On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:55:16 -0500, Stanevich, Ron L  
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Plus the animals that roamed in the Paleo period were quite different
> than those of our native American ancestors.   Buffalo were mostly
> herded then, and groomed, and may be typical of the grass fed beef we
> had today.  They didn't have as many predators then, their environment
> was much different than the paleo period.

Surely you're not implying that bison were domesticated by the native  
Americans?  They were wild animals.  They traveled in herds, to be sure,  
but they ate what they chose to, and went where they chose to.  It wasn't  
the paleo timeperiod (or location), but it's a pretty good analog in  
semi-modern times.

> I do agree that a caveman would eat a fat animal if that's all he had..
> But I think the fat animals were the exception and not the norm..
> animals back then were leaner than the buffalo of the wild west. The
> diets they ate were different.

Bison are very lean -- even leaner than chicken.  We buy a bison almost  
every year for our freezer, and it is so lean you typically need to grease  
the pans before cooking it, since nothing renders out of it.

The bison we get are raised on grass by a local rancher, but he'll be the  
first to tell you, bison are still very much wild animals and pretty much  
go where they want and eat what they want.  (As he put it "To a bison, a  
fence is just a suggestion.")

-- 
   Robert Kesterson
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