Grass-Fed Products Taking Off -
Simple Solutions for Many Problems
March 31, 2015
Story at-a-glance
Grass-fed beef accounts for just 0.5 percent of all retail
beef sold, but it’s popularity is increasing
Researchers have determined 10 areas where grass-fed is
better than grain-fed beef for human health
More farmers are seeking out agricultural production systems
that model nature, including soil-conservation farming,
carbon farming, and grazing animals
By Dr. Mercola
Grass-fed beef accounts for just 0.5 percent of all retail
beef sold, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association…1
but it's a growing niche. White Oak Pastures, the largest
organic farm in Georgia, produces about 8,000 pounds of
grass-fed ground beef daily.
Grass-fed beef is just one of the farm's products. It also
raises nine other species of free-ranging animals. In 2014, the
farm, which was recently featured by the New York Times,
brought in about $28 million in sales.2
The farm's owner, William Harris III, is a rancher, once of
the conventional kind. But he grew disenchanted with the way the
business worked, and he was suffering financially. As he made
positive changes toward more natural farming, his hard work and
perseverance paid off.
Solving the Slaughterhouse Problem
Unbeknownst to many Americans, access to slaughterhouses is
one hurdle that keeps many small farmers from ultimately
succeeding. All farmers must use USDA-approved slaughterhouses,
and laws place special restrictions on grass-fed slaughtering.
If a grass-fed rancher doesn't have access to a slaughterhouse,
he cannot stay in business.
This shrewd strategy effectively maintains the status quo of
CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), because
grass-fed ranchers are often forced to ship their cattle
hundreds of miles for "processing" – a move that's both costly
and stressful. Large slaughterhouses can also refuse smaller
jobs, as they—just like CAFOs—operate on economy of scale. As
explained by The Carnivore's Dilemma:3
"At harvest time, small family farmers are forced to
transport their animals to the nearest legal 'processing
plant' that will accept their animals. These plants often do
not conform to the high standards farmers have for their
animals' welfare, but the farmers have no choice.
Basically, there may be plenty of demand for grass-fed beef,
and plenty of supply, but USDA rules and regulations prevent the
American-bred supply from ever reaching the customer...
Across the US, smaller slaughterhouses catering to grass-fed
ranchers have been closing up shop, pushed out by larger
processors, adding to the shortage of processing facilities to
choose from. As reported in the New York Times
regarding White Oak Pastures:4
"Watching his calves get loaded onto an 18-wheeler
for the drive west to a feed lot and slaughterhouse helped
convince Mr. Harris that maybe he should stop raising cattle
the way his father did.
He knew that his animals would spend sometimes 30
hours on those trucks, with the ones on the bottom getting
covered in feces and urine. 'It's like raising your daughter
to be a princess and then sending her to the whorehouse,' he
said."
Harris has been able to grow White Oak Pastures so
successfully, in part, because it has its own slaughterhouse. In
fact, it's the only farm in the country with federally approved
slaughterhouses for both poultry and mammals.5
Switching to Grass-Fed Farming Took Business to the Next Level
Harris' tale is an inspiring one, especially for farmers
considering a switch. It shows that making the switch from
conventional to grass-fed can be done. Harris did have
to borrow money and use government and industry grants to get
started, but the business took off to the next level. The
New York Times reported:6
"That trip [to the slaughterhouse] was just one
factor that prompted him to reconsider his operations in the
1990s. His cattle monoculture wasn't doing that well
financially, and it was becoming less satisfying.
He stopped some practices, like putting hormone
pellets into his cows' ears. Mr. Harris also noticed an
emerging market, one in which people were willing to pay
more money for beef that was raised differently.
By 2000, he stopped using chemical fertilizers on his
pasture… By 2006, he got his beef into Whole Foods… A year
later, his sales had jumped to half a million dollars."
Our food system is in dire need of change in order to protect
human health, but it's a system that is difficult to change.
It's not impossible, however, and you can still make a
difference even if you have nothing to do with farming – by
supporting the farmers who are raising food responsibly.
