The Omnivores Dilemma

1: Pg. 65- The corn plant has colonized how much of the American continent? 120,000 square miles 2: Pg. 66-67- How have Americas food animals undergone a revolution in lifestyle? Areas where animals are being raised are getting denser than before. 3: Pg. 67- What is a CAFO? Concentrated Animal Feed Operation 4: Pg. 67- What happened to the all of the farmland once the animals left? Where did all of the corn go? More corn were being grown on those lands. It went to animals who originally does not eat corn. 5: Pg. 68- What is the idea of a closed ecological loop? Those wastes can be feed to others 6: Pg. 68- What are the two main problems with animal feedlots? Pollution and fertility. 7. Pg 70- What is the coevolutionary relationship between cows and grass? Explain. Grass feeds cows, while the cows fertilize the grass. 8. Pg. 71- Why would pastures become the great American desert without ruminant animals? Without any greens, then erosion would happen causing the lands to lose its nutrients and become a desert. 9. Pg. 71- What gets a steer from 80 to 1,000 pounds in just 14 months? Corn, protein and fat supplements and an arsenal of drugs 10. Pg. 71- Why is weaning the calves the most traumatic time on the ranch? The calves are to mope and bellow for days. 11. Pg. 73- What is the only reason contemporary animal cities arent as plague -ridden or pestilential as their medieval human counterparts? Modern antibiotic 12. Pg. 73- So if the modern CAFO is a city built upon commodity corn, it is a city afloat on an invisible sea of _______ Petroleum 13. Pg. 75- Why is corn fed meat less healthy for us? There are more saturated fat and less omega-3 than the cows that eat grass 14. Pg. 75- What practice of feeding cows led to the Mad Cow Disease?

 Feeding cows with meat of cows. 15. Pg. 77- How are we choosing which cows we want to select to breed? People choose cows that are able to not get sick from converting corn to protein. 16. Pg. 77- What is the #1 ailment found with cows fed on corn? Why- explain. Bloat because through the process of rumination produces a lot of gas that gets trapped when a slimy layer is formed. The rumen would then inflates and press against the lungs of the cows. 17. Pg. 78- What is acidosis and what does it cause in the cow? Normally cow stomaches are basic, but when it is acidic then it is acidosis. It can cause the cow to be sick, not eat, salivate excessively, diarrhea, remenitis, liver disease, and weaken the immune system. 18. Pg. 78- What percentage of cows at slaughterhouses are found to have abscessed livers? 15-30% 19. Pg. 78- What is the leading causes of the evolution of antibiotic resistant superbugs? Antibiotics in their food. 20. Pg. 79- What chemicals are found in the manure lagoon on CAFOs? Nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, hormone residue, and POP 21. Pg. 80- How many pounds of corn does it take to make 4 pounds of beef? What is the ratio for chicken? 32 lbs of corn for 4 lbs of beef. Ratio for chicken 2 to 1. 22. Pg. 82- How has the new strain of E. Coli (O157: H7) evolved and what is the problem with it? How can this problem be fixed? It became acidic-resistance, which can kill humans when it is in the stomach. By undergoing reverse acidification, it can be fixed. 23. Pg. 82- How are the costs associated with the CAFOs externalized? Explain. Because the cost is environmental cost 24. Pg. 83- Discuss the path of corn backward from the corn fields and discuss the implications. Farm to the cornfield. Nitrogen and pesticides would flow off into a large body of water which then would cause eutrophication. 25. Pg. 83- How much of Americas petroleum usage goes to producing and transporting our food? One fifth 26. Pg. 84- If a cow reaches his full weight- how much oil will he have consumed in lifetime? 35 gallons

27. Pg. 84- You are what you eat is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is, as a visit to a feedlot suggests, incomplete, for you are what what you eat eats, too. And what we are, or have become, is not just meat but number 2 corn and oil- Discuss. The meat we eat all had once ate corn, which contains fertilizers. The fertilizers are made from substances such as petroleum. Meaning that we are not just eating meat, but we are also eating toxins that is in the meat.