save the planet - give up meat

[G3farms]

It may taste good but it isn't as good for you as properly raised beef (which is naturally 'finished' by eating grain, because the animals should go to slaughter in the early fall, which is after the grasses have set seed). Humans just don't get it.

Could you please elaborate on the "proper way to finish", I would like to know.

"humans just don't grt it"...................are you not human??

G3

[reinbeau]

I'm human, but one of the ones who likes to study and learn.  Cattle are ruminants, they eat grasses and forbs, and grains at the end of the season.  'Grain Fed' was sold to us as better tasting, better for us beef, turns out it's a horrible way to raise cattle for consumption, other than making money faster.  We are eating muscle filled with inflammation, the antibiotics are needed to keep them from dying of the infection brewing in their rumens, where it's a race to feed the steer and get him to market weight before that infection kills him - it's nasty.  The ratio of omegas is off because they should be eating the grasses that are full of Omega-3s, instead they're eating corn that's full of Omega-6s, that sends our cholesterol off - but someone is making money!!  I guess that's the more important thing here, not good food production but profit margins.  We've been sold a bill of goods, it's the root of so much of the health problems in this country (obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes - heck, diabetes is a lifestyle now!). 

Brian, you and your brother had it right - Joel Salatin is working that system pretty well for himself down in Virginia.

[G3farms]

Well if you will notice mine are on plenty of grass, spring water, mineral salt block, good hay and a feed mix (not just straight grain). They have not had any antibiotics in their life. What would cause their musles to be inflamed They are not ailing from anything.

Just asking and not trying to pick on you or start a fight in any way at all, but just wondering if you eat beef (or pork, poultry, fish, etc.)? and if so how do you go about picking it out........home grown, super market, or somewhere else? Like I said just curious.

I am trying more and more to grow what my family eats and get away from the industrial farm food products. I'm not a tree hugger by a long shot, but most people have no clue what they are eating. We can taste the difference in home grown veggies and meats.

G3

[reinbeau]

You're growing it right, I've got no problems with your kind of management.  Unfortunately that isn't how the huge CAFO operations work.  I definitely eat beef, and anything else that doesn't eat me first  I just really wish we could step back about 40-50 years, before the real industrial revolution happened with our food supply.  I'm old enough to remember what real, well raised beef tasted like.  I'll bet yours tastes like it!

What causes the inflammation in the CAFO raised beef is the constant infection in their rumen from eating a corn based diet.  They just aren't supposed to eat that much grain.  Pigs can, chickens can, but ruminants can't.

I wish it were cheaper to get well-raised meats here.  I buy it at the local health food store, because of the price, we eat much less of it than we used to!!  I buy frozen fish from Trader Joe's, only wild caught.  If I want fresh, I'm fortunate, being here on the South Shore of Massachusetts, we've got lots of good seafood vendors to choose from.