From the "what will they think of next" category, you have to read this link that Liz found.  Evidently researchers have found that they can meet a cow's need for roughage by inserting pot scrubbers into a cow's rumen.  Yep, pot scrubbers.  Supposedly it can save rancher's up to $50 per cow without causing any damage to the cow.  Great!

No doubt farmers and ranchers will blindly jump on board the band wagon of this state-of-the-art solution to industrially producing the most economical and efficient beef patty known to man.   But just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should do something.  Once again that point will be missed.

I wonder if the person who developed this solution gave any consideration to how the cow feels about this?  When did cows stop being live animals and start becoming science experiments. Probably when we took them off their natural diet (grass) and taught them to eat grain in our industrial food machine.

If you want your cows to have roughage, turn them loose on pasture.  They know what to do.

I mean, really!