There is a lot of jargon that is used out there, and most people do not understand what it these labels mean. Some of these labels come down to how “humanely” the animals are treated and others make a difference in the flavor or nutrients. I will run through this jargon for you, so you can decide whether or not it is worth it for meat with these fancy labels.
Sitting at a table this weekend with a couple discussing “grass fed beef” and their shock over how much better it tasted, gave me the ability to teach 8 more people about how meat is processed in our country, to explain that it is not a shock that the meat tasted so much better. Growing up on a small farm (it was a nothing more than a self-sustaining farm with 1 cow and pig at a time and chickens and turkeys to give us eggs and feed us year round), I always knew how animals should be raised. My mother, also an avid animal lover, kept the animals as pets until they were slaughtered (well except the turkeys, they are huge jerks). But we had random animals, ponies, turkens (yes it is a real animal, ugly, but real nonetheless), a goat, and all sorts of barnyard friends.
Me on our Indian pony
The 1930s was a hard time in America. The country was crippled from the depression and farmers worked hard to figure out ways to make Agriculture more cost effective so that both people could afford their products and so the average American could more easily afford them. What this meant for us was a completely different way of raising animals for human consumption.
My Great-Grandmother (Elsie) and her cow
Most meat and dairy products are now produced in large farms where only one animal is housed and most are raised in a “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation,” or CAFO, by ways where the animals are given little space by high calories to try to fatten them up quickly so they can be sold for slaughter in less time. I will try to save you most of the horrors of these types of operations (after all, if you wanted to know you would look it up yourself) and stick with the important points. I apologize if, on occasion, my personal beliefs poke in there (I have left out my despise of veal and foie gras). I might be a meat eating Domestic Goddess; however, I am also an animal rescuer.
Beef- Traditionally in CAFOs cows are not fed the meals they would naturally eat (grass) and instead are fed corn. Corn is a cheap product in this country making it an affordable way to both fatten up cows; however, since they are not meant to eat grain it causes other issues. 70% of all antibiotics used in America are used in cows. Since cows do not nauturally eat corn, it is not something their systems are designed to digest and so antibiotics keep the cows from becoming sick from this unnatural feed. Also since CAFOs are not hygienic and so this is done to prevent intestinal parasites once again allowing cows to get larger that they would otherwise. Besides the antibiotics used, hormones are often given to cows because it improves feed efficiency, rate of muscle development and just makes the dead cow look more appealing. Antibiotics and hormones help lower the farmers cost and raise the value of the meat so it is widely used. Many of these hormones are synthetic; however, there have not been studies on how that affects people who consume them (it is postulated that these hormones are what is causing early menstruation and development in children, but again, long term studies are lacking) but the waste water from runoffs have shown fish develop unusual sex characteristics (such as having both male and female sexual organs).
Grass Fed- what’s the big deal?
Most grass-fed cattle are much leaner so the fat content and caloric level of the meat is much lower than the traditionally corn-fed meat. So for those who think the fat is the best tasting part of the beef, this might not be for you. Nutritionally speaking (besides lacking antibiotics and hormones) meat from grass-fed cattle also have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, and over 400% the vitamins A and C as corn-fed beef, making it better all together for your body. Since Mad Cow disease also came about by the feeding of tainted animals to other animals, if you are concerned with diseases such as these, grass fed beef is much safer as well. However, grass-fed beef is not standardized as much as traditionally raised cattle and you may find your taste buds prefer corn-fed beef, but I would suggest all die hard steak eaters (like me) give it a try at least once.
Like all producers and sellers, there are some tricks that are associated to try to fool consumers. There is a difference between grass fed (whereas the cows are fed grass their entire lives) and Grass Finished Beef. Finishing is just another word for the time that cattle are normally fattened for the last 3-5 months on grass. While this does increase the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in the meat, it still does not have all the health benefits of grass fed beef.
My Great-Grandmother, Elsie, and her chickens. True free-roaming birds.
Poultry- is buying organic, cage free or free range any better? The answer might surprise you.
Organic chicken is chicken that has only been fed organic grains, which means that no pesticides or chemicals were used on the farm to grow the grain in the last three years. The chicken must also never have been given antibiotics, drugs, or hormones to accelerate growth; however, if they get sick they will be treated (and this is pretty much a given in large farms). I am a proponent for animals with less drugs and hormones (for reasons described about the cows). Organic might not make a huge difference in taste, but would probably be the best of the options as for balancing healthier chicken and humane keeping (although unless you know where the chicken comes from, there is still a good chance they are inhumanely treated while living).
Cage free- Ideally cage free chickens never have to ordeal the hell of farmed chickens being crammed in cages with other hens and no space; however, this term has been bastardized to not mean much. Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs in New Hampshire have “cage free” chickens, so they charge more for the product, but the truth is instead of in cages they have 20,000 chickens crammed in a 400 ft long shed. So this is not any healthy or more humane than normal farmed chickens.
Free Range- The term free range means that they chickens have to have access to go outside. We would like to imagine chickens living in a field, picking green grass and eating bugs and playing chicken games like pin the tail on the weasel, but again, this term has been used for a marketing ploy with no true benefit to the chicken or consumer. This often means that they might be able to go out to a tiny section where there is fresh air but may only have gravel and no pecking going on at all.
I will save you from the horror of what really happens in these places; however, unless you know the farm where your chicken is coming from, it is very likely that you are wasting your money buying “free range” and “cage free” animals. In this case, you might as well stick with the normal cheap chicken and save your money to get yourself a few hens to lay eggs.
Farmed Salmon vs Wild Salmon From both a nutritional and environmental impact perspective, farmed fish are far inferior to their wild counterparts. Despite being much fattier, farmed fish provide less usable beneficial omega 3 fats than wild fish (and isn’t that the reason most people want to eat fish in the first place?). Much like with CAFO beef, farm-raised fish are doused with antibiotics as well are exposed to much more pesticides than wild fish are. On top of the pesticides and antibiotics, farmed salmon are also given food coloring to change their meat to a pink color rather than the bland natural gray color. The huge setback to wild salmon is the price, true wild salmon can cost up to $10/lb more than their farmed cousins making it cost prohibitive.
So what does it all mean? It means for me, I will continue to eat regular chicken (although I think they are some of the most inhumanely treated animals and so I will curtail my consumption of them), and I would prefer to eat organic meat to try to keep as many hormones, pesticides, and (inevitable) antibiotics out of my system. I have said it a million times, I would love to be a vegetarian, but I crave meat (especially beef) to a point of obsession. If you do have the ability to raise your own animals, I would suggest doing it. We had one cow at a time (their names were Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner), one pig, and loads of chickens and turkeys. Although we lived in a pretty suburban place with about an acre, we were about to keep this self sustating farm running easily. I think it was good for my brother and I to learn about having to feed the animals every day and although we were sheltered from their slaughter, we knew what happened. Even though we were pretty poor, we always had a freezer full of healthy and delicious meat that came from our loved farm animals. And it was shockingly easy to seperate the animals for food from our pets. Albeit, I may have been traumatized from making chocolate chip cookies and cracking an egg to find a chicken embryo, but again, I think it was good for me to get that perspective on where meat comes from.
