Discover the difference in Beef, Grass Fed from cows on small farms vs Organic Grain Fed Beef

You may be telling yourself, if I’m buying Organic Beef from the store than is the Beef, Grass Fed from cows on small farms, right? Well I hate to tell you but I’ve got some news for you, it may not be 100% grass fed beef. The organic food movement 20 years ago was just a few small farms dedicated to producing the best food possible.

Well, big agriculture companies started to see their market share slip away into organics and they realized they needed a piece of the action. They started the acquisitions of these small organic farms into big corporations because it easier to buy out your competition than to create it from the ground up. The problem is that organic beef and other organic foods mostly come from these large companies now where quality is way down on the list and profits are on the top. They have to answer to shareholders every year about profits so they are not so concerned if the food is really healthy for you.   

The large organic beef companies realize that it is more profitable to feed a cow grain in the last few months before slaughter. They can grow a cow to full size in four to five months with organic corn while the same cow while take a year and half on nothing but grass. Most people say to me, well what is wrong with a little corn anyways? If it is organic corn than it is better than the pesticide, herbicide, genetically modified corn that feed lot beef are grown on, right? Wrong, cows are herbivore’s, they were designed with four stomachs so they can break down the plant material.

The research shows that 200 years ago farmers didn’t feed cattle grain like we do today. Farmers would have told you were crazy, to be feeding their food to a cow? Grains were difficult to grow because they didn’t have modern farm equipment. It took oxen one day to plow one acre what our modern 200 horsepower tractors can do in 5 minutes. Grains were what humans ate back then because it was so precious after all of that work.  Why, are humans feeding grains to an herbivore? So just because we can do something, should we?

The tests now show that 100% Grass Fed Beef has 4-5 times less fat than grain fed beef, up to 4 times the Omega 3’s. They are richer in antioxidants; including vitamins E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. In addition, they do not contain traces of added synthetic hormones, antibiotics or other toxic drugs. Now with medical technology we can examine conventional feed lot beef, Organic Grain Fed beef and Beef, Grass Fed from cows that have been raised on nothing but 100% grass.

Comment: by Brian Bowen

This is a wonderful article by author Jo Robinson explaining the difference of Organic Beef and Beyond Organic Grass Fed Beef

Jo goes onto explain how grain really effects the cows systems and how it will affect us that eat them.

Beyond Organic

By Jo Robinson
Organically certified meat, poultry, and dairy products are now available at your local supermarket. When you see the green USDA organic label, you know the food is going to be free of pesticide residues, synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and genetically-modified grain. Compared with ordinary meat, this is a step in the right direction.
But the USDA organic beef regulations fall short of many people’s expectations—especially when it comes to cattle. Specifically, the USDA rules allow cattle to be fed a high-grain diet—not their native diet of grass—and permit cattle to be confined much of the time. That expensive, USDA-certified organic steak at your grocery store is likely to come from a cow that spent most of its time in a feedlot eating far too much grain.
These shortcomings matter a great deal, not just to animal and nature lovers, but to all consumers concerned about basic human nutrition and food safety. The problems begin with the grain. When calves are taken off pasture and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened for market, they are switched from grass to a high-energy grain diet to speed their growth and marble their flesh. But grain does not agree with cattle and other ruminants such as bison and sheep. Ruminants are highly specialized animals with multi-compartmented stomachs that allow them to thrive on a diet of high-fiber, bulky grasses—food that we humans cannot digest. Feeding grain to these grass guzzlers is like running a Prius on furnace oil; it fouls up the works. The “fuel” problem for cattle is that grain makes their digestive tract more acid, giving the animals chronic belly aches. Feedlot calves respond to this acid indigestion by pawing at their bellies, hanging their heads, drooling, or eating dirt. Untreated, the calves can develop a more serious condition called “acidosis.” If acidosis goes unchecked, lesions that can be fatal will form in the animals’ livers. Corn-fed beef comes with a cost.
By contrast, when cattle are raised from birth to market on grass, they remain in excellent health. Routine vaccination is the only medication they require. A vet told me that the only time he goes to grass-based ranches is to do pregnancy tests. The rest of his time is spent helping feedlot managers control the many diseases caused by excessive grain-feeding and the stress of shipping and confinement.
What is good for the cattle turns out to be good for our health as well. Dozens of studies now show that meat and dairy products from grass-fed animals have a bounty of added nutrients. Compared with grain-fed cattle—organic or otherwise—the meat and milk of grass-fed cattle have more antioxidants, including vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. The meat is also lower in overall fat and higher in healthy omega-3s and another healthy fat called “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLA.
Eating products from grass-fed animals also gives you an added measure of food safety. Since the 1990s, we’ve gotten used to meat being recalled for possible E. coli contamination. In 2008, one such recall involved a staggering 135 million pounds of beef. Eating grass fed meat may reduce your risk of being sickened by these potentially lethal bacteria. The main reason is that grass-fed cattle and other ruminants that live outdoors on pasture arrive at the slaughterhouse with relatively clean hides. Cattle that live in the mud and manure of feedlots tend to arrive coated with feces that may harbor E. coli bacteria. The USDA has determined that the cleaner the hides, the lower the risk that the bacteria will find its way into the meat supply.
Although organic grain-fed meat has advantages over conventional grain-fed meat, it does not measure up to the benefits that come from eating 100-percent grass fed beef. Raising ruminants on grass is better for animals and consumers. Go grass!
_____________________________________________________________________________
Jo Robinson is an investigative journalist and a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author/coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, an overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals. More than three million copies of her books have been sold. Jo is also the founder and director of www.eatwild.com, the Internet’s most comprehensive site on the benefits of taking animals out of feedlots and raising them on pasture.

Another excellent article below by Jo Robinson that shows you need to check the farm you are buying from is real. Because they have a nice label saying All Natural Organic Beef with pictures of cows eating grass around the red barn doesn't mean that is the whole story.

The Brand Name Bandwagon
By Jo Robinson
By the year 2005, industry experts predict that half of all the fresh meat products in the
supermarket will carry a brand name. No more anonymous, shrink-wrapped beef and pork. The
reason for the branding is simple: merely adding a name to the package can increase sales by thirty
percent or more.
Why do brand names carry such clout? Part of the answer is “word association." The right words can
trick customers into believing that meat that comes from a confined, medicated, and hormone impregnated steer is the most wholesome product they can buy.
Here's how it works. Imagine that you're the owner of a large feedlot operation in Iowa, and you're
wondering if jumping onto the branded meat bandwagon will boost your sales. To find out, you hire a
team of marketing consultants. The consultants inform you that adding a brand name can be very
effective as long as you follow their advice. First, they say, your brand name should include the
name of a specific farm or person. If you call your meat "Marvin's Beef," for example, customers are
going to assume there's a Marvin somewhere who cares about his reputation, and, therefore, his
beef. Without having to make any overt claims, there is the unspoken assumption that Marvin takes
care of his operation a little better than a nameless feedlot operator, or he wouldn't put his name on
it. (Of course, the fact that Marvin doesn't exist and that the name was selected by your consultants
remains your little secret.)

You will boost sales even more, they tell you, if you add "Iowa" to your label. Most people have a
positive association with where they live. They harbor the illusion that shady dealings and shoddy
products are found somewhere else, surely not in their back yard. (For years, I avoided Arkansas
chicken and paid more for "Washington grown," assuming I was feeding my family a more
wholesome product. Then I toured a confinement poultry operation in Washington State and learned
the grim truth.)

To further enhance your brand name, your consultants tell you, it would be wise to add a bucolic
term or two. Most consumers are so estranged from the land that they yearn for anything that
suggests country living. How about "Farmer Marvin's Iowa Beef?" you ask. They tell you this is an
excellent choice of words because "Farmer Marvin" evokes the past as well as the countryside. ("Old
McMarvin had a farm...") You give your graphic artists the go-ahead to design a logo with a red barn
and haystack to reinforce this link with the past.

Great. With just four carefully chosen words, you've managed to imbue your feedlot meat with
integrity, local pride, wholesome country living, and the nostalgic past. But what about those legions
of "green" and health conscious consumers? Has your brand name lured them in yet? Not really. So,
say your consultants, it's time to reach for some of those ubiquitous words linked with health, nature,
and wholesomeness. Luckily, the USDA allows you to add the words "fresh" and "natural" to any
unfrozen animal product that has not been altered subsequent to slaughter. Prior to slaughter, of
course, your animals may have been stressed, implanted with hormones, fattened on stale pastry
and urea, and fed a steady diet of sub-therapeutic antibiotics. Nonetheless, once they are butchered
they become "fresh and natural" in the eyes of the feds.

So, now you have: "Farmer Marvin's Fresh ‘n Natural Iowa Beef." (Note how that "'n" adds a little
extra folksy charm? Your marketing consultants are earning their money!) But just when you're ready
to spend tens of thousands of dollars to trademark your name, design your labels, and begin your
marketing campaign, your advisors say that they're beginning to hear about something called
"pastured products" and "grass fed beef." They think that this quaint concept—keeping animals
home on the range—might be the new, new thing in meat products. Once again, they have the
solution. Simply add the words "meadows" or "prairie" to your label. These words conjure up lush
fields of grass without actually saying your animals eat any of the stuff. Image is all.

Unfortunately, all this branding and grandstanding of feedlot beef is going to make life much more
difficult for the hundreds of pioneering farmers who are raising their beef on pasture without the use
of hormones or antibiotics. The very qualities they embody—name accountability; local production;
and a more natural, wholesome, and nutritious product—are going to be blazoned on half the meat
sold in the supermarket. What's more, the big guys are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars
on image development and marketing. How are consumers going to tell one pound of hamburger
from another?

I have some advice for shoppers. Look beyond the brand names and fancy labels. Call the meat
producer's 1-800 phone number and say that you want to come for a visit. Tell them you want to see
with your own eyes: 1) where the animals are raised, 2) what they are fed, and 3) how they are
treated. Settle for nothing less. This is the one arena in which factory farming cannot compete. The
producers of Farmer Marvin's Fresh ‘n Natural Meadow Beef will not allow you to tour their feedlots.
They know full well that seeing hundreds of cattle standing around in a dusty feedlot surrounded by
manure lagoons will not help sales.

Money can buy the image, but it cannot buy the real thing.

© 2005 Jo Robinson, Eatwild.com. This article may be reprinted in full provided it is accompanied
by this credit line.

Grass Fed Beef- Learn 3 Amazing Benefits of Grass Fed Beef Dry Aging

I think we need to take note how American's take care of our trucks and cars better than our own bodies. Our cars are shiny, clean and slicked up before we go down the boulevard. Our bodies though are being trashed with junk food, we are heavily over weight, alcohol abuse is rampant and we eat unhealthy processed foods to name a few. So why do we balk at the price of Healthy Beef, Grass Fed from cows on pasture? We don’t realize that healthy food costs more to produce but we get paid back more dividends. Especaily when compared to a depreciating brand new $50,000 Lexus you drove off the lot with. Of course the new car owner doesn’t want to think about the $10,000 they just lost because it is now a used car. We spend more on a depreciating asset than our own body? We'll I know I've been guilty of it also. Don't feel bad. The good news is that you can eat well, enjoy your food, eat nice portions and not get fat.

The first benefit I would have to say of dry aged Grass Fed Organic Beef is the wonderful flavor. If your butcher does not age the beef long enough it may taste gamey and sometimes fishy tasting. I guarantee you will not be happy as we learned the hard way also.Another benefit is the amazing tenderness long term dry aged beef. The first time we took our beef to a butcher he dry aged it for 2 weeks. We had to get the chain saw out to cut through this stuff. Our customers that had bought a side of beef weren't too happy either. We were a little shocked since we had worked so hard on making sure the cows that we brought in, were of the best grass finished beef quality. What I mean was that we waited until the cow was nice a big with a little fat on it and we moved them to a new pasture every day giving them a fresh new salad bar to enjoy. Also this helps the beef cattle to get off their droppings from the day before to avoid getting sick. 

