Mar 19, 2023 5 min read

Dear Readers: A couple of weeks ago, I almost spilled my coconut milk when I saw the Star Tribune article “Feedlot fight raises cries of bullying” by reporter Greg Stanley.

A feedlot dairy operation that seeks to expand — actually, it seeks to triple in size when it is already larger than the local county allows — is suing individual members of the nonprofit Land Stewardship Project, with which I have worked in the past. The group opposes the feedlot’s expansion.

Beef and dairy feedlot operations are well-documented sources of air contamination, water quality deterioration and water depletion, compounded by the land and water and agrichemicals used to produce the animals’ feed. This sector of industrial agriculture is recognized as a major contributing factor to climate change and should be immediately phased out with government support.

As a veterinarian, I was disappointed that the article made no mention of the cows’ health problems, overall welfare and quality of life in these factory-scale feedlot operations. Similar CAFOs — Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations — are used to raise billions of poultry and pigs in the U.S. and around the world, and these facilities are petri dishes for viral and bacterial disease proliferation. This is a public health issue as well as a serious environmental one, which could be easily solved with the adoption of humane, sustainable agricultural practices and new biotechnologies that can produce cultivated meat, dairy and seafood products.

Governments are in lockstep with the powerful agribusiness, livestock and poultry industries and their lobbyists, so the changes needed can only come through what I call the power of the fork and the plate: consumers choosing what they eat. It’s not what comes out of our mouths under the “freedom of speech” so much as what we put into them, and it can make a difference!

Nonetheless, we should all be grateful for the generations of good farmers who do their best for their animals and the land to put food on our tables and feed a hungry world. We should support them in adopting long-overdue changes to make agriculture and our food healthful, organic, humane, ecologically sustainable and socially just.

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Dear Dr. Fox: I am hoping to get Roundup banned due to the possible link between its use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in companion animals. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma claimed the life of my Australian cattle dog/mini Australian shepherd. Six months of expensive chemotherapy could not save her.

I hope to find better research into the effects of herbicides on animals. Any help would be appreciated! — S.T.S., Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dear S.T.S.: I am saddened to hear about the death of your dog from this cancer of the lymphatic system. Our exposure, and that of our dogs and other animals, comes from many sources.

I have complained in the past to the park service director where I live in Golden Valley, Minnesota, over the spraying of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. I was told they needed it to kill clumps of grass on the park’s playing fields because they might be sued if a child tripped and got injured! Then I complained about hired companies spraying glyphosate (Roundup) on corporate lawns and along the banks of waterways to control invasive “weeds,” including edible, nutritious sting nettles. This herbicide is very toxic to aquatic life. All of this is insanity, and the nickname “Monsatan” has some validity, since there have been concerns over this herbicide for decades.

When wild herbs and flowers are wiped out with herbicides, insect populations — including bees and other pollinators — are decimated, along with the amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals that depend on those insects for food.

For years, I have been raising the issue that contamination of our food and drinking water with herbicides would harm the bacteria in our guts, and that without a healthy gut microbiome, we and our companion animals alike would experience a variety of adverse health consequences. (For details, see these posts on my website: drfoxonehealth.com/post/companion-animals-harmed-by-pesticides and drfoxonehealth.com/post/genetically-modified-gmo-pet-food-ingredients-put-dogs-cats-and-other-consumers-at-risk.)

Below are some additional references on the subject. We must all support efforts to prohibit any further use of such agrichemicals, along with the growing of crops genetically engineered to be herbicide-resistant.

n “Where is glyphosate banned?” Link: wisnerbaum.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/where-is-glyphosate-banned

n “Our Pets (and Other Animals) at Risk From Glyphosate.” Link: gmoscience.org/2020/03/04/our_pets_at_risk_from_glyphosate

n “Glyphosate and Your Companion Pets.” Link: hemopet.org/glyphosate-your-companion-pets

Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns. Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.