Photo credit:
Paynt Ball, Flickr
Vegetarian? Vegan? Move along then. Nothing to see here. What follows is for the omnivores, the carnivores, the meatasaurians.
If you eat beef, you probably eat fast-food burgers and fries, like I do. Food from the feedlot direct to the front seat of my car. We should know better. Michael Pollan has a lot to say about factory farms and feedlots in his book Omnivore's Dilemma. Simply stated, the message is we shouldn't eat that crap. And we should be aware of conditions in the factory meat food chain, from the antibiotics and growth hormones to the cattle feed that contains cattle brains, from the inhumane feedlots with thousands of animals packed in and "fattening off," to the poorly inspected meat packing plants where rodent feces and insect parts are allowed to pass through and the solution to bacterial contamination of your raw hamburger is to "cook it well done."
Okay, that was gross, but mentioning an overcrowded feedlot is not half as gross as doing a drive-by. Take a road trip this summer and drive past any of the big CAFOs. Smell bad? It's an eye watering as well as eye opening experience. But there's hope.
Heather Dunham suggests a three pronged solution to our ethical and dietary dilemma:
- Buy small—avoid the worst practices of the factory farms by buying from a family farm.
- Buy local—at the local farmers' market you can talk with the people who raised the food you intend to eat.
- Buy grass-fed—grass-fed beef farmers in general are committed to not using use pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, or growth hormones. But, "grass-fed" is not a regulated term. Buying local can ease your mind about just how commited to ethical practices the farmer is.
Ask around. You'll find some grass-fed beef near you.
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Hey Frank! I recognize that cow. That's Peaches! She's 11 years old now and
still producing an excellent calf every year.
It's true that Grass fed is not a regulated term. Some have used it for cattle they purchase from a stocker, then send to the feed lot. Their excuse is well, they were grass fed at one time in their lives. Yea right. That doesn't help.
Not only is grass fed and pasture finished beef more flavorful than that corn fattened feed lot beef, but it has a much better Omega6/Omega3 fatty acid ratio, is much higher in folic acid, and in CLA (a potent anti carcinogen), and it's leaner. The animals are also healthier without grain fattening. Some studies suggest that any graining at all will destroy those good characteristics of the meat.
Some folk mistake "grass fed" beef for that tough old range cattle that used to hit the market.
However, one can indeed produce tender beef without grain. It just takes a bit of work. Instead of putting the critters out on poor pasture figuring you can make up for it finishing at the feed lot, grass fed animals need to be on a continuous growth curve. We aim for a minimum of 1.6 lbs average daily gain from birth to slaughter. The calves nurse til their Mom's decide to stop (usually at around 9-10 months) instead of being forcibly weaned at 4 -5 months. We do everything possible to reduce stress on the animals, happy cattle make tender beef. We also slaughter young and dry age the beef for 25-30 days - both contribute to tenderness.
Glad you posted this. So often folks hear about feedlots and think they have to throw the baby (beef) out with the bathwater (industrial agriculture) when there really is a better way.
Hmmm... I'm pretty sure it's Peaches. It's true that cows pretty much have the same face, but a closer look reveals the differences. :-)