From Hoof to Plate: Two Beef Tales

By Courtney Lowery, 10-07-09

Especially after reading the this gruesome story in this weekend’s New York Times about E. Coli and the failings of the inspection process in mass-produced ground beef, this piece from Douglas Brown in the Denver Post, about a different way of getting beef from pasture to plate, is timely.

The Times piece details an investigation into hamburger in the U.S., which came to this conclusion: “Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe.” It’s a story of how our food system has made meat, particularly cheap meat, dangerous.

By comparison, the Post piece shows what happens when meat is produced, processed and sold on a smaller, regional scale.  Brown tracks an organic grass-fed steer from a ranch on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation to the meat section of the Whole Foods store in Boulder, Colorado, a journey that illuminates and educates on food safety, local food and organic agriculture.

But, as Brown points out in the story, it’s also about more than just food and ag. “The journey from calf to brisket, for these cattle, captures within it a sweep of issues and notions about the West, about agribusiness, even about philosophy and ethics.”

And indeed, some of the nuggets in the story come from the philosophies of those caring for the cattle in Wyoming.

A few of my favorites quotes:

From David Stoner, the manager of the Arapaho Ranch, where all the beef in regional Whole Foods stores comes from: “"We’re not fighting the environment; we’re trying to fit inside the environment,” he said. Predators are “our brothers,” and natural grasses are central to a “beautifully designed system” that takes energy from the sun and fixes nitrogen in the soil. Cattle help fertilize the land with their waste, and grazing helps spread seed. The cattle “are part of the system,” he said. They are “the reward that we can get for taking care of the land.”

And, especially considering the recent Time magazine piece, entitled, ”Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food” this quote from the woman who bought the Arapaho steer is refreshing.

“We know it’s more expensive,” she said. “We know a greater portion of my income will go to food. It’s a conscious decision we make. This is what we can do to perpetuate this kind of farming. We want this to become the norm.”

Click here for the whole story—it’s a good read.