Why THO and I have given up industrially-raised beef

[OC]

This blog post pretty much says it all.

http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/05/18/why-i-eat-locally-produced-pasture-raised-meats/

[WhiskeyPapa]

Ruminants are really quite amazing. We will often raise our own lambs. They eat nothing but grass all summer long, yet by late fall, they are big and fat and ready to butcher. Each lamb yields about 40 lbs of meat. From what? Just grass and water. That is really amazing.

One year, I decided to supplement our lambs diet with corn. I thought they'd get bigger, but I didn't notice one bit of difference in their size or the taste of the meat. All I did was waste money on corn.

[MikeD]

Nice article.

Who's THO? I'm assuming t= "the" and o="other"...

[OC]

THO - The Happy One, my wonderful gf. :)

[gwilks98]

My father was telling me that grocery store and commercial meats are often loaded with salt and injected with water. (The salt allows you to push more water into the meat and not have it seep out.) This allows the markets to increase the weight (driving up price) and makes sub-par cuts look meatier. Once you take it home and grill it, you're meat shrinks comparably more than pasture meats not because of fat content but because the water is cooking off.


Because this is hearsay, can someone confirm this or prove it wrong?

I have a butcher right down the street from me and his meats are great, though pricey. How would I be able to tell if it's pasture meat?

[dougadam]

I have heard lamb is on of the better meats

[WhiskeyPapa]

I have a butcher right down the street from me and his meats are great, though pricey. How would I be able to tell if it's pasture meat?You would have to take his word for it. It would be a specialty product, and most likely labeled (and priced) as such.

Raising beef on pasture is not very efficient. It takes longer for the animal to reach market weight, and a lot of land, thus the price difference.

Hmmm, now I'm thinking maybe I should raise a couple steers. The problem is, a pasture raised steer takes up to 20 months to reach market weight.

[Maarchk]

THO - The Happy One, my wonderful gf. :)

I thought you meant TOH... The Other Half

[Houdini]

The scariest thing about that article, besides BSE, which is exceedingly rare, is the mention of 0157:H7. I'm not so sure that feeding cows grass all day in a field with other cattle eating grass and defecating as usual into the field would result in fewer cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the main fear of infection with that strain. We all have E.Coli in our guts, just differenet strains.

As long as you eat steak, etc., you're probably alright anyway, as the outside of the meat is cooked. So medium-rare or rare steaks are usually alright. The bacteria doesn't thrive INSIDE the meat, but the meat can be contaminated in the slaughterhouse. Hamburger, though, is ground up, so it's best to only eat well-done burgers.

[oblongmelon]

this is about food..shouldn't it be in THE SOFTER SIDE? I'm going to be staging a sit in soon on this one..

[gear02]

My father was telling me that grocery store and commercial meats are often loaded with salt and injected with water. (The salt allows you to push more water into the meat and not have it seep out.) This allows the markets to increase the weight (driving up price) and makes sub-par cuts look meatier. Once you take it home and grill it, you're meat shrinks comparably more than pasture meats not because of fat content but because the water is cooking off.


Because this is hearsay, can someone confirm this or prove it wrong?

I have a butcher right down the street from me and his meats are great, though pricey. How would I be able to tell if it's pasture meat?

I don't think raw beef, pork, or chicken is injected with salt and water. Doesn't make sense.

However, I do know that cooked ham is often loaded with salt and water. On those packages, you'll see the term "water added". But you can get ham that's not loaded with water if you know what you what you're looking for, or you can buy a ham hock and cook it yourself. Just watch Good Eats, one of my favorite shows.

[johnnymk]

My sister tells me that you would never drink milk if you found out how cows are treated at these mega-farms.

[OC]

My sister tells me that you would never drink milk if you found out how cows are treated at these mega-farms.We've been getting our milk from a local dairy (http://www.homelandcreamery.com/home.htm) lately. So incredibly fresh and good. The taste is amazing.

[blueindian]

We've been getting our milk from a local dairy (http://www.homelandcreamery.com/home.htm) lately. So incredibly fresh and good. The taste is amazing.

we get milk from the local dairy (http://www.mapleviewfarm.com/) and eggs from the local egg man. we don't eat meat, but if we did it would be from the local farmers as well. local food rocks; factory farms are disgusting.

oc, does your dairy use glass jugs? back when i lived in GSO, the local milk was from Chrome Dairy up in Winston, which used glass. ours does, folks used to a plastic jug get a kick out 'em.

