Water, Grass and Beef

I haven't blogged in exactly 4 months.... June 11th- Sept 11th.  That is a long time. It isn't that I did not have things to say, its just that moving, broken arms, allergic reactions, making flower girl dresses and going to 3 weddings in 5 weeks (one in Belgium) took precedence. 

In the coming days I will post a few more wheat-soy-milk free recipes. Today, however, I want to talk about grass, water and beef.  I just read in my low-impact living e-newsletter that it takes 2,000 gallons of water to produce ONE POUND of conventional ground beef. I stress conventional because most of that water is used watering the corn grown to feed that cattle.  One more reason to buy grass fed beef. (Which is not that readily available commercially, I know.)  I know a wrote about this earlier, but I wanted to elaborate.

Why grass-fed beef?  I will note that my sources range from the documentary "Corn King" to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemna to many internet sites. If you have time, read The Omnivore's Dilemna or watch Corn King (available at Blockbuster and Netflicks).

Back to grass-fed beef.  There are really three issues at hand: environmental, ethical and those that are health related.  First, you must understand how conventional beef is produced.  Cattle spend the last 60-120 days of their lives in feedlots where they are fed grain, predominately corn.  "60-160 days, that isn't too bad..." you think.  Consider two things: 1) that cattle usually go from birth to slaughter in less than 18 months, sometimes less than a year and 2) if fed grains longer than 160 days, they would die regardless.  Cattle are ruminating animals; they have a special digestive system with four stomachs, designed to process grass.  In The Omnivore's Dilemna, Michael Pollan describes what happens to grain-finished cattle:

"Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen is always producing copious amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during rumination. But when the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime that can trap gas forms in the rumen. The rumen inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal's lungs. Unless action is promptly taken to relieve the pressure (usually by forcing a hose down the animal's esophagus), the cow suffocates.

A corn diet can also give a cow acidosis. Unlike that in own highly acidic stomachs, the normal pH of a rumen is neutral. Corn makes it unnaturally acidic, however, causing a kind of bovine heartburn, which in some cases can kill the animal but usually just makes it sick. Acidotic animals go off their feed, pant and salivate excessively, paw at their bellies and eat dirt.The condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease and a general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from pneumonia to feedlot polio."

Conventional/ Feedlot beef is always grain fed, and that grain is predominately corn.  Additionally, the major problem with feedlots, whether the beef variety or the "fish farm" is that by cramming so many of same animals together, it becomes a breeding ground for all sorts of bacteria, and so for the beeves (plural of beef) to be able to live to their "processing" date, they are administered routine antibiotics. I could go on at length here, but you can read my earlier post about fish farms and antibiotics.  Suffice it to say that currently antibiotics can be found in our drinking water  (along with antidepressants and other medications that we flush down the toilet) and there is as of yet no way to remove it from our drinking water.  We really don't need it added to the ground water.  Another problem with feedlots (where the grain-finishing happens) is that the waste produced by all of the animals becomes an issue.  While grass-fed cows produce manure, grain -fed cows produce something akin to toxic sludge that is completely unsuitable for any use.

Moving on, as nap time is only so long... They are so many people that I know who refuse to eat veal because of ethical concerns over their treatment, but happily buy and eat conventional beef.  I see feedlots and grain-feeding as unethical. Cows are meant to walk around, eat grass, not stand shoulder to shoulder, knee-deep in sludge. I understand that it is a cheap and efficient way to produce more meat and that demand is high.  However, consider this, it would be healthier for us to eat a little less meat and pay a little bit more for the grass- finished beef.

Finally, is there a difference in the quality?  Some would argue that the "quality", the marbeling of grain finished is better in grain-fed beef... but I would argue that taste is always acquired. Before the second world war, all beef was grass-finished and our grand-parents and great-grand-parents never complained. So, rather than discuss taste, which is subjective, I want to look at the health quality of the meat.  Grass-finished beef is higher in vitamins, omega-3's and lower in saturated fat.  It is considerably lower in fat, somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3  the amount of fat as grain-fed beef.  That is comparable to chicken!  What is more, Pollan argues that the current imbalance of Omega-3 fatty acids in the american diet has led to the increase of many chronic ailments that plague our society: diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, etc.  While not a great source of Omega 3's when you compare beef to salmon, it is still a source that we have moved away from in the past 50 years as food production has become more and more industrialized.

Additionally, Pollan would argue, there is a greater likelyhood to have E.Coli tainted grain-fed beef because the E.Coli have become adapted to a more acidic environment.  Remember that a cow's rumen is usually at a neutral pH, all of the little microbes that thrive in it can not survive the much more acidic human stomach. So, during the slaughter process, if some of the contents of the grass-fed beeves' rumens come in contact with some of  the meat, it should not pose a great danger to us. Our bodies can kill the bacteria.  Not so with bacteria that has been able to thrive in the higher pH rumens of grain-fed beeves.

What can we do?  As much as possible, buy local, pasture raised/ grass-finished beef (meat in general).  Go to localharvest.org,  select farms and type in your zip code. Hopefully there is a local farm not too far away from you that sells pasture raised meat. Invest in a freezer and buy part of a cow, pig, lamb and stock up. It will save you many trips to the grocery store, and you will be helping the environment and your family in the long run.  As for price, as corn has become in higher demand for ethanol, the cost of grain-fed beef has risen...  For those of you who think it is too "gamey", it really is all about the cooking.  At my brother's rehearsal dinner, my parents served venison. The bride's brother in law was sitting next to me and stated that he really did not like the gamey taste of venison... until he ate his first bite of that venison.  It was very well prepared by the caterer and he ate it all.  Perhaps in one of my next posts I will discuss that!  (And speaking of venison, it is a great local grass-fed form of meat... perhaps more in yet another post.)