The myth of grass-fed beef

It's only natural

Posted by Julia Olmstead (Guest Contributor) at 12:30 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Read more about: food | agriculture | sustainable ag

About twice a day, an email from a mystery man/unflagging anti-ethanol crusader named Ray Wallace appears in my inbox, chock full of excerpts from the latest ethanol slams and, on lucky days, choice quotes from politicos and the like sounding less-than-smart about the whole business. I'm not sure how I got on his listserv, and I can't quite say how you can (but if you'd really like to, let me know and we can probably work something out).

Anyhow (I'm getting to my point), I mention Ray so as to credit him for alerting me to this quote, contained in today's edition:

I'm a big believer in ethanol ... We're going to run into a constraint pretty soon, though. It turns out corn is needed for more than just ethanol. You got to feed your cows and feed your hogs.
-- From President George W. Bush's January 30, 2007 speech in East Peoria, Illinois.

The funny thing is, I'd always thought we feed corn to cows and pigs because it's dirt cheap and needing to be gotten rid of.

It's not the first time someone has attempted to correct me on this. A few months ago, I was strolling past the meat counter at our regional mid-sized grocery chain and thought, hey, I should ask for grass-fed beef, 'cause they'll only carry it if they perceive demand.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi, do you have any grass-fed beef?
Butcher: Hmm, grass-fed? I don't think you can feed grass to cows.
Me: Well, they're ruminant animals, so I think that's what they're supposed to eat.
Butcher: [sympathetic-but-authoritative head shake] I don't think so. They need vitamins and minerals and stuff.
Me: Uh ...
Butcher: Now this [points down at large, marbled slab in meat case], this is corn-fed beef.
Me: Yeah, well, um, thanks anyway.

So I don't know what those so-called grass-fed-beef farmers have been charging me an arm and a leg for, but with the president's backing, I'm going to call that bluff.

In the meantime, I'm relieved to know that the FDA allows farmers to feed chicken manure to cattle -- though I'll have to ask my butcher about the vitamin and mineral content.

For story: The myth of grass-fed beef
31 Comments | Post a Comment

Your butcher weren't none too bright

You have to wonder where all this grass is that will feed all of these cows, and if it is used to make cellulosic ethanol, then what? I think we need some radical new answers because there are three billion more on the way and with everyone using their new wealth to eat more meat, it is looking like the idea that people will spontaneously go vegan to save the planet might need a backup plan.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 12:44 PM on 01 Feb 2007

In France

Grass-fed beef (e.g., Charolais) earns a price premium, especially since the mad-cow scare of the 1990s.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 1:04 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Hilarious

I can just picture a cow wandering through a naturally occurring cornfield chomping on ears. Inexcusable incompetence.

by TariffDude at 1:54 PM on 01 Feb 2007

Cows and grass

Cows eating corn is one of the main causes of the e. coli outbreaks. Cows eating grass and hay have a basic digestive system, anything that can live there is easily killed by our acidic stomach. When cows are fed corn their digestive system becomes acidic, a perfect breeding ground for deadly pathogens.

by Ctsolarnow at 1:58 PM on 01 Feb 2007

No,ot the most impressive-sounding butcher ever...

...but if he traded places with the president, I somehow think things would start to go downhill rapidly in the meat department, and slowly and subtly change for the better in the White House. The new butcher-in-chief would probably declare war on those evil-doers over in produce.

Victual Reality

by Tom Philpott at 2:17 PM on 01 Feb 2007

misconceptions

It's a little disturbing coming from someone who's supposed to be an expert, but he's far from the only person whose ideas about cows are, um, not quite correct. When I was about ten, a friend tried to tell me only black and white cows gave milk. Having been around a few more animals than she had--no cows, but I'd had horses for years--I tried to explain to her that if a mammal didn't give milk, its babies would starve, and that brown cows are mammals just like black and white ones, but she was having none of it.

Of course, in that case it was funny, because of course we were just kids, whereas in this case it's sufficiently horrifying that I can't really find it funny (well, especially given the chicken-manure business).

by willa at 2:55 PM on 01 Feb 2007

The Ray Wallace E-mail

"I'm a big believer in ethanol.... We're going to run into a constraint
pretty soon, though. It turns out corn is needed for more than just
ethanol. You got to feed your cows and feed your hogs."

