Chef in Residence
Conventional Vs Organic Pt 2 - MEAT and POULTRY
Monday, January 04, 2010
Last week's article was devoted to conventional means of growing produce verses organic and just touched on the topic regarding meat. For this article, we will explore some detail about our how our main source of protein makes its way from farm to table.
In June of 2009, the film Food Inc. was released in movie theaters. This film asked the question, How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families? Most critics who reviewed the documentary deemed it the scariest movie of the year.
Food today is one of the most profitable businesses out there. Corporations spend billions of dollars to advertise how their brand is just like Grandma's. Yet, when you read the label, you cannot pronounce half of the ingredients listed. Unfortunately, with fresh meat, you can't read the back of the box. You do not see what goes into getting that product from the farm to the supermarket and the corporations would like to keep it that way. It all comes down to money. Profit is taking the place of our health. As with any corporation, if a product can be made cheaper, faster and bring in a profit, great! That all sounds good when you are talking about plastic toys and furniture, but how does that concept apply to living animals?
Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed, but today, the U.S. commercially sells almost all feedlot (grain fed) beef. Feedlot farming has become increasingly popular over the last 40 years as the mass production of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products has proven to be more convenient and profitable for farmers. Small family owned farms throughout the nation have been replaced by large feedlots and confinement facilities that are capable of producing year-round supplies of meat, chicken, eggs, and dairy products at a decent price. But the benefits of increased production and profit often come at the cost of quality and safety.
Lower Nutritional Value:
Meat and dairy products from animals that have had their diets switched from grass to grain often have lower nutritional value. Studies have shown that meat from animals raised in feedlots often contain more total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories. They also contain less vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids than their grass fed counterpart.
Unnatural Diets:
Animals that are raised in feedlots are given diets that are specifically designed to fatten them up, which help the farm boost productivity and lower costs. Genetically modified grain and soy are the main components of these animals' diets. To cut costs even more, animal feed may also contain by-products such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers and candy. Seventy-five years ago, steers had to be 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are a tender age of 14 or 16 months. A calf cannot grow from a birth weight of 80 pounds in one year to 1,200 pounds on grass, so it takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones to make corporations meet their quota. By force feeding the animal grain and other by-products they are making them as fat as possible as fast as possible with no regard to the cause and effect of the animal or those that consume the end product.
Stress on the Animals:
Cud-chewing animals such as cows, goats, buffalo and sheep are designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants and shrubs. When they are fed starchy, low fiber grain a number of problems can arise and synthetic hormones are administered in order to keep the problems at bay. However, growth hormones have not been thoroughly examined and some scientists believe this may explain falling sperm counts in men and premature maturation in girls. When injected into cows, the hormones increase milk production up to 40 percent in some cases, however recent studies have shown that when used in animal production it causes problems including an alarming rise of deformed calves and dramatic increases in mastitis, a painful bacterial infection of the udder which causes inflammation, swelling, pus and blood secretions into milk. Subacute acidosis is another common side effect which causes cattle to kick at their bellies, stop eating feed and begin to eat dirt. These animals are often given chemical additives along with a constant, low-level dose of antibiotics to prevent reactions from becoming fatal. When the antibiotics are overused in the feedlots, bacteria become resistant to them. Humans consume these cattle that were fed these antibiotics and can become infected with new, disease-resistant bacteria, which means there are fewer medications available to treat them. The F.D.A. is opening an inquiry into these problems, but for now, implanting hormones in beef cattle is legal and financially irresistible: an implant costs $1.50 and adds between 40 and 50 pounds to the weight of a steer at slaughter, for a return of at least $25 per cow.
Cages Create Problems:
When animals are raised in cages (including chickens, turkey, and pigs), it can create even more problems. When confined, these animals cannot practice their normal behaviors such as rooting, grazing and roosting. Often times there isn't even enough room for all of the animals to sit down at one time. Research has found that meat and eggs from these animals are often lower in a number of important vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.
Ground and Water Pollution:
When animals are raised in confinement, they deposit large amounts of manure in small spaces. The right thing for the farmers to do is to collect and transport this manure far away from the area; however, this can be a very expensive task. More increasingly, farmers collect the manure and to cut costs, dump it as close to the feedlot as possible. As a result, the soil becomes over packed, which can lead to ground and water pollution.
