I was intrigued last month to see that a trendy supermarket chain in Ottawa was offering its customers two kinds of beef -- one labelled "grass-fed" (imported from Australia) while the other was "pasture-raised" (from southern Ontario, I believe). The Australian grass-fed beef was more expensive and the pasture-raised option was closer to the price of conventional beef at other stores.
I wondered how this grocery chain defined the terms "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised"? (I had been guilty of carelessly throwing around these descriptions almost interchangeably. My reasoning had been that our cattle are both grass-fed and pasture raised since they eat grass in our pastures during the growing season and, therefore, eat grass. In winter they receive hay, which is dry grass).
The friendly and chatty butcher at the store explained that his understanding was that grass-fed beef came from animals that had eaten only grass during their lifetime. Pasture-raised beef on the other hand, he said, was raised on grass for most of their lives but were given some grain when the animals were being finished. ("Finishing" is a term used to describe the final two to four months in the life of beef cattle when, ideally, they are fattened for the butcher.)
Yet how much grain do "pasture-raised" beef animals receive? In my mind, the definition of "pasture-raised" beef given to me by the friendly butcher could potentially describe nearly all beef cows raised in Canada, which would mean that this store's "pasture-raised" beef may merely be conventional beef and may or may not be anything special, depending on how much grain the animals receive. (In Canada, most beef herds live on grass from late spring to early fall. Practically all beef could arguably be termed "pasture raised" if one were to ignore what happens the rest of the year).
My next question was why was the store's higher-priced "grass-fed" beef being sourced from Australia? The supermarket in question prominently touts its commitment to supporting local production of vegetables and meat yet you couldn't find a food source much further away from Ottawa than Australia.
The butcher said he thought -- but didn't seem entirely sure -- that beef could not be legally declared grass-fed if the animals had been fed hay during their lifetime (I suppose an argument could be made that hay is not the same as grass since it has been dried out and lost some of its nutritional qualities). I had not heard this and have still not found any information to support this. If it is somehow true that cattle that have fed on hay in the winter cannot be legally be described as grass-fed, then I suppose there is virtually no grass-fed beef in Canada -- since we Canadians are generally not fortunate enough to have grass growing year-round.
This is just patently ridiculous. Good quality hay can provide the animals' needs for the winter, providing they receive mineral and salt supplementation, clean water and adequate shelter. More importantly, hay does not diminish the nutritional and omega-3 fat profile of the meat in the way that grain does.
When I started making this argument to the butcher, he hastily added that even if the term "grass-fed beef" was defined more loosely to included animals that have been fed hay, it was difficult for his company to find enough local grass fed beef to meet the needs of all of the company's stores in Ontario (I believe there are six stores in the province altogether).
I know Ontario is not a major beef producer but surely someone should have enough grass-fed beef to satisfy six stores. If not, then Alberta is closer than Australia.
The upshot of all of this for me is that I need to be more careful in how I use buzz-words like "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised" as they can have very different meanings for different people.
As I alluded to earlier, our cattle are raised on grass in the growing season and hay in the winter. Some of our animals receive the equivalent of a mouthful of certified organic grain as an incentive for successfully making otherwise-complicated moves between pastures (in areas where our fencing is old and weak), usually not more often than every few weeks. The amount of grain given is negligible (probably proportionally less than our kids candy intake, which is strictly limited to Christmas, Halloween and Easter).
While some might consider our cows not to be strictly grass fed, grain is not used as part of our finishing strategy -- this year our cows were on pasture until the day before they went to the butcher. We have decided in 2016 to try giving the cows organic alfalfa pellets (imported from Saskatchewan) instead of grain as an incentive to make our complicated moves, and not break out of our flimsy fences.
In the end, labels are less important in our estimation than absolute transparency, showing our customers how we raise their food. (We could, after all, choose to market "apple-fed beef" as our animals consume hundreds of pounds of the sweet fruit that fall into their pastures in autumn prior to butchering. We suspect that the apples help sweeten and tenderize the meat although we have no scientific evidence of this).
