I just read the article in Gourmet - it might make you rethink Kobe beef:

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2007/12/kobe_beef_estabrook?currentPage=all

Traditional Japanese producers, Blackmore said, raise their 1,600-pound cattle in highly confined areas. “From the time they are a week old until they are three and a half years old, these steers are commonly kept in a lean-to behind someone’s house,” said Blackmore, “where they get bored and go off their feed. Their gut stops working. The best way to start their gut working again is to give them a bottle of beer.