Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat
Regulating Grass-Fed Beef: New Labeling and the Rangeland Debate
By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 10-23-07
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As Hollywood starlets and organic farmers know all too well, popularity often leads to labeling. Soon grass-fed beef will join the list of labels dotting our food. Starting November 15th, the USDA will require grass-fed beef to be labeled and defined as meat that comes from animals who ate nothing but grass after being weaned.
In recent years, grass-fed has become increasingly popular because, compared to feedlots, raising cattle on pasture decreases environmental damage, improves animal health and reduces antibiotic use. Grass-fed beef also confers human health benefits with high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce the incidence of heart disease.
According to a Texas A&M brief, a standard like one used with organics will allow producers to develop and market their products and provide consumers with a better understanding of their food.
Under the new rules, animals will only be allowed to eat grass or stored grasses like hay, and will have access to pasture from last frost to first frost. Ranchers will have their farms and records inspected by the USDA before using the “process verified” seal. Meat can still be labeled grass-fed without the seal if growers document that they follow the standards.
The new regulations are a first for grass-fed meat, and some folks are celebrating. But the American Grassfed Association is not pleased with the regulatory outcome of what has been a five year discussion about defining grass-fed.
As reported in the New York Times, the Denver-based organization does not support the labeling because they do not preclude the use of antibiotics and hormones; they also don’t require grass-fed animals to live on pastures throughout the year. The association also states that non-forage feed is not restricted under the USDA guidelines as long as the use is recorded.
Subsequently, the Association plans to set up its own certification system that would require animals to be on pasture or rangeland all year long and free of hormones and antibiotics. (The Association will accept requests for certification by year’s end.)
While disagreements about labeling and grass-fed definitions continue, little discussion has centered on the attendant effects of putting more cows out to pasture in the U.S. In a country where each person eats an average of 65 pounds of beef per year, our appetites have proven a major strain on natural resources. With the current system of raising cattle and then sending them to feedlots where they are “finished” on corn, it takes 25,000 liters of water to produce 8 ounces of beef. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that livestock waste has also polluted more than 27,000 miles of rivers.
Grass-fed beef production will certainly pollute less than feedlots since animal waste can drop onto land where it can become fertilizer, but it can also plop into delicate riparian zones where livestock tend to congregate. In the arid west, these waterways are biologically the richest habitats, making grazing a particularly troubling practice here.
Livestock grazing is the most widespread land management practice in western North America. And from wilderness areas, wildlife refuges to national forests and national parks, more than seventy percent of the western United States is grazed.
A Grist article that is almost a decade old revealed that rangeland grazing is devastating to our limited water and natural resources. In it, range scientist Joy Belsky predicted that livestock grazing in the west must be severely reduced in the next thirty to fifty years or restoration of riparian zones would become impossible.
Rather than rely on these systems of rangeland grazing, some producers have transitioned to rotational grazing in which livestock are carefully monitored and moved from one pasture to another in order to allow pastures to grow back. This operation requires close monitoring and skillful decision making, but can reduce feed costs and improve animal health.
While rotational grazing might take practice - up to three years of observation and tinkering - it’s possible that it might prove a viable alternative to resource-intensive beef production.
The ranchers at Idaho’s Alderspring Ranch have grown 100 percent grass-fed beef for fifteen years. Using intensively managed pastures they have produced beef that was honored in Slate as the best grass-fed steak in America.
With that kind of feedback rotational grass-fed beef might get so popular that it too requires a fancy label.
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Comments
In specific, there are real and significant advantages to grass-fed meat and the meat of every breed of cattle takes on those advantageous qualities when raised under grass-fed pasture conditions; however, 1) the differences in the meat of grass-fed cattle do not necessarily have anything to do with rotational grazing; 2) the level at which you receive those advantageous differences in the meat varies, under anything close to normal conditions, about as much with the breed of cattle as with what they eat, although the labeling scheme does not take it into account; and 3) the actual beneficial differences in the meat are not as sensitive to the animal's diet as the labeling criteria are designed to imply (again, these labels are an artificially created chokepoint that reflects what certain "connected" producers can feasibly produce while filtering out the most competition rather than reflecting what is needed to make a difference in the end product). I am not attacking the value of grass-fed beef or of labeling requirements for it; I am just pointing out that, like so many things coming off the new-age ranch or farm, there is a bit of self-serving deceit posing as something akin to religion and mixed in with the science.
Our customers are happy to know that our cows are born, raised, and fed on our farm on pasture, our own grass alfalfa hay, and trace mineral salt. No grain. We own sire and dam of every steer we sell. Our customers do not mind if we treat a sick animal with antibioitics, or worm them once a year to maintain health. We keep records of those we treat, which one, when, with what and for how long. If a customer prefers a steer without any antibiotics, we can pick one that had no antibiotics. Customers want to know if we use chemicals indiscriminately.
They want a healthy, happy animal. They want to know the farm it came from. They can watch ours grow as they go by on I-90. They want them to live a happy life in their family group with access to fresh air and open space to walk around. They want to know the processor - a local plant 2 miles from our ranch. They want to know that only one cow is in the hamburger and trust that the processor is giving them their own cow and no other. (We sell our steers live and deliver them to the processor.) Our product is intensely LOCAL, and PERSONAL.
We have a small farm (less than 100 acres, irrigated) in Southwest Montana. We raise Dexter cattle - a half-size heritage breed from Ireland. In Ireland they were used for meat, milk, and draft animals. At two years old, steers dress out at 350-380# instead of 700# for an Angus. (Though, I've had some dress out at a little under 300#.) For small families this is ideal. Cheaper to buy, smaller cuts, fits well in a 15 cubic foot freezer. Think a T-Bone as big as your hand.
We probably could meet most of the requirements for grass-fed labeling above. We cannot provide pasture year round. Our land base isn't big enough. Our cows are penned in the corral area from April 1- June 1 so they don't tear up the pastures in spring thaw, so the grass can get a head start, and to keep an eye on cows during calving. We refuse to damage the productive capacity of our land base purely to satisfy grass-fed labeling requirements.
It will be hard to get labeling requirements that meet the needs of all grass-fed producers. Niche markets like this are notoriously diverse - in breed of cattle, parameters of the land base for forage production, disease, noxious weeds, predator problems, etc. endemic to individual growing conditions as I described above. Each niche marketer has to develop their own rapport with their customer base. Labels can help consumers select their local farmer but ultimately they have to know and trust their local farmer.