-- From President George W. Bush's January 30, 2007 speech in
East Peoria, Illinois, as posted at this White House site:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070130-...
- - -

Cows are ruminants, they are meant to eat grass....

Feeding corn and soy to cows results in a host of problems resulting in
the need to add daily doses of antibiotics to the feed to treat some of the
illnesses that occur. Things like liver abscesses are a common occurrence
among feedlot cattle....

Aside from inappropriate grain and soy, feedlot cows are also fed any
or all of the following (all allowed by the FDA) feather meal, pig and fish
protein, chicken manure and pesticide-laden citrus peels. To protect against
the spread of mad cow disease, since 1997 the Animal Feed Rule prohibits
adding most mammalian materials to ruminant feed. However, chicken litter
and restaurant scraps (which both can contain bovine proteins) are still
allowed and many calves are still fed bovine blood meal.

While they are being fed this concoction, designed to get them as heavy
as possible as quickly as possible, they are standing thigh deep in their
own waste creating an even bigger health problem After slaughter, these
cows are then hosed off using high pressure sprays, which, rather than clean
the manure off the meat, imbeds it deeper into the muscle.

And that is just cows. Pigs and chickens are treated even worse....

-- From "You are what you eat, eats," by Tanya Carwyn, at this
Jan. 18, 2007 site of The Cherry Creek News and Central Denver
Dispatch, Denver, Colorado:
http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/970/2/...
- - -

Broiler litter contains bedding material, manure, wasted feed and
feathers....

Adding broiler litter to beef cattle rations at a level of 20% or
higher ... generally meets the animal's needs for crude protein,
calcium, and phosphorus....

Cows may be wintered on a mixture of 89% litter.... Litter alone would
meet the protein and energy needs of wintering cows if they ate enough
of it....

If cows are to be fed litter during lactation, start cows on litter
rations before calving to ensure that intake is sufficient to meet
nutritional requirements. Some animals may refuse to eat an adequate
amount of broiler litter rations....

-- From "Guidelines for Feeding Broiler Litter to Beef Cattle" at
this North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service site:
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/...

- - -

The Delmarva Peninsula, comprising Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia on
the Chesapeake Bay, an area also known as the Eastern Shore, produces a
million tons of poultry manure a year, according to The Washington Post,
Oct. 3, 1997. This manure is called "litter" because it is the main thing
the birds bed in from the time they are born-a mixture of fecal droppings,
antibiotic residues, heavy metals, cysts, larvae, decaying carcasses,
sawdust, ground up chicken heads, USDA condemned slaughter products, and the
mammalian nervous system tissue responsible for Mad Cow Disease. Poultry
litter is used as crop fertilizer and is fed to cattle....

-- From "Md Gov. Glendening Goes Almost Vegetarian" at this summer
2001 site of United Poultry Concerns:
http://www.upc-online.org/summer2001/glendening_semi_veg....
- - -

"The litter feeding issue has been in the hands of the FDA since 2002,
but as of yet, they haven't called a halt to its use as cattle feed.
It's currently legal to feed litter to beef cattle...."

-- Robert Seay, Benton County staff chair for the University of
Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, as quoted at "In the
News - August 2006: Arkansas cattle producers looking at
emergency feed options," at this Aug. 25, 2006 site of the
University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, Cooperative
Extension Service:
http://www.uaex.edu/news/august2006/0825litr.htm

- - -
With many thanks to December McSherry, cattle rancher, farmer, Florida
Sierra Club Agriculture Committee chair, and National Sierra Club
Agriculture Committee member.

# # #

by Karen Orr at 4:43 PM on 01 Feb 2007

The cow and the grass

You make a good point, BioD, about the connection not only between cows and corn/ethanol, but also potentially between cows and grass/ethanol.

Raising cows on pasture is a beautiful thing [full disclosure: my grad work is in forage breeding and I once received a $300 award from the Alfalfa Improvement Association, no kidding]. You've got a deep-rooted, soil-stabilizing, perennial grass-legume mix, you've got the cows doing the fertilization, and you've got milk and meat that's lean and omega-3 rich.

Instead, we decided to slice this system apart into row crops and feedlots. As Wendell Berry said, "we took an old solution and neatly divided it into two problems."

