i'm loving this conversation. to throw my own $0.02 in regarding feedlot beef...ruminants are designed to eat grass. corn and grains are not good for them, and in fact give them acid indigestion, that as someone pointed out earlier will kill them if they are fed this sort of a diet for long enough. So said cows in a feedlot, getting a mix of corn and grain, are suffering from acidosis, and their rumens and intestines become an acid (low pH) environment. Conincidentally, the virulent to human form of e. coli, 0157-H7, loves acid environments and thrives in grain fed animals. So not only are we hurting the cows by burning out their innards and confining them in unsanitary crowded conditions, but we are breeding in them a bacteria that will hurt us in a big way. go grass fed.