Food Blog: Food Labels and Your Freedom of Choice

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Grassfed beef or BS … how do you know?

There are a lot of problems with our food system, from safety to deception. Americans tend to trust government to oversee what we eat, and tell us the truth about it. That is a mistake.

Like most institutions, government is susceptible to manipulation by moneyed interests. The agencies that are supposed to protect us from misleading advertising, bad ingredients and dangers in our food supply walk an unsteady line between supporting food suppliers and protecting the public. Unfortunately, most often they step on the side of the suppliers.

If you’ve been following the discussion on WellWise about genetically modified crops/food (GMOs), you know that you’ve lost your freedom to choose foods that don’t contain GMOs because the government has chosen not to require foods to be labeled GMO or non-GMO.

The situation is similar with beef.

Most of the cattle in the U.S. is fed corn or soy instead of grass. Cows were never meant to eat corn. They are grass grazers by nature. However, because government policies have for decades encouraged corn production via subsidies, the vast majority of industrial cattle producers feed corn to their cows.

The corn diet and the industrial crowding of feedlots actually makes cows sick, and because of it, the meat industry must constantly give cows antibiotics. Cattle now consume about 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S.  Overuse of antibiotics is responsible for the emergence of antibiotic-resistant, killer strains of bacteria that are epidemic now in hospitals, locker rooms and more. Added injected hormones make them grow faster and increase milk production, but increase infections and the amount of pus in their milk. The excreted hormones go into our waterways where they interrupt the reproduction cycle of fish.

Another thing to know: Grassfed beef provides higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of omega 6s. Western diets are way overbalanced on the side of omega-6s, which causes inflammation in the body, leading to numerous diseases. Eating grassfed beef is one way to try to get this equation back in balance.

So, can you choose not to buy corn-fed beef, but grassfed beef instead? Yes, but it’s not easy.

Your freedom to choose real grassfed beef

You’re in the store and find a package of beef that is labeled with this symbol, certifying by USDA standards that it is “grassfed.”

The USDA symbol certifying grassfed beef:

You form a picture in your head of cows wandering in a bucolic field, heads bent low over waving grain, their calves suckling from their udders.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The USDA label “grassfed beef” is a claim that doesn’t mean what the consumer likely thinks it means, according to Carrie Balkcom, the executive director of the American Grassfed Association.

“By the government’s rules, you can confine these animals in feedlots, inject them with hormones and antibiotics, and simply feed them a tiny percentage of grain and keep a record of it.

“It’s like the government’s ‘organic’ label,” she says. “It doesn’t mean the cattle hasn’t been confined, just that it has been fed

 organic grains, and that at sometime during the growing season it has been allowed access to pasture.”

Ms. Balkcom and the American Grassfed Association tried from 2003-2007 to get the government to devise a decent regulation for grassfed beef. Finally the association resorted to the only alternative: an independent (non-government), third-party certification program for labeling.

Look for this label when you want grassfed beef that has been raised without hormones, antibiotics and is allowed to roam.

The majority of grass-fed producers are small (100 head or less) but there are a handful of larger producers, and a few farmer alliances forming to work together to meet the growing demand for grass-fed beef. Only small producers of beef (less than 100 head of cattle) undertake such a process. Many of these have been raising cattle this way – pasture fed and free roaming, free of antibiotics and hormones – for generations. Their product is more expensive, as you might imagine, but for the sake of personal and planetary health, many people would choose to buy it instead of mass-produced meat of dubious origin.

Only small producers of beef (less than 100 head of cattle) typically undertake such a process. Many of these have been raising cattle this way – pasture fed and free roaming, free of antibiotics and hormones – for generations. Their product is more expensive, as you might imagine, but consider the other benefits: grassfed beef contains more of the good fats, fewer bad ones; it has higher quantities of vitamins and antioxidants, and it is far better for the cows themselves, as well as the planet.

As with organic produce, when you buy such a product you are voting with your grocery money for more sustainable and healthier methods, as well as more humane treatment for the cows. The more people buy them, the better the price becomes, and the better off we all are.

Despite the lack of obvious labels on products containing GMOs, if you are motivated enough to look at the PLU codes on produce, for instance, here is how to identify a GMO product:

Look at the sticker where the price is. If the code on there begins with an 8, such as 84000, it is GMO.

Learn more about grassfed beef, find local producers and more here.