Organic Beef

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/03/25/news/wyoming/20-organic-beef.txt">Rancher has stake in organic beef</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Cattle rancher Rod Morrison doesn't want to just sell you a steak.<br />n<br />nRather, he wants to sell you a choice cut of organic beef, letting you pick which ranch in the Bighorn Basin it came from. And he wants to let you make the purchase without leaving home, using the Internet.<br />n<br />nMorrison is working on a plan to set up a U.S. Department of Agriculture processing facility in Powell that would specialize in marketing organic and natural beef.</blockquote><br />n<br />nThis is interesting but I am not real sure it's for me. Why you may ask? The organic label on beef is pretty scary to me. The way I understand it if a animal gets sick, there is not much you can do for it. The only thing you can doctor it with is Natural items which are not as effective as something as simple as penicillin. Take this spring so far. I haven't had a large scour problem on the calves but I've doctored 15-20 calves for the problem. Under organic standards what I've done, use penicillin, would not be allowed. <br />n<br />nHow many of those 20 I would have lost without appropriate medication? I'm not sure but I would bet half of them would be dead now. Also the disease would have spread further through the calves infecting more than i have doctored causing more sick critters. That really cuts into profit margins when you lose critters that could be saved.<br />n<br />nOverall my herd health is excellent so it would not be a big problem but if I quit doctoring sick critters the herd health would go down no matter how hard I try. No different than comparing the health of humans in a city like Denver with the health of humans living in a poor African city. The lack of health care in Africa means that diseases and medical problems are rampant and overall the people are not as healthy as those that have access to proper health care like most in the US do. It would be no different for my cattle herd. Lack of access to health care would cause overall herd health to go down.<br />n<br />nI care for my animals too much to subject them to such poor health conditions the organic label could cause. I don't care if <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WAL_MART_ORGANIC?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=BUSINESS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Wal-mart is getting in the organic business</a>. Love and care for my animals would make this a tough decision to swallow. I've thought about it before and nothing here has changed my mind.<br />n<br />n<b>It's a bunch of bull. How do you know what's really organic? Today, there's all these impurities in the water and the air. The water for the fruits and vegetables has junk in it. Jack LaLanne</b>