In my household we eat meat and we are proud of the meat we eat.

Taking pride in the foods we consume is trendy and popular in America right now. The organic movement has exploded in the last decade; the local food movement is growing strong; and sustainable means of food production are also gaining traction, (though this last term is less easily defined.) For me though, I am waiting for ‘grass-fed’ to join the mainstream lexicon. Well, maybe it has and maybe it hasn’t. Some people have heard the phrase, but I don’t think most folks know why this concept is so important. Consider this the beginning of why.

In past posts, I praised Joel Salatin and other farmers who practice sustainable farming techniques. The animals raised on these farms spend most of their life grazing, also known as “free range.” The environmental benefits of Salatin’s farming method are immense. Salatin claims that his techniques are “beyond-organic,” and to be honest, I think he may be right. It’s interesting that organic as a descriptive word and a concept has gained so much attention, even when the health benefits of organic foods is not completely proven. In my opinion, buying ‘organic’ has less to do with the health benefits for the individual and more to do with the larger environmental issues. And yet, there are clear health benefits to grass-fed and pasture-raised animals and this “ideal” has not entered the mainstream worldview. (We can blame this on industrial agriculture and its pal, Concentrated Animal Factory Operations or CAFOs.) Check this out.

So, why eat grass-fed and pasture-raised animals?

For me, there is one main reason to eat grass-fed and pasture-raised animals:                                                              1. Animals that live and eat this way are really, really healthy for you. When the animal lives a healthy existence you can be assured that its meat will make you healthy too.

Like most things on the internet, there are tons of resources to glean information. An excellent place to start is the Weston A. Price Foundation. According to the site, the foundation began as a place to share the knowledge of Dr. Weston Price. Dr. Price was a dentist and nutritionist and traveled the world studying the diets of non-industrialized people. In his research, Dr. Price found that modern society is plagued by numerous ailments (i.e. cavities, asthma, headaches, heart disease, cancer and other degenerative diseases.) And yet, he did not find any of these conditions among people living in non-industrialized communities. What were these people doing to avoid such awful ailments? His findings were and still are controversial. (See the Weston A. Price Foundation site for the details.) Americans have been consuming processed foods, refined sugar and refined flours for generations. And it is not hard to believe that corporations have hidden information from us for a long time. (See Marion Nestle’s Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.)

As consequence to the lobbying of industrial food, few people know about the health benefits of eating grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. Instead, we associate red meat with heart disease, eggs with heart attacks and butter with cholesterol. These connections exist because the vast majority of animal products (meat, milk, eggs and butter) come from animals eating outside their natural diet. Grocery-store beef is super fatty because the cow is eating grains and cows cannot digest grain! Cows ruminate which allows the cow to digest the cellulose in grass. Thus, in the case of grass-fed beef, the levels of saturated fatty acids are lower and the rates of monosaturated, polysaturated, omega-3 and omega-6 fats are considerably higher. (See some hard data here.) Upon learning this, it is especially striking to notice the jump in salmon consumption once word got out that wild salmon is high in omega-3 and 6. The reason why wild salmon is high in these healthy fats is because wild salmon eat grass! Well, they don’t eat grass but they do eat algae and plants in the ocean. And guess what?! Plants are the source for these omega-3 and 6 fats! And now the salmon population is decimated by over-fishing. Damn.

There is hope yet. Clearly we need to eat less wild salmon, maybe never eat it again – depending on your commitment to maintaining salmon populations. Or, eat it less often. Maybe only eat salmon on special occasions, like when you visit the NW and eat the fish as fresh as can be. Either way, I think the case is made for grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. If the case has not been made, check out this excellent site for more facts on the issue:

Eat Wild – One of the best websites for finding farms that are committed to grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. This site also has tons of facts and more sources for scientific data on the subject.

As you can see by the title of this post, this is the beginning of a conversation on grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. I like to consider myself an advocate for the cause, as I truly believe this is incredibly important information for all meat eaters. Eating meat should be a luxury not a convenience. And if you choose to live by this standard, then I suggest we all pay extra for animal products that will benefit the Earth and our health.

Related posts:

1. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 4)
2. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 3)
3. “The Portland Meat Collective” (or) The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 4)
4. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 2)
5. The Case Against Farmed Salmon

Tags: Chicken, cow, Grass-Fed, Joel Salatin, Nutrition, salmon