Beef has always been considered part of the All American meal, conjuring up images of cowboys riding horses under blue Western skies with cattle grazing on the wide open range. Hamburgers at 4th of July cookouts; roast on Sundays; and steak for special occasions are all part of many Americans' diets.
In the past several decades, though, eating beef has become less popular due to health concerns, including an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels. And, more recently, mad cow disease and other issues such as artificial growth hormones and antibiotic-resistant bacteria have made consumers even more concerned.
The problem, though, is not with the beef. The problem is with the way beef is raised and our tendency to eat oversized portions of food. Visit our "Why Buy Sustainable" section for reasons why you should eat sustainable meat. And read on to find out more about beef; click on the highlighted words to learn more about that particular issue.
What's in the beef?
Beef has gotten a bad rap. Too much red meat can contribute to a variety of health problems, though it's not the meat that's necessarily the problem; it's the way the animal is raised (and how much of it you're eating!). Cattle used to be raised on pasture year round, from birth to slaughter, where they fed off the natural grasses and hay that grew on the land. Cows are ruminants and are by nature vegetarians.
In recent years, though, cattle production has become more centralized and most animals are now “finished” on feedlots. Finishing is the process of preparing animals for slaughter – the length of time an animal is finished depends on the practices of the farmer. The longer the finishing time, the higher the chance the animal is being raised on a factory farm.
Factory farm feedlots are usually large, confined areas where cattle are finished before slaughter. Massive amounts of feces and urine are accumulated in this confined area after the cattle are fed large amounts of grain and byproducts such as outdated human food, dairy products, chicken litter (which contains manure, feathers, bedding materials, and possibly scraps from dead animals), as well as other byproducts that are cheap and readily available. These types of feed additives are not healthy for the animal.
The practice of feeding cow parts back to cattle spreads mad cow disease, a highly infectious disease that kills a cow by destroying the animal's brain. The practice was banned in 1997, but several loopholes in the regulations leave open the possibility that cow remains could be fed back to cattle. (Cows are by nature vegetarian and should not be fed any type of animal product.) Over a hundred cases of the human form of mad cow disease have been documented and have been attributed to eating meat from infected animals.
All animals that are given feed additives should be avoided – in cattle, the most common additives are hormones that are implanted in the animals to make them grow faster and non-therapeutic antibiotics, which are fed to the animals in low doses to help ward off disease. There are a variety of health issues associated with these practices. Visit our Issues section to read more about hormones, antibiotics and additives. And if you would like to learn more reasons why sustainable food is better than factory farmed food, read our “ Sustainable vs Industrial” article.
Another problem with today's meat supply is the meat inspection system and slaughterhouses. To increase profits, line speeds have been increased dramatically, to the point where workers in processing facilities are said to have one of the most dangerous jobs of all. Injuries are very common. The facilities are also unsanitary, making the meat more susceptible to such pathogens and bacteria like e.coli and salmonella. To make matters worse, the meat inspection system is now more focused on paperwork, instead of visually inspecting meat.
Instead of trying to solve the problems plaguing the meat industry, food irradiation is being touted as the solution. Food irradiation is a process where high levels of radiation are shot through the meat to kill off bacteria. It is a controversial process that destroys the nutrient content of the food and creates new compounds that have not been tested for safety.
Farmers that practice sustainable methods of agriculture raise their cattle on pasture and either feed them grasses only, or supplement the grasses with controlled amounts of grain. By controlling the amount of grain fed to the animal, the meat will still have the marbled texture and flavor that most consumers are used to (meaning the meat will have the fat in it that gives it the taste we are used to), but the animal will not get sick from eating too much grain. A general guideline to remember is that the more grain fed to the animal, the more fat in the meat; and the more fat in the meat, the less healthy it is for you.
Healthier for you
Grass fed, or pasture-raised meat, is the healthiest beef you can buy. Truly pasture raised cattle spend their lives on pasture, eating only the grasses and hay that nature intended them to eat.
The health benefits include:
- Less total fat– Pasture-raised beef can have the same amount of fat as a skinless chicken breast.
- Less calories – A 6 ounce steak from a pasture-raised cow can have 100 fewer calories than a 6 ounce steak from a factory farmed animal.
- More Omega 3's – There are two to four times more of these “good” fats in pasture-raised beef.
