How do you take your...meat?

[notherbob]

I am only going to address the issue of grass fed vs grain fed beef. I have a problem with the giant corporate farms and their practices, but that is a separate issue.

junk science is the report that is fueling your views on the safety of grass fed beef. It is bad science based on three cows. three! And even worse, it didn't even isolate the deadly form of e-coli, which later studies have shown is not vulnerable to the higher acid levels found in grass fed beef.

http://meatgeek.org/2010/01/25/beware-the-myth-of-grass-fed-beef/

I think there may be other studies out there, I'll look around when I get a little time to.

While I do have respect for you I do not have respect for some of the crap that passes itself off as science these days. I agree that naturally pastured cattle do indeed have some e coli because there are some weeds that get taken in along with the grasses but they are miniscule compared to grain-fed cattle and it may even be a little milder strain, I'm not sure.

You are also right in that a second factor is care in processing. Our beef is processed one head at a time in a place that has been thoroughly cleaned since the prior usage. Infinitely more care is taken than one sees in a typical large scale slaughterhouse. Our processor has a local reputation to uphold because his livlihood depends on it.

In my view, locally processed beef, grain or grass fattened, is less hazardous to one's health than the mass produced, mass processed mainstream product. The extent to which the animal has not been subjected to growth hormones, crowding, antibiotics and genetically modified grains is the extent to which it is safer to eat and better for the consumer. It is the big conglomerates engaging in unsafe practices yet pointing the finger at locally produced alternatives in an effort to take business from them that is the main problem.

Speaking of junk science, I read the link you provided and it came from Penn State, a school that, like Texas A&M, receives millions of dollars in donations from multinational organizations and then ends up supporting their interests over the interests of ordinary people. I looked around their website and found proof of their priorities in the Dairy and Animal Science department donations requested page where I found this quote "We continuously strive to improve our service to our stakeholders - producers, processors, agribusinesses, and youth and rural residents."

Notice that people are last on their list of priorities.

Junk science isn't limited to a bunch of kooks in their basement laboratories; it's prevalent among business today as well as universities who basically say to potential donors that if you will make a large donation to our department, we'll do research proving anything you want to prove. That's junk science by any reasonable definition.

That's why we raise or grow most of our own food. We eat like royalty by comparison to the general public, who has become much more rotund in recent decades following their "healthy" diets. I think the increased rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer today are a reflection, at least in part, of the poor quality of food in the modern diet as well as modern lethargic lifestyles.

I think people in general need to take at closer look at where food comes from and how it is produced and what is really in it. OTOH, maybe they shouldn't know.