Grass Fed Beef Gets Thumbs Up From Park Slope


Not all food nuts are equal. The 14 000 members of the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn, NY, are certainly not your average chow mutts.

This 35 year old co-op has standards that are way high, their discipline legendary.

If members fail to give their 2 hours and 45 minutes every four weeks to working at the co-op, nothing short of a disciplinary hearing follows. In the past they have refused to market foodstuffs from Chile and South Africa for political reasons.

Their political conscience have not weakened over time. Consider the recent issue of the Bottled Water. Following a massive internal debate, the co-op decided it was not correct to market bottled water (for more information about that spat go here) and they discontinued the sale of designer bottled water forthwith.

So if your product is marketed through the Park Slope Food Co-op you know that it has the mark of authority. Here’s the thing: the only red meat marketed at Park Slope is grassfed beef that is locally raised.

Surely grassfed beef has never received such a worthy compliment!

Grassfed Beef Features In TV Ad

Grassfed beef is the height of luxury if you believe this vehicle commercial. We know that it is the best- tasting beef available, of course, but we don’t like to think of grassfed beef as a luxury. We like to think of it as an absolute necessity, and the very best choice you can make for your family — and for the planet. Feeding corn to cattle is expensive and unhealthy to the environment and to humans. Cattle should eat grass as nature intended, and human beings should reap the health benefits of certified grassfed beef…

Make The Most Of Grassfed Beef

If you are a lover of grassfed beef (as we are!) you need to know about Shannon Hayes (above), who is the author of The Grassfed Gourmet and The Farmer and the Grill, the host of www.grassfedcooking.com and a New York farmer herself. You can order her books on the above website. She takes grassfed cookery to a whole new level. Thanks Shannon and congratulations on your dedication to a wonderful, world-saving cause.

Grassfed Beef Recommended For Healthy Fast Weight Loss

Boy did this guy get it right! In an article here Jonny Bowden PhD, CNS recommends grassfed beef as a top food for fast, healthy weight loss.

He reasons that red meat is a great weight-loss food “but it’s hard to recommend if it’s filled with antibiotics, steroids and hormones.”

He recommends to dieters to “buy grassfed beef and avoid the problems while getting all the terrific benefits.”

We have to agree!

Cool, Authoritative Article On FoodPrints

Jo-Ann Heslin, MA RD CDN has written a dynamite article here about FoodPrints and how to reduce them through the choices you make. In case you have no time to read the full text, she quotes the five steps suggested by the Cool Food Campaign to reduce your FoodPrints:

  • Buy organic and look for the USDA organic label.
  • Limit your consumption of conventional meat and dairy foods and farmed seafood. (I take this to mean eat more grassfed beef!)
  • Do your best to avoid processed foods all together.
  • Choose locally produced foods or foods grown as close to your home as possible.
  • Avoid excessively packaged food.

These steps are not easy to achieve, especially on a limited budget. But you have to start taking steps in the right direction until finally we are all eating Cool Food, nothing else.

Eat Grassfed Beef And Save The World

I always knew there was more to cornfed cattle than over fatty meat that tastes like a feedlot. Well, it turns out I was right.

The world food crisis is making people focus on the cost of corn and it emerges that cornfed meat consumption is an even bigger villain that biofuels when it comes to corn-gobbling.

Only about 10% of the world’s corn goes to biofuels, while a staggering 40% goes into meat production. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition estimates that it takes at least 8 pounds of grain to make every pound of cornfed beef. For an intelligent, detailed article on this argument, take a look here.

So to make a meaningful contribution to solving the world food crisis, choose grassfed beef. You can’t get any greener….

Another Boost For Grassfed Cattle Farming

I was reading through an NY state newspaper the other day and was interested to learn that a lot of dairy farmers are turning to beef production, letting those cattle roam free on pasture, “because of the shortage of farm labor”. Well, I guess there is no real shortage of farm labor but definitely a shortage of affordable, reliable and hassle-free farm labor. Whatever the real reason that labor is less of an option these days, it’s good news for the certified grassfed beed industry and health-conscious consumers. It translates into more good, healthy, natural beef out there on the shelves. I believe that a lot more benefits are coming to the grassfed beef industry caused by the the high cost of corn, for one. Read here about a bunch of farmers turning from dairy to beef farming.

The Latest Ethanol Industry Trends Are Great For Grassfed Beef Industry

Until recently the livestock of this country were fed primarily corn and this has done on feedlots. That means hundreds of cattle standing in a confined space being fed corn to fatten them quickly for the market. The rise of the ethanol industry is changing all that and we are pretty pleased about it. You can read hand-wringing articles such as this one, bemoaning the fact that there just is not enough corn left over for the cattle because it’s all being used for ethanol production.

This development is having two or three fantastic results for all Americans. The one is that due to the rocketing price of corn, the price of feedlot-raised beef is catching up with the price of grassfed beef. This means that making the healthy choice i.e. selecting grassfed above ordinary beef, is going to be a lot easier for consumers. It also means that cattle farmers are seriously looking at forage as a viable farming method.

These farmers may take longer to get their cattle to the point where they’re large and meaty enough to start the long process to your dinner plate. But they also say they save on things like fertilizer and other expenses corn-feeders incur. And grass-fed cattle are healthier, and healthier for you too, the ranchers also say. That’s good for health-conscious folk who love eating red meat, and good news for cattle who naturally prefer being out there on the range grazing or eating grass-based feed than standing in a feedlot being fast- fattened with corn for the market.

Another great result is that with the increase in domestic ethanol production Americans are becoming less dependent on imported fossil fuels. We just do not see any downside to the run on corn for ethanol.

Grassfed Means Down Home And Real

As dedicated watchers of social developments involving grassfed cattle it we have noticed that the home-conscious woman, who is often home schooler, home maker and home chef too, is a vital player in the grassfed beef market. It is the homemaker, after all, who leads the way in nutritional trends. Now that moms are looking for healthy, low-fat alternatives to the usual old fatty and fast food, they are discovering “slow meat”, a variation on “slow food”.

Grassfed beef is the healthy kind. It takes longer to grow and it has to be raised under natural conditions: no dubious feed components or hormones added! The best of grassfed beef is labeled as such. The best proof of all that you are eating grassfed beef is the great taste! All the extra effort on the part of farmers means that grassfed beef is more expensive than the other kind but homemakers are finding the benefits are worth it. Take a look at a fine friend and family blog here for an authentic example of what a home-loving mom has to say about certified grassfed beef….