- Higher amounts of Vitamin E – Vitamin E helps reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. i
Anything in excess is unhealthy, so the quantity of meat eaten also determines how healthy it is for you. In the United States, the average adult male eats 154% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein (97 grams versus the recommended 63 grams), and the average adult female eats 127% of the RDA (63.5 vs. 50 grams). 67% of that protein comes from consuming animal protein (as opposed to the rest of the world which averages 34%). And of the 273 pounds of meat the average American eats in a year, 97 pounds of that is from beef. ii
The average portion of meat that should be eaten in a day is two three-ounce servings (three ounces is roughly the size of a deck of cards). Active male teens and men can have up to seven ounces of meat daily. Consumers in industrialized societies, especially the United States , are eating much more meat than is healthy for them. So, not only do we need to look at the type of meat we're eating, we need to look at how much of it we're putting into our bodies. Read the US Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services' Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 for their suggestions on the type and quantity of foods that are healthiest for you.
Eating beef
The healthiest beef to eat is sustainably-raised meat from animals raised on pasture. This can either be organic meat or sustainable. Read our Organic versus Sustainable section for an explanation of the differences between the two methods of production.
Pasture-raised beef tastes different than fatty, factory farm meat. It has much less fat, which means it needs to be cooked differently. Read “Enjoy Summer Grilling with Grass-Fed Beef” for more information on pasture-raised beef, as well as tips on how to properly cook the meat. You can also find tasty beef recipes in our Recipe section.
You can also read more about grass-fed beef in “Leaves of Grass” – a handout produced by Chefs Collaborative.
Price and convenience
Two reasons consumers buy a particular brand of meat are most often because of price and convenience. Consumers want to pay as little as possible for something they can easily find. Unfortunately, in this day and age, we can find items such as meat everywhere for a relatively low price.
The problem is that any type of industrially-raised or factory farm meat that you buy is actually much more expensive than you realize, much more than what is on the price tag. These hidden costs are called externalities. A 2005 study published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability estimated that these costs range from $5.7 billion to $16.9 billion a year in the United States.
In addition to eventual medical bills from heart disease and other illnesses brought on by eating too much saturated fat from meat, there are other costs that influence the true price of food.
These costs include:
But the bottom line when you're standing at the cash register is how much the meat costs. Sustainably-raised meat will always cost more than factory farmed meat – it has to because the animals are given better food and attention, and they are raised in better conditions, which costs more money. Smaller farms are also not given the large subsidies that larger farms receive. Currently, organic meat can cost two to three times more than factory farmed.
So what can you do? Eat less! Look at how much meat you eat each day and how much animal protein you are supposed to eat (no more than 6 or 7 ounces per day). If you cut your meat intake in half, you still might be over the recommended daily allowance. By cutting your intake in half, you can then spend more for sustainably-raised meat. And when more people demand healthier, more humane meat, more will be raised, which will then lower the price you pay for it.
Confused about terms?
If you're confused about any of the terms used here, please check our Sustainable Dictionary to see if the definitions are listed.
The terms “pasture-raised”, “pastured” and “grass fed” should all mean that the animal was raised outdoors on pasture and ate grasses and hay. “Grass fed” has turned out to be a little misleading because an animal that's confined indoors and fed grass could also be called grass fed. Most farmers who use the term grass fed are raising their animals outdoors on pasture, but there is no way to know unless you ask the farmer or possibly visit the farm. With regard to feeding the cattle grain, consumers must decide for themselves which is better for them, 100% pasture raised meat or meat that was supplemented with small amounts of grain. Remember, though, cattle fed all grain or a large amount of grain are not being raised sustainably.
What should you do?
The only way you're going to know how the animal was raised is to know the farmer, or to know and trust your butcher. Use our Questions for a Farmer or Questions for a Store Manager/Butcher (scroll down the page) to ask the kind of questions you need to ask in order to know what kind of meat you're buying.
If you're looking for a farmer to buy direct from, or a store where you can buy sustainable meat, visit our Eat Well Guide, a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy and eggs from farms, stores and restaurants in the US and Canada.
If you're looking for other things you can do to educate yourself or help spread the word about sustainable food, visit our Get Involved section for tips and ideas. And read through the rest of the Sustainable Table web site for lots more information on sustainable food!
- by Diane Hatz
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