After reading the diatribe titled, "Good reasons to avoid food from factory farms" by Ryan O'Reilly, I felt compelled to respond to the article. Saying he gleaned his information from a film series produced by PETA was my first clue that Mr. O'Reilly was ill-advised. PETA has a mission to put all meat producers out of business and is going to any extent to accomplish this goal. They selectively find a slight abuse and call it "cruel and inhumane torture" and refer to any meat production as "factory farming." An intelligent person knows they are exaggerating and misrepresenting the truth.
As a past president of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association and an active advocate of the beef industry in America today, I can assure Mr. O'Reilly and others questioning our production practices that the vast majority of beef produced in this country is safe and the consumer is buying a product that has been raised and processed in the most humane and environmentally appropriate way possible.
I am not castigating anyone who chooses to eat only organic products, but I am saying that just because a meat is not organic does not make it harmful.
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