We have been given the opportunity to have some of our beef in Whole Foods Market and have been supplying the Midwest region for close to a year. We have recently been accepted to place some beef into the North Atlantic and Northeast regions. We are very grateful for a company like Whole Foods to partner with farmers such as ourselves to source products directly from the farm. It has the potential to breathe new life into many family farms. Yet, the sourcing of beef directly from farms has unique challenges both to the farmer, the processor and the buyers. We are hopeful that through communication, transparency and patience it is a program that will work for us the farmer, for Whole Foods the retailer, and for the consumer – WIN –WIN – WIN.

How does flying and selling beef to Whole Foods connect? We left today in our Cessna 206 for a promotional trip to Boston/Cambridge area. We will stay for about 10 days to tell the grass fed story and provide consumers a chance to taste grass fed beef in 8 different Whole Foods Markets.

My husband describes it as, "Be careful what you ask for!" Yes, we are farmers and our favorite place is on the farm but this week we will be wearing our marketing and cooking hats as we talk the grass fed story in Boston. Producers who take the plunge to market their products direct must often assume the role of the jobs that are usually in the middle between the farm and table.

Mintel, a marketing research group, recently published results of consumer surveys that reflect this idea.  As more and more Americans are moving toward greener purchases the production of green products have increased over 200% in the last 5 years.  Mintel noted a trend in consumers’ growing interest in products that are not just organic or natural but address their environmental concerns.  More than ever shoppers want to purchase goods that help protect and preserve the world around us.

In this vein the green lifestyle has welcome arms around the solar based, environmentally friendly grass fed model of production.

A few of our favorite burger fixens include sautéed wild mushrooms on top of the burger, blueberries added directly into the meat, a blue cheese topping, the unbeatable combination of bacon and cheddar cheese, red onions, and a endless combination of condiments from as simple as ketchup and mustard to exotic homemade twists of Mediterranean, Mexican and Indian cuisine.

This weekend to kick off the burger season I think I will go basic with the classic burger and lettuce, tomato and onion.  Can’t wait.

At American Grass Fed Beef we are also excited about a new product which is a half-pound burger patty.  Though not for the faint and dainty, none of my boys are that, this will be an exciting new and convenient way to enjoy grass fed beef.  Not even on the website yet, look for it in the next week or so.

For the second time in a month we have had a major amount of fencing washed away.  Yet, we are thankful to have missed some of the devastation left by the tornados associated with this last storm system.  Damage to emerging pasture is getting critical and we have had to put animals into some sacrifice areas to protect the main pastures.  These are paddocks that contain our least productive grass density.  The animal impact upon the sodden ground will leave them appearing to have been disked with a plow.  After the animals are rotated to grassy pastures we will come behind them and sow new grass.  In the long run they will actually be improved, but in the short time they take a beating.

Currently, we have planned for working one group of yearlings this week to separate by size and prepare for spring grazing rotation of range pasture.  Our pens are also soaked and even rubber boots will make for difficult moving as the mud comes half way between the knee and ankle.

Viewing and photographing these wild species is truly my greatest hobby and an endeavor that I just can’t seem to find enough time to explore.  Yet, it always seems that my greatest encounters with wildlife occur when I do not have a camera in hand.  One such encounter was yesterday.

While walking along one of my typical trails I came upon a group of elk.  They were out on the edge of the woods at the interface where the pasture meets woods.  A large bull elk was acting strangely.  He was walking imbalanced and stumbling.  My first though was that a poacher had snuck into the area and shot him.  Standing very still I stood and watched, unsure of what I could possibly do to help him if he had been shot.  As I watched he began turning from side to side trying to lick his back.  He then began to turn in circles like a small dog chasing his tail.  All of a sudden he ran and came to a quick stop like a quarter horse going through a reigning routine.  When he put on the brakes to stop both antlers fell off onto the ground on each side of his body.  I had been lucky enough to actually see an elk shed his antlers!  It was a remarkable sight. 

More and more consumers are regularly buying products that are considered good or less harmful for the environment.  According to the research from Mintel International Group conducted in December more than one-third of consumers surveyed said they “regularly” buy green products, compared to only 12% in August, 2006.  Those who responded that they “never” buy green products were cut in half, to 10 percent.

Consumers are voting for what exists in the world by how they choose to spend their dollars. 

