WHAT MAKES OUR GRASS-FINISHED BEEF DIFFERENT FROM EVERYONE ELSE’S’?

There are so many buzzwords in the food world today, especially if you’re health conscious & trying to make educated decisions about how to feed yourself and your family. I did a general overview of how to make sense of it all in this blog post a while back, but this time I want to address beef, specifically our beef.

There’s no USDA definition of the word grass-fed because it’s considered a marketing term not a specific method of producing a food product. As a consumer you can assign whatever meaning you want to it! Generally it means that an animal was raised on grass for at least 50% of it’s lifetime. It doesn’t even have to mean that it was raised out on pasture.

Likewise, the words pasture-raised on a label don’t mean that an animal is grass-fed. Animals can easily be fed grain on pasture. I’ve seen it documented in more than one place that 97% of the beef sold in the U.S. is finished on grain. Most of those cattle are raised on grass somewhere in the middle of the country for 2/3 of their lives. Then they’re brought to feedlots where they’re given a high energy diet based mostly on grains, so they can gain the weight needed for processing. I’m definitely not disparaging this process. It’s a big part of the reason the American people have been able to enjoy a safe & reasonably priced food system for so many years. But, if you’re buying your beef in a grocery store, chances are high this what you’re eating.

You can definitely get grass-fed beef in the store, but a lot of it comes from overseas. And grass-finished is even harder to find. By now you may be wondering if there’s even a difference between fed & finished and I don’t blame you. It depends on who you ask! There are a lot of people who feel strongly that grass-finished offers a lot of benefits over & above grass-fed alone. Unfortunately there haven’t been a lot of true research studies done to this point. They’re ongoing now at several well-respected universities & labs across the country. Some of them are focused on the difference in nutrient profiles, some on the types of fats, and some on the effects to the environment. I’ll keep you posted as the results come in.

For now in the Northeast, we’re spoiled by an abundance of locally grown beef! But there are still a lot of details you need to check out to be sure you’re buying what you think you are. I encourage you to talk to your farmer about how they raise their animals. Land is a precious commodity in central New England, & having enough acres to graze cattle effectively so that they grow to be high-quality and well-marbled beef isn’t an easy feat! A lot of farms simply don’t have the land base they need.

One of our challenges at Walnut Lane is just that. Right now our beef is 100% raised by us on our farm from birth. We are big believers in managing our animals as close to the way nature intended as we can. When our grass is growing, we move our cattle every day, imitating the way predators would have moved the bison on the prairie. This has a huge effect on our soils, grasses, & cows which we think gives us a leg up in the quality of meat we produce. At this time of year, the majority of our herd is hanging out in the barns eating hay we made for them last summer. In our wet climate, it’s virtually impossible to keep them outdoors all winter without destroying our pasture.

I was afraid I’d go off on a tangent & not be able to get all my points in & here we are! I guess I’ll have to write a different post about the question of whether grass-fed and finished beef needs to be cooked differently or if it tastes different. The quick answer is, I don’t think so, not if it’s grown right! But stay tuned for that…

Let me close with this. It’s human nature to think that we know as shoppers what we’re buying. Most of us spend at least a little time researching what’s important to us & make decisions accordingly. I was talking to someone who had been an occasional raw milk customer of ours. I’d definitely consider this person a “foodie”, but the info they told me about where they’ve been getting their local milk was completely off. It’s great milk, & they’re good farmers, but they aren’t organic or grass-based like she’s thinking. It just reminded me that so many times we hear what we want to hear. If eating grass-finished beef is important to you, make sure you know what you’re buying. Don’t assume it’s all the same, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!!