In order to calculate the ACTUAL COST of a hamburger we must include all of our ingredients AND the hidden costs……

Components Of Our Hamburger:

What is a hidden cost? A cost not typically thought to be associated with the purchase price.

Animals The beef cows that are raised for the purpose of being sold to a fast food chain are raised in CAFO’s. What is a CAFO? Concentrated Animal Feeing Operation: The sole purpose of such an operation is to have an animal gain the most amount of weight in the least amount of time. By current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency definitions, a large CAFO imports its feed and concentrates 1,000 cattle. They (CAFO cows) are fed a high-calorie grain-based diet (sometimes including reclaimed animal manure, ground-up fish, or recycled animal parts) designed to maximize growth and weight gain in the shortest amount of time. The ground beef used today for most fast food hamburgers originates from large slaughterhouses and grinder operations. Modern plants can process 800,000 pounds of hamburger meat a day, from many thousands of different cattle. A study done by R.P. Clayton and K.E. Belk in 1998 concluded that a single 4- ounce ground beef patty was made from, on average, at least 55 different animals to, at most, an average of 1082 animals.

Slaughterhouse Most CAFO beef are slaughtered at about 12 months of age. A farm raised grass fed beef would not reach slaughtering weight until months. The cost of shipping a cow to a slaughterhouse and the cost of killing the animal factor into the cost of our burger. Processing Processing meat includes butchering the cow into cuts of meat such as steak, roast, ribs, and meat for grinding into hamburger. Packaging Placing meat into packages to be shipped to stores and restaurants for consuming includes worker and machine costs.

Environment CAFOs do not effectively manage the enormous amounts of waste they produce. Manure is often handled, stored, and disposed of improperly, resulting in leakage, runoff, and spills of waste into surface and groundwater. This is a photo of fish killed by water pollution from CAFO manure. Food transportation has a significant environmental impact because of its propensity to increase the volume of greenhouse gas emissions. Once fuel is burned through the combustion process of an engine, it emits certain gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane into the air. These gases are among the major contributors to the greenhouse effect. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere thereby increasing the earth’s temperature. Some of these gases like methane and nitrous oxide stay in the atmosphere for years, which is also harmful to humans. Transportation

Health A diet consisting of fast food and products with high fructose corn syrup — including soda, another standard offering of fast food restaurants - has been blamed by nutritionists for contributing to rising rates of obesity and diabetes in the United States as well as other health problems, including heart disease. Along with the feed, the fattening of cattle is aided by anabolic steroids implanted in their ears. Dosing these animals with antibiotics is also widespread. Given the industrialization of cattle-raising, it should be no surprise that antibiotics are used. Nor should it be surprising that traces of those steroids and antibiotics can make their way into the fast food burger that you eat. With modern slaughterhouse, grinding, packing and distribution operations, there are many chances for contamination of the beef that is ultimately served in fast food restaurants. Click the link below to watch a video on Childhood Obesity Obesity in Children in America What does this cost? If Americans continue to pack on pounds, obesity will cost the USA about $344 billion in medical-related expenses by 2018.

Health

Human When using beef from CAFO farms, citizens ultimately foot the bill. Consider the hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, medical expenses, insurance premiums, declining property values, and mounting cleanup costs. Labor costs for the farmers, farmhands, slaughterhouse and packaging employees, distribution plant workers and transportation carriers also need to be factored in. We must also remember the cost of the employee making our hamburger too! Taxes A subsidy is a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive. These subsidies are funded directly from tax dollars. $261.9 billion in subsidies $167.3 billion in commodity subsidies. $39.2 billion in crop insurance subsidies. $35.0 billion in conservation subsidies. $20.5 billion in disaster subsidies.

What does a burger actually cost??

RESOURCES: Slide 1: cafo-operatorshttp://michiganradio.org/post/court-appeals-rules-against-michigan- cafo-operators white-background.html Slide 2: it.html Slide 4: Gourmet-Sesame-Seed-Kaiser-Hamburger-Bun-4-inch.htm hamburger-patty/ xinjiang.html

RESOURCES Slide 6: Slide 7: Slaughterhouse Photo: Processing Photo: market/ market/ Packaging Photo: Slide 8: Fish Kill Photo: clf.org transporting-food.html Slides 9& costs_N.htm

RESOURCES Slide 10 know-which-fast-food-restaurant.html Slide Slide 12: