> Then why in the name of time does free range/grass fed cost so much more?
> Oliva

basically because the monetary economy  have less and less to do with the
real energetic  economy
it  is a farce meant to allow few to heap up while most others are exploited
.
And this is as old as the neolithic revolution.
In that system cheap foods are instrumental in keeping that state of affair.
At our present level of sophistication  and growing disparities  in that
trend .we end up having no possible tracking of the real energy expenditure
to produce something .
When i plant a vegetable seed i can easelly measure the amount of energy
spent and compare it to the amount of energy gain . when i work in  an
unrelated field  to make money so i can buy a "swollen up by fertilisers" '
lettuce , i have no way to know if my physical energy have been used with
efficiency .
When you see the inpoverishment of the world ( diminition in biomas and
species ,  desertification, pollution etc...) it become obvious than my
energy expenditure  globally doesn't fulfill my needs but contribuate to my
exhaustion .

I could go on and on with that generalised explananation ., but let's go
back to our cows.

For an animal to feed itself from his environment in a sustainable manner,
each animal need to graze on a big aera .
If bufallo and other big mammals are nomad , and their territorry is also
feeding ground for many  other species ,  it is because globally it is the
most efficient use of the sun energy flooding an aera to produce the maximum
amount of biomass.
By fencing then trying to crowd as much individual as possibles of one
species  in one aera we end up with a  dramatic loss of fertility .
In that  growing desertifying north america a trick have been used to mask
the symptoms ( cheap subsidised grain production )
the real cost is an alarming loss of topsoil and  biodiversity ,a
compromised health of the whole system.
Not only you don't pay this price when you buy grain finished but even more
clever you are made to pay it in the form of health care and other
indirectly connected outcomes.

Also when you buy food by weight there is an obvious interest to sale obese
animals by feeding them unnaturally.

There is no mystery , raising animals on their  natural diet will show you
the real cost of what you produce .
Every other way that  will seem a more productive way will be in fact done
by borrowing our childrens's energetic capital with no possibilities to give
it back ..
Grass fed producers are attempting  to bring back the clock at the right
time .
I have been working myself here for years to create sources of real quality
meats , asking farmers to quit their silly practices ( in my perspective )
and it is just very  very difficult ( because for them  it is more
economically valuable to grain finished ).
we are an island and farms sizes are tiny in comparaison with somewhere else
.
The farmer who supply me with highland cattle beef is  doing grass fed only
for me and so i have to buy the whole animal . I resale  the part that i
can't process ( drying ) to others grass fed passionates living in the
nearby cities ( vancouver and victoria  ).
If you live in this aera contact me so we can keep the ball rolling .
For lambs it is the same thing,  i have to work hard to convince the farmer
to sale to me .( once a year ).

A long answer for a very complexe issue .Sorry!

jean-claude

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Katy & Ron" <[log in to unmask]>
> It costs so much more to feed grain than grass that beef would cost twenty
> times
> more than it does per # if the animals were raised on nothing but grain.