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You Are What You Eat, Eats

Trying to wrap your brain around this title? Let me explain. The meat of animals that you may consume can be either very healthy for you or very much not so, depending on what that animal was fed, or allowed to eat.

Supermarket Meat
Many of us still buy our meat from the supermarket. I think it is important that we as a culture develop a closer relationship with our food and so I will tell you where supermarket meat comes from. If you are the squeamish type, I apologize in advance.
According to Sonny Faison, CEO of the nation's second-largest hog production company, "only the leastcost producer survives in agriculture". This statement accurately describes the attitude of America's big agribusiness and sadly, such a philosophy does not allow much room for the humane treatment of the animals involved, care of the land that they are raised on, and even the care of human health.
Take cows for example. Have you ever been seduced by a label on a nicely marbled steak stating that this is "corn-fed" beef? It sounds so nice and wholesome doesn't it? Corn and soy provides the bulk of the diet of meat animals in the US, yet cows are ruminants, they are meant to eat grass, no soy. They have 4 stomachs that allow them to spin grass into high quality protein. All a cow needs to be happy, healthy and to produce healthy, and tasty meat is to be outside and grazing. So why aren't they? Michael Pollan sums it up like this: "... because of the improvements in technology [after WWII] in American agriculture - specifically because of chemical agriculture, because of chemical fertilizer- we were able to get so much corn off the land that they didn't know how to get rid of it. So the USDA made it its policy to encourage people to feed corn to cows."
Feeding corn and soy to cows results in a host of problems resulting in the need to add daily doses of antibiotics to the feed to treat some of the illnesses that occur. Things like liver abscesses are a common occurrence among feedlot cattle. This, however, does not improve the health of the animal, it just prevents its premature death for a while, and in the meantime this animal is now creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that then ends up in the human food supply. There is another problem with feeding cows primarily grains; it acidifies their gut. Many bacteria that live in the gut of ruminants eating a grass-based diet are only used to the base environment of the inside of such a pastured animal. If those bacteria end up in the food supply they are easily killed in the more acidic environment of a human stomach. In a grain-fed animal however, the bacteria adapt to the more acidic conditions there and can leap species more successfully. One of these bacteria, a form of E.coli that has recently sickened many people, essentially does not exist in the gut of animals that eat grass, only in animals fed corn, states Eric Schlosser in his book Fast Food Nation.
Aside from inappropriate grain and soy, feedlot cows are also fed any or all of the following (all allowed by the FDA) feather meal, pig and fish protein, chicken manure and pesticide-laden citrus peels. To protect against the spread of mad cow disease, since 1997 the Animal Feed Rule prohibits adding most mammalian materials to ruminant feed. However, chicken litter and restaurant scraps (which both can contain bovine proteins) are still allowed and many calves are still fed bovine blood meal.
While they are being fed this concoction, designed to get them as heavy as possible as quickly as possible, they are standing thigh deep in their own waste creating an even bigger health problem. After slaughter, these cows are then hosed off using high pressure sprays, which, rather then clean the manure off the meat, imbeds it deeper into the muscle. And that is just cows. Pigs and chickens are treated even worse. According to Sherri Brooks Vinton in The Real Food Revival: "[Chickens] are crammed so tightly into metal cages that they often resort to cannibalism out of the sheer stress of their living conditions. Poultry breast are now so large that the birds can often not support their own weight. "
And we have not talked about the economic or environmental impact of raising animals for meat in industrial farming situations.

What's The Answer?
Some folks say the only way to avoid being part of the horrors of agribusiness' inhuman way of raising animals is to refuse to eat what they produce. They "go vegetarian".  I partially agree with them. The only way to stop inhumane practices in the farming industry does seem to be exerting economic pressure. Voting with your pocketbooks does make a lasting impression. However, I believe, just like cows were not meant to eat corn and soy, humans aren't meant to avoid meat.
A better option then eating supermarket meat is eating organic meat. You are assured that animals are not given antibiotics or growth hormones. The animals are fed an organic diet (but, unfortunately, they are usually still fed mostly corn and soy), they are not fed animal by-products, they cannot be bio-engineered and organic meat may not be treated with radiation.
However, if you are willing to find the healthiest possible meat, from animals that lived the best possible lives (in captivity), animals that are raised sustainably, often locally and by small family farmers and not by big agribusiness, then look into what is called grass-fed or pastured meat.

What is Grass-fed?
Grass-fed meat is meat from animals that spent the majority of their lives outside. When you call up in your mind a picture of an idyllic farm scene; cow in the meadow, chickens scratching around the orchard, pigs roaming around freely, maybe a turkey or two, then you come close to what your grass-fed meat was doing when it was alive. Ideally, the animals share pasture in a careful order. Cows come first for example. When they are moved to new and fresh pasture, the chickens will scratch through the cow patties, eating the larvae of bugs (thus preventing many insect-borne diseases in both humans and animals) all the while dispersing the manure to evenly fertilize the meadow that then grows green
and lush again waiting for the cows to return. The term "pastured" is becoming used more nowadays, especially when talking about meat other then beef. Some animals should eat other things besides grass; chickens need some grain and bugs, pig are omnivores and do well on root vegetables and left over milk.
There are two forms of grass-fed beef available. The gold standard and the most healthful is "100% grass-finished beef."  This means the cow was only fed grass (or hay in the winter). A second-best, and often a good option for those folks who are still adjusting their tastes away from flavorless supermarket meat is "grass-fed, grain-finished beef." This means that the cow was fed grain during the last 6 weeks or so to fatten it for slaughter, as well as to adjust the flavor of the meat (Don't get me wrong; I much prefer the taste of 100% grass-fed beef, but there are some people for whom it takes some getting used to.)

Why is grass-fed best?
Aside from avoiding the problems arising from feeding animals inappropriate food there are some very clear health benefits to eating pastured meat. Compared to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef is lower in calories and fat, yet much higher in omega 3 fatty acids (as much as wild salmon even) and has a healthy ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids (a big problem with supermarket meat). It is also much higher in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid, proven to build muscle, reduce body fat, and induce an optimum cellular environment for improved health). Grass-fed beef also gives you more vitamins, especially Vitamin E, of which there is 3 to 6 times more. Grass-fed beef is also higher in a number of antioxidants including lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-carotein. A grass-fed steak has about the same amount of fat as a chicken breast (if you are concerned with fat) and a better omega 3 profile. It has less cholesterol (again if that worries you) and 4 times more CLA than chicken.

Where to find grass-fed meat
The best option is to find a rancher locally who raises their animals sustainably.  Some of the larger health food stores may carry pastured meats, or they may be able to order them from you.  Often however these meats are flown in from across the world ( New Zealand for example).  A great website to check ofr locally available pastured meat is www.eatwild.com

If you want to read more
If you are interested in reading more about pastured meat check out the following resources:
www.eatwild.com
http://apppa.org (about pasture raised poultry)
Pasture Perfect; by Jo Robinson
The Real Food Revival by Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas
Real food, What To Eat and Why by Nina Planck