A lot, and most of it isn't good.
From Convenience vs. ethics in food choices by Megan Nix at the Denver Post:
Three-quarters of the nation's antibiotics go straight to CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). Recently, the USDA's Agricultural Resource Service engineered a vaccine for sick, shipped cows, licensing it to pharmaceutical giant Schering- Plough. We now have two powerhouses feeding off each other and feeding us problems. All these pills and bills seem to be small bandages over our festering food wound.
...Grass-fed animals (the kind you can find on small farms, in the deli if you ask for it, or in the wild, where it still exists) are higher in all kinds of goodnesses: omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid, Vitamin A. They are lower in fat, cholesterol and calories. The risk of E. coli is nearly nil. According to the American Grassfed Association, if a person switched from their average 66.5 pound consumption of feedlot beef to a grass-fed diet, they would reduce their yearly calories by 17,733.
The list goes on. The lesson is that when meat quality slides, it brings morality — the producers', the buyers', the quality controllers' — down with it. To eat well should not mean to live a privileged life. The FDA needs to make it easier for people who don't sustainably farm, hunt or fish to purchase from those who can.
For now, the solutions are to ask before you eat, to write to your representative and tell him that the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 2749) makes little mention of factory farms or school lunches and should.
This story is part of an ongoing series at the Denver Post. The link will take you to the complete article, as well as links to the other stories.
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