INTENSIVE CORN-FED CATTLE
Looking at the Corn part…
INTRODUCTION
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Often hear that meat is the main food problem in relation to GW and health.
I want to show that Corn is the bigger problem in terms of sustainabillity. Going use soil as reference.
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Chatham House Changing Climate Changing Diets – presumes all (ruminant)
is much the same problem in term of GWP. Land use was not factored in. The
carbon loss from arable soil not factored in battle between pasture v arable.
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Want to compare the two different sorts of meat production – in terms of the
land. Pasture grass fed versus intensive Corn-fed. This war goes all way back to
Bibilical times.. Caen versus Abel..and it was the arable farmer who killed the shepherd,
(as Colin T reminded me)
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So want to compare the two different sorts of animal production, and concentrate on the difference in
terms of soil because not a lot done in this International Year of the Soils.
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Most calculations of meat– re sustainability in terms of health/planet) ignore the role of the arable
aspects – the corn. Want to do quick history of how it is so dominant in terms of market
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I want to try and get to the difference in terms of soil animals, which is my specialist, having counted
½ mil of them in my time, yet most people haven’t a clue about one of them..
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So will end up on a video I’ve made, and will be chance to see some outside
afterwards with my friends form IE Tod.
(Race through, but all links to references in presentation)
1. MARKETS NOT MEAT
The problem is not so much about saturated fats , as saturated food markets.
Saturated markets mean cheaper products, which mean people cry produce
more to make up for the shortfall, thus getting on the never ending treadmill.
Pollan spells out consequences in terms of food produced. More food stuffed
down our throats, more food processed, more food to cattle, more waste, and
still hunger. This applies to Corn vividly. The only way to deal with this at the
moment is get off the treadmill – should be other options
Because we bow down to the god of free markets we let 2-3 dairy farmers go
to the wall each week. While many blame the supermarkets, four of them
colluded to support their dairy farms it was this god– in the form of the Office
for Fair Trading (OFT) stepped in fined them £50 million
This makes it impossible to instil any measures for sustainability, if
the OFT has its way and demands that ‘the free market must
rule’..and it will.
New website MADNESS of FOOD \\\\\\\\MSRKETS
2. CORN DOMINATION IN US
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US Butz (Check why he resigned) helped
corn beat ranchers, ‘ ‘Plant row to row’.
HOW HE got rid of excess – Russia, Stuff
us, Process, Feed to Cattle & use
Japanese recipe to make HFCS (see
Lustig The Bitter Truth)
Butz – got rid of excess, with help
of Kellogs. Increased sales of
cornflakes by over ¼ in 5 years in
mid 80s.
(Brothers fell out over sugar coating)
This cardboard confectionary covered in
HFCS is only ‘healthy’ because of the
milk. Kellogs products with HFCS.
Felicity Lawrence “We have succumbed
almost entirely to the American invention
OKLAHOMA : FARMER & COWMAN
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McGovern Report proposed low
fat dietary guidelines –
Based on ‘no evidence
according to Brit Med Journal
last month,
CC ‘Fake Fat evidence’. Ancel
Keys ‘7 Countries’ - missed out
other 15
Yet still dominate nutritionists
thinking NHS Eatwell.
Nutritionists’ Response.
So evidence for
obesity/diabetes – point the
finger at corn - not meat.
DEALING WITH OVERPRODUCTION
EAST – ARABLE PLANATIONS
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WEST – FAMILY FARMS, PASTURE
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With family, predominantly
pasture, farms suffering,
Owners/tenants
Cattle Sheep
Permanent staff
More dangerous
AWBs maintained in
Wales Scotland & NI
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Arable dominate
Foreign Ownership
Monocultures
Migrant labour
NFU drives this side, witnessed
by their support for plantation
owners (Call themselves
‘Horticulturalist ) abolishing the
Agricultural Wages Board last
year. ..but only in England
4 SIMILAR BATTLE IN UK
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Following on from US, complete with
their machinery,
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We used to have ‘barley beef’, but that gave way
to maize
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Area grown dramatically increased in last 25
years..tripled between 1990-2000 and much
more since to 185,000 h
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Soil Association Runaway Maize
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Not only that it is grown on the better land – flat
fertile land, compared to bumpy wet stuff Up
round our way (Lancashire),
On better land can see corn didn’t see till 10
years ago
Family farms cant compete to get ever more
efficient and cheap to get anything out of a
saturated market
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John Deere (US) Maize Harvester
If the National Farmers’ Union gets its way, maize
growing will expand by another 100,000
hectares in the next six years, solely to make
biogas.