Now, with cellulosic ethanol all the rage, we're talking about this great opportunity to diversify and perennialize the landscape, as if we had no idea until now how this could be done.

The poor cows -- I guess chicken poop will have to do.

Karen: thanks for posting Ray's full email.

by Julia Olmstead at 6:35 PM on 01 Feb 2007

A Good Read

If topics like this interest you, I would suggest reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma". It is extremely enlightening.

by JZH at 8:12 AM on 02 Feb 2007

"litter"

Thank you, Karen Orr, for submitting all that information. It is very illuminating.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:32 AM on 02 Feb 2007

How many of you have ever been to a cattle ranch?

It is amusing to see so many serious arguments from people with little to no firsthand information.

How many of you have ever been to a cattle ranch or fed cattle or talked to people who raise cattle? Eaten farm raised cattle? I'm not bragging, but I have. I've also asked lots of questions of people who raise cattle, not giant cattle corporations, just family farmers with 120 acres and 30+ head.

Yes, cows are ruminants and they eat grass. rolls eyes

When you select a calf to fatten for slaughter, you put them in a feed lot (with at least one other calf so they compete and eat more) to restrict calorie burn. They eat and do little exercise and get fat and tender. Fat and tender = tasty.

Corn is fed to calves (males and females) to fatten them before slaughter. Why? Beef tastes bad without the fat marbleing which produces tasty juiciness when cooked. Grass-fed beef lacks this high fat content and is consequently rather tough and unappealing.

by synarchy at 1:48 PM on 07 Feb 2007

Grass fed beef tastes great!

I'd like to correct a small error in the post
by synarchy. We purchase and eat a quarter
of a grass-fed steer each year. It's tender
and tastes great! I'd agree that extra fat is
one way to make meat tender, but it is not the
only way. Our Diamond F local beef is selected
for tenderness, and the steers are never fattened
on grain. This makes them much better for the
environment, health, and local agriculture. I
am pretty sure you can order the meat online,
just search for it.
Cheers,
Susanna

by sjg at 3:03 PM on 07 Feb 2007
[ Parent ]

Grass fed bison

Under the giant wind machines.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/2/9/1 ...

And restored prairie sequesters CO2. And provides biomass for energy production. And direct cooling through transpiration.

Commercial bison hunting instead of grazing cattle then contaminating the meat in feedlots.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 3:38 PM on 07 Feb 2007

Plant a carrot. Eat a carrot.

Plant a carrot. Eat a carrot. Repeat as necessary.

Am I missing something, or are vegetables just simpler?

by pauldwaite at 2:09 AM on 08 Feb 2007

Corn is economic cattle "optimisation"

The best tasting animal flesh comes from active animals living their (evolved) normal lifestyles. The best tasting beef is wide-ranging beef on dry-ish grasslands -- cattle that have to move long distances to eat. This is why Argentinian and Australian beef tastes so much better than most other countries' beef, and, due to the extra nutrients in the meat (similar to game), why you feel so much fuller so much more quickly eating these countries' beef.

Corn makes cattle fat, fast. Size, not quality. It's useful for force-farmers for the same reason hormones and antibiotics are useful -- they get a much bigger animal much more quickly.

Corn is not fed to cattle because it's surplus. Corn is grown in the current quantities because it meets a demand.

Interestingly, corn has about the same effect on humans as eating the same weight of sugar. Sugar has the same effect on human palates as high-nutrition foods. Tellingly, corn syrup (tastes like sugar) is now endemic in most "modern" commercial food preparations.

From a fuel perspective, even if ALL the corn production of ALL the Americas was devoted to fuel, it would not make much of a dent on even the USA's fuel needs. Ethanol from corn is not a viable oil replacement.

And the pseudo-vegetarians' argument that cattle take up too much land relative to plants rests absolutely on a false assumption: that humans can gain the same nutrition from the soil and the plants that herbivores can. Only in very rich soils can vegetarianism come within a bull's roar (sorry) nutritionally of the effectiveness of inserting a third party pre-digestion step: herbivores. Cattle are typically run on "waste" land -- too poor quality soil for farming plants to be viable.

by Saltation at 8:20 AM on 09 Feb 2007

yeah, "waste" land is great pasture

"Waste" land, as you put it, is almost all pretty fragile, so whatever beef you can raise by overgrazing it is almost certainly not worth the environmental impact.

by willa at 8:37 AM on 09 Feb 2007

Northern plains

Are becoming a drought stricken, chemical farming destroyed, potential dust bowl. Even grazing in many areas is impossible without irrigation.

