Data Bridge Market Research estimates that the demand for free-range eggs around the globe will increase by approximately 6% annually. An increasing number of consumers worldwide are seeking more healthful and ethically produced food.
(Note: The effect that bird flu will have on these calculations is unknown.)
Source: Data Bridge Market Research Analysis Study 2021.
Little Lambs Eat Ivy
In 2023, researchers from Australia and the United States conducted a study to see if Americans preferred grain-fed or grass-fed lamb. Before the study began, the investigators speculated that the consumers would prefer the grain-fed lamb because they were more familiar with the taste of grain-fed than grass-fed beef.
During the study, the 960 consumers did not know which type of lamb they were eating. When the results were tallied, the meat from the two dietary treatments was judged to be equal in flavor, tenderness, juiciness, and overall liking.
In addition, the grass-fed lamb had twice as many omega-3s. Other studies have shown that grass-fed lamb is also higher in antioxidants.
Foods 2024, 13:26.
Why Grassfed is Best!
Raising dairy cows on pasture, their natural diet, produces milk that is 1) rich in healthful fats, 2) low in saturated fats linked with cardiovascular disease, and 3) high in antioxidants—a feat that is difficult to achieve with any other types of feed. Nature knows best.
A 2021 review article in the Bulletin of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine* explains why these benefits are difficult to achieve with other types of feed. The beneficial fats in grassfed milk are unsaturated. This quality makes them ideal for human health. The catch-22 is that unsaturated fats are prone to oxidation, which can promote rancidity and off flavors. Unlike other feeding programs for cows, however, grazed pasture also has a natural supply of antioxidants—beta-carotene, vitamin E, and vitamin C, among others—that block oxidation. The milk is both fresh-tasting and healthful. (“A review of the effects of different feeding regimes on milk fatty acids profile and antioxidant capacity.”
Bulletin of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. 78 (2) 2021.
Grass-fed beef—once a tiny, niche market—now accounts for 4% of U.S. beef retail sales, according to grass-fed experts Pete Bauman and Dr. Allen Williams, of Grass-fed Insights, LLC. The monetary value in 2023 was roughly 4 billion dollars a year.
Interestingly, as health concerns have lessened the demand for conventional beef products, the demand for healthful grass-fed beef has increased. When eatwild.com was launched in 1999, there were approximately 100 grass-fed producers in the U.S. Today, there are almost 4,000.
AgHelp was launched in October 2018. Their mission is to address the agricultural labor shortage in the industry through a website where ag-workers can search for jobs and find local health, social, and educational services. Employers can also post jobs to source labor nationally or locally and workers will be able to receive information on crops, housing, and much more.
The founders' 10-plus years of experience working as farmworkers and in the public sector for the State of Michigan were used to develop this innovative resources for agricultural employers across the U.S. This service will be free for all workers and agencies.
Go to aghelpusa.com to read up on their approach to helping Growers across the country and to sign up to be notified of the launch.
Facebook: @agriculturehelp
Linkedin: AgHelp Corp.
"AgHelp where ag employers go to fill their jobs"
Long-lived cows reduce global warming
Bossy has a short lifespan when she is raised
in a confinement dairy, which is the way most cows are raised today.
She provides a very high volume of milk, partly due to hormone
injections and a high-grain diet, but she lasts for only 2-3 years.
Then infertility, disease, physical problems, or inflammation end
her milking career, and she is sold at auction for hamburger.
Cows raised on grass are healthier and more
fertile, making them good milk producers for up to twelve years.
These long-lived and more contented cows may reduce greenhouse
gas production (methane) between 10 and 11 percent according to
a British Study.
Garnsworthy,
P.C., The environmental impact of fertility in dairy cows: a modeling
approach to predict methane and ammonia emissions, Animal Feed
Science & Technology, 2004. 112: 211-223.
Great Milk! And a healthier world
Raise dairy cows outside on pasture—the time-honored way—and the
world benefits. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by
the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
Compared with dairy cows raised
in factory farms, letting Bossie graze in the fresh air lowered the amount
of ammonia released into the atmosphere by about 30 percent. It also cut emissions
of other greenhouse gasses, including methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.
Furthermore, the carbon footprint of the pasture-based dairy was 6 percent
smaller than that of a high-production dairy herd kept indoors. The milk of
grass-fed cows is much healthier for you as well. (Read Jo Robinson’s
article Super Natural Milk.)
It seems that all the eggs on the market are
guaranteed to be “farm fresh,” whether you’ve
paid a dollar a dozen at a discount grocers or five times that
much at a farmer’s market. How can you tell if an egg is
truly fresh?