[OC]

We've been getting the milk in gallon-sized plastic jugs. I can't say for certain that Homeland Creamery doesn't do glass though. We've seen milk in glass jugs at a few stores, but we haven't taken a close look at them yet. Doing that is on our list though.

[blueindian]

We've been getting the milk in gallon-sized plastic jugs. I can't say for certain that Homeland Creamery doesn't do glass though. We've seen milk in glass jugs at a few stores, but we haven't taken a close look at them yet. Doing that is on our list though.

have you been to the downtown farmer's market yet? it's a lot smaller than the one out on I40, but way better. On saturdays they have old folk playing bluegrass. lot's of local organic produce, killer flowers. the goat lady is there wilth all her cheese. anyway, there's this one guy that comes up from south carolina, his specialty is double yoke eggs. as i recall, they were $2.50/dozen. mighty tasty.

[OC]

have you been to the downtown farmer's market yet? it's a lot smaller than the one out on I40, but way better. On saturdays they have old folk playing bluegrass. lot's of local organic produce, killer flowers. the goat lady is there wilth all her cheese. anyway, there's this one guy that comes up from south carolina, his specialty is double yoke eggs. as i recall, they were
$2.50/dozen. mighty tasty.Do you mean the mostly-indoor curb market? We went Wednesday and there was hardly anyone there. We're going back today to check out the Saturday crowd. We went to the big one on I-40 last weekend, and we'll probably hit it again tomorrow to get some veggie plantings.

[blueindian]

Do you mean the mostly-indoor curb market? We went Wednesday and there was hardly anyone there. We're going back today to check out the Saturday crowd. We went to the big one on I-40 last weekend, and we'll probably hit it again tomorrow to get some veggie plantings.

yeah, the indoor one. wednesay is dead until the middle of the summer, and you've already missed it for today. well, all the good stuff anyway. i usually went around 6:30 am on saturdays.

[OC]

Nope, they're open il noon Saturdays.

[blueindian]

Nope, they're open il noon Saturdays.

no, what i'm saying is that all the good stuff is gone by now. they're open, yes, but the early birds have already bought everything. except for flowers, everything else is pretty picked over by about 10:00.

[johnnymk]

we get milk from the local dairy (http://www.mapleviewfarm.com/) and eggs from the local egg man. we don't eat meat, but if we did it would be from the local farmers as well. local food rocks; factory farms are disgusting.


blueindian...how is your general health? Any allergies? fewer colds than others? It sounds like your diet consists of healthy food.

[OC]

no, what i'm saying is that all the good stuff is gone by now. they're open, yes, but the early birds have already bought everything. except for flowers, everything else is pretty picked over by about 10:00.Ah. Yep, you were right. We're going to go earlier next Saturday. We did score some local ground beef (just a couple patties to try) from Homeland Creamery, a green bell pepper, lettuce, and a flat of eggs.

[Houdini]

recently purchased 1/2 gallon of milk from Whole Foods that specifically indicated on more than one place on the carton that it came from cows NOT treated with rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone.) I have no idea why people are so worried about that to begin with. Until some studies are done showing that it is actually in the milk and affects humans, I just can't really get worked up about it.

Also, I'm tired of hearing about "frankenfood," - veggies genetically enhanced to make crops more hearty and productive - which can dramatically increase plants/acre, etc. It could be the answer to feeding the world, but too many people are worried about "changing nature."

Having said that, and the fact that I couldn't care less if my produce is fertilized wit
Ih manure or nitrates, the produce at the local "organic" store mentioned above has awesome produce, even the non-"organic" stuff.

[blueindian]

Also, I'm tired of hearing about "frankenfood," - veggies genetically enhanced to make crops more hearty and productive - which can dramatically increase plants/acre, etc. It could be the answer to feeding the world, but too many people are worried about "changing nature."



genetic modification is not the answer to feeding the world. people in this world are not hungry for lack of food production capacity, they are hungry for social, political, and economic boundries that prohibit the proper means for food distribution.

[Houdini]

genetic modification is not the answer to feeding the world. people in this world are not hungry for lack of food production capacity, they are hungry for social, political, and economic boundries that prohibit the proper means for food distribution.

