So you always buy free range chicken and you make a point of
selecting outdoor reared pork. Looked at
from any angle naturally produced meat is better for the environment, creates
higher standards of animal welfare and produces safer, more nutritious
food. But beef is beef right? After all Cows eat grass don’t they? We have all seen them cheerfully grazing in
fields of lush pasture or lying contentedly chewing the cud in the shade of an
old sycamore tree. Surely beef is one meat
that is almost by definition ‘free-range’?
Well yes and no. In
most of Europe open grazing is still overwhelmingly the model used for beef
production. But in North America 95% of
beef is produced using an intensive farming system called a ‘feed-lot’. Typically cattle are pastured until they
reach their ‘entry weight’, about 300kg.
This occurs shortly after weaning at anything from 6 to 12 months. At this point they are moved to a confined
animal feeding operation known as a CAFO or more colloquially a feed-lot.
Basically that means a pen containing dozens,
hundreds or even thousands of cattle.
Here they are fed a specialised, high calorie diet of mainly grain, but
with vitamins, minerals and a regulated dosage of growth hormones included. This diet causes the beast to deposit fat
which gives a desirable marbled character to the beef, but above all the animal
gains weight. In only three or four
months in the feed lot cattle will add an extra 180kg, greatly increasing their
value on the fat stock market. This
system produces the greatest quantity of beef in the shortest possible time,
but there are consequences
First of all the beats are kept in high density pens, knee
deep in mud and their own effluent without sight of grass. So forget those bucolic
images of happy grazing cows.
In the feed-lot they are fed grain, lots of it. A diet of maize, barley, soya beans or other
grain help the beasts to gain up to three pounds (1.5kg) per day. But since it takes roughly seven pounds of
grain to produce one pound of beef that adds up to an awful lot of grain. And guess where that grain comes from? Increasingly it is imported from developing
nations. Often it is grown on virgin land cleared from primal forest or
bush. Next time you hear a statistic that
an area of rainforest the size of Belgium is being lost every year, remember
all those burgers you ate last year.
So it’s bad for the cows and bad for the planet but wait,
it’s also bad for you.
Corn fed beef is much fattier than grass fed beef, and therefore
more calorific. On a 6oz steak the
difference is around 100 calories. Since
the average American consumes 67lbs of beef each year, that adds up to a
whopping 18,000 calories per year.
Grass is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3s are essential for healthy bodily
function and cannot be synthesized. That
is they only come from our diet. Grass
fed beef contains up to four times more Omega 3 fatty acids than grain fed beef.
On the other hand a high ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids to
Omega 3 is linked with an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease,
allergies, depression, obesity, and autoimmune disorders. Ideally the ratio should be no more than 4 to
1. In grass fed beef it is typically 2
to 1, but in corn fed meat that rises to around 14 to 1.
I could go on. Grass
fed, as opposed to corn fed beef, is much richer in Essential B and E vitamins,
in beta -carotene, in minerals including magnesium, calcium, potassium and in
health giving “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLAs, and more. But you get the point.
So why do I care?
What exactly, if you will pardon the expression, is my beef? Here in the EU we don’t import much beef from
the USA . All those growth hormones and
antibiotics used in American feed-lots are banned in Europe in meat for human
consumption.
Well to my surprise, only a few miles from my current home
in Louth, Lincolnshire, there is one enterprising farmer who is adopting the American
feed-lot system for beef production right here in the UK. On a disused air field at Manby, behind high
walls of straw bales (no planning consent required) almost 3,000 head of cattle
are being fattened up as we speak.
Local residents have complained about the ‘foul stench’ and worry
about the impact all that effluent is having on the local water table. (The area is prone to flooding.) East Lindsey District Council admit they have
had dozens of complaints.
The animal welfare charity, Compassion in World Farming,
which campaigns against factory farming,
has called for a thorough investigation of the site claiming that the
animals have nowhere dry to lie down..
But it seems there is nothing illegal about keeping cows
this way, or selling the beef produced there.
Responding to a BBC reporter, the owner pointed out that they are
regularly inspected by DEFRA, the Trading Standards Authority and others, even
including the Red Tractor certification authority.
I have nothing against the individual farmer, who has recently
applied for planning consent for a large expansion of the feed-lot. But surely this kind of factory farming is
not the way we want European agriculture to develop?
At the very least consumers should be made aware of what
kind of beef they are getting. The
evidence shows that, when given a choice, a significant proportion of consumers
choose free-range produce from farms that adopt high standards of animal
welfare. But as things stand there is no
way to tell exactly where your steak came from.
That is why I have started this E-Petition to demand that
factory farmed beef is labeled for what it is, and to let producers identify
free-range beef in the same way that chicken or eggs are classified. Please sign it if you agree and pass it on. Consumer power only works with the free flow
of information.