We have always been proud to have our farm located on the Current River (actually 3 miles distant) it is one of Missouri’s Scenic Waterways and its crystal clear waters are truly a delight for fishing and sporting.  Yet when the region receives a deluge of this magnitude it sure causes heightened awareness of the fierce power of nature.  Beautiful streams become torrents of muddy, violent, raging water that push everything in its path downstream in crashing rage.  

We are all safe for which I am thankful and we slept in a warm dry house, some in the area were not so lucky.  Yet, we are not without our destruction.  Large amounts of fence are gone and some pastures this morning had cattle grazing in a lake.  Pastures beside creeks have lost calves, swept downstream.  It will take days to help the momma cows and calves match back up and determine the loss.

In the midst of a crisis it is always gives you pause when certain sights imprint an image on your mind.  While surveying the damage and wading knee deep water where about a half a mile of fence had been washed away I happened upon a calf.  The calf was curled up in that oh-so-sweet manner on top of a clump of debris.  I assume patiently waiting for momma to return.  It was the picture of peace.  Tranquility when all around you the world rages. 

This early spring we have had lots of moisture.  In fact, we are wet.  My husband is a pilot and was flying in a couple of weeks ago and called to ask the condition of our grass strip.  I told him, “You better land elsewhere unless you have equipped the plane with pontoons since you have been gone.” 

Rain is one of those vital parts of growing good grass.  As a farmer, talking weather is not just a pastime it is part of your soul.  Our Missouri soil is partial to erosion and when saturated makes driving on pasture like driving on ice.  We forbid anyone from driving off the farm roads unless in an absolute emergency. 

Animal impact can change a field to mud in 12 hours.  Yet, when not left to further abuse and properly rested it also seems to go a long way to bringing out and restoring native grasses.  Managing for wet conditions is as important as managing for drought yet can be a tool to improve pasture if used correctly. 

Patrick McElroy is the Executive Chef of the historic, four-diamond Hyatt Regency in St. Louis at Union Station.  He focuses on flavors steeped in the traditions of Midwestern cuisine and as such he has a passion for sourcing products directly from local farms. 

Patrick and his family have visited our farm and we have been greatly encouraged by the support he offers to independent farmers, ranchers, and growers who share his same philosophies concerning quality, healthiness, freshness and sustainability in our food chain. He represents a growing number of chefs who vote for what exists in the world by where they source their food.  They support generational farmers and have an appreciation of their skills and craft.  By this support they are active partners in the preservation of these farms and the skills and the quality of product represented, ensuring that these artisan products are not lost or forgotten.  American GrassFed Beef has been a staple on Patrick’s menu for several years. 

I think you will enjoy this article written by Patrick for the Hyatt Culinary newsletter.

Evolution Of The Health Food Movement

The American Grassfed Association (AGA) said Wednesday its board has voted to start certifying grass-fed meat operations under a new industry-backed standard administered by Food Alliance, owner one of the most comprehensive agricultural eco-labels in North America.

“We can now begin the process of developing the audit protocols that will allow our members to certify their farms and ranches as grassfed,” AGA Beef Director Will Harris told Sustainable Food News.

The AGA represents more than 300 grassfed livestock producers. FA certifies farms, ranches, food processors and distributors for sustainable agriculture certification, which addresses labor conditions, humane animal care, and environmental stewardship.

Certified businesses can use the green, FA eco-label on its products to show off social and environmental responsibility.

FA Executive Director Scott Exo told SFN earlier that it could his group could start taking applications and undertaking inspections of producers wishing to be AGA-certified by May.

AGA’s grass-fed marketing claim standard is intended to exceed the requirements for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s grass-fed standard announced in October, which allows animals confined to feedlots, given antibiotics and growth hormones to still be labeled ‘grass-fed’ as long as they were fed a forage diet.

This certainly has been the age of beef recalls; each one seems to be bigger than those prior.  The Topps recall this year was huge but this current recall of 143 million pounds is the largest in history.  It is 4 times bigger than the previous record of 35 million pounds by Thorn Apple Valley in 1999.  Contamination of our food supply by E.coli 0157:H7 (the deadly pathogenic form) or salmonella have been in the news all year and certainly a source of concern.  There were 21 recalls due to E.coli 0157:H7 last year which in itself is significantly higher than the 8 in 2006 and 5 in 2005.  However, this current recall brings an already shaky red meat consumer to question the very core of the livestock industry.

