Monday, July 22, 2019

Grass-Fed & Finished, or Grain-Fed?

  Grains, soy, and corn are not natural food for cows---grass is their natural food. 
Even though all calves spend the first part of their lives on pasture, feeding on mother’s milk and grass, at around 7 months old, many of them will be transferred to industrial feedlots, to be quickly fattened with corn or soy. And given growth hormones & antibiotics to maximize profitability.
The corn / soy feeds are often supplemented with cheap filler products---stale candy, soda crackers, fish meal, peanut butter, breakfast cereal, ice cream sprinkles, cookies, hot chocolate mix, etc.---to reduce costs & accelerate fattening the animals.   https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/10/news/economy/farmers-cows-candy-feed/
Meat from these animals is high in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids and lacking in nutrient value and quality. 
Grass-fed & grass-finished cows eat a natural diet; their meat is more nutritious, higher in healthy omega-3’s and lower in inflammatory omega-6‘s, and doesn’t have the toxic chemical by-products (hormones, antibiotics) found in industrially-raised meat.
The grass-finished designation is critically important. If not specified as grass-finished, although initially fed on grass, the cows may have been soy-corn-filler-feedlot-fattened for a period before processing.