So what damage is it doing?
AMAIZING GROWTH
Across EU maize now accounts for 55% of all the feedstock being poured into
biogas plants
EROSION
We lose over 2 million tonnes of soil a
year according to DEFRA Safeguarding
our Soils FROM?? ARABLE!!!
“Large areas of farmland in the
East of England could become
unprofitable within a
generation as soil erosion and
degradation make it less
productive”
Government’s official climate
change advisory group the
Committee on Climate Change
(CCC)
Fertiliser
PASTURE V ARABLE
Soil Animals Countryside Survey (Chap 8)
According to Countryside Survey Executive (Summary & Chap 2
Mean carbon Concentration g/kg-1
Broad Habitat
1978
1998
2007
Broadleaved, Mixed and Yew Woodland 62.4
Coniferous Woodland
Arable and Horticulture
Improved Grassland
102.2
203.7
34.5
56.4
88.7
222.0
33.5
58.3
197.8
30.7
56.9
CARBON
There have been significant carbon losses in arable soils in both last 10 years (to
2007) and last 20 years. Yet The Headline indicator table for emissions of agriculture
say Co2 ‘not applicable’ (just methane /Nitrous).
Has anybody calculated what this means in terms of GHG emissions? Surely this carbon has
gone somewhere? Where/what ? Is anybody looking?
MAIZE – WORSE
During the heavy rainfall in the winter of 2013/14,
every 10 football pitches of damaged land under
maize stubble produced the equivalent of 15
Olympic swimming pools of additional runoff.
 How many soil animals went with those 350 mil
litres too?
 A study in south-west England suggests that the
soil structure has broken down in 75% of the
maize fields there.
 (This is due in part to late harvest on wet land)
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RESPONSE..
The Labour government in 2005
issued instructions on the control of soil erosion.
 NFU wanted EU Soil Directive thrown out all along saying
enough controls already (despite CC recommendations)
 DEFRA says that requirements for Cross Compliance require
a Farm Soil Plan (Guide to CC)
“Post-harvest management of land: If your land has carried a
crop of oil-seeds, grain legumes or cereals (other than maize)
which has been harvested by either combine harvester or
mower”, then need to take certain measures like cover crops,
leaving stubble
All that is required for CC is to ‘avoid growing on slopes where
runoff may cause erosion’..
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More in Soil Protection Review (Red Tractor Standards)
TO CAP IT ALL
Maize contributes to spread of
bTB
 bTB linked to more intense
farming according to government funded research
Dec 2015, Particularly Maize growth
 For every 10 hectares of maize – a favourite food
of the badgers, that play a role in transmitting the
disease – bTB risk increased by 20%.
 It seems, the badgers pee & poo on the maize
fields and that maize is then being fed to the
cattle. Yum
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The feeding of silage was linked with
a doubling of the risk in both dairy
and beef systems.
Maize fed silage,, first connection
More on Badgers eating Corn
There are 2-3 times more bugs in
pasture than arable land, and 3-4
times more in woodland. In the ten
years following the original survey the
number of animals, particularly mites,
increased in most habitats significantly.
Except arable stayed pretty well the
same. Arable got worse in most criteria
- like diversity. This corresponds with
the declining carbon in arable soil.
Countryside Survey 2007
SOIL ANIMALS
There are an estimated 12 QUADRILLION ( 12,000 TRILLION ) in UK SOILS
KEEP PLANTS HEALTHY
BREAK DOWN DEBRIS
Springtails keep roots
clean and eat fungal
debris and transfer
Mycorrhiza spores
E O Wilson on Oribatids beak
down leaves providing
nutrients to plants
What the soil animals do. My Contribution to
Gatsby interview with me
IYS..YouTube ‘CC +
‘Soil Animals’
Possible soil animal
Indicators for soil health