Most Grass-Fed Beef Sold in the US Is Imported
As more people change their shopping habits, it will help to
drive up demand and encourage more US ranchers to make the
switch to grass-fed. As it stands, most of the grass-fed beef
sold in the US is actually imported from Australia and New
Zealand.
Chipotle is one of the latest companies to turn to Australian
ranchers to meet demand for grass-fed beef, as American
suppliers are falling short, and/or cannot compete with
Australia's lower prices. In a Huffington Post op-ed
published last year, Chipotle founder Steve Ells said:7
"Over the years, we have had great success serving
the premium beef we call Responsibly Raised... Nevertheless,
sometimes the existing supply of the premium meats we serve
is unable to meet our growing demand...
Rather than serve conventionally raised steak, we
recently began sourcing some steak from ranches in Southern
Australia, which is among the very best places in the world
for raising beef cattle entirely on grass.
The meat produced by these ranchers is 'grass-fed' in
the truest sense of the term: The cattle spend their entire
lives grazing on pastures or rangelands, eating only grass
or forages... In the short-run, the grass-fed beef purchased
from Australia will continue to supplement the premium
Responsibly Raised beef we have long purchased from across
the U.S.
But over time, we hope that our demand for grass-fed
beef will help pave the way for more American ranchers to
adopt a grass-fed program, and in doing so turn grass-fed
beef from a niche to a mainstream product."
Grass-Fed Meat and Dairy Are Better for You
People have many reasons for switching to grass-fed products
– the health benefits, the ramifications for the environment,
the humane treatment of animals, or all of the above.
A joint effort between the USDA and Clemson University
researchers determined a total of 10 key areas where grass-fed
is better than grain-fed beef for human health.8
In a side-by-side comparison, they determined that grass-fed
beef was:
Lower in total fat
Higher in beta-carotene
Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and
potassium
Higher in total omega-3s
A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids
(1.65 vs 4.84)
Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer
fighter
Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed
into CLA)
To be clear, there's a lot of confusion about the term
"grass-fed," and in many cases, it's an abused term like the
word "natural." Some producers of beef will misuse this term
because the rules around it are still somewhat undefined. Most
all calves are fed grass for a certain amount of time.
This is one factor that allows less scrupulous producers to
get away with calling their beef grass-fed. The key to a truly
grass-fed product is actually the finishing. Optimal beef is
both grass-fed and grass-finished beef.
Of course, it's not only beef that's ideally
grass-fed. Chickens fare better when raised on pasture, as do
dairy cows. Milk from cows raised primarily on pasture has also
been repeatedly shown to be higher in many nutrients, including
vitamin E, beta-carotene, and the healthy fats
omega-3
and CLA. Unfortunately, only about 22 percent of US dairy cows
have access to pasture, and even then access tends to be very
limited.9
As we're seeing a growing interest in healthier ways to raise
food, like out on the pasture instead of confined in a
factory-like environment, more farmers are seeking out
"agricultural production systems that model nature." Among them
is soil-conservation farming, which involves a number of methods
to enhance soil, like leaving fields untilled and using "green
manures."10
The New York Times reported:11
"Such farming methods, which mimic the biology of
virgin land, can revive degenerated earth, minimize erosion,
encourage plant growth and increase farmers' profits, their
proponents say. And by using them, Mr. [Gabe] Brown… has
produced crops that thrive on his 5,000-acre farm outside of
Bismarck, N.D., even during droughts or flooding. He no
longer needs to use nitrogen fertilizer or fungicide, he
said, and he produces yields that are above the county
average with less labor and lower costs. 'Nature can heal if
we give her the chance,' Mr. Brown said."
Gabe Brown and other
regenerative farmers are basically just mimicking nature, to
the best of their ability. They don't till and try to minimize
the disturbance of the soil as much as possible. They also pay
great attention to diversity, using cover crops such as native
grasses. Tilling is probably one of the most destructive aspects
of modern-day industrial agriculture, as it disrupts and
destroys soil biology. Using the following five tenets of
soil regeneration, you may be able to add an inch of topsoil
in a five-year period:
No-tillage. This prevents soil erosion
and also allows soil microbes to thrive.
