America paying a steep price for cheap meat

Regarding “Fast-food industry’s vulnerable underbelly” (March 11):

It is so important that The Times print articles on problems that are occurring with our food supply. But in this case, with a subheadline that says that “illness from the germ is linked increasingly to fresh produce,” it sounds as if produce is a source of pathogenic E. coli. Last time I looked, lettuce did not have an intestinal tract.

I am not a vegetarian, but with gut-bacterial contamination of our food supply becoming such a big problem and meat producers responding by telling us we need to cook our bacteria more, there’s something wrong. The factory production of meat as it stands is unnecessarily risky to health.

If we are all content with “just a few” children dying a year so we can still buy 99-cent burgers, I guess that’s society’s choice.

Stephen Fischer

Los Angeles

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Although I applaud California Dairies Inc. for phasing out the synthetic bovine growth hormone that member farmers give to cows to boost production, I still can’t promote the idea of drinking milk in any form (“Dairy co-op to drop hormone,” March 8).

Besides the fact that dairy products produce cholesterol, which in turn causes heart disease, cow’s milk is meant for baby cows, not humans.

Dairy cows are continually being impregnated to produce milk, and then their babies are taken from them so that we humans can drink the milk they have been producing for these calves.

The male calves are imprisoned in veal crates, and the female calves are recycled back into the dairy industry. The whole scenario of the dairy industry is one of stress and misery for the animals.

And it is an industry producing a very unhealthy product for humans. I suggest that anyone interested in his or her health and the well-being of animals give up milk and dairy products altogether, and reach for soy products instead.

Laura Frisk

Encinitas