Further, this time the recall is for beef harvested from downer cows which could pose a threat of mad cow disease.  A downer cow is one that though alive is not ambulatory prior to harvesting.  Symptoms of mad cow disease may present as showing neurological signs of ataxia and paralysis.   Slaughter of downer cows has not been allowed since the occurrence of the threat of mad cow disease.  It is prohibited to harvest an animal that cannot stand unless it is for reasons of an acute injury such as a broken leg.  But even then the USDA veterinary inspectors on hand are to pass judgment on these animals.  The USDA has strict rules under the 1958 Humane Slaughter Act as to the humane treatment of animals including downers. 

The current recall is considered a Class II recall, indicating that the chance of there actually being a health hazard is remote.  The USDA has explained that there is little health risk from this meat because the animals had passed ante-mortem inspection prior to going down.  In addition, the officials noted that it is required that the brains and spinal cords (called SRM – specified risk materials) from any of these animals would have been removed as required since it is believed that these are the areas most likely to harbor the disease and therefore would not have entered the food supply.  A Class I recall would indicate that consumption of the product would pose a serious health problem or death.  Such has been the case in some of the E.coli outbreaks.

Of great concern to many consumers and consumer advocate groups is the fact that nearly a quarter of all the recalled beef had been sent to the school lunch program and that most of it had already been consumed.  It has caused many of these groups to question the efficacy of our food safety system.  These groups charged that the USDA should do a better job of ensuring that questionable beef does not enter our food chain.

While consumers, beef industry spokesmen, processing industry spokespersons and producers all agree that the in-humane actions of workers at this particular facility are to be condemned the question is posed by many as to whether this is just an extraordinary and egregious incident or if it is indicative of a larger, industry-wide problem.  Of consumers and customers who contact us through our website one frequently asked question has to do with the manner in which we slaughter our animals and whether it is humane.  Many consumers come to grassfed and pasture raised meats that are sourced directly from small-scale family farms for the health benefits and safety issues.  However, the umbrella of interest in pasture based agriculture goes beyond these attributes to include those folks who are not opposed to eating meat but want to make absolutely sure that the livestock is cared for, transported and harvested in a humane manner.  Additionally, there are some who come for the environmental issues. 

For this reason, we decided some time ago to have third party verification of our humane pastured raised management at the farm, when the animals are transported and when they go through the harvest process.  We are very proud to have passed two humane audits.  We bear a certificate of approval from the American Humane Association as well as Steritech.  We feel that this gives extra assurance to our customers that we are passionate about the well being of our animals.

My advice to consumers who are concerned about this revelation of animal abuse at a facility in California not extend the judgment to all animal harvesting facilities.  The proverbial, “Don’t throw out the baby with the bath...” need not apply and the consumer stop eating meat altogether.  Please continue to enjoy the health benefits of beef but investigate from where it is sourced.  Choose small-scale family farms that personally care for their animals on open pastures.  Choose meats that are processed in third party audited facilities where the humane treatment is a priority.

It's the middle of August, time to gather your friends for that barbeque you've been promising to host all summer. But before you run to the grocery store for a couple pounds of ground beef for the hamburgers, consider this: There's a healthier, safer, better-tasting alternative. One that supports small-scale farms, a healthy eco-system and the animals' welfare. That alternative is grass-fed beef.

While most of the beef found in supermarkets is an engineered commodity, far removed from the source of protein and other essential nutrients it formerly represented, many producers are revisiting the 'grass roots' of the business and bringing us better beef. There are lots of reasons to seek out a grass-fed beef supplier in your area ? Here are five of them:

1. Grass-fed beef is low in saturated fat, yet high in omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene, vitamin E, folic acid and antioxidants. Conjugated linoleic acid, thought to reduce the risk of breast cancer and diabetes, also is higher in pastured beef.

2. Grass-fed cattle don't require regular administration of antibiotics to combat the spread of infection that is common in densely packed feedlots. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 70 percent of the antibiotics and similar drugs produced in the United States are used on livestock, creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that health facilities are finding hard to treat.

3. Grass-fed beef production practices do not typically include the injection of hormones to spur growth. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved six different kinds of steroidal hormones for use in food production, according to a report from Cornell University, and many are concerned that these pharmaceuticals increase the risk of breast cancer and reproductive problems in humans. (Wildlife, too, is affected ? the hormones are present in cattle waste and end up in creeks, rivers, lakes and ponds.)

4. Grass-fed beef is much less likely to harbor acid-resistant E.coli. A diet consisting primarily of grain creates an acidic condition in a cow's digestive system, and the bacteria that survive this pH level are resistant to a human's stomach acid. The result is not pretty. However, a natural diet of grass does not create this acidic environment, and study after study has confirmed that there is much less E. coli in grass-fed meat products. (Read News from Mother: Why Grass Fed is Best for more information.)

