precisionnutrition.com/cattle-feedlot-visit
This isn’t your typical vegan response about feedlots. Noted nutritionist and vegan Ryan Andrews visits the Colorado lot with an open mind and comes away with a lot of the usual nonsense around them dispelled. We hear a lot about propaganda from the meat industry but this piece shows there’s a lot on the other side too. But Andrews thinks vegan input has also had a positive effect on how feedlots are run.
Here’s part of his conclusion:
[quote] If my experience at Magnum is representative of other cattle farms, all those accounts of the dismal, depressing, disastrous cattle conditions seem to be exaggerated.
No, I’m not going to start eating meat again.
However, if I did eat meat, my visit to Magnum would have made me feel great about eating non-organic, non-grass-fed beef. Seriously. I can’t imagine the quality of meat would be substantially better with organic and grass-fed. Nor can I imagine the living conditions would be substantially better for the cattle.[/quote]
Not sure if this feedlot is a good representative of all the feedlots out there, but it was a nice article anyway that shows that some feedlots are run responsibly.
Reading ‘An Omnivores Dilemma’ right now, which paints a very different picture of feedlots.
Ryan Andrews addressed that and other points in his rebuttal. I’m sure he got ripped apart by his fellow vegans. I really appreciate someone that swims against the tide.
He said that he didn’t go out of his way to find a “good” feedlot and he was sure that there are some worse than he saw. He admitted the possibility that he might have gotten steered towards a better one but said he doubted it. The meat producers back where I come from operate almost exactly like what is described in the article, although I never knew anyone with such a big operation. Sounded like a normal operation to me.
The most intriguing part of his response (and the one that might have pissed of his fellow vegans the most) was his assertion that criticism of the meat industry might have forced them to improve their operations. Veganism ironically probably played a part in that. But naturally that isn’t what vegans want – they want the industry shut down.
OK, but did he visit the slaughterhouse were the animals are going to be shipped to …? Or, had a look at the animals being loaded on a truck …?
Not that I’m a vegetarian or vegan … but feeding is I think not stressful for animals … anywhere … 
Definitely not. If you’ve ever driven down the highway past the feedlots in central California you’d know they can be (and probably usually are) foul, nasty, disgusting places whose putrid stench can be smelled through closed windows from the road as one tries to quickly drive past.
I believe that some feedlots may be more humane, hospitable places, but I’m still pretty sceptical of the article. I haven’t read it closely enough (just skimmed it) to pinpoint any particular gripes, but I have trouble picturing a devoted vegan honestly, sincerely, without some unspoken ulterior motive praising a feedlot.
I like meat. But I don’t want to see how it was raised and brought to my table, because I know it’s generally pretty disgusting.
Definitely not. If you’ve ever driven down the highway past the feedlots in central California you’d know they can be (and probably usually are) foul, nasty, disgusting places whose putrid stench can be smelled through closed windows from the road as one tries to quickly drive past.
I believe that some feedlots may be more humane, hospitable places, but I’m still pretty sceptical of the article. I haven’t read it closely enough (just skimmed it) to pinpoint any particular gripes, but I have trouble picturing a devoted vegan honestly, sincerely, without some unspoken ulterior motive praising a feedlot. [/quote]
You’d need to read it a bit more closely. The first thing he talks about is being overwhelmed by the stench even from a great distance. It’s the main thing i remember too.
He doesn’t exactly praise it. It’s more like none of the vegan horror stories he’d heard about appeared to be true. And he doubts that organic beef would be better than the cattle he saw since their feed wasn’t all corn as he’d been led to believe.
And he’s not just a vegan but a nutritionist as well so he is a bit more sympathetic to the mainstream.