Grass-fed farming or ranching involves raising livestock on open pasture – free to roam about. There is no caging or confinement for these animals, and their diet consists of natural grasses, legumes and plants. These animals are free of antibiotics, steroids, hormones, pesticides and other foreign substances. According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science in 2002, grass-fed beef may offer these benefits:
Lower in Fat and Calories:
Meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep and bison is lower in total fat. Lean meats may have as much as one-third the fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. Grass-fed beef can have the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer or elk. Consuming lean beef can also help lower LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) levels. Because it is lower in fat, grass-fed beef is also lower in calories. Fat has approximately nine calories per gram, so the more fat a cut has, the greater number of calories it will have. Even fatty cuts of grass-fed beef are lower in fat and calories than beef from grain-fed cattle.
More Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
Grass-fed animals can contain as much as two-to-four times more omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed animals. Omega-3 fatty acids are fats that are essential to our health (they are "good" fats). One reason grass-fed animals are full of these good fats is because omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae which are the mainstay of their diets.
More Vitamins:
Studies have shown that grass-fed beef can have as much as four times more vitamin E than grain-fed beef. Grass-fed beef even contain twice as much vitamin E as grain-fed beef that are given vitamin E supplements!
Good Source of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA):
Products from grass-fed animals are the richest known source of conjugated linoeic acid (CLA), which is another type of good fat. CLA is stored in fat cells and has been shown to reduce cancer risks in humans. Grass-fed animals contain as much as three-to-five times more CLA than grain-fed animals.
The good news is that times are changing. More and more consumers are becoming educated to the mishandling of our livestock only to have it dress our dinner tables. The more people who speak out about the subject, the more the governmental standards will comply. If meat, poultry, eggs or dairy products are labeled organic, they must come from animals given no antibiotics or growth hormones, Remember, what the animal eats and how the animal is treated prior to you inviting it to dinner will directly effect you. So, choose grass-fed, pastured beef, organic, free range chicken. Lamb and Bison are great alternatives to beef and since the demand for these are not as high, these meats tend to be less prone to antibiotics and growth hormones. Confused? Here is a link to a site which helps identify how to purchase produce to meat products by labels and even gives visuals, which I always find helpful.
Ciao!
Chef Lisa
In June of 2009, the film Food Inc. was released in movie theaters. This film asked the question, How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families? Most critics who reviewed the documentary deemed it the scariest movie of the year.
Food today is one of the most profitable businesses out there. Corporations spend billions of dollars to advertise how their brand is just like Grandma's. Yet, when you read the label, you cannot pronounce half of the ingredients listed. Unfortunately, with fresh meat, you can't read the back of the box. You do not see what goes into getting that product from the farm to the supermarket and the corporations would like to keep it that way. It all comes down to money. Profit is taking the place of our health. As with any corporation, if a product can be made cheaper, faster and bring in a profit, great! That all sounds good when you are talking about plastic toys and furniture, but how does that concept apply to living animals?
Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed, but today, the U.S. commercially sells almost all feedlot (grain fed) beef. Feedlot farming has become increasingly popular over the last 40 years as the mass production of meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products has proven to be more convenient and profitable for farmers. Small family owned farms throughout the nation have been replaced by large feedlots and confinement facilities that are capable of producing year-round supplies of meat, chicken, eggs, and dairy products at a decent price. But the benefits of increased production and profit often come at the cost of quality and safety.
Lower Nutritional Value:
Meat and dairy products from animals that have had their diets switched from grass to grain often have lower nutritional value. Studies have shown that meat from animals raised in feedlots often contain more total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and calories. They also contain less vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids than their grass fed counterpart.
Unnatural Diets:
Animals that are raised in feedlots are given diets that are specifically designed to fatten them up, which help the farm boost productivity and lower costs. Genetically modified grain and soy are the main components of these animals' diets. To cut costs even more, animal feed may also contain by-products such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers and candy. Seventy-five years ago, steers had to be 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are a tender age of 14 or 16 months. A calf cannot grow from a birth weight of 80 pounds in one year to 1,200 pounds on grass, so it takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones to make corporations meet their quota. By force feeding the animal grain and other by-products they are making them as fat as possible as fast as possible with no regard to the cause and effect of the animal or those that consume the end product.