The quickest test is to crack an egg into a
pan of slowly simmering water. The egg is fresh if the white is
thick and clings to the yolk. The egg is old if the white is thin
and spreads out into the water. A poached fresh egg presents a
very tidy package.
Boiling an egg gives you more clues. Fresh
eggs lay flat on the bottom of the pan. Older eggs tend to tilt
upward. That’s because air has had time to infiltrate the
shell and form an internal bubble. The bubble levitates one end
of the egg. The older the egg, the steeper the incline.
Once your boiled eggs are done, peel one of
them. The egg is very fresh if it’s difficult to peel and
some of the cooked white pulls away with the shell. An older egg
peels like a breeze. Fresh eggs make raggedy looking deviled eggs.
Eatwild founder named one of Top 50 Food Activists
Eatwild founder Jo Robinson was selected by The Academy of Culinary Nutrition as one of their Top 50 Food Activists. "Thank you," said the Academy, "for helping us to make informed decisions about what we eat and empowering us to do better....We're extremely grateful for the work that you do and we're lucky to have people like you in this world."
The Academy of Culinary Nutrition, was founded by nutritionist and author Meghan Telpner. Their Certified Culinary Nutrition Expert program trains students to become the health leaders in their respective communities. They currently have over 700 graduates, covering six continents and more than 32 countries.
Antibiotics in meat on the rise worldwide, especially bacon
About 80 percent of antibiotics sold in the United States go to livestock. A study conducted by researchers at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, Princeton University, the International Livestock Research Institute and the Université Libre de Bruxelles predicts that antibiotic use in livestock will likely rise 67 percent by 2030 if livestock conditions don't improve. The researchers found pig farmers producing pork and bacon use four times as many antibiotics as cattle farmers.
One of the major reasons farmers are using more antibiotics is that demand for meat is going up, and animals are being confined in smaller and smaller living quarters, which can increase the spread of disease. Antibiotic resistance not only applies to the animals, but it can affect the humans eating the meat.
Jo Robinson, Eatwild founder, featured in The New York Times
From the moment that our hunter-gatherer ancestors started domesticating livestock and choosing particilar fruits and vegetables to plant in their gardens, they began making selections that reduced the overall nutritional content of our diets. The good news is that today's technology now gives us the power to measure the nutritional qualities of our food in very precise detail, and can point us to those specific varieties that will provide us with the most health benefits.
Jo Robinson, founder of eatwild.com, has written a widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling book titled Eating on the Wild Side. The book describes how we’ve reduced the nutritional content of most of our fruits and vegetables and, just as important, details how we can recover those losses by shopping wisely in our grocery stores and farmers’ markets.
Jo explains that the nutritional losses began not 100 or 200 years ago as many people believe, but 10,000 years ago when our long-ago ancestors stopped foraging for wild food and became sedentary farmers.
Jo’s book has sold over 200,000 copies to date and was featured in a comprehensive, illustrated article in The New York Times, which you can read here. You can purchase Jo’s book on this website (https://www.eatwild.com/eatwild_store.html), Amazon.com, or order from your favorite independent bookstore. The book has received more than 1,300 comments on Amazon, with a 5-star-average rating.
Making sense out of meat labels
Ever wonder what all those meat labels really
mean? For example, what is meant by non-confined? natural? source
verified? cage free?
The folks at The Sustainable Table website
have taken the time to figure it out and compile the information
in a comprehensive, downloadable, easy-to read glossary of meat
labels. Find a copy here: www.eatwild.com/GlossaryofMeatProductionMethods.pdf.
Candy recommended as a substitute cattle feed during a drought
Joseph Watson, the owner of the United Livestock Commodities group, recommends feeding stale candy to cattle when corn is scarce or expensive. There are nutritional advantages to this scheme, according to Watson, because candy is higher in fat and sugar, helping to fuel the growth of the animals. In practice, the candy is fed in its wrappers. (It’s expensive to unwrap all that candy.) That’s okay, too, because paper is a bulk filler.
Watson told a reporter for Kentucky TV station WPSD. “We’ve already seen the results of it so we’re pretty proud of it.” He added that the stale candy was a problem for candy manufacturers, and the companies are “proud to have a place to go with it.” So far, no one has bothered to measure the nutritional content of meat from candy-fed beef cattle.
Sweet-tasting
grasses speed the growth of cattle and sheep and lowers
greenhouse gasses
British Agricultural Minister Jim Paice announced the results
of a new study showing that raising cattle and sheep on high-sugar
grasses can lower their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent.
