Grass Fed Cows. . . but How, Now, Brown Cow. . .

The debate is heating up around how livestock is fed and pastured (or not) -- and what farmers and producers are allowed to say about that. I am reading articles almost daily -- on and offline -- on this topic. The practice and furor is raging, about both dairy cows and beef cattle.

Here's the "meat" of it (if you will pardon a terrible pun.)

Can cows that are fed alfalfa and grasses, but are not allowed outside of a barn, and are given antibiotics and BgH (Bovine Growth Hormone) be called "grass fed"? Technically, they can -- since they do eat grasses.

But what the consumer has in mind when someone says "grass fed" is an entirely different picture: one where the cow grazes and walks around in pastured areas full of nourishing green grass, is never confined indoors (except to be milked, in the case of dairy cows), and is never given hormones or antibiotics unless they are actually ill (in which case they are taken out of production -- are not milked or slaughtered for food.)

The differences in how a cow is treated during its lifetime -- and the quality of what humans ultimately consume -- is a matter of deep concern for anyone interested in their own health, and the health of their families.

Cows that are NOT raised in open pastures, but confined indoors with antibiotics and BgH (even when they are healthy,) create stress hormones -- which get passed into their milk and muscle tissue. Want to eat stress hormones? Want the BgH inside your system, doing weird things to YOUR hormones?

Want more antibiotics in your system, making it difficult for times when you might need antibiotics to ward off your own illness -- except that the antibiotics you need are now ineffective, because you have built up an immunity to them and they don't work?

Look, I don't want to be alarmist here. But this is common sense, folks. There is a direct cause-and-effect relationship between what we eat, and how it is raised and grown, whether it's a vegetable or live animals and what they produce (such as eggs, milk, and so forth.)

If you care about your health, and about eating REALLY well, then you should care about this.

What can you do?

1) Inform yourself. Go to Organic Consumers, read about the issues, and take action.

2) The FDA is planning to scale back its monitoring of beef cattle for Mad Cow Disease. Tell them you want MORE, not LESS monitoring. As long as the practices that cause Mad Cow Disease are allowed to continue (currently they are) we need protection and monitoring. Tell the FDA to "beef up" its monitoring programs. Read more here: Scale Back Mad Cow Monitoring?

Unbelievably, the USDA is trying to stop an ethical farmer (Creekstone Farms) from voluntarily increasing its own monitoring for Mad Cow Disease among its herds, and Creekstone sued to be allowed to do so -- and tell its buyers what it's doing. Read about THAT little fiasco here
And call or write the FDA to ask them to increase the monitoring, for consumer safety.

3) The USDA is accepting feedback and comments from the public about how to rule on the grass-fed label for beef cattle. To comment, go here or send an email to: marketingclaim(at)usda.gov . The more we tell the "powers that be" what we really want, the less chance we have of them taking harmful actions with our food supply.

Let's make our voices heard loud and clear!

Yours for extraordinary dining -- for everyone,

Nancy
Find great organic gourmet foods here!