Organic beef does not necessarily mean meat that is naturally raised. Organic certification refers only to what an animal has or has not consumed. Period. Organic certification alone does not ensure that animals are raised in a healthy, sustainable and natural way, nor does it mean that animal welfare is necessarily a high priority. Many large food conglomerates have organic production divisions where the animals are raised in confinement and fed unnatural high-grain diets, although the feed is organically produced. Just because a package is labeled as organic beef does not ensure that you are necessarily buying the healthiest food for you and your family.
So what do we mean when we say we are raising and producing natural beef? All natural to us means we do not administer growth hormones and antibiotics to our cows. In fact, since they lead a natural lifestyle that doesn’t involve life on a feed lot or on a confinement production farm they don’t need the antibiotics to keep them alive and healthy. Yes, when cattle are raised on feedlots or in confinement facilities and being fed unnatural, grain intensive diets, the administration of antibiotics is standard because the rate of disease is so high. Their feed often contain animal by-products as well. Cattle are vegetarians – they are NOT designed to digest this. Do you really want to be feeding this to yourself, your family and your friends?
Long stemmed forage is the natural diet for cattle. There are two places a cow can get this forage, pasture or hay. Our cattle are raised on pasture and are free to roam around with their herd. The cows are rotated between pastures periodically to ensure that they always have fresh grass and that the pastures are not over-grazed.
Natural beef benefits are surprising to most consumers. People don't realize how different the nutritional value of the exact same product can be depending on how it was actually produced. Would you like to get the following health benefits without actually changing what you eat, but simply eating food that was raised differently? Following are a few benefits to eating beef that is primarily grass-fed (naturally raised) vs. feedlot beef that is fed a diet primarily of grain:
- The meat is naturally leaner, and may have up to 50% less fat than feedlot beef. Switching from feedlot to grassfed beef could save the average person up to 17,000 calories per year
- Meat from pastured cattle is up to four times higher in Vitamin E than meat from feedlot cattle
- Beef raised primarily on pasture will have three to five times more CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) than beef fed primarily grain (as they are on a feedlot)
- Significantly reduce your risk of E. coli: Beef raised on a diet of all or primarily grain have dramatically higher risks of E. coli contamination
- Increase your Omega-3 fatty acid intake: Pastured beef has two to four times more Omega-3 than feedlot/grocery store beef
- Eat beef with a more balanced ratio of Omega-3 fats to Omega-6 fats
Why are their so many benefits to natural beef?
Cattle are ruminants and are designed to eat a vegetarian diet based around high fiber, low protein forage. Grain is the opposite of their ideal diet as it is high in protein and low in fiber compared to grass. Grain based diets cause the digestive tract to become abnormally acidic. This acidic environment allows E. coli to multiply.
The natural diet of cattle is green grass that is naturally high in Omega-3 fats because it is formed in their green leaves, as well as Vitamin E. When cattle are placed on a high grain diet they lose their source of Omega-3’s and thus their ability to store Omega-3’s. They also lose their source of Vitamin E. Omega-3 fat or “fatty acid” is one of the “good fats” that is essential for normal growth and development and plays a role in the prevention of heart disease, cancer, and arthritis, to name a few. An important fact is that Omega-3 fats MUST come from your diet because your body cannot make them.
Meat from grassfed ruminants is also one of the best known sources of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), and may contain up to five times the amount of CLA as meat from primarily grain-fed cattle. CLA is proving to be one of the best defenses in preventing cancer. Research is showing that CLA is effective as an anticarcinogenic at a much lower dose than many other naturally occurring anticarcinogens.
How can you afford not to change your meat source?
Sustainable Agriculture and Conventional Agriculture
What does the term “sustainable agriculture” mean? It means agriculture that is sustainable in all facets from beginning to end. Sustainable agricultural practices focus on the following principles:
- Recognizing a cyclical model rather than an industrial model
- Minimizing off farm inputs and solutions (an example would be purchasing fertilizer)
- Recognizing and incorporating natural solutions whenever possible
“Conventional agriculture” has different goals from sustainable agriculture, and does what it is designed to do very well. Conventional agriculture is designed to produce permanently abundant supplies of cheap food. Two questions that are focused on with conventional agriculture are “how can we make it grow cheaper?” and “how can we make it grow faster?” The focus is not necessarily on producing the most high quality and nutritious food. The conventional model suggests a lot of unnatural solutions to problems that wouldn’t exist in a more sustainable and natural production model. Some examples of problems and solutions typically found in conventional agriculture include:
- Hormones - When the primary concern is to sell the most pounds of product at the lowest possible cost in an attempt to make a profit, anything that lends an advantage is considered. Added hormones speed weight gain in feedlot animals and are standard issue in conventional agriculture.
- Crowding – In order to produce off-season animals must be protected from the elements, so shelter is built for them. However, buildings and their upkeep are expensive so we crowd as many animals (production units) into the building as we can, and the building must get used year-round to pay for itself.
- Antibiotics – Crowding brings in a new set of problems. As animal stress levels mount due to overcrowding and inactivity, disease pressure builds. This increases the need to administer drugs. Sub acute levels of antibiotics are administered routinely to animals through feed, water or injection to increase performance and reduce chances of disease.
- Isolation – To reduce the likelihood of introducing external pathogens to animals already in stressful living environments, wild birds, people and other animals are kept away from these facilities as much as possible. This explains the coiled and sometimes electrified wire fences so commonly found around poultry units and hog barns today.
- Manure – Manure is nature’s best form of fertilizer. Feedlots, chicken houses and hog barns often don’t have adequate land on which to spread manure to support grass and/or crop growth, so the manure simply becomes a waste item to be disposed of, often in a very unsustainable matter.
- Feed – In order to put weight on animals in the cheapest possible way all sorts of feeding strategies are incorporated. Did you know that the addition of cement dust to rations improves feed to weight gain ratios in cattle? Did you know that the addition of recycled poultry litter to beef feedlot diets reduces the cost of weight gain considerably?
Sustainable Agriculture - A Better Way
What does all of this mean as far as how we do things at Paradigm Farms? We decided that we wanted our focus to be on quality, nutritious food produced using sustainable farming practices. We decided to throw out the industrial method and replace it with something better. This means we focus on natural production methods, low stocking rates, biological and rotational controls, and extensive rather than intensive production methods. Some specific examples at Paradigm Farms include the following:
- Cattle are ruminant animals, designed by nature to ingest a diet primarily consisting of long stemmed forages. Our cattle live naturally on pasture all year round. Most of their nutrients come from grass or hay with minimal supplementation
- We do not have to “dispose” of manure off the farm. Grazing cattle distribute their own manure lightly and spread out across the pasture. They even do this at rates commensurate with plant growth and uptake. Nutrient recycling in this system is immediate and very beneficial to both soil and plants. When the proportion of carbon to nitrogen is correct there is no “nasty smell” that is often associated with cattle farms.
- We almost never have sick animals because low stocking density greatly decreases the risk of disease. Unlike large feedlots we do not routinely administer antibiotics to our cattle via their feed or in any other form.
- We do not use growth hormones simply because we don’t need to. We are not trying to produce large volumes of cheap meat at the lowest possible production cost to satisfy a middleman. There is no middleman in our system. Our focus is on producing small volumes of high quality meat. We believe that quality cannot be hurried . . .
We have created a win-win situation as we benefit, the land benefits and the animals benefit.