From: "Rob Bartlett" <[log in to unmask]>


>One piece was from organic, pasture-fed beef; the other raised by >conventional
means (factory farming, antibiotics, growth hormones, >all-grain diet)

Hi all.  Interesting comparison.  I have a comment about the
"all-grain diet" statement I've heard several times.  I grew up
in Colorado.  Its a big beef producing state.  So I'm a semi-expert
in Colorado raised beef.  Maybe not for other areas.  The very, very large part
of ALL beef raised in that state is raised on either leased federal lands or
privately owned ranch lands, all pasture/grass type lands.  The animals are
brought into closed pens for the last
"FINISHING" stages for "x" weeks  prior to slaughter.  Now this
"finishing" is on a grain diet.  But even that varies with the outfit doing the
finishing.  Some holding pens feed hay plus grain, some feed only one or the
other.  Keeping the animals standing in an enclosed area also puts weight and
fat on them much faster than open land grazing.
You of course can't tell from the grocery store packaging unless you are buying
premium product more direct from the grower.  But the point of what I'm saying
is that the idea that most commercial beef is fed nothing but grain is not true.
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.  This
isn't defending the grain "finishing".  Its just pointing out grass is the main
diet for most of the life for most of all beef.  What seems more remarkable to
me is the "decline" in desireables for food quality can happen so quickly on
perfectly good grass fed beef subsequently  "finished" on grain for just a few
weeks before butcher.  Veal of course is a different subject.

Katy