Grass-fed beef - Is this what you pictured?

beef
#1

This…

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…or this?:

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What are we getting peddled due to English language technicalities?

Pasture-fed anyone?

(Edith) #2

I guess that’s no different than free range versus pastured chicken. :pensive:

(Bob M) #3

Only problem is that most (basically, all) cows are initially pasture-raised. It’s how they are finished that’s an issue. Feedlot or on pasture?

Whereas chickens may never see the light of day.

(Joey) #4

Likely so. Perhaps we ought to look for “grass & sun fed beef”?

#5

While I don’t doubt there’s some weird stuff going on, since all cows are grass fed anyways until they hit the end of the line for the last couple of weeks or so, once they hit that point they’re not going to be out in pastures, and in the case of beef that needs to be grass finished, that second picture would make sense.

(Joey) #6

Are you sure? :thinking:

''Where beef is mass-produced, such as in the United States, cattle are usually fed grain."


(William) #7

For what it’s worth, I asked my local butcher the other day what were the cows fed because I always thought they were grass-fed, considering we have pastures pretty much everywhere in southern Belgium. He told me they were on pasture for a while and then proceeded to (proudly) tell me that they were fed a mix of grains from silos and only went back to pasture before slaughter during spring and summer, if at all. That’s for meat around 13€ per kg, ground. When asking for cuts the prices are crazy high.

#8

So very stupid and it makes me angry. We will pay more for that to pay for the silly machines and because they can claim grass fed on a technicality. And that’s not even the healthiest grass for them! Turf? SMH. Isn’t it better to be alfalfa and wild grasses? Cows do better in the open field roaming it and having exposure to the sun and sky.

Someone let me know when they discover a country that isn’t like America so that I can move there. It’s exhausting living here dealing with all the misleading messages and greed.

(KM) #9

Oh, we didn’t invent greed or even marketing, we’ve just elevated them to an art form. Possibly even a religion. :rage:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

The only real solution is to buy from a farm that you know for sure practises regenerative agriculture.

(Geoffrey) #11

Well those articles just made his point.

(Geoffrey) #12

Like mine? :grin:

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I’ve never seen a machine like that. Kind of strange looking but rather interesting at the same time.
Yes, when people hear grass fed they envision cattle ranging on the open prairie but the producers have found a loop hole. I agree that it’s terrible that they play fast and loose with the definitions. It’s no different than advertising “cage free” eggs. It’s all BS. The only cure is to raise your own or buy from a trusted source.
To be honest though, I have a bigger problem with feeding the cattle loose cut fresh grass like that.
I had a new neighbor, a really good guy and we are friends, that was tossing his yard clippings over my fence to give them to my cattle. His intentions were good but I had to ask him not to do that anymore. Being a city boy and living in the country for the first time he had some learning to do and one of those things to learn is don’t give cattle fresh cut grass. They can eat it too fast and too much at a time and get sick from it. They need to graze at a slow pace eating naturally.

(KM) #13

Funny, we went to the State Fair, just around the corner from our house, last year. One of the cows was outside and its owner was next to her yanking up handfuls of grass. I thought how weird, can’t she gather her own grass?? Turns out they were just using it to clean off her rump, but in my misperception it occurred to me for the first time that grass-fed might not mean what I thought.

(Joey) #14

? … that’s not how I read them. :man_shrugging:

(Geoffrey) #15

Those articles were saying the same thing @lfod14 was saying.
All cattle are on pasture until it’s time to finish them. At that point they can be finished on grass or grain.
He was accurate in what he said.
He wasn’t saying there was a difference between the two.
The cattle I raise for my food will stay on pasture until I haul them off to slaughter but the ones I sell probably go to the feed lots.

(Joey) #16

That’s not how I read them, but if so I stand corrected. Thanks.

#17

All kidding aside, can you come up with a way to produce the amount of beef it takes to actually feed people without industrializing it? Good Luck! People can’t compare places like the US to small little countries where their entire population is smaller than one of our big cities. It doesn’t scale now, it didn’t back when agriculture got the way it was either, which is why it happened.

We have no shortage of Grass Finished beef available to us, whether in stores or not, tons of meat services that are much more direct to consumer than the mega places, industrialized food is a necessity, at least if people aren’t going to starve.

The misleading things like “Organic” absolutely need to change and that term needs to be more strictly controlled but as a whole, anybody paying attention knows what to look for, and those who aren’t, don’t care about that stuff anyways.

I stopped going for grass finished beef, I was paying too much, and it didn’t taste as good, but if I were, it makes no difference if the cattle bit it off the ground, or ate it out of a bin, as long as that’s what they were eating.

#18

Well I feel like America certainly has enough land and pasture to raise cattle and bison and sheep responsibly for pretty much everyone. It’s just not as financially lucrative to big corporations to do it that way, and they always want a less labor intensive, cheaper approach regardless the negative impact to public health. It’s not because we can’t feed the masses that they do it the way they do, though they certainly love you believing that.

I grew up on a farm and I saw both kinds of farms. I know the land and capability to do it more healthy for both the animals and us is definitely there.

#19

The kangaroos are breeding with the new winter grass. Maybe we should be eating the local herbivore here.

(Alec) #20

This is why I do not buy the expensive meat… we are being conned. Cheap stuff is just fine.