Is Grass-Fed Beef Higher For You?

Whenever you see meat that’s labeled “grass-fed,” it implies that after these animals are weaned, they eat solely grass—and no matter different inexperienced stuff they could discover rising the place they graze—for the remainder of their lives. Through the winter, when nothing a lot is rising within the pasture, the animals might be confined in pens and fed dried grass (hay). However throughout the inexperienced season, they need to be allowed to roam round freely and graze..

Is Grass-Fed Beef Higher for You?

What’s the choice? Effectively, just about all cattle begin out consuming grass. However once they’re 6 to 12 months outdated, a lot of the cattle which might be raised within the U.S. are finally despatched to feed-lots, the place they eat corn and different grains for the steadiness of their lives. It seems that feeding cows grain as a substitute of grass fattens them up rapidly. (The identical appears to be true of individuals!) The top end result—within the case of the cows, that’s—is meat with a better fats content material, and animals which might be prepared for slaughter sooner. 

Satirically, the time period “corn-fed” was once a great factor—signifying well-marbled, flavorful beef. How instances have modified! 

Is Grain Unhealthy for Cows?

Critics level out that grain just isn’t a pure food plan for cud-chewers like cows and that feeding corn to cows causes digestive issues and usually makes them sickly. (Regardless that people will not be cud chewers and have fully completely different digestive methods, there are those who argue {that a} grain-based food plan makes us sickly as properly.) Most grain-fed cattle get antibiotics blended into the feed to assist hold them more healthy—which has particular downsides. (See my article, Antibiotics in Meat.)

In the event you’re fattening your cows on corn, you can also hold them in a feed lot the place you merely refill tubs with the grain. This permits farmers to maintain tons and many cows in a comparatively small quantity of house. For grass-fed cows, you want, properly, grass—and many it. As a substitute of standing round in crowded feedlots, grass-fed cows get to be on the market the place the antelopes roam for at the very least a part of the 12 months. Regardless that the cows need to work just a little more durable for his or her supper, lots of people really feel that the pasture life-style is an entire lot nicer and more healthy for the cow.

Is Grass-Fed Beef Any Safer?

Labeling rules and certification packages are useful however if you’d like the small print on how your meals is being raised, there’s actually no substitute for figuring out your farmer.

One of many ways in which we people defend ourselves towards food-borne pathogens like E. coli is by bathing our meals in abdomen acid, which kills a lot of the micro organism. Advocates of grass-fed beef declare {that a} grain-based food plan acidifies the digestive tract of the cows, which inspires the expansion of E. coli which might be extra tolerant of acidic environments and, subsequently, extra harmful to people.

Nevertheless, this widely-believed idea has not borne up properly underneath scrutiny. Evaluation of beef merchandise within the market constantly finds the identical charges of bacterial contamination within the grass-fed meat as within the grain-fed meat—together with essentially the most harmful strains. I’m afraid that till they devise a cow that doesn’t poop, E. coli will at all times be a menace.   

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