Old newspapers could be used as food for cattle

I was born and raised on a farm in rural are of Deland, Fla., just 20 minutes inland of Daytona Beach. I can remember about 16 years ago sitting down at the dinner table watching the news with my family.

You see dinner was always served at six o’clock, just after finishing the usual farm chores and just before homework. There was only conversation between commercials. My dad took the news very serious.

I remember one night a story that came on that featured a small farm in London that was recycling the town’s old newspapers using cows. You see newspaper is simply ground cellulose material, with makes excellent roughage for cows, and the ink is made of vegetable oil.

My dad looked at me, and I looked at the pile of newspaper for recycling at the door that I was to put out before morning. I didn’t even have to ask. Soon after dinner I ran out and the cows began recycling.

A few weeks had passed, when one day our news deliverer noticed me feeding the cows their daily news. He in return had told one of the reports, and a reporter came out and did a story on it.

In the research of his story he did confirm that the cows were in no harm of their consumption, and was in fact an excellent source of roughage.

So the next day, there stood one of my cows on the front page with the news journal’s name clearly visible in her mouth.

To get to my point, I’ve become increasingly concerned with the amount of old newspapers. The New York Times and The Pacer are stacked up in classrooms in Gooch as well in classrooms in Humanities. Who ever made the deal with the Times, needs to shorten the order and spend our money wiser. My suggestion is instead of sending these ridiculous accumulations of newspapers to the dump to rot and become a landfill, is to let the cows eat. I’m sure the goat would like a try too.

R.B. Kaiser Special Education Deland, Fla.