Farmers Feed Cows Skittles as “Cheap Carbs”

Last week, residents found hundreds of thousands of unmarked red Skittles scattered along a highway in Dodge County, Wisconsin. The local sheriff’s department investigated the source of the candy and linked them to a truck headed for a cattle feedlot. “There’s no little ‘s’ on them, but you can definitely smell … a distinct Skittles smell,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt stated. An area farmer revealed that it is common practice to feed cows rejected candy as a source of “cheap carbs.” Ki Fanning, a nutritionist at Great Plains Livestock Consulting says feeding candy to fatten cows is a matter of money. “[It] is a very good way for producers to reduce feed cost and to provide less expensive food for consumers,” he explains. Cows are already fed a diet that is not natural to the animal, consisting of cheap crops such as corn and soy. This incident is further proof that basic animal welfare in animal agriculture is ignored for the sake of increasing profit margins.