I don't see an easy solution for the semantic difficulties in describing food. Words can be played with and twisted in order to lure people to buy. One could argue that unless we as a society find ways of getting closer to our food by purchasing directly from farmers we know and trust, the implied meaning of terms such as "local", "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised" may continue to obfuscate important health issues.
I wondered how this grocery chain defined the terms "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised"? (I had been guilty of carelessly throwing around these descriptions almost interchangeably. My reasoning had been that our cattle are both grass-fed and pasture raised since they eat grass in our pastures during the growing season and, therefore, eat grass. In winter they receive hay, which is dry grass).
The friendly and chatty butcher at the store explained that his understanding was that grass-fed beef came from animals that had eaten only grass during their lifetime. Pasture-raised beef on the other hand, he said, was raised on grass for most of their lives but were given some grain when the animals were being finished. ("Finishing" is a term used to describe the final two to four months in the life of beef cattle when, ideally, they are fattened for the butcher.)
Yet how much grain do "pasture-raised" beef animals receive? In my mind, the definition of "pasture-raised" beef given to me by the friendly butcher could potentially describe nearly all beef cows raised in Canada, which would mean that this store's "pasture-raised" beef may merely be conventional beef and may or may not be anything special, depending on how much grain the animals receive. (In Canada, most beef herds live on grass from late spring to early fall. Practically all beef could arguably be termed "pasture raised" if one were to ignore what happens the rest of the year).
My next question was why was the store's higher-priced "grass-fed" beef being sourced from Australia? The supermarket in question prominently touts its commitment to supporting local production of vegetables and meat yet you couldn't find a food source much further away from Ottawa than Australia.
The butcher said he thought -- but didn't seem entirely sure -- that beef could not be legally declared grass-fed if the animals had been fed hay during their lifetime (I suppose an argument could be made that hay is not the same as grass since it has been dried out and lost some of its nutritional qualities). I had not heard this and have still not found any information to support this. If it is somehow true that cattle that have fed on hay in the winter cannot be legally be described as grass-fed, then I suppose there is virtually no grass-fed beef in Canada -- since we Canadians are generally not fortunate enough to have grass growing year-round.
This is just patently ridiculous. Good quality hay can provide the animals' needs for the winter, providing they receive mineral and salt supplementation, clean water and adequate shelter. More importantly, hay does not diminish the nutritional and omega-3 fat profile of the meat in the way that grain does.
When I started making this argument to the butcher, he hastily added that even if the term "grass-fed beef" was defined more loosely to included animals that have been fed hay, it was difficult for his company to find enough local grass fed beef to meet the needs of all of the company's stores in Ontario (I believe there are six stores in the province altogether).
I know Ontario is not a major beef producer but surely someone should have enough grass-fed beef to satisfy six stores. If not, then Alberta is closer than Australia.
The upshot of all of this for me is that I need to be more careful in how I use buzz-words like "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised" as they can have very different meanings for different people.
As I alluded to earlier, our cattle are raised on grass in the growing season and hay in the winter. Some of our animals receive the equivalent of a mouthful of certified organic grain as an incentive for successfully making otherwise-complicated moves between pastures (in areas where our fencing is old and weak), usually not more often than every few weeks. The amount of grain given is negligible (probably proportionally less than our kids candy intake, which is strictly limited to Christmas, Halloween and Easter).
While some might consider our cows not to be strictly grass fed, grain is not used as part of our finishing strategy -- this year our cows were on pasture until the day before they went to the butcher. We have decided in 2016 to try giving the cows organic alfalfa pellets (imported from Saskatchewan) instead of grain as an incentive to make our complicated moves, and not break out of our flimsy fences.
In the end, labels are less important in our estimation than absolute transparency, showing our customers how we raise their food. (We could, after all, choose to market "apple-fed beef" as our animals consume hundreds of pounds of the sweet fruit that fall into their pastures in autumn prior to butchering. We suspect that the apples help sweeten and tenderize the meat although we have no scientific evidence of this).
I don't see an easy solution for the semantic difficulties in describing food. Words can be played with and twisted in order to lure people to buy. One could argue that unless we as a society find ways of getting closer to our food by purchasing directly from farmers we know and trust, the implied meaning of terms such as "local", "grass-fed" and "pasture-raised" may continue to obfuscate important health issues.
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