My “Beef” with Conventional Beef – Meet Your Meat

It’s already well-known that the modern industrialized food system is full of flaws and health concerns… Let’s Meet our Meat.

By becoming aware of what we are being offered to put on our tables, we are able to make wise choices and vote with our dollars. By avoiding production that comes from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, we can choose to support our local farmers who provide us with fresh ingredients by following traditional, local, and sustainable farm models which respect the laws of nature by maintaining the relationships between animals, plants, their nourishment, their habitats and GMO-free ecosystems. (The way food was grown, raised, and distributed successfully by our ancestors for centuries–nothing new here, folks.)

Conventional Beef

In an effort to keep this light, I won’t go over too many of the dirty details (which I encourage everyone to research.)
Unless otherwise clearly labeled or stated, the majority of the beef on today’s market comes from cows which are grain-fed / grain-finished (most of which are GMO grains) who spend the last months of their lives with thousands of other cows on feedlots that provide cheap corn and soybeans among other “things” (i.e. antibiotics, chemicals) as the cow’s “nourishment.” A very important thing to note here is that this meat contains high amounts of Omega-6 as opposed to the more essential Omega-3. Studies have shown that if the ratio of Omega 6 fats to Omega 3 fats exceeds 4:1, people are at a risk to develop health problems. To put things in perspective, conventional grain-fed beef can have ratios that exceed 20:1 whereby grass-fed beef is at a much lower, and ideal recommended ratio of 3:1.

Artist Mishka Henner recently gave us an aerial view of these feedlots in his recent work. (Yes, unfortunately those vibrant green hues are waste lagoons, not exactly lively green pastures, eh?)

All-Natural

The “All-Natural” claim does not necessarily cover the way which an animal is raised – rather it refers to the way the meat is handled postmortem. So, food may be called and labeled “All-Natural” so long as it is free from added color, synthetic substances, or artificial flavors regardless off how it was raised. Basically, those feedlots we just went over – the ones known to have GMO feed and antibiotic-treated cows, produce these “All-Natural” foods.

Antibiotic-Free, Artificial Growth Hormone-Free

Conventional cows often get treated with artificial growth hormones as well as antibiotics, not only to fight infection due to the confined living spaces, but also to promote unhealthy weight gain in an effort to gain more “profit.” This widespread abuse of antibiotics in our food supply even contributes to widespread antibiotic-resistant strains and diseases. Europe is well-aware of these dangers; in 2006 they banned the use of antibiotic growth promoters within animal feed. Artificial hormones and sub-therapeutic antibiotics is used in nearly all beef in todays conventional agriculture market – if this resonates with you, voice your concern here.

Certified Organic

The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) regulates the organic beef production. The NOP protocols state that animals must be raised on “pastures with daily grazing throughout the grazing season(s)” However, the regulations also state that “yards, feeding pads, and feedlots,” may be used for “ruminant slaughter stock.” as long as the feedlot feeding period does not exceed one-fifth of the animal’s life or 120-days (whichever is shorter.) The thing to note here is that a vast majority of the aforementioned conventional non-organic feedlots do not keep their animals on the feedlots for longer than the 120-day timeframe either…

So, “Certified Organic” does not allow the use of the artificial hormones or antibiotics which–in essence, is one less worry.

Grass-Fed / Grass-Finished

Grass – living, breathing, purifying and abundant. The grasses (or graminoids, to be technically correct) that sustainably-raised cows graze on are made up of a variety of different plants and grass families, some of which may be referred to “True Grasses,” i.e. sedges (grassland, wild marsh, flowering  plants, water chestnut, papyrus, bamboo), rushes (rhizomatic – i.e. root, and herbaceous plants), as well as any shrubs, leaves, or clovers that may be surrounding their pastures.

Grass-fed products are a rich resource of healthy fats (i.e. Omega-3s) at the ideal ratios, as opposed to the aforementioned grain-fed cows, which have a much higher ratio of Omega-6 known to contribute to health complications and disease. (For a more comprehensive overview of these types of fats with references to the clinical literature, go here.)

These free-roaming grass-grazing guys are much healthier and are a tremendous resource of micronutrients. Not only does grass-fed meat contain many trace minerals such as calcium, selenium, and magnesium,  it also contains significantly higher amount of B Vitamins, beta-carotene, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K thanks to their nutritious diets and freedom to roam free in the outdoors. These cows also have a much higher level of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) which are the good, naturally-occurring, healthy trans fats we want!

Given the choices we have, being mindful of our food, where it comes from, and what it’s made up of (i.e. our food’s food,) is important for our health and our environment.  By supporting traditional, local, and sustainable farm models and getting to really know our farmers, we are defeating  conventional factory farms that produce unsafe meat from inhumanely-raised animals.

If you do not have access to a local farm, there are still many resources that supply good-quality grass-fed meat nationwide a few I’ve come across are as follows:

Primal Pastures
Slanker’s Grass-Fed Meats
Tendergrass Farms
U.S. Wellness

The folks at Slanker’s not only have excellent product, their customer service is great, and they are extremely knowledgable. (I dealt with them recently when I ordered my Pop 26-pounds worth of delicious, nutrient-dense, grass-fed birthday presents!)

Although I have yet to try the other recommendations due to the large availability of grass-fed beef in Los Angeles, I have heard a countless number of good things about them within different ethical meat-eating communities and have recently started researching different resources to weigh out our options.

…And on that sustainable agriculture note, I’ll leave you with a few other resources to learn more about how to find local farms and harvest in your area;

EatWild.com
EatWellGuide.org
FoodRoutes.org
LocalHarvest.org

Feel free to share any additional resources you may have, and–most importantly, share this information with loved ones!

Yours Truly – Sustainable Foodie,