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Is Grass-Fed Beef Good for Your Health & the Planet?

Grass-fed beef is marketed to consumers as being nutritionally-superior to conventional beef. And it is. But that’s not a very high bar. When compared on a per calorie basis, grass-fed beef is higher in B vitamins, iron, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, and vitamins A and E (it’s also touted as being higher in omega-3 fatty acids, but the truth is it still has only a negligible amount of them). Plus, it’s lower in saturated fat. So grass-fed beef is more nutritious than conventional grain-fed beef. But that doesn’t exactly make it a “health food.” Overall, it’s still high in saturated fat, which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. And then…

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Featured

  “Grass-Fed” On The Label: What It Does (And Doesn’t) Tell You

What does the “grass-fed” label really mean? My research into food labeling regulations has opened my eyes, and the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve come to suspect that many (most?) labels are just full of crap (and frankly downright insulting at times). So I mentally added a “Research Grass-Fed Meat Labels” task to my to-do list and did some analysis for all of us.

 Eating Grass-Fed Beef Isn’t as Climate-Friendly as You May Think

With the global population climbing, researchers wanted to know whether grazing could help rein in climate change. This is what they learned.

 Grass-Fed Beef Loses Its Luster

It would be bad enough if "grass-fed" really did mean that the cattle ate grass growing in a pasture. But "grass-fed" does not mean "pasture-raised." Pasture is out there. In here, in the barns, they use grass pellets. Pellets that don't have anywhere near the right kind of nutrition.

 In carbon terms, grass-feed beef is not the greenest choice

When researchers factored in land use, they found pasture-finished beef was significantly more carbon-intensive than the grain-finished alternative.

 What Meat Labels Like 'Organic' and 'Grass Fed' Actually Mean—and Whether You Should Care

You may have heard that grass fed beef is healthier than grain fed beef, but the nutritional differences aren’t that significant. One common health claim is that grass fed beef has more omega-3 fatty acids than grain fed beef. While this is true, grass fed beef still has less than 5 percent of the omega-3s found in salmon, so it's not a significant source. Also, while grass fed beef has less overall fat than grain fed, fat content depends more on the cut of meat than feeding practices.

Articles of Interest

Is Grass-Fed Beef Better for You?

Grass-fed can mean a lot of things. But the American Grassfed Association, which has a certification program, refers to grass-fed animals “as those that have eaten nothing but grass and forage from weaning to harvest, have not been raised in confinement, and have never been fed antibiotics or growth hormones.”

A metabolomics comparison of plant-based meat and grass-fed meat indicates large nutritional differences despite comparable Nutrition Facts panels

The production of plant-based meats as a replacement for animal-sourced meat is nothing new. One of the earliest engineered meat alternatives was Protose, a plant-based meat alternative made from wheat gluten, peanuts, and soybean oil, which was designed by John Kellogg in the late nineteenth century.

Beware the Myth of Grass-Fed Beef

Cows raised at pasture are not immune to deadly E. coli bacteria.

Grass-Fed Beef, Sold One Cow at a Time

Long before the dawn of the computer, friends, families and neighbors banded together to buy cows from local cattle ranchers, divvying up the butchered parts into quarters and other fractions that stuffed their freezers and fed them for months. Websites like Craigslist have allowed people to recruit strangers to join in cow shares. Local ranchers advertise the shares through sites like Eatwild, and some sell beef directly to customers through their own sites.

Grass-Fed Beef: A Discerning Carnivore’s Guide

We love the notion that a happy cow yields great meat. Finally, the flavor of grass-fed beef is living up to the hype. Here’s where to get it and how to cook it.

Grass-Fed Beef: Is It Worth The Hype?

You’ve likely heard that grass-fed beef is the highest quality beef you can eat. But if you’re not sure about the benefits of grass-fed beef, you’ll learn all about it in this informative post.

How to Tell If Your Grass-Fed Beef Is Real

When you buy a pound of hamburger in the grocery store, you’re likely to be bombarded by an incredible assortment of labels. With all-natural, grass-fed, free-range, pastured, sustainably sourced, and certified organic options to choose from, it’s not easy to parse which beef is actually the best.

Industry seeks standard for grass-fed beef as demand grows

That pricey grass-fed burger you had for lunch may have come from a cow that ate more than just grass. As it stands now, the U.S. Agriculture Department will consider any labeling claim relating to what percentage of a cow’s diet was grass, as long as the company can back it up with documentation. Some say that’s misleading and that only animals fed grass from beginning to end should be labeled grass-fed.

Is Grass-Fed Beef Really Better For The Planet? Here's The Science

The grass-fed movement is based on a large idea, one known as regenerative agriculture or holistic management. It holds that grazing ruminant populations are key to a healthy ecosystem.

Pass on Grass

Is grass-fed beef better for the environment?