But natural prairie would rescue that land and soil. And bison would produce more meat than cows ever did.

The wind energy produced, backed up by biogas used in fuel cells, could be a stable source of power that would not need any other storage or backup. A hybrid energy source to replace fossil and nuclear power generation. And also sequester cO2.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 9:06 AM on 09 Feb 2007

maybe your butcher doesn't get out much?

I'm afraid your butcher was right: cows need vitamins and minerals. Grass, as we all know, is that green plastic material covering the racks in the produce department: no nutrients there. And cows are hunks of exposed fat and muscle naturally wrapped in cellophane.

by palinode at 2:15 PM on 12 Feb 2007

Grass is FREE and the best thing for beef and lamb

Enjoyed reading from all of the others! To the person who believes that grass fed beef is tough "Grass-fed beef lacks this high fat content and is consequently rather tough and unappealing."
They haven't tried the meat or possibly did not cook it properly. Because grass fed meat is leaner and thus much healthier for you it also cooks up to 40% faster that its grain fed counterparts! ( You also lose the huge amounts of grease that is then left in your pan after you are done cooking it!!) We raise grass fed and finished beef and lamb on our ranch and will NOT eat anything else.

Kassandra Barton www.eightoclockranch.com

by eightoclockranch at 10:10 AM on 28 Feb 2007

We eat nothing but

In Australia just about all our beef is grass fed. ALL the dairy is too. We supplement dairy with manufactured food but they eat grass constantly and it's 95% of their diet.
For beef it's 100%.

Guess we just have plenty of land - it's cheaper to just let them feed themselves than to truck in anything to give to them.

We do 'grain fed' beef too, but that's more expensive and uncommon.

by muirnin at 3:46 PM on 07 Mar 2007

Is beef healthy food?

Is beef considered to be healthy food? Is eating beef really bad for you? It is pretty easy to get confused, and we women are especially vulnerable, because we want to be healthy and look good. Find the truth in this article.

by Fabulous2007 at 3:40 AM on 05 Jul 2007

meat sellers

That guy sounds rather like one of my local meat guys. Get this: the guy works in a health food store, and yet he says he won't sell grass-fed beef because "the flavor's just not there". Excuse me, but isn't this supposed to be a HEALTH food store? Some people just shouldn't be in the business they're in.

by LindaVee at 11:38 AM on 23 Sep 2007

Aussie grass-fed

How do you manage it? Is there lots of rain in some parts of Australia? All we ever hear about is the dry outback. :-)

by LindaVee at 11:40 AM on 23 Sep 2007
[ Parent ]

Re: Your butcher weren't none too bright

biodiversivist:

There will never be an additional 3 billion people if we don't manage to increase food production enough to feed them--people are made from food, after all. I suspect--and hope--we won't be able to increase food production enough for even another 1 billion people, but we'll see what happens.

"You can never get enough of what you do not really want." - Huston Smith

by John Fish Kurmann at 7:55 PM on 23 Sep 2007
[ Parent ]

Grassfed beef...

...has a healthier fat composition than grainfed beef.

"You can never get enough of what you do not really want." - Huston Smith

by John Fish Kurmann at 8:05 PM on 23 Sep 2007

How many of you have ever been to a cattle ranch?

Dear Synarchy, I have not only been to a "cattle ranch", but I also live on one! Yes, a real live farmer/cowgirl. And, for your information, beef does not "need" to be "fattened up" prior to slaughter. We never(emphasis on NEVER) have fed or feed our cows grain/corn/silage. Why?Because cows, by nature, are designed to be grazers and eat grass, not grain. When cows are fed grain, they become ill. Operations that feed their cows grain must employ veterinarians to keep the cows from dying. Our cows do not get sick. (We feed them sea kelp and redmond salt for minerals.) We have a closed herd and do not buy or sell any live animals. The beef from our bulls is well marbeled and many of the 5 star restaurants in Chicago currently purchase beef from us for their restaurants. Also, we sell directly to consumers who are aware of the dangers of eating beef from conventionally raised cattle and wouldn't touch the grain fed beef that is for sale at most groceries. Neither would I.

by ckturja at 10:14 AM on 16 Mar 2008
[ Parent ]

Bravo ckturja!