Plant diversity and rotation
Multispecies cover-cropping. While home
gardeners can add crop cover like mulch or wood chips,
large-scale operations can achieve the same results by
planting cover crops. Gabe grows cover crops on every acre
of cropland each year. The cover crops may be grown before a
cash crop, along with a cash crop, or after.
But it's the cover crops that provide the carbon that
becomes that all-important "armor" on the soil surface.
Cover crops also act as insulation, so the soil doesn't get
as hot or cold as it would if bare. This allows microbes to
thrive longer. Also, the soil biology heats up the soil,
which can extend your overall growing season in colder areas
Maintaining living roots in the soil year-round.
It's important to have living plant roots in the
soil as long as possible throughout the year. To accomplish
this, use cover crops when not growing a cash crop.
It's estimated that one-third of the surplus carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere stems from poor land-management processes that
contribute to the loss of carbon, as carbon dioxide, from
farmlands.12Carbon
farming is a simple solution that involves applying compost to
farmland, which traps carbon dioxide in the ground (for decades,
centuries or more) while also absorbing it from the air. The
process, known as "carbon
sequestration," will help:
Regenerate the soil
Limit agricultural water usage with no till and crop
covers
Increase crop yields
Reduce the need for agricultural chemicals and
additives, if not eliminate such need entirely in time
Reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
Reduce air and water pollution by lessening the need
for herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers
"Advocates say if compost was applied to just 5
percent of California's grazing lands, the soil could
capture a year's worth of greenhouse gas emissions from the
state's farm and forestry industries… Research conducted in
Marin County and in the Sierra foothills revealed that a
single dusting of compost on rangeland can boost the soil's
carbon storage for at least 30 years.
But there are significant hurdles to expanding the
practice, including the cost of purchasing and transporting
compost to farms. About 30 million tons of organic material
ends up in California's landfills, said Torri Estrada,
director of policy at the Carbon Cycle Institute. He
envisions a network of regional facilities producing compost
or farmers and ranchers doing so themselves on-site."
Where to Find High-Quality Grass-Fed Products
The grass-fed market only makes up about
3 percent of the US beef ranchers. Fortunately, that number
is growing. Overall, grass-fed beef sales have been
increasing by about 20 percent a year for the last six years.
It's the only growing segment of the beef industry as a whole.
As Gabe Brown said, one of the best ways to drive continued
change is to vote with your pocketbook:
"I've come to the realization that we need to educate
the consumers and the consumers need to drive the change
through their purchasing dollars. Let me tell you of this
movement... My son and I started [a grass-fed beef] business
in March, and we have zero advertising dollars. We've just
been going to local farmers' markets. We already have over
650 repeat customers. We can't keep up with the demand right
now. That goes to show you that if that's happening in a
rural state such as North Dakota, what's happening in more
urban areas?"
Now that you know why it's worth switching over to
grass-fed beef and other animal products, the question becomes,
where do you find them? Fortunately, it's becoming
increasingly easy to find these, and many other organic foods.
Grass-fed beef: Many grocery chains are
now responding to customer demand, and will provide at least
a small assortment of grass-fed meats. If your local grocer
still doesn't carry any, go ahead and ask the purchasing
manager to consider adding it. Some stores, like Publix,
will even stock specialty items requested by a single
customer. The least expensive way to obtain authentic
grass-fed beef is to find a local rancher you can trust, and
buy it directly from the farm. Alternatively, you can now
purchase grass-fed beef from organic ranchers online, if you
don't have access to a local source.
Raw organic, grass-fed dairy products:
Getting your raw milk from a local organic farm or co-op is
one of the best ways to ensure you're getting high-quality
milk. You can locate a raw milk source near you at the
Campaign for
Real
Milk Website. The
Farm to Consumer
Legal Defense Fund also provides a state-by-state review
of raw milk laws.
Organic, free-range eggs: To locate a
free-range pasture farm, try asking your local health food
store, or check out the following web listings: