To jump down to the products of the month, click here Click here to read other months’ columns
My name is Stephanie Zonis, and welcome to Organic Matter for May, 2006.
Where’s The [Organic] Beef?
There are any number of well-publicized reasons for not eating beef. Quite apart from the warnings of the medical community about diets too rich in red meat, and the viewpoint of those who don’t want to eat meat for ethical reasons, beef is a food that requires heavy resource consumption. People are concerned, as they should be, with the use of antibiotics in conventionally-raised livestock. There are issues related to the safety of beef available to consumers, particularly where a disease like BSE (commonly called “mad cow”) is concerned. Yet, beef retains a great popularity among many sectors of the American population, and it provides an impressive nutritional profile, including some nutrients hard to find in non-meat sources. Is organic beef the solution to consumers’ concerns?
To an extent, the answer is “yes.” If you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, you’re probably not going to consume beef in any case. And too much beef in anyone’s diet is simply a bad idea. But organically-raised beef, eaten in reasonable quantities, can allow you to partake of “the thrill of the grill” with the knowledge that your beef was raised in a more responsible and more ethical manner.
Let’s start with the issues of resources and pollution. Far from the small family farms that form the rapidly-disappearing ideal of American agriculture, CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are the norm in this age of industrialization. These CAFOs usually involve the raising of hundreds, if not thousands, of animals in one place, all of which are confined for at least 45 days per year. Typically, animals in CAFOs are fed very large quantities to ensure weight gain in a short time; they’re also given hormones so they’ll gain weight more quickly. But these crowded conditions make for an environment favorable to the spread of disease, so the cattle are fed antibiotics in high concentrations.
The Shocking “Runoff” Of Cattle-Raising
As you might suspect, these animals produce vast quantities of manure. In the once-upon-a-time world of “Mom and Pop” farms, this manure was valuable; it served as fertilizer for the farmland. But the CAFOs have so many animals in one place that they produce far more manure than could ever be needed for fertilizer. The manure and waste are stored in open pits called “lagoons.” Allowed to ferment in these “lagoons,” the cattle waste can cause health problems for farm workers. At times, the contents of the lagoons are sprayed on the farmer’s field, but when too much is applied, as often happens, the excess is runoff, which contaminates waterways in the vicinity and can even contaminate local groundwater.
If you think this problem is confined to isolated waterways in the American West, think again; a “dead zone” (a region of water that cannot support life) sometimes as large as the state of Connecticut is now an annual feature in the Gulf of Mexico. This dead zone is caused by fertilizer runoff draining into the Mississippi River (which acts as a catch basin for some 40% of the water in the U.S.) and thence to the Gulf. Sometimes, too, the “lagoons” leak or spill their contents, resulting in further contamination.
Almost half of the water used in the United States today goes toward raising livestock; given that this is the U.S., the bulk of those livestock are cattle. The National Cattlemen’s Association claims that it requires 441 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef (from birth through slaughter). Most other sources put this figure far higher, at around 2,500 gallons. Remember, that’s just for one pound of beef; the same amount of water can produce up to one hundred pounds of grain or potatoes.
There’s also the question of antibiotic and other chemical pollution. The website AskFarmerBrown.org claims that over 26 million pounds of antibiotics are administered to U.S. livestock annually, compared to only 3 million pounds of total human intake. Less than 10% of those antibiotics go to fight active infections; the remainder are a preventative measure necessitated by confined quarters. Additionally, an astonishing percentage of synthetic pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides are used in the raising and production of livestock in this country. The same website indicates that over half of all insecticide use, over two-thirds of total herbicide use, and 43% of all pesticide use is employed in animal agriculture. Factory farming is bad for biodiversity, too. An enormous percentage of the monoculture soybeans and corn used in the U.S. annually go toward feeding livestock.
BSE: AKA “Mad Cow”
And what about BSE? First, a brief explanation of what it is. BSE is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, commonly called “Mad Cow Disease.” The FDA defines this as “a chronic, degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous system of cattle.” It progresses slowly, but is always fatal. The exact cause of BSE is uncertain, but it’s generally accepted that it’s due to a type of protein, called a “prion,” normally present in cattle. For reasons not yet determined, some prions can become infectious. BSE has a long incubation period, and is either absent or undetectable in young animals. In humans, a similar disorder is called CJD, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.
CJD occurs sporadically in human populations, usually among those over the age of 60, at the rate of about one case per million people per year. But in 1996 came the announcement in the U.K. of 10 cases of CJD in younger people not considered at high risk for the disease (the average age of these ten was 27). A decade later, it is acknowledged that humans can contract CJD by consuming beef from cattle with BSE. No cases of CJD that originated from BSE-contaminated cattle raised in the US have been confirmed, but some are suspected.
Why is BSE important to this discussion? Because of another animal disease called scrapie, which has affected sheep and goats for at least two centuries. Conventionally-raised cattle have long been fed fats and proteins along with grass and grains; it helps them gain weight more quickly. Unfortunately, much of the fat and protein they’ve been fed in more recent times comes from other animals. In the U.K., at least, the leftover parts of butchered sheep were included as part of cattle protein supplements.
It’s thought, but cannot be determined conclusively, that scrapie jumped species to become BSE. Given that scrapie is a degenerative disorder affecting the central nervous systems of sheep and goats, and that it’s always fatal, that doesn’t seem an unreasonable assumption. But again, it probably can’t be proven.
In the U.S., cattle can no longer eat feed containing byproducts from other cattle, sheep, and goats, nor can they consume cattle blood or poultry litter (which includes feces). However, the FDA still permits cattle to eat feed containing byproducts of pigs, fish, chicken, and horses, among other animals. They can also be fed pig and horse blood, as well as tallow, a fat derived from cattle.
True, animal byproducts are processed extensively before being turned into animal feed. They’re ground, then heated to temperatures as high as 300°F for as long as an hour. The problem is that such a cooking period doesn’t kill or inactivate prions, the agents responsible for BSE. They can and do withstand much higher temperatures.
Photo by Vaughan Willis.
None of this addresses the ethical concerns of conventionally-raised cattle. These include, but are not limited to, lack of sufficient living space for natural behavior, lack of safe and humane transportation to processing facilities, lack of access to proper pasture and the outdoors in general, and improper stunning prior to slaughter.
Have I put you off beef entirely yet? Let’s all draw a breath, take a step back, and see what organic production has done and can do about these problems.
The Benefits of Organic-Raised Beef
Consumers of other organic products know that manufacturers are allowed to use the claim “organic” or “made with organic ingredients” when their products are less than 100% organic, but such is not the case with meat products. If beef (or other meat) is labeled “organic,” 100% of that meat must have been produced organically.
When you purchase organic-raised beef (which bears the seal “USDA Organic”), you are guaranteed of the following:
No CAFOs. CAFOs are not permitted at any time during the lifecycle of organically-raised cattle. Instead, the animals are sheltered in buildings that allow them exercise and some comfort.
Open-Air Grazing. These cattle are allowed access to the outdoors and direct sunlight, and that includes being able to perform the natural behavior of grazing on pasture.
No Antibiotics or Growth Hormones. Organically-raised cattle are not allowed to be given antibiotics or growth hormones, period.
100% Organic Cattle Feed. When they eat cattle feed, it must be 100% organic cattle feed. Because cattle are vegetarian ruminants by nature, those raised organically are not fed any animal byproducts. If an animal is to be raised for organic beef, its mother must have been fed organic feed for at least the last third of her gestation period.
Full Traceability. Regarding diseases, while not everyone agrees that feeding cattle animal byproducts is responsible for BSE, traceability is an additional worry. Apparently, the U.S. is the only developed nation left without the ability to source and age-verify cattle and beef. If you eat ground beef, for instance, there’s nothing to guarantee that all of the beef is from one animal. Cattle producers are required to keep some records, yes, but if ground beef is suspected in an outbreak of illness (which has happened before and can include common illnesses such as food poisoning), it is next to impossible to determine from what animal or what farm the infected cattle may have come. As might be imagined, in an era of legitimate BSE fears, this has put some people off beef in this country, and it’s a huge hurdle in U.S. beef exports. By contrast, organic beef requires far more thorough record-keeping if a farm operation wants to be certified organic (and remain that way). Because of this, organic meat production offers full traceability from an animal’s birth to it’s ending up in a store as meat. Should organic beef be implicated in an outbreak of any kind of illness, investigators will stand a far better chance of being able to track down the source of that illness and take corrective action.
The restrictions applied to the raising of organic beef scale down multiple environmental, health and even some ethical dilemmas. As I’ve written many times before, an “organic” seal on any food is not an indication of a perfect system. But especially in the case of beef, which has become so problematic, any system of production that cuts back on the various concerns associated with its production must be viewed as beneficial. If you choose not to eat beef, that’s one thing. But if you do, if you give a thought to ethics, health concerns, and a lighter environmental footprint, consider beef that’s been organically raised.
Organic Find of the Month: Organic Beef
There follows a list of some of the organic beef producers in the U.S. that ship to consumers. I have not tried products from any of these producers except Blackwing, and I’ve only tried their ostrich steak (for a variety of reasons, I don’t eat very much red meat). Other members of THE NIBBLE™ editorial staff enjoyed Dakota Beef, and particularly recommend the frankfurters. The producers are listed in alphabetical order.
Blackwing Quality Meats. Everything from beef to ostrich to quail. Online ordering. Note that only the beef and chicken are organic.
Dakota Beef. A full line of beef products, from roasts to hamburger.
environmental, health and even some ethical dilemmas. As I’ve written many times before, an “organic” seal on any food is not an indication of a perfect system. But especially in the case of beef, which has become so problematic, any system of production that cuts back on the various concerns associated with its production must be viewed as beneficial. If you choose not to eat beef, that’s one thing. But if you do, if you give a thought to ethics, health concerns, and a lighter environmental footprint, consider beef that’s been organically raised. 
