IMPORTANT INFORMATION

WHAT IS GRASS FED AND GRASS FINISHED When we switch from grain fed to grass fed meat, then, we are simply returning to the diet of our long-ago ancestors, the diet that is most in harmony with our physiology. Every cell and every system of our bodies will function better when we eat products from animals raised on grass. Grass-fed beef is naturally leaner than grain-fed beef. Omega 3s in beef that feed on grass is 7% of the total fat content, compared to 1% in grain-only fed beef. Grass-fed beef has the recommended ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats (3:1.) Grass-fed beef is loaded with other natural minerals and vitamins, plus it's a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) a fat that reduces the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a number of immune disorders. Beef, in its natural grass-fed state, is a health food of the highest order.

Grass-fed/finished meat is low in both overall fat and artery-clogging saturated fat, and it provides a considerably higher amount of healthy Omega-3 fats than corn-fed meat. The meat from grain-fed feedlot animals typically contains only 15 to 50 percent of the Omega-3's of grass-fed livestock. And even though grain-fed cows develop highly marbled flesh that most consumers are accustomed to, this is unhealthy saturated fat that can't be trimmed off. There’s more meat from pastured cattle has up to four times the amount of vitamin E than meat from feedlots, and is much higher in Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), a nutrient associated with lowering cancer risks.

Another reason to prefer a pastured, grass-fed cow is that it's had a dramatically better life than its feedlot cousin. Grass-fed and grass-finished animals remain on pasture from birth to market, roaming around in fresh air and sunshine. Grass-fed and grain-finished cows, on the other hand, are raised on pasture only for the first months of their lives. The vast majority of them are then transported to distant feedlots where they are raised in confinement. The diet of grass-fed and grass-finished cows is what it was always meant to be: fresh pasture, hay, or grass silage. Cows are ruminants. They are endowed with the uncanny ability to convert grass into food that they can digest. (This is done by virtue of a rumen, a 45-gallon “fermentation tank” in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.) In feedlots, cows are switched to a diet based on grains. To speed their growth and reduce the health problems that come from being fed this unnatural diet and from their stressful living, these animals are given growth hormones, feed additives, and treated often with antibiotics. Compare this with the happy life of pastured animals, who don't partake in the daily stress of fed-lot life. They don't typically need antibiotics to stay healthy (unless they are in an extremely life or death situation - which then they would be given antibiotics and removed from our XY beef program) and their growth is determined by genetics, not by genetically modified, growth-promoting hormones. Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed. But what you're likely to find in grocery stores around the country today is almost all grain-fed, feedlot beef. The reason? Economics. Cows grow faster in controlled feedlots and they are more profitable. Growing up in rural Chilliwack, it was very common for individuals to buy beef directly from the farm, which seems to be out of the norm for today's society, but a much healthier option.