Beef Production Research Paper

Antibiotics and Steroids in Beef Production According to the USDA, the average American consumes approximately 110 lbs. of beef and about 600 lbs. of dairy per year. What most of them don’t know is that they are putting many unnatural chemicals into their bodies every time they eat beef, or any kind of meat for that matter, or when they consume any dairy product. It’s safe to assume that most of the meat and dairy you buy at the supermarket has high amounts of antibiotics, various pharmaceuticals, and came from cows being fed a high grain diet. The steroid hormones used in dairy cows and cows being used for beef are different. In the cows we get dairy products from, the most controversial hormone used is called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which is a synthetic version of a hormone that cows produce naturally. This hormone is used because it makes cows produce 10 to 15 percent more milk than they would usually. This makes it much easier for farmers to produce milk at a fast pace and also use fewer cows. However, there is much debate on whether or not …show more content…
A lot of Americans refuse to buy beef with antibiotics because they fear of what it may do to their bodies. Some people are against the sub therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals, which means that they are given to animals that don’t have any illnesses. Farmers argue though that antibiotics are completely necessary to have a steady supply of low cost, disease free meat for Americans, who eat about three-quarters of a pound per day, which is roughly twice the global average. Farmers also point to a few studies that conclude that the risks of eating beef from cattle that had been treated with antibiotics are extremely low. One 2004 estimate conducted by scientists consulting for the meat industry placed the likelihood that antibiotics would not work in a human due to animal use at 1 in 82