USDA food-safety czar: Ethanol waste causes tainted beef -- and that's okay

Let cows eat vaccines along with distillers grains

Posted by Tom Philpott at 1:57 PM on 28 Jan 2008

In December, a study came out suggesting a link between distillers grains -- a waste product of the corn-ethanol process -- and a spike in cases of beef tainted with the deadly E. coli 0157 virus.

You see, the government-mandated ethanol boom has dramatically pushed up corn prices. To cut costs, feedlot operators have been substituting cheap distillers grains for pricey corn. Thus in the past year or so, we've seen an explosion in use of distillers grain as livestock feed, especially for cows.

When I heard about the possible E. coli 0157 link, I put two and two together and wondered aloud whether maybe we should stop feeding so much distillers grains to cows ... if it causes E. coli. After all, industrial corn itself is known to damage cows' livers and create a great intestinal environment for E. coli 0157. Maybe fragmented, denatured corn -- the chewed-up-and-spit-out leftover from the ethanol process -- is even worse?

Well, Philip Brasher of The Des Moines Register reports that evidence of a distillers grains/E. coli 0157 link has been building, and even the USDA has gotten concerned.

Richard Raymond, the USDA's undersecretary for food safety, told Brasher he "thinks distillers grains are one of several factors behind the spike in [tainted meat] recalls."

Yikes. Does that mean the USDA's food-safety czar agrees that maybe feedlot operators should ... um ... stop feeding distillers grains to cows? No. He's got a better idea. Reports Brasher:

Raymond said the government had no intention of restricting the use of distillers grains even if the E. coli link is confirmed, and would instead leave it to the industry to decide how to address the issue. One possibility, he said, is to vaccinate cattle. "I'm not about to tell the cattlemen what they are going to feed their cows."

To this jawdropper, Brasher dryly adds: "No E. coli vaccine has yet been approved for use in cattle."

Right. To my way of thinking, the E. coli 0157 problem calls for a return to grass -- which keeps cows healthy and free of pathogens deadly to humans. For the USDA, the problem amounts to another opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry -- a new vaccine!

Brasher's article contains other gems. Here's one:

Meatpackers recalled a record 33.4 million pounds of beef last year for possible E. coli contamination, up from just 181,900 pounds in 2006, according to the USDA. The old record of 25.6 million pounds was set in 1997.

Whoa. That's an 18-fold spike in a single year. And get this:

The 21 recalls last year -- the most since 2002 -- included one by now-defunct Topps Meat Co. that totaled 21.7 million pounds.

So a single giant recall in 2007 nearly matched the previous record for recalls in an entire year.

Here's an interesting tidbit on the economics of distillers grains -- why feedlot operators will likely keep using them even if they're shown to cause the deadly virus:

The ... president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association said he pays $35 a ton for distillers grains, the equivalent of $2.85 a bushel for corn. In his area, corn has been selling for more than $4 a bushel. It takes the equivalent of 70 bushels of corn to fatten a steer.

For story: USDA food-safety czar: Ethanol waste causes tainted beef -- and that's okay
4 Comments | Post a Comment

Beat me to it

Tom,

I was just about to post on this, but glad you did so, and so well. A "jaw-dropper" indeed.

Tonight we celebrate this administration's LAST S.O.T.U. Hopefully we can put our heads down and get through these last 358 days.

Peace, kmf ___________________________________________________________________ A meal is a terrible thing to waste

by Kurt Michael Friese at 2:18 PM on 28 Jan 2008

usda. - sad people. no education.

A funny story. -

I had been a vegetarian all my life. I was raised in a Hindu family. No meat + no fish. I moved from London, UK to America. Everyone here eats meat. My husband also eats meat. So a few months ago, I started to wonder if I should eat meat. I looked into the Standard American Diet (SAD), all the health issues, all the ethical issues, all the treatment in the factory farming, all the organic methods, all the economic issues and all the world food distrubution issues, all the marketing elements, and the political lobbyist form Tyson etc..

After my research, I am now a vegan!

Standard American Diet - SAD - yes it very much is!

by kimberleywoelich at 8:16 PM on 28 Jan 2008

it ruins cheese too

Distiller grains have also been linked to funky cheese in our area, the heart of the dairy state. Farmers around here started to notice their cheese had bad flavor. A few more months of researching the problem led back to the introduction of distillers grains in the diet of the animals producing milk for the cheese.

The saddest part is, several of these farmstead cheesemakers lost EVERYTHING and are off the farm because it took too long to discover, and there is no recourse. All because someone sold them industrial byproduct as feed from the local ethanol plant. It is too late to save these farmers, but hopefully more can wake up and prevent more destruction of our delicate local food chain.

by dumpsterfuel at 9:36 AM on 29 Jan 2008

Don't tell Vinod

Don't let this information get out to Vinod, his project http://www.e3biofuels.com/ plays up feeding this waste to cows as a genius step in sustainability.

by danielbell at 10:50 AM on 29 Jan 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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