Tag Archives: beef

Beef: Grass-fed versus Grain-fed

Kim Cross writes in Cooking Light about Grass-Fed Beef versus Grain-Fed Beef:
Could a grass-fed cut, with its lower-fat content, rival a grain-fed cut? Yes: It was succulent, buttery, and robust, with a perfectly caramelized crust. The juices formed a simple, rich sauce.
Well, I guess if you’re used to the taste of CAFO beef. To me, who was raised on beef from cows in the field, grass-fed beef tastes like beef, and CAFO beef tastes like cardboard.

Is it better for you?

Grass-fed beef is lower in calories, contains more healthy omega-3 fats, more vitamins A and E, higher levels of antioxidants, and up to seven times the beta-carotene.
Does it cost more? Yes, but in my experience I don’t need to eat a lot of it to feel full and get the taste. Your experience may vary.

Perhaps the most interesting part is that this article is in a mass-market magazine. Which also gives tips on how to source your own local grass-fed beef. And has a facebook page.

Or come to Valdosta Farm Days and get your local beef there.

-jsq

PS: This post owed to Lindsey.

Beta Agonists and Bovine Growth Hormone

Martha Rosenberg writes in CounterPunch, If You Liked Bovine Growth Hormone, You’ll Love Beta Agonists:
As much as twenty percent of Paylean, given to pigs for their last 28 days, Optaflexx, given to cattle their last 28 to 42 days and Tomax, given to turkeys their last 7 to 14 days, remains in consumer meat says author and well known veterinarian Michael W. Fox.

Though banned in Europe, Taiwan and China–more than 1,700 people were “poisoned” from eating Paylean-fed pigs since 1998 says the Sichuan Pork Trade Chamber of Commerce– ractopamine is used in 45 percent of US pigs and 30 percent of ration-fed cattle says Elanco Animal Health which manufactures all three products.

What effects could these drugs have?

According to Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, the “indiscriminant use of Paylean (ractopamine) has contributed to an increase in downer non-ambulatory pigs,” and pigs that “are extremely difficult to move and drive.” In Holsteins, ractopamine is known for causing hoof problems, says Grandin and feedlot managers report the “outer shell of the hoof fell off” on a related beta agonist drug, zilpateral.

A article in the 2003 Journal of Animal Science confirms that “ractopamine does affect the behavior, heart rate and catecholamine profile of finishing pigs and making them more difficult to handle and potentially more susceptible to handling and transport stress.”

Surely such animal drugs would have no effects on human? Well, except they’re used to treat children for asthma. Not the sort of thing you really want in the food and water supply.

Rosenberg asks how did this happen, and points out the answer: massive lobbying by big agribusiness.

The FDA’s approval of a drug for food that requires impervious gloves and a mask just to handle is reminiscent of the bovine growth hormone debacle.

And in that debacle, Monsanto didn’t just lobby the FDA, it lobbied the press, including making Fox rewrite a story 80 times.