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Meat eaters are taking some flak these days. Leaders of the green movement have pointed angry fingers at the gruesome details incorporated with the production of beef. Documentaries such as Food Inc. and Super Size Me have underlined our country’s oblivious effort at “eating” mother Earth to death, spreading some light to the ignorant. Although there haven’t been riots, yet, the strong words are right – one fifth of human greenhouse gasses are emitted by the beef industry. The fuel used to produce their feed, the animal’s methane release, and the deforestation caused for land all rank amidst the top catalysts of global warming.
But there is a kind of beef that will satisfy the stomach of even the most maniacal tree hugger. We’re not talking tofurkey or that fecal looking excuse your hippy aunt will bring out at reunions, we’re talking all-American, grade A, ranch raised Beef – cows raised out on the open range, grazing on the fresh grass. While it seems old school, progression is not always gleaming with neon lights and touch screens.
The concept of grass fed beef is quite simple: the cows roam; they eat grass and they continually seek out newer, greener pastures. As a former, natural member to the great-plains eco-system, the cows actually cultivate the land, fertilizing the grass with their waste as they roam. While they continue through the prairies and fields, the grass behind them grows back, sucking up carbon from the atmosphere. There are different techniques certain farmers use in order to maintain the freshest grass and healthiest cows, but overall, the results are inspiring for beef eaters: meat from grass-fed animals requires only one calorie of fossil fuel to produce two calories of food, where as grain and vegetable crops require anywhere from 5 to 10 calories of fossil-fuel for every calorie of food produced.
On the other hand, sitting next to the grass fed beef in the meat aisle of your run of the mill grocery store, is grain fed beef patties and steaks. Maybe appearing a little cheaper, this beef is considerably worse for you and for Mother Earth, and there is no surprise why: the cows are raised like car parts in a factory, or like living in a tenement building compared to a cabin in the woods with fresh air – disease festers in the unsanitary, close quarters. The cows are mass-produced and fed hormones and grains, on the cheapest amount of land. The conditions are simply improper and foreign to the cow’s immune system, leading to the use of antibiotics, ammonia cleansing solutions and other weird techniques to right the wrongs. But inevitably, sickness spreads and mass-amounts of methane is released. Federal health officials estimate that tens of thousands of people are sickened annually by the e coli pathogen, a disease found in the feces of cows. Last year, a girl was paralyzed from grain-fed meat that was eventually recalled in Minnesota.
Grass fed beef is much healthier. According to a report in Nutrition Journal, it has lower levels of unhealthy fats and greater levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for cardiovascular. When cooked, the grass-fed beef is not oozing with grease, but sitting pretty like a nice hunk of meat. It is also lower in dietary cholesterol; it is packed with vitamins A and E as well as numerous antioxidants. According to the Surgeon General, the cows have about twice the levels of conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA isomers, which may have cancer fighting properties and lower the risk of diabetes and other health problems.
So why, despite its purely archaic features, are we still eating what we have come to believe as “normal” beef? Perhaps it is the taste? Some backwards folk believe that taste is not actually subjective and that the public will not be able to back the product because of its grassy flavor. Others, like fine restaurants all over cities, are serving it up, believing it tastes fine – even better. We decided to give you a list of restaurants serving up grass fed beef so that you could decide for yourself. The evidence is there, it’s just about making right decisions for a sustainable community. Also, join coops, shop at farmer’s markets or Whole Foods – they’ll hook you up.
Here’s a link of restaurants selling grass fed beef: http://www.cenyc.org/greenmarket/chefswhobuy
Here’s a link for farmers markets in New York selling locally grown foods: http://www.cenyc.org/97greenmarket
