The Evolution of a Bad System: Vaccinating Cows Against E. Coli

"It seems like every challenge we face now has an 'easy' technological silver bullet that will spare us sacrifice or even change," writes Tom Laskawy in an article in Grist titled "Save us, [insert techno-fix here], you’re our only hope!" Truer words were never spoken. He gives the ready-at-hand examples of GMOs to end global hunger, pills to fight obesity, cellulosic ethanol to cure our dependence on foreign oil.

Now there's a new one on the horizon: immunizations to stop our meat becoming contaminated with E. Coli bacteria. You thought irradiating our meat was bad? You thought putting cows on antibiotics was bad? Now the New York Times reports that a test is underway to see if immunizing cows against certain strains of E. Coli could eliminate the danger of tainted meat poisoning consumers. The article reports that many researchers are confident that these vaccines have the ability to cut the number of bacteria-infested animals by 65 to 75 percent.

While I'm all for not poisoning consumers with tainted, crappy meat, I'd prefer that we move toward that in a different way. Like, for instance, not keeping cows in such putrid conditions in the first place. Does anyone else worry that a vaccination will give producers a blank check to disregard the conditions of their livestock even more than they already do? Not only that, but who is going to be stuck with the costs of this new silver bullet? I'm willing to bet it will be the guys on the bottom of the totem pole - the farmers who already operate on tight margins.

We need to stop shooting silver bullets and go back to flinging clods of Earth.

Photo courtesy of JelleS via flickr