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Clark Colby, Grade 12, Polk County
Special Mention
Looking at a farm with thousands of cows all herded into corrals made me start to think about how un-natural a cow’s life really has become. Cows are born into an environment that humans have created. They live in pens consisting of mud surrounded by metal fencing. Daily, a farmer comes out and dumps grain into feed troughs. It is most likely a special grain that will grow cows that are larger and have more meat than a normal cow. After generations of living this way, I wonder what a cow really thinks life consists of. What they see in their lives and the lives of cows around them is mud, grain brought to them, and the disappearance of their cow friend Fredy down the shoot when he grew into a full size cow. Cows living a more natural life, per say, ones that actually get to graze on fields of grass should consider themselves lucky. They get to see more of the world than most cows know exist. With all this said, unfortunately for cows they landed in the wrong part of the food chain, creating a new breed of animal. A breed that knows nothing but life that would be about the same as someone growing up in a jail cell.