— The Mercury News jumps on the latest trend in eating, the return of grass-fed beef to the United States:
In the United States, grass feeding was the norm until the end of World War II, when gunpowder plants were converted into nitrogen fertilizer plants. The fertilizer was then applied to cornfields in the Midwest, tripling production and sending commodities markets into a tailspin, says Ernest Phinney, general manager of Western Grasslands Beef, a cooperative of six Northern California family ranchers.
After grain prices crashed, fertilizer companies began to offer farmers subsidies to use their fertilizers to grow corn. Eventually, corn replaced grass as the feed of choice for steers in their last months before slaughter because it was cheaper and it bulked up the animals more quickly — adding as much as three pounds a day, compared to grass’ one pound.
In the past few years, there has been a resurgence in grass feeding among some California ranchers who are trying to preserve their way of life by producing a more artisanal product, one that they argue is also more sustainable because cattle are eating what is natural to them, unlike corn, which is more difficult to digest and often leads to ailments that require antibiotics. Even so, less than 1 percent of the 30 million cattle raised for meat annually in the United States is primarily grass-fed, says the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
The story’s also been covered in the Chronicle and in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The appeal is pretty easy to see: beef that’s lower in cholesterol than chicken or fish, and high in healthy stuff like omega 3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA, both of which are thought to help fight cancer. And the animals aren’t over-dosed with antibiotics in feed lots, or subjected to months of diarrhea from eating a grain diet that their digestive systems can’t really handle. So order some grass-fed beef, from Marin Sun Farms like we do, or another local producer, and invite some vegetarians over for a barbecue. When they turn down the offer of juicy steaks, tell them it’s healthier than tofu, because it is. And watch them squirm.
Seriously, we just got our second annual order of artisan beef, this one a quarter of a grass-fed Angus/Hereford cross from Marin, after last year’s quarter of a Longhorn from Minnasoooda. Longhorns are too lean naturally to feed exclusively on grass, so we went for the local beef this year to get the higher Omega-3 and such. The fat from a grass-fed steer is yellow from all the beta carotene in their diet, and the meat has a more intense beefy flavor. Cooking requires some adjustment, unless you’re used to dry-aged prime beef, but properly-done steaks, stews, and chili are tender enough to eat with no hardship. And the beefs are trained to come when they’re called. My gratitude to the beef god for the steer who gave up his young life that we and three others may eat great curry for another year.