Sources for Paper

For our topic, we chose to focus on organic and changes to feedlots. 

Roosevelt, Margot. "The GRASS-FED Revolution." Time 12 June 2006: 76-78. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. http://www.systems.wsu.edu/scripts/wsuall.plurl=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=21054769&site=ehost-live.

This article is about a Texas rancher and his herd of cattle. the special part about this beef is that they are 100% grass fed.  Instead of the diet given to cattle in feedlots (mostly processed  corn), he gives his cattle an all natural diet, the one that they are supposed to have.  Problem is that this is a very small movement.  “Less than 1% of the nation’s supply” is from naturally raised, grass fed cattle.   It has also shown to have better health effects than other beef.  It has 65% lower saturated fat.  Overall, this article is about the positive health effects of eating grass fed cattle instead of grain fed.    

Comis, Don. "An Environmental Look at American Feedlots." Agricultural Research 51 (July 2003): 10-11. PDF file. 

The article starts out by talking about how the manure from feedlots can affect ecosystems.  Nitrogen gets released from the manure, which is then transformed into ammonia.  The ammonia gets taken out of the air by rain, and this ammonia can harm the environment.  This article then talks about a feedlot that studies the manure of the cattle in order to determine what it is composed of.  The problem with the feedlot cattle instead of open range cattle is the concentration.  Fifteen cattle spread out are not going to harm the environment as much as fifteen cattle in close proximity to one another.  “For every ten pounds of nutrients consumed, 8 to 9 pounds are excreted in the feces and urine” (10).  The goal of these lots is to find a diet for cattle that does the least amount of harm to the environment.  One problem that they have encountered is that cattle do not all need the same diet.  They have also started following microbes in the feedlot.