Soaring Popularity Of Grass-Fed Beef May Hit Roadblock: Less Nutritious Grass

Craine hasn't made an official determination of why nutrients in grasses are dropping, but if the trends he has noticed continue, beef producers may need dump huge amounts of nitrogen across the Great Plains.

The eco guide to grass-fed

Using products from livestock reared on grass as opposed to grain improves the lives of farm animals – and it has health benefits, too.

The most damaging farm products? Organic, pasture-fed beef and lamb

What are the world’s most damaging farm products? You might be amazed by the answer: organic, pasture-fed beef and lamb. I realise this is a shocking claim. Of all the statements in my new book, Regenesis, it has triggered the greatest rage. But I’m not trying to wind people up. I’m trying to represent the facts. Let me explain.

The Truth About Grass-Fed Beef

What's old is new again. Across the U.S. farmers are turning back to a traditional method of cattle raising: feeding cows on grassy pastures instead of troughs filled with corn. A decade ago, there were only about 50 grass-fed-cattle operations left in the United States. Now, there are thousands and the numbers are growing.

What’s Your Beef? Grass-Fed and Other Beef Terminology

Oliver agreed that the term "grass-fed" can be confusing, although the USDA has defined it, and recently issued rules for organic beef to ensure it comes from cows who are at least 30-percent grass-fed. Perhaps the more important question is not whether the cow eats grass but what else it has eaten, says Oliver, particularly because grain feed often includes preventive antibiotics, growth hormones or other additives.

Why eating grass-fed beef isn’t going to help fight climate change

Most studies conclude that if you look at the amount of land used and greenhouse gas emissions produced per kilogram of meat, pasture-based cattle actually have a greater climate impact than animals fed grains and soy. This is because commercial feeds tend to be less fibrous than grass, and so cows that eat them produce less methane (through belching and flatulence), which is a potent greenhouse gas. Animals in more intensive, grain-fed systems systems also reach slaughter weight faster than grass-fed animals do, so emissions over the animal’s entire lifetime are lower.

Why Grass-Fed Beef Is on a Roll

Not every retailer is onboard. Costco Wholesale Corp., the country’s second largest retailer after Wal-Mart, doesn’t sell grass-fed beef, though it sells organic ground beef in every U.S. store. The definition of grass-fed beef is still too ambiguous, the taste too inconsistent and Costco consumers gravitate most to an ‘organic’ label for now, says Jeff Lyons, Costco’s senior vice president of fresh foods.

‘It’s not the cow, it’s the how’: why a long-time vegetarian became beef’s biggest champion

Nicolette Hahn Niman was an environmental lawyer who became a cattle rancher, and didn’t eat meat for 33 years. For both the ecosystem and human health, she argues, it’s how animals are farmed that matters.

“Wild-caught,” “organic,” “grass-fed”: what do all these animal welfare labels actually mean?

A cow could be fed grass indoors in factory farm conditions and still qualify. “Grass-fed” also doesn’t necessarily mean “grass-finished” (those that are fed grass up until the day they’re killed); sometimes, to fatten up cows before slaughter, producers feed them grain, although the USDA claims not to allow this. And the label doesn’t address many other common welfare issues, such as dehorning, disbudding, branding, weaning time, and transport conditions.

Resources

15 Things You Didn’t Know About Grass-Fed Beef

Have you ever tried grass-fed beef? It’s not nearly as prevalent as the grain-fed kind, but if you have the opportunity to purchase grass-fed beef, here are some reasons why you should...

3 Myths (and 1 Truth) About Grain-Fed Beef

There's a lot to consider when deciding what kind of meat to buy--or even whether to eat meat at all. The least we can do is start with accurate information.

Crowd Cow

The very best beef from independent farms. No mystery. Just meat.

Dakota Grass Fed

Dakota Organic Beef provides the purest, most flavorful organic beef around. The only thing you’ll taste is simply natural beef because we never use hormones, antibiotics or harmful chemicals. And we believe in the importance of sustainable farming, respecting the land and animals, to provide healthy food for your family.

Eel River Organic Beef

Eel River Organic Beef is located in the remote North West corner of California in the Eel River Valley surrounded by lush green sub-irrigated pastures and giant Redwood trees. Because of our mild climate with an average yearly temp of 54.5 degrees F and average rainfall of 38 inches per year, our grass fed beef graze on lush green pastures year ’round. Eel River Organic Beef is proud to boast that we raise the finest and healthiest beef available.

Hearst Ranch

We are the nation’s largest single-source supplier of free-range, all-natural, grass-fed and grass-finished beef. We practice sustainable agriculture and managed grazing on our two ranches in Central California: the Piedra Blanca ranch in San Simeon and the Jack Ranch in Cholame.

Rain Crow Ranch

Dr. Whisnant is passionate about the solar based, 100% grassfed agricultural model that is better for the animals, better for the consumer, better for the land, and better for the family farms.