Everyone
benefits from the sweeter feed. The ruminants like the taste of
the grass and eat more of it. The sugars allow them to make more
efficient use of the proteins in the grass. As a result,
the animals reach market size weeks earlier, producing less methane
overall.
Minister
Paice said: “It is very exciting this new research has discovered
that simply changing the way we feed farm animals we have the potential
to make a big difference to the environment.”
The
study was carried out by Reading University and the Institute of
Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. High-sugar pasture
grasses are now available for sale.
Grass-fed meats gives your body more healthful fats
Eating moderate amounts of grass-fed meat for
only 4 weeks will give you healthier levels of essential fats,
according to a study in the British Journal of Nutrition.
The British research showed that healthy volunteers
who ate grass-fed meat increased their blood levels of omega-3
fatty acids and decreased their level of pro-inflammatory omega-6
fatty acids. These changes are linked with a lower risk of a host
of disorders, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression,
and inflammatory disease.
Interestingly, volunteers who consumed conventional,
grain-fed meat ended up with lower levels of omega-3s and higher levels
of omega-6s than they had at the beginning of the study, suggesting
that eating conventional meat had been detrimental to their health.
British Journal of Nutrition (2011)
Red meat from animals offered a grass diet increases plasma and
platelet N-3 PUFA in healthy consumers. Volume 105, pages 80-89.
Healthy Eggs: What we knew in
1932
In the 1930s, scientists and food producers
were creating the first plans to take poultry off family farms
and raise them in confinement. To enact their plans, they needed
to create “feed rations” that would keep the birds
alive and productive even though they were denied their natural
diet of greens, seeds, and insects. It was a time of trial and
error.
In a 1932 experiment conducted by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, breeding hens were taken off pasture
and fed a wide variety of feed ingredients. When the birds were
fed a diet that was exclusively soy or corn or wheat or cottonseed
meal, the chickens didn’t lay eggs or the chicks that developed
from the eggs had a high rate of mortality and disease.
But when birds were fed these same inadequate
diets but were also allowed to graze pasture grasses, their eggs were perfectly normal.
The pasture grasses and the bugs made up for whatever was missing
in each of the highly restrictive diets.
“The effect of diet on egg composition.” Journal
of Nutrition 6(3) 225-242. 1933.
Eggs from pastured hens are far richer in
vitamin D
Eggs from hens raised outdoors
on pasture have from three to six times more vitamin
D than eggs from hens raised in confinement. Pastured hens
are exposed to direct sunlight, which their bodies convert to vitamin
D and then pass on to the eggs.
Vitamin D is best known for its role
in building strong bones. New research shows that it can also enhance
the immune system, improve mood, reduce blood pressure, combat
cancer, and reduce the risk of some autoimmune disorders.
This good news about eggs comes from
a study released by Mother
Earth News, a magazine that plays a leading role in promoting
health-enhancing, natural foods. The editors found that eating
just two eggs will give you from 63-126% of the recommended daily
intake of vitamin D.
Note that this benefit comes only from hens
that are free to graze fresh greens, eat bugs, and bask in the
sun. Most of the eggs sold in the supermarket do not meet this
criterion. Even though the label says that the eggs are “certified
organic” or come from “uncaged” or “free-range” hens
or from hens fed an “all-vegetarian” diet, this is
no guarantee that the hens had access to the outdoors or pasture.
Look for eggs from “pastured” hens.
You are most likely to find these superior eggs at farmer’s
markets or natural food stores.
Better yet, purchase them directly from your
local farmer. Or go to the Eatwild map of local farms, https://www.eatwild.com/prosucts/index.html. Click on your state, click on "View Larger Map" to find the farm closest to you, then scan the listings for "eggs."
Got pollution?
According to a study conducted by the USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service, a 10,000 cow confinement dairy in Idaho produced
staggering amounts of greenhouse gases. Every day, 37,075 pounds of pollution
spewed into the air. This breaks down into 33,092 pounds of methane, 3,575 pounds
of ammonia, and 409 pounds of nitrous oxide. Most of the emissions came from
the bare dirt lots where the cows spent their time between milkings. The 25-acre
manure holding pond was the next biggest source.
Humane slaughter
Ranchers who raise their cattle on grass from
birth to market do not send their animals to large slaughter houses
such as the Hallmark Meat Packing Company where extreme cases of
abuse have been documented. Instead,
they slaughter the animals on the farm or take them to small, independent
slaughter facilities.
Ranchers who transport their grass-fed cattle to
an abattoir go to great lengths to keep the animals calm. Some
bring along cattle that are not earmarked for slaughter to give
the animals the comfort of being with their herd mates. Many ranchers
watch the entire slaughter process to ensure that their animals
are being treated humanely every step of the way.
