warning: gross stuff about beef ahead

I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, which Alfred has already read most of. It's what has really spurred him into becoming a hippie and trying to produce more of our own food, or at least getting it from healthier, local sources. I just got back from lunch, where I read while I ate. And now I get why he's turning into a hippie.

The part I read today was all about what cattle are fed on a feedlot before they're slaughtered: mostly corn (which is not natural for them and therefore makes them sick), mixed with antibiotics (since the corn is making them so sick), protein from sources such as chicken parts and droppings, and whatever manure gets stuck to their bodies throughout their lives on the feedlot that doesn't get washed off. I'm reading this as I'm eating a taco with beef. Lovely. It's also talking about how Mad Cow Disease became a problem because cattle used to be fed protein from other cattle, aka cannibalism. Now it's much better though, cause they eat protein from chickens, which of course are fed beef protein. So now the cattle gets digested by the chickens before being refed to other cattle. There's also stuff about E. coli becoming more resilient because of the change of stomach pH in cattle. Is this sounding as gross as it sounded to me in the book? Cause it sounded really gross. I want to be a vegetarian.

In non manure related news, we should be receiving our permit from the Army Corps to build our house any day now. Also, we're supposed to be getting our official address from the county today. We might really get to build a house! We also looked at a couple of houses that we could potentially rent while our new house is getting built, assuming we can somehow rent our current house. (We're thinking vacation rental for our house, unless Katie finds a couple of friends who want to rent it instead.) One house we looked at today is already owned by Max's company, the other is being purchased this month (or maybe next month, I'm not sure). Either way, it would cut down our commute and, depending on what we rented our house for, our monthly housing cost. Which is a good thing. Then we can use the extra money to buy grass-fed beef! (You like how I connected my two topics? I feel like Dave Barry!) (You like all my linking in this post? I feel like a dork!)