‘Cows Eat Grass’ and Other Inflammatory Statements
January 18th, 2011Via: Utne Reader:
Cows eat grass. You wouldn’t think it’s a big deal to state this, but at Iowa State University a highly qualified job applicant who had the temerity to voice this simple biological fact was ejected from consideration for a post leading a sustainable agriculture program, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:
Among those who study sustainability, saying cows should eat grass is not a controversial statement. But saying so in Iowa—which grows more corn than any other state—is likely to attract attention.
Well, it sure did. Ricardo Salvador is a well-respected sustainable agriculture expert and a former professor at Iowa State—and a natural, many observers thought, to lead the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture as its new director. A finalist for the position, however, he didn’t get the post even when the top candidate turned it down. Apparently, his cow comment came back to haunt him:
The remark that may have sunk Mr. Salvador’s candidacy came 37 minutes into his on-campus presentation. While discussing a research project in New York State, he mentioned meat being “produced in the natural way that meat should be produced, which is on land suitable for grasses and perennial crops.”
If this were a TV game show, a loud buzzer would have gone off and Mr. Salvador would have been escorted from the stage that very moment. Because apparently he was supposed to say that cows should eat corn. Even if that’s not natural or sustainable, it’s simply how things are done in Iowa, a state built on big agriculture…
…
The danger of the truth is so great that the Chronicle couldn’t even get Wendy Wintersteen, the dean of Iowa State’s agriculture school, to go anywhere near it. When asked whether cows evolved to eat grass, she replied, “I don’t have an opinion on that statement.”
Research Credit: IL
Err cows lived in the forest and are browsers more than grazers…
They prefer to eat leaves and twigs over grass + leaves have a wider range of flavours. 🙂
I remember reading a quote once that went something like:
“A man can not be expected to believe something, if his job depends on him not believing it.”
I forget who said it, but I think it explains how many of the otherwise decent and/or intelligent people in various positions of power can express such obviously insane opinions in public. Hell, it explains how most people are able to live the obviously insane lifestyles that they do. We will delude ourselves into oblivion.
– Mike Lorenz