Some ranchers practice “field slaughter.” In
this case, they approach the animal out on the pasture, making
sure not to trigger alarm. Then they kill it with a bullet to the
head. The animal dies instantly and has no opportunity to experience
pain. Other ranchers contract with a specially designed mobile
slaughter facility that comes to the farm and manages the entire
process from killing the animals to preparing the carcass for the
aging process.
Typically, a grass-based ranch has fewer than
150 animals.
Their goal is to make sure all the animals are well fed and cared
for and do not experience unnecessary stress at any time of their
lives.
To find a pasture-based rancher in your area, click here. Ask the farmers about their slaughtering protocol.
New term you need to know: “by-product
feedstuffs”
Fresh pasture and dried grasses are the natural
diet of all ruminant animals. In factory farms, animals are switched
to an unnatural diet based on corn and soy. But corn and soy are
not the only ingredients in their “balanced rations.” Many
large-scale dairy farmers and feedlot operators save money by feeding
the cows “by-product feedstuffs” as well. In general,
this means waste products from the manufacture of human food. In
particular, it can mean sterilized city garbage, candy, bubble
gum, floor sweepings from plants that manufacture animal food,
bakery, potato wastes or a scientific blend of pasta and candy.
Here are some of the “by-product feedstuffs
commonly used in dairy cattle diets in the Upper Midwest.”*
Candy. Candy products are available
through a number of distributors and sometimes directly from
smaller plants… They are sometimes fed in their wrappers….
Candies, such as cull gummy bears, lemon drops or gum drops
are high in sugar content.
Bakery Wastes. Stale bread and other
pastry products from stores or bakeries can be fed to dairy cattle
in limited amounts. These products are sometimes fed as received
without drying or even removal of the wrappers.
Potato Waste is available in potato
processing areas, and includes cull potatoes, French fries and
potato chips. Cull fresh potatoes that are not frozen, rotten,
or sprouted can be fed to cows either whole or chopped. Potato
waste straight from a processing plant may contain varying amounts
of inedible or rotten potatoes. French fries and chips contain
fats or oils from frying operations.
Starch. Unheated starch is available
from some candy manufacturers and sometimes may contain pieces
of candy.
Pasta is available from pasta plants
and some ingredient distributors as straight pasta or in blends
with other ingredients, such as candy.
*This list is excerpted from “By-Product
Feedstuffs in Dairy Cattle Diets in the Upper Midwest,” published
by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Eat less feedlot meat
A growing number of people believe that eating
less meat is good for the environment. This is true when it comes
to eating meat from animals raised in feedlots. But eating meat
from well-managed grazing animals is a net benefit to the
planet.
A paper released by the Natural Resources
Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture
makes the following points:
Grazing animals eat plants that cannot be digested by humans.
Meat from grass-fed animals requires only one calorie of fossil
fuel to produce two calories of food. Many grain and vegetable
crops require from 5 to 10 calories of fossil-fuel for every
calorie of food or fiber produced.
Well-managed pasture absorbs far more rain water than most
other land uses.
Grazed lands help slow global warming by removing carbon dioxide
from the air. Grazing land in the Great Plains contain over 40
tons of carbon per acre. Cultivated soils contain about 26 tons.
Well-managed grazing lands provide much-needed habit for wildlife,
reduce water runoff, and provide cleaner, more abundant water
for wildlife and human use.
Grazing lands are among our most picturesque landscapes.
Do you want ammonia
with that?
Ring in the new decade with yet another disturbing
story about commercial hamburger. A New York Times expose,
published on December 30, 2009, revealed that Beef Products, Inc
(BPI), a South Dakota meat processor, has been injecting ammonia
into “fatty slaughterhouse trimmings” to kill bacteria
and render it safe for human consumption.
The USDA has approved this novel process.
Indeed, studies conducted by BPI showed the product to be so effective
that the government agency exempted BPI products from routine testing.
In another bow to the company, the USDA agreed with BPI that the
word “ammonia” need not appear on ingredient labels.
Instead, it can be described as a generic “processing agent.”
Why does this matter to you? If you eat commercial
hamburger, the chances are very good that you’ve eaten ammoniated
beef. BPI claims that its processed scraps are used in a majority
of the hamburger sold in the United States. Even our kids have
been treated to the meat. According to the Times, “The
federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds
of the processed beef last year alone,” saving an estimated
$1 million a year.
There are a number of problems using ammonia
to sanitize beef, beginning with the obvious “ugh, yuck” factor;
the very idea of sterilizing meat with ammonia is revolting to
many. Then there’s the odor. Even though the BPI meat is
mixed with untreated meat which dilutes the smell, some consumers
have still complained of a gaseous odor. The Times reports
that meat buyers for Georgia State prisons rejected 7,000 pounds
of the stuff because it had “a very strong odor of ammonia.”
This “odor problem” could explain why some batches
of BPI meat have been treated with lesser amounts of ammonia—significantly,
not enough to kill the harmful bacteria! Consumers get a product
that has a more acceptable odor and flavor, but it’s not
safe to eat! Last year, more than 53,000 pounds of BPI meat designated
for school lunch programs tested positive for either E. coli or
salmonella.
Several USDA microbiologists, including Gerald
Zirnstein, have been critical of the USDA’s approval of ammoniated
beef. In a 2002 email message obtained by the Times, Zirnstein
described the BPI beef product as “pink slime” and
said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and
I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent
labeling.” We at Eatwild concur and suggest that you buy
your next pound of hamburger from a local, pasture-based rancher. http://www.eatwild.com/products/
Sweet-tasting grasses speed the growth of cattle
and sheep and lowers greenhouse gasses
British Agricultural Minister Jim Paice
announced the results of a study showing that raising cattle and sheep
on high-sugar grasses can lower their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent.Minister Paice said: “It is very exciting this
new research has discovered that simply changing the way we feed farm animals
we have the potential to make a big difference to the environment.”
Everyone benefits from the sweeter feed. The ruminants
like the taste of the grass and eat more of it. The sugars allow them to
make more efficient use of the proteins in the grass. As a result,
the animals reach market size weeks earlier, producing less methane overall.
The study was carried out by Reading University and the
Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. High-sugar pasture
grasses are now available for sale.
Score ten for grass-fed beef
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than
grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive
analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the
USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared
with grain-fed beef, 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)
Lower in the saturated fats linked with
heart disease
On June 3, 2009, the Alaska Meat Company/Sitkinak
Cattle Ranch, a grass-fed beef operation on Kodiak
Island, announced the opening of their mobile abattoir, a 4-trailer
solution to many of the logistical problems that bedevil grass-based
producers.
The trailers travel separately. On site, they
are configured into an “L shape” and perform all the
operations needed to get meat to market. Live animals enter the
first trailer where they are humanely slaughtered and inspected
by the USDA. The carcasses go into the second trailer, where they
are divided into individual cuts or ground into sausage. In the
third trailer, the hamburger is seasoned, smoked, and stuffed into
sausage casings. The sausages are vacuum sealed and then pressure-cooked
to kill all bacteria. The meat is then “shelf-stable” and
can be kept without refrigeration. Live animals enter the first
trailer and sausage comes out the third.
The abattoir will be fully functional in October,
2009. Father and son team Nathan and Bob Mudd, owners of the Alaska
Meat Company, plan to extend their operation to process bison and
reindeer—hey! It’s Alaska.
Be a “meat and spinach” or
a “meat and red wine” kind of a guy
Eating
red meat—but not white meat or fish—is linked with
a moderately increased risk of colon cancer. Why is that? Some
experts believe that the amount of iron in the food, specifically,
a type of iron called “heme” iron, is part of the problem.
Red meat has considerably more heme iron than its paler counterparts.
Iron is essential for survival, but heme iron can irritate the
lining of the colon and set up the preconditions for cancer. Another
possible link with red meat and cancer is the amount of oxidized
fat in the meat. You create oxidized fat when you grill meat, sear
it, or cook it above medium rare.
Do you have to cut back on grilled sirloin
steak and lamb chops to lower your risk of colon cancer? Perhaps
not. Eating foods high in antioxidants along with the meat
could do the trick. Research shows that antioxidants have the potential
to neutralize the ill effects of both the iron and the oxidized
fat. For example, a 2005 study showed that eating spinach along
with red meat eliminated all irritation of the colon. Now a 2008
study reveals that drinking a glass of red wine with your meal
could do the same thing. It is likely that other foods high
in antioxidants will offer similar protection.
Does eating grass-fed meat also reduce your
risk of colon cancer? Meat from pastured animals has more
antioxidants than feedlot meat, so it is a distinct possibility.
To date, no one has studied this hypothesis.
Gorelik, S., M. Ligumsky, et al. (2008). "The
Stomach as a ‘Bioreactor’: When Red Meat Meets Red
Wine." J Agric Food Chem.
