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Why Grass-fed Beef is Better.
The real problems with the way food animals are raised today cannot be solved by modern science. There isn't a magic shot or pill that will overcome the negative aspects of confinement feeding. The abuses cows suffer in the major feedlots include:
• The widespread use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs
• A condition called subactute acidosis, which causes them to stop eating food, eat dirt instead and experience pain. Antibiotics are constantly used to fight this. This promotes the emergence of resistant bacteria which the antibiotics will not stop.
• Respiratory infections from breathing the ammonia rising from the urine saturated dirt.
• Lowered levels of the nutrients that make them better food including CLA, Vitamin-E, beta-carotine and omega-3 fatty acids.
The solution to these issues involves fewer cows on larger pastures. The large business interests don't like those numbers because they can't get the economies of scale they want. The fact that the products are less nutritious is ignored.
The benefits for grass-fed beef include:
• Longer useful life for dairy cattle
• It's lower in fat and calories
• It has 3 to 5 times the Conjugated Linoleic Acid of confinement cattle.
• It is higher in Vitamin E
• It is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids
• It is less stressful on the farmer.
• It lowers the chance of E.Coli problems at the slaughterhouse.
• It preserves the soil through less erosion and lowers the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
For details and scientific research see our friends at Eat Wild.
Why Grass-fed Beef is Better for You.
Here's a quick lesson in animal science that won't bore you.
Cows are ruminants. That means they are designed to eat mostly grass. They have a series of stomachs that contain the bacteria with which they have a symbiotic relationship. Been working great for 10,000 years.
In the late 1940's the U.S. government had a surplus of grain that they needed to use to keep the price from dropping too low. They convinced farmers to feed it to cows. Once the large hamburger chains got rolling there was a ready made market for what is now known as the "feed-lot cow".
Unfortunately, they forgot to tell the bacteria living in the cow's stomach. Too much grain leads to sick cows and E.Coli problems at slaughter. E.Coli in your meat comes directly from grain fed, poorly processed animals.
Grass-fed cows maintain healthy levels of the "good critters" and few, if any, E.Coli.
For details, see our friends at "Eat Wild".
