Candy Corn Laws

by Jennifer Molidor

— Our thanks to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) for permission to republish this post, which originally appeared on the ALDF Blog on October 2, 2012. Molidor is a staff writer for the ALDF.

I’ve got a beef with the cattle industry. As the countdown to Halloween begins, cows are getting a head start on the candy. That’s right, cows eating candy. It was bad enough when we had corn-fed beef. Now we have candy-corn beef?

Dumpster Diving Dairy

Superimposed lollipop, these cows were not fed candy---image courtesy ALDF.

This year’s drought is leading U.S. farmers to cut corners—in cost and in animal welfare. Instead of buying increasingly expensive feed-corn, they are feeding cows any scraps they get their hands on.

Yes, the prices of corn have skyrocketed with the drought. However, the irony of this complaint is that corn isn’t good for cows in the first place! Feedlots are inhumane, and studies show grass-fed beef is by far the healthier option—for cows, for humans, and for the planet. Bemoaning the price of feedlot corn doesn’t garner sympathy. Let them eat grass, like they should.

What is disturbing is that cows are being fed junk food—before they too become junk food.

Where’s the Beef?

Image courtesy ALDF.

Remember that old Wendy’s commercial? “Where’s the beef?” Or the Taco Bell scandal about how much of their “meat” product is really beef? It’s a smart question to ask: what is in the beef (besides “pink slime”)?

Some of the (s)crap items being fed to cows include:

• cookies
• marshmallows
• fruit loops
• orange peels
• dried fruit
• ice cream sprinkles
• gummy worms (made from gelatin, which is an animal byproduct)
• scraps from a local chocolate factory
• taco shells
• refried beans
• cottonseed hulls
• rice products
• potato products
• peanut pellet
• wheat “middlings” a byproduct of milling wheat for flour

Just how much can farmers get away with? How far can we get from treating animals with respect and caring about their welfare or our nutrients? What goes in our bodies, and theirs, should be about health and safety, not simply higher profit and mass production. Animals are not junk food.

Animal Welfare

Cows are not a waste-disposal processing plant. Ki Fanning, a nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting told the Orlando Sentinel:

The big advantage to that is you can turn something you normally throw away into something that can be consumed.

Just because you can do something doesn’t make it moral, healthy, or acceptable. It is embarrassing to be part of a culture so disrespectful to animals. Cows are living, sentient beings that deserve our care.

Sustainable Practice

Cows in Kentucky were being fed "Sour Belts" candy---photo by Steven Depolo.

If we can’t afford to feed the animals we raise for slaughter, then the cattle industry is unsustainable and we must change the way we eat and produce food. One farmer was quoted as saying he would do “anything that keeps the feed costs down.” That’s not the mentality that produces sustainable farming.

Producers of soy and corn alternatives raise their prices when corn costs rise, which puts farmers in a bind. But agricultural producers cannot simply do anything to save a buck. They have a legal and moral responsibility to treat animals humanely and provide healthy food. Innocent animals do not deserve to pay the price of human foibles, and people deserve to know what they are eating.

You Are What You Eat

Eating leftover confectionery goes against everything nature intended. Cows are designed to eat grass and roughage. They chew and digest it slowly to transform nutrients into healthy proteins. But now, cows have become mere vessels for our ice-cream. In an endless cycle of sugar, they eat ice-cream and then become it. This isn’t happy cows eating sugar and producing sugary delights. This is the denial of essential nutrition to cows forced to eat the rejected waste from candy factories.

What’s more, a diet spiked with candy is one rife with high-fructose corn syrup—a product that has been linked with decreased concentration, autism, and other health disorders. And gummy worms contain gelatin, which derives from horse, pig, chicken, and cow byproducts. Cannibalism cuts costs?

That’s the milk that goes in your children’s cereal. Responsible parents are choosing nutritious cereals. And now they’re going to pour junk on it? When childhood obesity is rapidly on the rise and heart disease the number one U.S. killer, feeding animals candy is flat out irresponsible.

Just Say NO

Friends don’t let friends feed cows candy. Across the world, cows are fed enough calories to support nearly 9 billion people. If cows stopped eating candy and corn, and humans stopped eating cows, we could feed the world.

Halloween may come 365 days a year for the American households who drink milk and eat burgers. But it’s not cute, it’s not funny, and it’s not recycling. It is feeding junk food to animals so farmers can make a larger profit, and there’s nothing sweet about that.

Take Action

It’s really a no brainer. Cows shouldn’t be forced to eat candy and the USDA should take action. The USDA has a responsibility to make sure that meat and dairy producers treat cows humanely. And we have a responsibility to make smart consumer choices—ethically, economically, and healthfully.

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