Perhaps, but enhancing the amount of food, the duration it lasts before spoiling, etc., can only help the situation. We have the technology now, so why not use it?

[blueindian]

Perhaps, but enhancing the amount of food, the duration it lasts before spoiling, etc., can only help the situation. We have the technology now, so why not use it?

there are dangers associated with gen mod foods. remember star link corn? there's also serrious cross-pollination issues to deal with. it's not like they grow the stuff indoors.

i guess my biggest answer to "why not use it" though is that we just don't need it. if we progress to the point that the problem with world hunger is a lack for production, then maybe. however, before we got to that point I'd rather see social changes such a moving towards less animal consumption in the US. Did you know that roughly 70% of the grain we grow in the country is fed to ruminamnts? imagine the extra crops we could grow if we cut our consumption of meat by 20-30%!

[Kevster]

When I was growing up in a rural area outside Sacramento, we used to raise our own beef. We would have one of our two cows artificially inseminated when they came into season and we'd slaughter the calves after they got to 1-2 years old. They ate just about anything (since they were cows :heh: ), including all the spoiled fruit and vegetables we minght have had, their daily alfalfa (or pasture grass on our 3 acres), and the occasional grazing on the front lawn when they figured out how to open the gate. When I left for college I could definitely tell the meat wasn't the same, and I missed the home-grown meat I had at home. I adamantly hate the feedlot industry, but unfortunately it isn't going away anytime soon.

With that all said, I still prefer to eat fish. Preferably trout I caught about 10 minutes ago. :)

[blueindian]

blueindian...how is your general health? Any allergies? fewer colds than others? It sounds like your diet consists of healthy food.

i have hay fever and eczema, but i've had that all my life. i'm suspicious that i may be allergic to pesticides since when i get primarily organic food my eczema will pratically go away. could be that i'm finally outgrowing it though, who knows?

i don't often get sick.

i do tend to eat healthy food, although i eat too much of it :)

[gear02]

What's the difference between the non-industrial beef you're talking about and organic beef?

[Houdini]

there are dangers associated with gen mod foods. remember star link corn? there's also serrious cross-pollination issues to deal with. it's not like they grow the stuff indoors.

i guess my biggest answer to "why not use it" though is that we just don't need it. if we progress to the point that the problem with world hunger is a lack for production, then maybe. however, before we got to that point I'd rather see social changes such a moving towards less animal consumption in the US. Did you know that roughly 70% of the grain we grow in the country is fed to ruminamnts? imagine the extra crops we could grow if we cut our consumption of meat by 20-30%!

Well, there are theoritical dangers associated with just about anything. More resilient crops or produce with longer shelf lives, etc., can be produced with simple genetic modification. Perhaps produce can be and/or is being made with higher nutritional content. Mostly, it's just a matter of taking plant A's genes, which for whatever reason make plant A produce more or last longer, and inserting them into plant B (which may be the same type of plant.) I see it as simply hastening the evolution of some of these plants, as the better ones will grow better in the long term anyway. Also, if you can make, say, corn or apples grow in areas of, say, Africa or Siberia that aren't too good for growing produce via genetic modification, why not? It's not like the genes of the plants are used by our bodies or can harm us.

In short, I'm all for making food healthier and, well, cheaper and easier to grow. If we could dramatically increase our amount of grain grown, such as by making it thrive year-round, we wouldn't have to worry about cows eating all the grain. Then we wouldn't have to worry about cutting our meat consumption. I've seen enough anemic vegans and vegetarians to influence me not to become one. Then again, I just like good hamburgers, steaks, chicken, fish, shrimp, crawfish, venison, etc.... :)

Also, re: food distribution. One of the reasons politics gets in the way there, for example, is when a local warlord or dictator hoards the food and distributes it only to some people, etc. (like Aidid) They had to import everything. Now, if your average Somali could grow a boatload of edible stuff himself in bad soil in harsh conditions, it could undermine the political crap. Same thing with Russia during the Cold War. Yeah, we were enemies and had nukes aimed at each other, but we exported a LOT of grain, etc., to some starving Soviet states. It was nice of us. They couldn't grow their own. If we could make food that could be grown there, we wouldn't have to export it or worry about the distributor. :shrug:

[Memo]

Buncha hippies! ;)

[sourdough]

I'm a vegetarian myself. ;)