I have been raising grass-fed beef in Vermont for about 25 years, so maybe I’m a tad biased about what some may regard as a fad. However, the trend is gaining momentum worldwide. More people have come to appreciate the health benefits of consuming grass-fed beef, as well as the additional ethical and environmental advantages of farming as God intended.
Grain vs Grass
The industrial advances that accelerated during World War II were applied to food production following the conflict, transforming agriculture in terms of scale and efficiency. The United States became a global leader in food exports; grocery shelves were chock-full of diverse, affordable offerings, and the fast-food model became a popular mainstay of American food consumption.
Farmers acquired numerous new tools to care for cows more efficiently. Instead of raising them on pasture, large factory-style “farms,” known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), emerged for both milk and beef production. Animals in CAFOs are housed indoors, where they can be managed “efficiently” and fed grain crops, especially corn and soybeans. The animals grow faster with these than they do on grass alone, and they gain more fat. The extra fat improves flavor and tenderness through the “marbling” in steak and other cuts. The grain-fed animals, reaching maturity faster, came to be the staple of American beef production for many decades.
Though many people prefer grain-fed steaks, these changes came with hidden environmental, ethical, and health costs. CAFO livestock rarely (if ever) walk around in the sunshine or munch grass, spending most of their lives on concrete pads with machines to haul away their manure. They drink from steel bowls, not gurgling streams. They are often administered growth hormones to accelerate their growth and given antibiotics to reduce losses and counteract the health compromises of being confined in large populations.
Cows and the Environment
The environmental problems of cows are not that they burp methane, as has been widely popularized by non-farming global warming alarmists, including Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab, former Sen. John Kerry, former Vice President Al Gore, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The greater problems arise from all that corn and soy, which are mostly now produced using GMO technologies that rely on glyphosate (also known as Roundup), heavy equipment, fossil fuels, synthetic fertilizers, and a plethora of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that kill soil microbes and pollute drinking water through field runoff.
Cows ambling through pastures convert what I call “God’s solar panels” (blades of grass) into juicy burgers without all the equipment and chemical applications. Their manure feeds the soil, sequestering carbon dioxide, reversing erosion, and retaining more water, which prevents runoff and reduces the amount of water needed for irrigation.
Even though beef prices are at record highs, an increasing number of consumers seek out grass-fed beef and other meats for these environmental and ethical reasons. They realize that plant-based meat substitutes are often highly processed and depend on the same destructive GMO crops to bypass cows, which have always done important environmental work until they were corralled into CAFOs for short-term profit. Recall that the great fertile Midwestern plains were built by the soil-stimulating life cycle of bison. Properly managed cows on grass are environmentally friendly. Humanity doesn’t need to go vegan or gnaw on crunchy insect burgers to save the planet.
Grass-Fed Beef for Health
But then there’s the health angle. For decades, questionable narratives have proclaimed that red meat is bad for the heart, along with eggs and butter. The FDA now lists chicken eggs as healthy. Butter is no longer slandered in favor of margarine. Harvard Health explained that “there never was any good evidence that using margarine instead of butter cut the chances of having a heart attack or developing heart disease.” Yes, processed meats are harmful – because of the chemical preservatives and artificial additives, not because God messed up. Similarly, there are significant differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef.
Grain-fed beef conceals more health problems than just the antibiotics and hormones many British, European, and informed American health nuts seek to eliminate from their diets. Grass-fed beef is lower in overall fats and contains much higher levels of heart-healthy Omega-3 fats – up to six times more than grain-fed beef. It has higher levels of many other nutrients, including Vitamin E and other antioxidant vitamins, and supplies hungry humans with an essential Omega-6 fatty acid called conjugated linoleic acid. CLA has been demonstrated to provide numerous positive health benefits, including anti-cancer, anti-obesity, anti-diabetes, and anti-heart disease properties, as well as stroke prevention and relief for autoimmune diseases such as lupus, eczema, and rheumatoid arthritis. Additionally, it supports immune function and gut health.
Granted, pharmaceutical companies are at the ready to offer young diners chemical drugs to prevent all the illnesses caused by a poor diet and a lack of exercise. But there are curative properties in a tasty bite of beef – so long as it wasn’t raised in a CAFO on GMO crops while being pumped full of antibiotics and hormones for profit. More than 70% of all antibiotics in the United States are administered to livestock, which become ideal breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria – not so for grass-fed cows raised out in the fresh air and sunshine on organic grass.
Grass-Fed Here to Stay!
This is why grass-fed cattle is here to stay, even as prices rise. The US cattle herd has now shrunk to its lowest numbers in seven decades, and it takes two years to raise a calf from birth to table. Cows generally have only one calf at a time. Large beef producers, including Tyson Foods and JBS Foods, are shifting into grass-fed operations. The cows are regaining the fields. Soils and their complex microbiomes are being rebuilt; water is being preserved untainted, and people are enjoying healthier meals that prevent multiple diseases while reducing healthcare costs.
Listen to a Vermont farmer instead of the billionaire globalists. Support your local grower, your own gut, and the happy ruminations of bovine ruminants.