De Vogel, J.,
Denise Jonker-Termont et al. (2005). “Green vegetables,
red meat and colon cancer: chlorophyll prevents the cytotoxic
and hyperproliferative effects of haem in rat colon.” Carcinogenesis.
Grass-fed beef
clearly superior, says German and Canadian study
Yet another study shows that grass-fed meat
is nutritionally superior to feedlot meat. This study examined
the differences in fat content between four breeds of cattle that
were either 1) raised on pasture or 2) given grain and other feedstuff
in a feedlot.
As in previous research, the results showed
that meat from cattle raised on pasture had much healthier fats.
The researchers concluded that grass-fed meat is “clearly
superior” and “remarkably beneficial.” They
stated that grass-fed meat “should be promoted as an important
part of a healthy balanced diet.” Read
the study summary.
(Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry,
June 2008, 56:4775-4782.)
The Grass-Fed Paradox
Grazing animals that eat their native diet
of grass have more polyunsaturated fat in their meat than animals
fed grain and other types of foodstuff. This is one of the reasons
that grass-fed meat is better for your health. But polyunsaturated
fats are prone to oxidation and oxidized meat can have a rancid
or “off” flavor, and the meat spoils more quickly.
It was long thought that grass-fed meat would suffer this fate.
Studies show that grass-fed meat is less
likely to oxidize than ordinary feedlot meat. Why? The answer
is that there are more antioxidants in grass than grain, and
these protective substances keep the polyunsaturated fat from
oxidizing. When you eat meat from a grass-fed cow, you are consuming
more polyunsaturated fat, more antioxidants, and the meat is
less likely to spoil.
Mercier, Y., P. Gatellier, M. Renerre
(2004). "Lipid and protein oxidation in vitro, and antioxidant
potential in meat from Charolais cows finished on pasture or mixed
diet." Meat Science66: 467-473.
The USDA proposes a “Naturally
Raised” label
On November 28, 2007 the USDA published a new
standard for the label, “Naturally Raised.” According
to the proposed standard, meat, eggs and dairy products are “naturally
raised” if they come from an animal that: 1) was not treated
with antibiotics, hormones or other growth promoters; and 2) was
not fed by-products from mammals or poultry. According to USDA
research, many consumers object to these practices, which are commonplace
throughout the United States.
We find the proposed label misleading. A package
of “Naturally Raised” steak as defined by the USDA
could come from a cow that was confined in a feedlot for six months;
fattened on GMO corn, candy and stale pastry; and was forced to
stand knee-deep in its own manure.
We prefer a more wordy but accurate label: “Raised
without Antibiotics, Hormones, or By-Products from Mammals or Poultry.” Such
a label would help consumers avoid unwanted chemicals and practices
but not imply that the animal was raised under natural conditions.
You can comment on the proposed label until
January 28, 2008. To read more about the label or register
your comments follow this link.
Keep ‘em moving to reduce greenhouse
gasses
All ruminants—including cattle, sheep,
bison, and goats—belch up a significant amount of methane
gas as they digest their grass-based diet. Methane gas is a potent
contributor to global warming, so reducing methane production is
an important step in protecting the environment.
Animal scientists have discovered that dividing
pasture land into separate areas or “paddocks” and
carefully managing the movement of cattle through those paddocks
produces the highest quality grasses. Cattle that graze on this
succulent grass produce as much as 20 percent less methane. This
style of ranching is called “Management Intensive Grazing” or
MiG, and it’s practiced by most of the ranchers on eatwild.com.
DeRamus, H. A., T. C. Clement, D. D.
Giampola, and P. C. Dickison. "Methane Emissions of Beef Cattle
on Forages: Efficiency of Grazing Management Systems." J
Environ Qual 32, no. 1 (2003): 269-77.
Free-range eggs nutritionally superior
As it turns out, all those choices of eggs
at your supermarket aren't providing you much of a choice at all.
Recent tests conducted by Mother Earth News magazine
have shown once again that eggs from chickens that range freely
on pasture provide clear nutritional benefits over eggs from confinement
operations.
Mother Earth News collected samples
from 14 pastured flocks across the country and had them tested
at an accredited laboratory. The results were compared to official
US Department of Agriculture data for commercial eggs. Results
showed the pastured eggs contained an amazing:
You absorb more calcium when you eat raw milk
yogurt, according to a study in the Journal of American College
of Nutrition.
Forty adult volunteers alternated between eating
raw and pasteurized yogurt. The researchers reported that “circulating
calcium markedly increased one hour after the fresh yogurt intake,
while no changes were detected after the pasteurized [yogurt.]” This
was true for people who had no difficulty digesting milk and those
who were lactose intolerant.
