Eating beef
Here’s a hot topic around the DL office these days: How much beef should we feature in the mag? The general answer is, not too much; organically raised plant foods are the obviously healthier choice and beat pretty much any kind of meat production. But at the same time, we know from surveys that the vast majority of our readers eat meat, at least on occasion. We have a few beef recipes in an upcoming Quick & Easy story — in my nine years at DL, I think it’s the second time we’ve featured beef as the topic of any story (the last time was a nutrition piece in 2003) — and the recipes emphasize using lean beef WITH greens and veggies as part of a balanced diet. But it’s a tricky issue, in part because USDA labeling is so vague (organic? grass fed? pasture raised? hormone free? etc) and not well regulated. Let us know what you think, and watch for an upcoming DL web exclusive on the current state of meat labels. Also, check out this well-written, short essay at TheDailyGreen.com. (All of their “green eating” tips are really good.)
Related Topics: Green Living, Recipes, Organics, Nutrition, From the Editors
February 28th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
I have a 20 year old son and a husband who love beef. I am always interested in healthy beef recipes.
Thanks!
February 28th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I rarely speak out on my choice to be vegetarian. I honestly think that what you put in your mouth is up to you.
But here are some of the issues that convinced me to stop eating beef (and eventually all meat).
There are certainly responsible, well-intentioned, environmentalist ranchers in the world. But in general, the cattle industry is a dirty, destructive business that rarely gets scrutinized since it is such a powerful lobby and very good at perpetuating the myth that beef is somehow a necessary component of the American diet. According to the United Nations, raising livestock causes far more environmental damage and produces more pollution than transportation (as the LA Times noted in October 2007, “Livestock are a leading source of greenhouse gases. Why isn’t anyone raising a stink?” http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-methane15oct15,0,1365993.story), so hold off for a moment before you throw rocks at that Hummer. Worldwide, livestock pump nearly 94 million tons of methane into the atmosphere. Not to mention the damage caused by creating grazing in areas where grazing simply does not suit the natural ecosystem—in Brazil, deforestation on a massive scale eats away at the rain forest daily, both pumping carbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere when ranchers set fires to clear jungle and also eliminating carbon-scrubbing trees from the planet. Here in the U.S., ridiculous acreages of public lands are devoted to grazing and leased at below market price, edging out natural flora and fauna and creating what critics call a “welfare ranching” system (I’ll leave it there but spend some time reading at www.wasteofthewest.com)
Add to that the travesty that transporters and feedlots pump up even organic, grass-fed cattle with hormones, antibiotics, steroids, grain, sawdust… whatever it takes to add bulk to the cows for a higher market price. (Now there are very responsible, commendable efforts to raise pure organic beef, but honestly it is such a small slice of the industry). According to Daily Blessing Organic Foods (http://organic-meat.com), which is a good source of true organic beef by the way, “90% of the beef in this country is processed at the rate of 400 cows per hour by unskilled labor.”
Then there are the links to red meat and colon cancer pointed out by The Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 293, No. 2, 2005; Vol. 298, No. 7, 2007)…. oh but wait.. FOX News has disproved them (and you trust FOX News more than JAMA don’t you?) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144326,00.html
The FOX commentary just cements my feelings that it’s always a losing cause to point out just how bad beef is for you and the planet.
One last thought. Cows deficate in the very water they drink. Yum.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:18 am
For a dinner on Sunday (Texas Independence Day), I plan to make chili. For the past five or so years, I’ve used ground turkey with no problems. But at the organic grocery I thought that perhaps organic beef would be better than commercially processed ground turkey. Is this a valid assumption? Or should we just abandon all meat as the previous commenter suggests? I like beef and I would like to feel better about eating it.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Kathy — sorry I missed responding before your Texas celebration; hope it went well! You’ve put your finger on one of the many conundrums regarding meat consumption: is organic beef better than conventional poultry? What about local (less carbon footprint) versus nonlocal but organic? I’ve found that I feel better about buying meat when I really know its source, and I like it when grocery chains (and restaurants) can tell you exactly where the stuff comes from. Check back on the website in April, when I’ll post some information I’ve dug up on the issue. There’s also a new book coming out soon, called The Compassionate Carnivore; I’ll review it, too.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I personally would love to see more beef recipes. I totally disagree with anyone who says beef isn’t good for you, and I don’t buy the argument that we shouldn’t eat beef because the cattle industry is destroying the environment. First of all, whether vegetarians like it or not, grass-fed organic beef is THE BEST source of B complex vitamins EVER. You get the most bang for your buck with some tasty cow, as opposed to plant sources. Our bodies cannot absorb “B vitamins” from plants properly, but we can from meat. Also, plant sourced proteins are incomplete, missing one or two completely of the essential proteins, or have most but very little of one. And combining different plant sources to “make a complete protein” doesn’t work eating meat. You don’t have this problem with animal products/meat. Secondly, in order to absorb anything GOOD from tofu, it MUST be properly fermented, and guess what - commercial tofu products aren’t fermented! Typical of US commercial food processing industry, taking the easy way out and putting artificial thickeners and what not into tofu to firm it up, but go to Asia and they know tofu must be fermented, and they really don’t eat that much of it - more like a condiment. Thirdly, let’s clarify the environmental impact of cattle by saying that conventional ranching and feedlots destroy the environment. I refuse to buy my meat from a grocery store. I just don’t do it. I strictly buy from local organic grass-fed farms that practice what is called managed intensive grazing (MIG) - cows are eating what God made them to eat (grass), and not grains and soy feed and bakery waste and citrus peel cake, all of which they cannot digest and makes them sick, thereby needing antibiotics and growth hormones, making polluted areas in the environment from all of the manure from the sick, incorrectly-fed cows stuffed in a huge cement block building. Cows that are pasture-fed are rarely sick, don’t need hormones or antibiotics, and MIG requires moving the cows around on specific patches of pasture with movable fences, a few days after which the farmer lets his chickens out on the same patch (the cows continue to be rotated to new patches), and they very nicely peck around and get the bugs on the cow patties, and do the work for the farmer of spreading around the manure to fertilize the ground, and not causing an environmental hazard. Then the chickens are pasture-fed and have much higher nutritional value to their eggs (whose yolks are bright orange, compared to the limpid yellow of their grocery store counterparts), and both cows and chickens provide AMAZING eggs, milk (raw is delicious), and meat to eat.
This is the way it’s supposed to be done for better health, happier animals, cleaner environment, better local economy. I encourage everyone to visit www.westonaprice.org and read up on the nutritional anthropological work done by dentist Weston A. Price, DDS. He determined by visiting many cultural groups throughout the world back in the 20’s and 30’s that there has never been ANY strictly vegan society, and the few vegetarian societies he found knew the importance of great quantities of eggs and dairy products in their diets if for some reason, for instance religious, that they didn’t eat the meat. That website is a virtual treasure trove of information, including why saturated fat is not the devil and it’s better for you than any other fat. My health has improved and I feel totally liberated from all of the misinformation floating around about what we should and shouldn’t eat, since discovering the Weston Price Foundation and reading his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
‘Compassionate Carnivore’ is an oxymoron. Eating meat is not ethically or environmentally sustainable, and any green site worth its salt won’t pretend otherwise.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
A colleague just alerted me to this great article about beef from Mother Earth News, “What You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat.” It discusses the myriad problems with conventional beef–from antibiotics to chemicals used to keep the meat “fresh”–and offers some doable solutions for people who don’t want to cut out red meat entirely.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2008-02-01/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Beef-You-Eat.aspx