Is it even worth trying to get the culture to accept quality as a measure of food desirability anymore? I think only small, local and specialty markets like you serve can appreciate quality.

Local islands of really free markets that operate and compete on the basis of taste and health. In a sea of monpolized corporate "free" markets.

Could a network of cooperative farm markets that spread this quaiklty based free trade into a wider scale, maintain it's inmtegrity? Doubtfull, look what is happening with organic dairying. Soon after a corporation markets the product, farmers are squeezed out and go broke.

Thanks for your comment, hope you keep weighing in on these issues. Do you have any experience with wind, solar, and biogas energy production to boost farm income?

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 11:13 AM on 16 Mar 2008

Corn Ethanol Not The Answer

II have a degree is environmental science and animal science so when I first heard of corn ethanol I immediately did my research. I recently went to a seminar about corn ethanol. I went in not liking the idea of corn ethanol and came out with the same feelings.

All I know is I'm paying $4.30 for a gallon of milk and I used to get it for a $1.99. And it's because of corn ethanol. Same goes for eggs, butter, etc.

Corn ethanol is a temporary solution that's costing us. We should put our money into a permanent solution.

Biodiesel is the answer. Convert diesel cars to be able to use biodiesel. Buy the equipment necessary to do the conversion and go to your local McDonald's and take their buckets of grease off their hands. They have to pay to get rid of it anyway so if you'll take it for free, they are glad to hand it over. There you go. There are costs in the beginning, but it pays off, and you're saving the environment. I currently drive a prius that some French guy that came to the states practically gave to me because he realized he had no use for it in New York City (ya think?). I never would have been able to afford one otherwise. But as soon as I get the money I plan on getting an old pick-up diesel truck and converting it.

As for the cows...Out west they have droughts and whatnot, it's difficult to keep cattle just on grass, because they do need to save it for their harsh winters. So their diets need to be supplemented with corn, and soymeal and whatnot. Also because it is a business and prime meat is best before these animals are two, it makes sense to fatten them up. It costs money to keep these animals much past that. These farmers need to make money somehow. Not to say I support what they do. I personally don't consume beef. In other countries they do rely on grass and it works (New Zealand). But they also don't have the weird appetites that Americans have. Americans like their fat and corn gets them that nice marbled beef. If we would stop these need for fat and eat healthier, then we wouldn't feet our cows corn.

All in all, corn ethanol is a bad idea. You are misinformed if you think it's the answer.

by gogreen10 at 5:38 PM on 07 Apr 2008

My Comment

I apologize for all the spelling errors; I didn't paste the corrected one I typed up. I don't know how to delete it and re-post it though. Ooops, sorry.

by gogreen10 at 6:25 PM on 07 Apr 2008
[ Parent ]

My cow

When I was in a large animals occupation program we fed our cows alfalfa and a grain mixture resembling granola. We did not feed our cows corn or grass. I've talked to some of my friends from Central Valley in California, and it's pretty well confirmed that grass does not have the nutritional value to sustain a cow. I think the meat producers that are claiming grass fed are more likely talking about pastured cows, cows that are allowed to run around in a field and eat whatever they want. Generally these cows eat a mixture of clover, grasses, alfalfa, and other edible plants, giving them wide variety of diet. They tend to be healthier and live longer lives than corn fed cows kept indoors, but corn fed cattle are bigger and produce more milk. Also there's a chance that your cow will get mad cow disease if it is pastured in an area where another mad cow died, so don't eat British beef, or Canadian.

by Diff at 10:59 AM on 12 Apr 2008

Americans aren't interested in the Environment

Sadly most Americans, and people in general are not interested in wether or not the animal is healthy. It's all about the taste. Natural animals fed on natures buffet usually tastes stronger, like venison. Most people prefer bland tastes anyway. If only people were more focused on the health of both the animal and themselves then perhaps we could return to natural grazing which would help balance things.

by motherswhistler at 5:37 PM on 01 May 2008
[ Parent ]

ADVERTISING POLICY

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