Journal of the American
College of Nutrition, Vol. 26, No.3, 288-294. 2007
Corn prices too high? Feed the animals
candy instead
The growing use of corn for fuel has doubled
the price of corn for animal feed.
Typically, corn comprises about 70 percent of the diet of animals
raised in confinement. To offset the spiking cost of corn, many
feedlot managers are replacing some of the corn with candy and
other “junk food” that has been declared unfit for
human consumption.
According to an article in The Wall Street
Journal, this sugary, fatty fare includes banana chips, yogurt-covered
raisin, cookies, licorice, cheese curls, frosted wheat cereal,
Tater Tots, Kit Kat bars, uncooked French fries, pretzels and
chocolate bars. One feedlot operator from Idaho confesses that
he feeds his cattle a 100 percent “by-product” meal.
Grass, the native diet of grazing animals,
is a rich source of protein, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Has anyone measured the nutritional value of meat from junk-food-fed
cows? Candy may be cheap, but it’s cheating consumers out
of meat’s natural nutrition. Consider grass-fed, instead.
“With Corn Prices Rising, Pigs
Switch to Fatty Snacks” Lauren Etter, Wall Street Journal,
May 21, 2007.
Farm milk linked with lower rate of
asthma and allergies
A large European study of nearly 15,000 children
revealed that drinking farm milk rather than commercial milk is
linked with a lower risk of asthma and allergies.
Children who drank farm milk at any time of
their lives had a 26% lower risk of asthma, 33% lower risk of pollen
sensitivity, and a remarkable 57% lower risk of food allergies.
This was true for children who lived on a farm and those who lived
in the city and drank farm milk.
It was not clear from the study whether the
reduction in risk was due to the fact that the milk was unpasteurized
or the fact that the farm milk came from grazing cows. Milk from
cows raised on pasture has more omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants,
and other nutrients that may reduce the risk of allergies.
Clinical and Experimental
Allergy.Volume 37, pages 661-670. 2006
Federal ruling to allow
meatpackers to test for Mad Cow Disease
A federal judge ruled on March
29, 2007 that the government must allow meatpackers to test their
meat for Mad Cow Disease.
The ruling came in a case brought
to the courts by Creekstone Farms, which raises cattle in Kentucky
and has a processing plant in Kansas. Creekstone wanted to test
all of its animals for the disease in order to open up sales in
Japan and other strict markets, but was threatened with prosecution
by the Agricultural Department if they did so.
The Agriculture Department currently
regulates the tests, which it administers to about 1% of all slaughtered
cows. Many large meat processors opposed the increase in testing
because they feared that market pressure would force them to test
all their cows as well.
The federal district court judge
put the order on hold until June 1st when the ruling will take
affect unless the government appeals.
Antibiotic growth promoters lose money for chicken industry
Many large-scale chicken producers feed antibiotics
to their birds to speed their growth. This unnecessary use of antibiotics
increases the likelihood that bacteria will become resistant to the drugs,
making the antibiotics ineffective for veterinary and human
medicine.
Now we know that this much-criticized practice is
also costing the industry money. Researchers from John Hopkins examined
financial records from a study involving 7 million chickens. Their analysis
showed that the antibiotics did indeed speed the growth of the poultry,
but the drug use cost the producers more than they gained from the sale
of the bigger birds.
Raising chickens without antibiotic growth promoters
is better for the birds, consumers, and—surprise, surprise—the
poultry industry itself.
Jay P. Graham, et al,
Public Health Reports, “Growth Promoting Antibiotics
in Food Animal Production: An Economic Analysis.” 122:1,
2007.
Link between hormone implants in cattle and breast
cancer?
A study published in
the Archives of Internal Medicine shows a strong link between
breast cancer and red meat consumption. Women who ate 1 ½ or
more servings of red meat a day were almost twice as likely to
have “hormone-sensitive”
breast cancer as women eating 3 or fewer servings a week. Eating
red meat had no link with “hormone-negative” breast cancer.
The exact cause is unknown, but the investigators
suggest that the wide spread use of hormone implants in cattle
could play a role. An earlier test-tube study showed that adding
an FDA-approved hormone implant called “Zeranol” to
human breast cancer cells caused a rapid spurt in growth. This
was true even when the levels of Zeranol were three hundred times
lower than the amount the FDA considers safe.
Hormone implants are banned in the European
Union. If you want beef free of added hormones in the United States,
look for 100 percent grass-fed beef, organic beef, or beef labeled
“raised without added hormones.” If you are buying
directly from a farmer, ask about hormone use.
Arch Intern Med. 2006; I 66:2253-2259.