The last benefits of dry aged beef is during the dry aging process, the beef juices are absorbed into the meat, enhancing the flavor and tenderizing the steaks. What you get in the grocery store or most restaurants is corn fed beef that has not been dry aged. It is packaged with the blood still sopping in the vacuum seal and this is called wet aging. This was only introduced because we had to centralize farming to the Midwest and put thousands of cattle in the same spot that all the corn is. Of course the real reason is money, it taking a lot of money to cool thousands of beef a day in on place. Again, it comes down to saving the beef companies millions of dollars to not dry age. Then we can kill them all in the same spot, package them and call them all natural beef. I don't really see where they get the all natural definition from.  A cow that is sitting in its own manure, eating genetically modified (GMO) corn for the last 4 month of its life and not eating any fresh forage is not all natural to me. I would rather eat a Beyond Organic Grass Fed Beef steak any day.

A lot of our customers who spend the extra to buy real food are not wealthy but may have been sick before and are now healed. Mostly due to eating a nutrient dense diet consisting of whole unprocessed foods from local organic farms. A lot of them may be able to afford the $50,000 Lexus but they would rather spend the money on staying healthy. You can always trade in the used car, but you can’t trade in the damage done to your body.

WHY EAT ORGANIC MEAT? article commentary

Below is another interesting article on the difference of corn fed vs. grass fed beef. Mr. Riddle seems to miss the boat a little by talking about BSE (mad cow disease) but fails to do the research that 100% grass fed beef cows have never had one case of BSE (mad cow disease). He mentions grass fed meats at the end of the article but seems to forget the tremendous difference in nutrition, the omega 3's in the beef and the natural habitat that a grass fed beef cow is raised. Especially when compared to organic beef that is being fed organic corn, organic soybeans, etc. Like he mentions in the beginning of the article, cows are ruminants and designed to eat forages (grasses) only. 

Why Eat Organic Meat?

By James A. Riddle
Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems, UMN

Introduction

If ever an animal were a vegetarian, it is a cow. They are designed to eat forages. They are ruminants! It is totally unnatural to feed them animal by-products and manure, but that is exactly what high output industrial factory farms, especially dairy farms, are doing, since these are cheap sources of protein. Farmers, including organic farmers, that feed pasture, hay, silage, and grain concentrates are taking steps to minimize risks of BSE.

The Differences

There are significant differences between organic and industrial, non-organic meat production. To begin with, there is an absolute ban on the feeding of mammalian and poultry slaughter by-products to organic mammals and poultry. This contrasts with non-organic regulations, which still allow the feeding of cattle and other slaughter by-products to cattle and other livestock.

The FDA banned the feeding of cattle brain and spinal tissue to cattle in 1997, and have publicly stated that they will ban blood, poultry litter, and human food wastes, but they still allow the following materials to be fed to non-organic cattle:

• Gelatin (rendered from the hooves of cattle and other species
• Fats, oils, grease, and tallow (from cattle and other species)
• Poultry and poultry by-products
• Rendered pork protein
• Rendered horse protein

None of the items listed above may be fed to organic cattle or other organic livestock.

Milk Replacer

Non-organic milk replacer commonly contains spray dried blood plasma and blood serum from cattle and hogs. The FDA is now moving to ban this practice. Research in Europe has shown that BSE can be transmitted by blood, which is why any U.S. citizen who has traveled to a country with BSE is prohibited from donating blood.

Most organic calves are fed organic whole milk. Milk replacer may only be used as an emergency supplement. If milk replacer is used, the NOP regulation requires that the milk replacer contain no non-milk products, no antibiotics, and no products from rBST treated animals.

Records and Traceability

Traceability is a fundamental requirement for organic certification. The National Organic Program regulation, in section 205.236.c, requires that all organic livestock operations must maintain records "sufficient to preserve the identity of all organically managed animals and edible and non-edible animal products produced on the operation." Section 205.103 further requires that all organic operations, including those with livestock, maintain records which "fully disclose all activities and transactions" and "demonstrate compliance with the Act and regulations."

This means that records kept by organic livestock producers must track all animals, including the source(s) of the animals; the sources and quantities of feed; all medications; and all products produced and sold. These records are reviewed at least annually by an inspector representing a USDA-accredited certification agency.

