Sourcing animal products

In an ideal world, we’re all nomadic hunter-gatherers, right? Okay, so instead of focusing on how what I’m about to say is a deviation from that end, I figured there are other folks here who are interested in getting the best quality and ecologically sound proteins that they can locally. This isn’t a discussion about the ethics of buying animal products or farming, take it as a given that I’m against farming and any bit of greenwashing that implies farming is sustainable in a “like wild” sense is flat out wrong.
That said, I have a lot of experience in sourcing, verifying, processing, and handling every aspect of local grass-fed, pastured, and “humanely raised” animals. I can help you sort the bullshit out quickly (pun intended). So if anyone has questions about practices, pasturing methods, breeds, slaughter, butchering, cooking and the like, feel free to put it out there, I won’t judge.

A couple of quick pointers;

  • Grass fed does not necessarily imply grass-finished. The USDA
    definition is still in the works and as recently as a few years ago
    "grass-fed" labels could imply 30% pasture based diets. If you want
    grass-fed beef or lamb, you want grass-fed and grass-finished.
  • Any farmer telling you that they can’t guarantee that their feed is
    GMO-free is lying. It means that their animals are getting feed with
    GMOs in it.
  • “Pasture access” is a pretty surefire way of saying “not on
    pasture”.

Just getting the ball rolling if anyone is interested.

The grass finishing isn’t just arbitrary either. The lipid profile changes drastically when switching to grain feed in something like two weeks.

I don’t remember the source for that, but I don’t think I made it up.

I know you didn’t make that up. The fat itself changes drastically very quickly which is exactly why most CAFOs are just the last 3 months after cattle pass 1 year (about how long it takes to get to full frame size).

Bumped into this today:

And the huge list of too much info about grass vs grain and lipid profiles:
http://www.csuchico.edu/grassfedbeef/research/lipids.shtml

the surest way I know to cut through the bullshit is to buy directly from a producer. if they’re not excited to tell you how their animals are cared for and raised, AND if they don’t acknowledge what’s not ideal or what they are working on to improve their system, move on. granted, even hearing about how the animal is raised is a poor substitute for actually witnessing it.

my full time occupation is herdess for 150+ head of cattle on a preserve. I don’t know anyone raising animals like this - we take “grass fed” and “free range” to a whole new level, honestly, and that was the intention behind this company since before I arrived. it frustrates me to no end that I have to fight for market share with ranches trucking in multitons of hay from irrigated fields in Idaho or who are irrigating their pastures themselves (out here in CA, beef is seasonal for a reason).