A. Raising the typical cow from calf to hamburger in the industrial farming system

In this chapter, we will describe in detail how a cow becomes the beef product you buy in the supermarket and that ends up on you plate. In fact, cattle raising has a long and extensive history dating back to the beginning of the American colonies. As the nation expanded and modernized so did the methods for raising cattle. As new agricultural technologies developed, cattle raising expanded to an unprecedented scale and Americans became increasingly dependent upon beef as a major constituent of the their diet. The cattle-calf operation is the first stage in cattle raising and became the most common method of raising calves on the modern industrial farm. In the operation, calves are fattened on a mostly natural diet until they reach a specific weight and are sold for slaughter. Mass production of cattle, however, truly began with the birth of the CAFO farm. Here the cows are put on special diets in order to quickly and most efficiently fatten them to proper weight. All livestock here are being prepared for the slaughtering process. At the last stage of their lives, cattle are shipped off to slaughterhouses where they are taken through the process of stunning up until preservation. There are numerous approaches to how cattle are rendered unconscious and butchered before they are shipped off to processing plants. This paper then goes on to describe how beef gets processed after the cattle have been slaughtered. This section includes a discussion of how the "primal" cuts are made, how some of these cuts and remaining, undesirable meat gets converted into lunchmeat, how hamburgers, canned meat, and specialty dried meats are made, how the various USDA grades are assigned, and a brief presentation of the purposes of some of the most common additives. After processing, the beef products must travel to the distribution center located closer to the consumer. Beef generally travels to the distribution center through refrigerated train cars and trucks. In New York City, most of our beef is distributed through Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. From here, restaurants and supermarkets purchase the beef and make it available to the consumer. However, it is highly doubtful that the customer knows what is actually in the beef they consume. We will explicate upon the ingredients and treatments that are required for raising a cow and how they are implemented into the overall process.