Quite honestly, before I read what I'm about to share with you, I had not a qualm in the world about going to the grocery store and buying some beef real soon. For two especially good reasons.
First, as soon as the news about Molly Ivans, oops, er, that Mad Cow up in Washington came out, I knew that the price of beef was going to fall. Second, A cow clear that far away from North Georgia is not going get shipped to a slaughter house in my State when Texas and Florida are so much closer, just to name two examples. Never mind Georgia is full of beef cattle. I was already snickering about the dumb-masses of people who would immediately react by swearing off any beef.
But Jay Bryant at Townhall.com gives me more reason to guffaw at the stupidity of the majority of Americans. Bryant writes:
Now, I want to give you a little technical bovine information here. If, like me, you grew up on a dairy farm, you already know this, but surveys show that very few Americans these days have actually ever lived on a farm of any kind, so I'm guessing most of you are city/suburban folk and may have little understanding of barnyard lore.
The Famous Mad Cow of Washington State was a Holstein. Holsteins are dairy cattle, not beef cattle. They are the black and white ones, the ones frequently seen on TV promoting Chick Fil A. Among the common dairy breeds, they are the largest, being tall, awkward and decidedly gangly. If cows had basketball teams, Holsteins would play center.
They give large quantities of milk, udder for udder, but it is not rich milk, being decidedly lower in butterfat content than that of other breeds, such as Jerseys. We had mostly Jerseys on our farm, but Dad kept a few Holsteins, too, just to get the volume up.
Anyway, the point is that most people do not intentionally eat Holsteins. You can wander through any supermarket you choose and you won't find any "Genuine Certified Holstein" beef products for sale. I did not, therefore, find it difficult to believe that much of Yakima Bessie was shipped off to Guam, which is a fine place, I am sure, but not exactly where you'd go if you were looking for a really tender prime rib.
Eating Holstein beef is not quite as bad as eating a cat and a fiddle, but as they say about the moon, it's right up there
All I can say is that I am really happy that CNN and all the rest of the news channels haven't mentioned this. They also haven't mentioned that dairy cattle and beef cattle never even see each other, let alone exist in near proximity. Dairy farming and beef farming are so vastly different that it would be ridiculously impractical and expensive to operate both types of farms simultaneously. If somebody is doing it I would sure like to know.
So, the bottom line is, some of us get to take advantage of most American's propensity to simply react without thinking. Please don't spread this information around until after I've had a chance to stock my freezer. Thanks.
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