What You Need to Know About The Beef You Eat

(Page 9 of 9)

February/March 2008
By Jo Robinson 
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In addition, a growing percentage of beef is treated with Modified Atmosphere Packaging, or MAP. Raw meat is placed in airtight packages and injected with gases to delay or disguise the normal aging process. The meat industry hopes that MAP will save up to a billion dollars a year by keeping the meat in the display cases longer.

RELATED CONTENT

The irony is that pastured cattle have enough natural antioxidants in their diet to keep their meat truly fresh longer than feedlot beef. What the processing plants try to do with a mix of chemicals, Mother Nature does on her own. To read about injected and gas-packed meat in greater detail, see Shocking News About Meat (June/July 2007).

Jo Robinson is a passionate advocate of grass-fed meat. You can find pastured beef producers near you by searching her Web site. 

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Comments

  • Gerald R Kinney 11/30/2008 2:59:30 AM

    I enjoyed this article about what is in our meat and I couldn't agree more. But n reality can an individual really do? The only thing that is reasonable would be to try and raise our own cattle again whether for dairy or for meat. In California farm land is at such a premium that it would have to be a co-op or a conglomerate effort. In this article when it was mentioned about adding certain antibiotics to feed or injection to foster the cattle to get more nutriants out of the feed it was almost like me taking them. When I was growing up as it said here, in the 60's and 70's my Grandfather never used these antibiotics. The last thing I might mention is my son and daughter were in the FFA and when we bought feed for their goats(couldn't afford cattle), we tried to buy feed without any antiboitics(hard to do) we thought of something we did for ourselves when we had an upset stomach and that was unflavored yogurt. We tried that on our goats and guess what? It worked! They started to pull more nutrients out of their feed. We tried something else for awhile which was called a "Probios Paste", same type of biotics as yogurt but more expensive. We whent back to yogurt. Just a thought, and what does anyone think? Anyone ever try this? Let me know here if you can.

  • Skeptic 1/23/2008 8:42:24 AM

    Let's all employ critical thinking skills here and stop taking
    everything we are reading at face value! I don't see anything in
    the above article about the malnutrition that animals are exposed
    to when on a 100% grass diet. Neither 100% grass or 100% grain is
    good. Why don't people realize that cattle, like people, need a
    balanced diet in order to be healthy. I've never heard the junk
    about feeding garbage and chewing gum either and as someone who has
    been raised in the Midwest on a family farm and had some exposure
    to the "big" evil feedlots, I have a hard time believing that this
    is a widespread practice. I am so tired of people using scare
    tactics to prove their points. Let's have some real science here.

  • motherreader 1/22/2008 4:24:39 PM

    The conversation about whether organic standards would ever allow
    cloned meat to carry the certified organic label are still
    underway. Buying organic meat is one way to ensure that your meat
    is free of hormones, antibiotics and byproduct feedstuffs. But it's
    not the only way. You may also choose to purchase meat from farmers
    you trust. Find producers at www.eatwild.com and
    www.localharvest.org, check the farmers market or natural foods
    store in your area, and don't be afraid to contact producers.
    Anyone who is unwilling to answer your questions about how the
    animals were raised is not someone you want to purchase meat from.
    Yes, these kinds of meat seem expensive. But that's only because
    the rest of the meat at our grocery stores is artificially cheap.
    We pay for it tax money that cleans up environmental hazards caused
    by factory farming. We pay for it in health care costs. We pay for
    it when we subsidize the farmers who grow grains to feed animals
    that should be eating grass. It's also worth noting that some
    producers of high-quality, grass-finished meat choose not to go the
    certified organic route. That doesn't mean that their meat is
    chemically altered, but rather that they choose to employ honest
    methods and are willing to talk directly to consumers about their
    standards.

  • Margot 1/22/2008 3:27:59 PM

    How do I know if the meat I'm buying will be coming from a company
    that will be using the cloned animals? I would love to strictly buy
    organic but prices are so steep. Is that the only way to be sure
    that I'm not getting cloned or chemically altered meat?

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