While I have tried to buy organic milk and free range eggs for a number of years, I have not been so vigilant when it comes to meat. The reason is simply economic and while I would be happy to reduce my in take of meat and invest in higher quality products, I’m afraid my family would revolt.
However, the nutritional differences can’t be ignored. Firstly, range fed beef has far fewer calories. Cows that spend their days wandering the pasture and foraging for sustenance are not as fatty as those kept in pens and feed all the corn they can consume. I read that simply substituting grass fed for corn fed beef could save 17,733 calories per year (http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm).
Furthermore, grass fed beef has 2 to 4 times the amount of omega 3 fatty acids than their grain fed counterparts - music to my salmon hating husband’s ears. Grass fed beef is also the best known source of another good fat conjugated linoleic acid or CLA, which has been shown to slow tumor growth and provide cancer defenses.
All of this aside, grass fed beef is expensive. I went to Whole Foods yesterday to check it out. Ground chuck was almost $4.00/lb and it went up – sharply – from there. I did buy a pound of the ground chuck and, yes, I think it was probably tastier than the norm. I’m thinking about splurging on some steaks to see if Sweet Hubbie can taste the difference. If that works out, I’m going to start looking for somewhere to buy in bulk, hopefully that will be cheaper.
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As a busy mom with a full-time job and kids, the pace of our life makes me think about a simpler time. Being a college educated adult the reality of our culture – the most prosperous on the planet – dieing of malnutrition makes me stop and think. How do you mix an American household and a responsibility to family, community and the planet? With a dinner plate. This blog is created to document our path from fast food to slow food and agri-business to locavore with a budget and without a plan.
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