Stress on the Animals:
Cud-chewing animals such as cows, goats, buffalo and sheep are designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants and shrubs. When they are fed starchy, low fiber grain a number of problems can arise and synthetic hormones are administered in order to keep the problems at bay. However, growth hormones have not been thoroughly examined and some scientists believe this may explain falling sperm counts in men and premature maturation in girls. When injected into cows, the hormones increase milk production up to 40 percent in some cases, however recent studies have shown that when used in animal production it causes problems including an alarming rise of deformed calves and dramatic increases in mastitis, a painful bacterial infection of the udder which causes inflammation, swelling, pus and blood secretions into milk. Subacute acidosis is another common side effect which causes cattle to kick at their bellies, stop eating feed and begin to eat dirt. These animals are often given chemical additives along with a constant, low-level dose of antibiotics to prevent reactions from becoming fatal. When the antibiotics are overused in the feedlots, bacteria become resistant to them. Humans consume these cattle that were fed these antibiotics and can become infected with new, disease-resistant bacteria, which means there are fewer medications available to treat them. The F.D.A. is opening an inquiry into these problems, but for now, implanting hormones in beef cattle is legal and financially irresistible: an implant costs $1.50 and adds between 40 and 50 pounds to the weight of a steer at slaughter, for a return of at least $25 per cow.
Cages Create Problems:
When animals are raised in cages (including chickens, turkey, and pigs), it can create even more problems. When confined, these animals cannot practice their normal behaviors such as rooting, grazing and roosting. Often times there isn't even enough room for all of the animals to sit down at one time. Research has found that meat and eggs from these animals are often lower in a number of important vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.
Ground and Water Pollution:
When animals are raised in confinement, they deposit large amounts of manure in small spaces. The right thing for the farmers to do is to collect and transport this manure far away from the area; however, this can be a very expensive task. More increasingly, farmers collect the manure and to cut costs, dump it as close to the feedlot as possible. As a result, the soil becomes over packed, which can lead to ground and water pollution.
Grass-fed farming or ranching involves raising livestock on open pasture – free to roam about. There is no caging or confinement for these animals, and their diet consists of natural grasses, legumes and plants. These animals are free of antibiotics, steroids, hormones, pesticides and other foreign substances. According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science in 2002, grass-fed beef may offer these benefits:
Lower in Fat and Calories:
Meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep and bison is lower in total fat. Lean meats may have as much as one-third the fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. Grass-fed beef can have the same amount of fat as skinless chicken breast, wild deer or elk. Consuming lean beef can also help lower LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) levels. Because it is lower in fat, grass-fed beef is also lower in calories. Fat has approximately nine calories per gram, so the more fat a cut has, the greater number of calories it will have. Even fatty cuts of grass-fed beef are lower in fat and calories than beef from grain-fed cattle.
More Omega-3 Fatty Acids:
Grass-fed animals can contain as much as two-to-four times more omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed animals. Omega-3 fatty acids are fats that are essential to our health (they are "good" fats). One reason grass-fed animals are full of these good fats is because omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae which are the mainstay of their diets.
More Vitamins:
Studies have shown that grass-fed beef can have as much as four times more vitamin E than grain-fed beef. Grass-fed beef even contain twice as much vitamin E as grain-fed beef that are given vitamin E supplements!
Good Source of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA):
Products from grass-fed animals are the richest known source of conjugated linoeic acid (CLA), which is another type of good fat. CLA is stored in fat cells and has been shown to reduce cancer risks in humans. Grass-fed animals contain as much as three-to-five times more CLA than grain-fed animals.
The good news is that times are changing. More and more consumers are becoming educated to the mishandling of our livestock only to have it dress our dinner tables. The more people who speak out about the subject, the more the governmental standards will comply. If meat, poultry, eggs or dairy products are labeled organic, they must come from animals given no antibiotics or growth hormones, Remember, what the animal eats and how the animal is treated prior to you inviting it to dinner will directly effect you. So, choose grass-fed, pastured beef, organic, free range chicken. Lamb and Bison are great alternatives to beef and since the demand for these are not as high, these meats tend to be less prone to antibiotics and growth hormones. Confused? Here is a link to a site which helps identify how to purchase produce to meat products by labels and even gives visuals, which I always find helpful.
Ciao!
Chef Lisa