5. Grass-fed cattle herds have never been affected by Mad Cow Disease. Large confined feeding operations will add just about anything to the feed they use in order to produce the most weight gain in the shortest time possible. Sometimes this includes processed cattle brains, which is how the disease is spread.

I never forgot the story and through out my career and life had only used antibiotics when they were truly indicated.  This article by Michael Pollan is certainly worthwhile to consider. 

By MICHAEL POLLAN
Published New York Times: December 16, 2007

The word “sustainability” has gotten such a workout lately that the whole concept is in danger of floating away on a sea of inoffensiveness. Everybody, it seems, is for it whatever “it” means. On a recent visit to a land-grant university’s spanking-new sustainability institute, I asked my host how many of the school’s faculty members were involved. She beamed: When letters went out asking who on campus was doing research that might fit under that rubric, virtually everyone replied in the affirmative. What a nice surprise, she suggested. But really, what soul working in agricultural science today (or for that matter in any other field of endeavor) would stand up and be counted as against sustainability? When pesticide makers and genetic engineers cloak themselves in the term, you have to wonder if we haven’t succeeded in defining sustainability down, to paraphrase the late Senator Moynihan, and if it will soon possess all the conceptual force of a word like “natural” or “green” or “nice.”

Confucius advised that if we hoped to repair what was wrong in the world, we had best start with the “rectification of the names.” The corruption of society begins with the failure to call things by their proper names, he maintained, and its renovation begins with the reattachment of words to real things and precise concepts. So what about this much-abused pair of names, sustainable and unsustainable?

To call a practice or system unsustainable is not just to lodge an objection based on aesthetics, say, or fairness or some ideal of environmental rectitude. What it means is that the practice or process can’t go on indefinitely because it is destroying the very conditions on which it depends. It means that, as the Marxists used to say, there are internal contradictions that sooner or later will lead to a breakdown.

For years now, critics have been speaking of modern industrial agriculture as “unsustainable” in precisely these terms, though what form the “breakdown” might take or when it might happen has never been certain. Would the aquifers run dry? The pesticides stop working? The soil lose its fertility? All these breakdowns have been predicted and they may yet come to pass. But if a system is unsustainable — if its workings offend the rules of nature — the cracks and signs of breakdown may show up in the most unexpected times and places. Two stories in the news this year, stories that on their faces would seem to have nothing to do with each other let alone with agriculture, may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we’re growing food today.

The first story is about MRSA, the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS — 100,000 infections leading to 19,000 deaths in 2005, according to estimates in The Journal of the American Medical Association. For years now, drug-resistant staph infections have been a problem in hospitals, where the heavy use of antibiotics can create resistant strains of bacteria. It’s Evolution 101: the drugs kill off all but the tiny handful of microbes that, by dint of a chance mutation, possess genes allowing them to withstand the onslaught; these hardy survivors then get to work building a drug-resistant superrace. The methicillin-resistant staph that first emerged in hospitals as early as the 1960s posed a threat mostly to elderly patients. But a new and even more virulent strain — called “community-acquired MRSA” — is now killing young and otherwise healthy people who have not set foot in a hospital. No one is yet sure how or where this strain evolved, but it is sufficiently different from the hospital-bred strains to have some researchers looking elsewhere for its origin, to another environment where the heavy use of antibiotics is selecting for the evolution of a lethal new microbe: the concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO.

I say this to explain how odd it may seem that I should be writing about the consumption of offal.  Our farm primarily sells beef muscle cuts.  Yet, offal is a misunderstood and improperly maligned part of a beef carcass.  So, while many of our customers are rediscovering beef many more should be encouraged to discover offal.

Offal (pronounced aw-ful) is a nearly complete class of food in itself, encompassing all manner of things such as heart, liver, kidneys, glands, stomach, testicles, lungs, and entrails of an animal and even includes tail, feet, head, ears, etc.  The work offal comes from the Old English “off” and “fall”, referring to the pieces that fall from an animal carcass during butchering.  The dictionary defines offal as waste parts, especially of a butchered animal or refuse; rubbish.  How unfair since many of these organs have much to offer nutritionally as well as gustatorially.
In most of the world organ meat is readily used as part of the culture’s traditional cuisine and reflects a resourcefulness and economy aimed to use all of animal protein as gainfully as possible. They like our prehistoric ancestors instinctively prize the richly nourishing organ meats of the animals they consume.   They have an appreciation for low-in-fat, vitamin-and-mineral-rich hearts, tongues, kidneys, sweetbreads, etc.  If you are going to harvest it, then use it all.  However, offal has never been a favorite with American fare which at best views it somewhat squeamishly.  We would rather put it into rendering plants than open our minds and entertain its use as a rich and delicate part or our diet.  Organ meats compared to muscle meats are much higher in iron, zinc, vitamin B12, folate and vitamin A (liver).

It is my opinion that if you do choose to try offal in some way that you choose from an animal that has been raised in a pristine environment and will offer the greatest amount of nutritional value and safety (especially the liver) by selecting from grassfed animals who have never had antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, etc.

It is not my intent to instruct you in the cooking techniques and recipes for preparation of offal, perhaps we will do that later.

However, viscera (offal, organ meat) is gaining a foothold in restaurants and kitchens in the last few years broadening the tastes of American diners.  In fact, many of the best chefs list offal as one of their favorite meals to cook and eat.

One of the premier restaurants in St. Louis did this recently with our beef hearts.

http://www.stlbites.com/2008/02/02/in-regards-to-the-forum-you-were-right

I am not a chef but I can tell you how to prepare kidney, heart, tongue, sweetbreads and mountain oysters (testicles).  We do not even have these organs on our website and they require special orders.  Feel free to call us if you have a request.

What You Need to Know About The Beef You Eat

By Jo Robinson
Reprinted from Mother Earth News
February/March 2008

You can’t see it. And you can’t always recognize it by reading the label. But the beef in your supermarket has gone industrial.

Before factory farming took hold in the 1960s, cattle were raised on family farms or ranches around the country. The process was elemental. Young calves were born in the spring and spent their first months suckling milk and grazing on grass. When they were weaned, they were turned out onto pastures. Some cattle were given a moderate amount of grain to enhance marbling (the fat interlaced in the muscle). The calves grew to maturity at a natural pace, reaching market weight at two to three years of age. After the animals were slaughtered, the carcasses were kept cool for a couple weeks to enhance flavor and tenderness, a traditional process called dry aging. The meat was then shipped in large cuts to meat markets. The local butcher divided it into individual cuts upon request and wrapped it in white paper and string.

This meat was free of antibiotics, added hormones, feed additives, flavor enhancers, age-delaying gases and salt-water solutions. Mad cow disease and the deadliest strain of E. coli — 0157:H7 — did not exist. People dined on rare steaks and steak tartare (raw ground beef) with little fear.

What’s in Your Beef?

Today’s industrialized process brings cattle to slaughter weight in just one or two years. But it reduces the nutritional value of the meat, stresses the animals, increases the risk of bacterial contamination, pollutes the environment and exposes consumers to a long list of unwanted chemicals.

The beef contains traces of hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals that were never produced by any cow. That hamburger looks fresh, but it may be two weeks old and injected with gases to keep it cherry red. Take a closer look at that “guaranteed tender and juicy” filet of beef. The juiciness may have been “enhanced” with a concoction of water, salt, preservatives and other additives.

More ominous, the beef also may be infected with food-borne bacteria, including E. coli 0157:H7. Some experts believe this toxic E. coli evolved in cattle that were fed high-grain diets. Every year, hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef products are recalled. One of the largest recalls to date took place in October 2007 when Topps Meat company recalled 21.7 million pounds of hamburger because of potential E. coli contamination. The massive recall actually put the company out of business. 

And now there’s mad cow disease, a mysterious disease that is not destroyed by cooking and has been fatal. You could ingest “prions” (abnormal proteins) by eating even a well-done rib roast. These prions infiltrate your brain, perforate it with holes, and cause death in a few years’ time.

The artificial manipulation of beef begins prior to conception. Many cows are treated with synthetic hormones, such as “melengestrol acetate,” that regulate the timing of conception, allowing all the calves to be born within days of each other — a “more efficient” process. In many ranches, herd bulls have been replaced by artificial insemination, which is a fast (read: more efficient) way to improve herd genetics. The goal is consistent size, tenderness and marbling. But industry insiders predict that many ranchers will be using cloned cattle in five or 10 years. The mass-produced calves will be carbon copies of each other. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted preliminary approval of cloning in December 2006, declaring that the meat is indistinguishable from normal meat, and is as safe for human consumption. In similar circumstances, no labeling has been required.