Inspection of Feed Mills

In order to produce organic livestock feed, feed mills must be inspected and certified. If they produce both organic and non-organic feed, they must implement procedures, documented with written records, to prevent the commingling of organic and non-organic feed. This includes steps to clean storage bins and mixing and bagging equipment prior to producing batches of organic feed. Organic feed mills also must prevent the contamination of organic feed with antibiotics, hormones, slaughter by-products, and insecticides which may be added to non-organic rations. They must also ensure that rodenticides and insecticides used in the facility do not contaminate organic feed.

Inspection of Slaughter Facilities

Organic beef must be slaughtered in slaughterhouses which are certified organic. As such, slaughterhouses must slaughter organic animals when all equipment is clean and empty. There must be no chance of commingling organic with non-organic meat, or contaminating organic meat with prohibited materials. Records must be maintained of all organic slaughter activities and steps taken to protect organic integrity. If a plant can prove that it can segregate organic animals and meat products and take all steps necessary to protect organic integrity, then it can be certified. It does not have to be dedicated to slaughtering only organic animals, however.

Testing for BSE

Nearly 36 million cattle were slaughtered in the United States in 2002, yet only less than 20,000 were tested for BSE. In the first 7 months of 2003 in Washington state, USDA tested no cattle for BSE. At Washington state's largest slaughterhouse and at two facilities owned by Tyson, there were no BSE tests in 2002 or 2003.

100% of cattle are tested in Japan. About 75% are tested in Germany and France. All cattle over 36 months are tested in U.K., yet only .05% of U.S. cattle are tested.

There are no rapid tests available in the U.S. Such tests are being used in other countries, including Japan, Italy, Germany, France, and the U.K. Tissue samples from the cow in WA state were sent to U.K. for confirmation, where results were known in a few hours.

When the cow in WA was slaughtered, its meat went to 8 states and Guam, and it was almost 2 weeks before test results were known. The meat was allowed to enter the human food supply while test results were still pending. That is standard procedure in the U.S.

BSE on Organic Farms?

There were several cases in Europe where cattle on organic farms were diagnosed with the disease. Upon further investigation, it was established that the cattle had not been born on the organic farms. They had been purchased from non-organic farms, and converted to organic production.

In the United States, organic cattle must be fed and managed organically their entire lives in order to be slaughtered for organic beef. In fact, a calf's mother must be fed and managed organically during the last third of the calf's gestation in order for the calf to be sold as organic slaughter stock. In the U.S., the only animals which can be converted from non-organic to organic production are dairy cattle, breeding stock, and animals which produce non-edible products, such as wool. If such animals are converted from non-organic to organic production, those animals can never be slaughtered for organic meat.

Health Risks?

Hundreds of people in the U.S. die each year of "sporadic Creutzfeld-Jakob" disease (CJD). New research in Europe, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, links a new form of BSE, found in "healthy" cows, to human cases of brain-wasting disease, CJD.

Consumer Choices

One clear option is to stop eating beef. While not a big beef eater, I do not advocate that position. If you are going to eat beef, eat smart. Avoid burger chains. Avoid ground beef, unless you know how the animals were raised and what they were fed. If you want ground beef, buy boneless roasts and have your butcher grind them or grind them yourself.

Know the farmers who raise your meat. Buy meat from farms which do not feed animal by-products, including organic farms. Shop at your local food coop. Look for local, grass fed meats at the farmers market. Ask your butcher where the meat comes from and how the animals were raised. Demand that country of origin labeling be implemented. Demand that the practice of feeding animal by-products to ruminants be strictly prohibited. After all, cows are vegetarians!

Over the past 24 years, James A. (Jim) Riddle has been an organic farmer, gardener, inspector, educator, policy analyst, author, and consumer. He was founding chair of the Independent Organic Inspectors Association, (IOIA), and co-author of the IFOAM/IOIA International Organic Inspection Manual. He has helped train hundreds of organic inspectors throughout the world. Jim serves on the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Organic Advisory Task Force, and was instrumental in the passage of Minnesota's landmark organic certification cost-share program. Jim serves as vice-chair of the National Organic Standards Board, which advises the USDA on organic agriculture policies and regulations. Jim holds degrees in biology and political science from Grinnell College, and works part time as an organic policy specialist for Rodale's www.newfarm.org. In 2003, Jim was appointed Endowed Chair of Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota.