurt. Eating a cow was much the same as killing the goose that lays golden eggs. It was only when the cow was too old to produce milk, that she became food. This only applies to cows, because no one wants or needs a surplus of bulls. The fatted calf was always a young bull.

It is only the benefits of modern technology, which includes refrigeration, transportation, and most of all, intensive grain production, that allows the average American(and other nations as well) to eat beef in one form or another, practically any day of the week. The grain fed to a cow/steer in the feed lots would provide many more meals than the weight in meat they gain while waiting to be slaughtered.

I don't think there being a lot of cow is an advantage in any scenario. We eat cows because it's better than wasting the meat when the cow is too old. And because cows are herd herbivores, making raising them much easier.

 

[bilby]

We eat cows because it's better than wasting the meat when the cow is too old.

Cows raised for meat don't get old.

Indeed, most livestock consumed by humans is killed at a very young age. Old animals are tough, and don't tend to taste very good.

Just because a cow is too old to qualify as veal, doesn't mean that your beef came from an animal that lived a significant fraction of its natural (15-20 year) lifespan. A steak typically comes from a one or two year old steer.

Cows raised for milk live much longer - up to five, or even six, years - but when they no longer produce milk, they are too old for steaks. Generally their meat is only used for ground beef.

 

[Bronzeage]

Without regard to the morality of the matter, the only advantage of eating a cow is there is a lot to eat, compared to any other domestic animal. Sometimes this is a disadvantage, such as for a small group during hot weather. Most of the meat will spoil before it can be processed.

Modern technology has pretty much eliminated that problem, but in terms of economic input for the amount of meat produced, beef is the least efficient use of resources. In pre-modern times, a cow was a grass processing machine that provided the raw material for cheese, butter, and yogurt. Eating a cow was much the same as killing the goose that lays golden eggs. It was only when the cow was too old to produce milk, that she became food. This only applies to cows, because no one wants or needs a surplus of bulls. The fatted calf was always a young bull.

It is only the benefits of modern technology, which includes refrigeration, transportation, and most of all, intensive grain production, that allows the average American(and other nations as well) to eat beef in one form or another, practically any day of the week. The grain fed to a cow/steer in the feed lots would provide many more meals than the weight in meat they gain while waiting to be slaughtered.

I don't think there being a lot of cow is an advantage in any scenario. We eat cows because it's better than wasting the meat when the cow is too old. And because cows are herd herbivores, making raising them much easier.

That only depends on how many people you invite to the barbecue.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

We eat cows because it's better than wasting the meat when the cow is too old.

Cows raised for meat don't get old.

Indeed, most livestock consumed by humans is killed at a very young age. Old animals are tough, and don't tend to taste very good.

Just because a cow is too old to qualify as veal, doesn't mean that your beef came from an animal that lived a significant fraction of its natural (15-20 year) lifespan. A steak typically comes from a one or two year old steer.

Cows raised for milk live much longer - up to five, or even six, years - but when they no longer produce milk, they are too old for steaks. Generally their meat is only used for ground beef.

That's how it is now. Not how it used to be. In a subsistence society nobody is feeding animals for the purpose of eating them. Either they are feeding them for other purposes or they are foraging on their own.