Mad cow disease and deaths from e coli tainted burgers have helped raise the issue of meat safety in the minds of American consumers. More consumers are also now aware that most commercially raised meat animals are given growth hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals.
But these issues don’t have to push you into becoming a vegetarian. A fast-growing alternative is pasture-raised, or grass-fed, meats, raised the natural, old-fashioned way, by small family farm operations. Not only does meat raised this way avoid the problems listed above, but it’s also more nutritious than meat raised in our society’s factory farm system.
Jo Robinson, a freelance writer specializing in health and nutrition, started researching the nutritional benefits of grass-fed meats in the late 19990s and is now a leading spokesperson for pasture-raised meat. She discovered about 100 studies showing that products from grass-fed animals are better for human health.
“When this information was added to the fact that grass-based farming is better for the animals, the environment, and family farmers, it was a win-win-win-proposition,” she writes in the preface to her new book, Pasture Perfect.
“One of the essential underpinnings of our factory farm system is the belief that our livestock can be fed anything that is cheap and available without changing the food on the table,” Robinson writes. This results in animals being fattened on unsavory feedstuffs such as aerobically digested municipal garbage, stale chewing gum and newsprint.
But the worst problem, Robinson claims, is the fact that animals that are fattened on grain in the commercial farm system have more fat and calories, fewer “good fats,” and fewer vitamins.
Products from feedlot animals can have as much as three times more fat than animals raised on pasture. Most grass-fed meat is so lean that it has about the same amount of fat as wild game or a skinless chicken breast, Robinson writes. A 6-ounce beef loin from a grass-fed cow may have 92 fewer calories than one from a grain-fed cow, according to Robinson.
“When you raise a natural product, it’s naturally lean,” says Charles Ritch, who sells pasture-raised meats from his family farm in Hartselle in north Alabama. “These guys have to work for a living out there -- the food doesn’t just run by them in a tray.”
Not only does grass-fed meat have less fat, the fat is does have is better for you, say proponents. Meat, dairy products, and eggs from grass-fed animals offer more omega-3 fatty acids. A lack of Omega-3s has been linked to a laundry list of health problems, including cancer, depression, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.
Buy your food from a grass-based producer, and it will contain two to 10 times more omega-3 fatty acids than food from the grocery store. Why? Omega-3 fatty acids originate in green plans, Robinson explains. Grass is an especially rich source of omega-3s, so animals that graze on grass have more omega-3s in their meat, eggs and dairy products.
Grass-fed beef, lamb, goat, deer or elk are also a better source of a recently discovered “good fat” called conjugated Linoleic Acid, or CLA. Although so far it research has been limited to animals, CLA shows promise in helping fight cancer and cardiovascular disease. When animals are raised exclusively on grass, their meat and dairy -products offer two to five times more CLA than animals raised on large amounts of grain.
Animals raised on pasture also have a bonus supply of vitamins A, E, folic acid and beta-carotene.
And you can’t help but feel that the healthier the animal, the better the meat must be for you.
“You don’t want to eat meat from sick animals,” Ritch says. “That is exactly what is happening in conventional factory farming. They use antibiotics and drugs to keep the animals alive long enough to get it to your table.”
Ritch uses chickens as an example to describe the unhealthy growing conditions of factory-farm meats. “If you were to live in the environment a typical chicken lived in, it would be equivalent to you and 30 of your close friends locked in your living room for four or five weeks. Your food would be brought to you and you would do all your personal hygiene right there on the floor.”
Because grass-fed meat is an unregulated product, buying meat labeled “grass-fed” could mean a number of things. One farmer might feed his cattle 95 percent grass and 5 percent grain and hay. Another producer could feed 70 percent forage and 30 percent grain and still call his beef "grass-fed.” And "grass-fed" does not necessarily mean "organic." The best way to be sure of what you’re getting is to have a relationship with the producer. Ask about their farming practices.
“My typical customer is very knowledgeable about food and meats,” says Charles Ritch, “and they ask very pertinent questions. I encourage my customers to visit the farm. You’re welcome to come any time and witness what we do here -- even when we’re processing. Try to go into a chicken plant and see how far you get.”
-Grow Alabama
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