Grass-fed beef higher in total antioxidants
Researchers in Argentina compared key antioxidants
in meat from pasture-fed and grain-fed cattle. The grass-fed meat was
higher in vitamin C, and vitamin E, as you can see by the chart below.
It was also 10 times higher in beta-carotene.
As a result of this antioxidant bonus, meat from
pasture-fed animals is slower to “oxidize” or spoil. It also
provides more antioxidants for consumers.
“Influence of pasture or grain-based diets …on
antioxidant/oxidative balance of Argentine beef,” Meat Science 70
(2005) 35-44.
Three times more CLA in a grass-fed
hamburger
A lean hamburger from grass-fed cattle has two and a half times more
conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than an equally lean hamburger
from cattle raised in a feedlot. CLA (conjugated
linoleic acid) is a healthy fat that has been shown to fight
obesity, cancer, and diabetes in lab animals. Human studies are
now underway.
“A literature
Review of the Value-Added Nutrients Found in Grass-Fed Beef Products.” Nutrition
Journal, June 2006 (In Press.)
Milk from Grass-Fed Cows Higher in Vitamin E
Cows that get all their nutrients from grazed grass—their
natural diet—produce milk with 86 percent more vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
than cows fed a standard dairy diet, according to a study.
The standard dairy diet consists of large amounts
of “concentrate,” which is typically a dry mixture of corn
and soy. Some organic dairies raise their cows on pasture and supplement
them with organic concentrate; others keep their cows indoors and feed
them organic concentrate and stored grasses. The more freshly grazed
grass in a cow’s diet, the more vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids,
and CLA. Organic Valley is a nation-wide organic
dairy that emphasizes grazing.
Leiber, F., M. Kreuzer, et al. (2005). Lipids 40(2):
191-202.
Eggs from Pastured Hens Better for Your Eyes
A report reveals that eggs from hens raised on
pasture are higher in lutein and zeaxanthin than eggs from chickens raised
in confinement. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are natural substances similar
to beta-carotene that protect your eyes from cataracts and a common cause
of blindness called "macular degeneration." They may also protect against
cancer and cardiovascular disease. Read more...
Union of Concerned Scientists extol benefits
of grass-fed beef and dairy
On
March 8, 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a non-profit
alliance of more than 100,000 U.S. scientists, released an 80-page
report on grass-fed beef and dairy products. Summarizing the report,
author Dr. Kate Clancy said "When you eat grass-fed meat,
you're getting beef with benefits. There are no losers in producing
cattle entirely on pasture. Farmers win, consumers win, the environment
wins, and even the cattle win."
Visitors to eatwild.com are well-acquainted with
these themes. The significance of the UCS report is that it gives
pasture-based farming the seal of approval of a highly regarded group
of scientists who are devoted to promoting the health of Americans
and the environment. The report committee surveyed dozens of published
studies before arriving at their conclusions. The bottom line, according
to their investigation, is that raising animals on pasture:
Decreases soil erosion and increases soil fertility
Improves water quality
Improves human health due to reduced antibiotic use
Improves farmer and farm worker health
Improves animal health and welfare
Results in more profit per animal for producer
The report also validates the fact that products from
pasture-raised animals are lower in total fat, and higher
in omega-3 fatty acids, CLA (conjugated linolenic acid), vitamin
E, and beta-carotene.
The Food and Drug Administration has banned the use
of the poultry antibiotic Baytril, made by Bayer. Many farmers treat
their whole flocks with the antibiotic in order to treat or prevent respiratory
disease in the birds.
The use of Baytril, claims the FDA, makes it difficult
for doctors to treat human patients with food poisoning. When bacteria
are repeatedly exposed to antibiotics, they become resistant. When humans
eat or handle contaminated meat, they may pick up the drug-resistant
bacteria.
Baytril is a member of the class of drugs called
fluoroquiolones. This class of drugs, which includes the drug Cipro,
is considered valuable for treating serious infections in people. The
FDA first proposed the ban against Baytril five years ago.
Mother Nature knows better once again
The concentration of carbon dioxide in our air is
rapidly rising, a condition that contributes to the greenhouse effect
and potential global warming. The more of the carbon that can be contained
in the soil, however, the less that escapes into the air. A report released
by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service finds that soil stores 2
to 3 times more carbon when the grass was grazed than when it was harvested
for hay or not harvested at all.
Another benefit of grazing, the researchers noted,
was that grazing also reduces costs by lowering needs for herbicides
and producing income from the livestock. They estimated that even putting
as little as 10 percent of existing cropland into rotation with grazing
would produce significant cost reductions.