ranch hand
Well-known member
I hope NCBA and R-calf are fight this one. Talk about deceiving the consumers. Why not let the grass-fed have their niche in the market place? Why does the packers have to ruin this one too.
A beef with federal rules
By Libby Quaid
Associated Press
Seacoast Online
September 5, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Meat-eaters usually assume a grass-fed steak came from cattle contentedly grazing for most of their lives on lush pastures, not crowded into feedlots.
If the government has its way, the grass-fed label could be used to sell beef that didn't roam the range and ate more than just grass.
The Agriculture Department has proposed a standard for grass-fed meat that doesn't say animals need pasture and that broadly defines grass to include things like leftovers from harvested crops.
Critics say the proposal is so loose that it would let more conventional ranchers slap a grass-fed label on their beef, too.
"In the eye of the consumer, grass-fed is tied to open pasture-raised animals, not confinement or feedlot animals," said Patricia Whisnant, a Missouri rancher who heads the American Grassfed Association. "In the consumer's eye, you're going to lose the integrity of what the term 'grass-fed' means."
All beef cattle graze on grass at the beginning of their lives. The difference generally is that grass-fed beef herds graze in pastures, while conventional cattle spend the last three or four months of their lives being fattened with corn or other grains in feedlots.
People buy grass-fed beef for many reasons: They want to avoid antibiotics commonly used in feedlots, they think it's healthier, or they like the idea of supporting local farms and ranches.
Grass-fed beef is a leaner meat; fat tends to form around the muscle. With conventional corn-fed beef, the fat streaks the muscle in marble-like patterns.
"When you eat steak that is corn-finished, there's a mouthfeel that you get specifically from the fat; it hangs there in the palate for quite awhile," said Thom Fox, the chef at Acme Chophouse in San Francisco and a member of the Chefs Collaborative.
"Grass-fed beef tends to have a much quicker finish. The taste lasts for a few minutes and cleans itself off very fast," Fox said.
Demand for grass-fed products is intense and producers are responding. By Whisnant's estimate, the number of farms has grown from about 40 seven years ago to around 1,000 today.
With so many producers rushing into the market, the definition of grass-fed varies. Some meat is sold as grass-fed when grass is only part of the animal's diet.
Confusion has resulted. A survey by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association found that half of consumers had heard of grass-fed beef, but only 28 percent believed it came from cows that grazed on grass their whole lives. Sixty percent thought the cows also ate other things, such as oats, corn, hay and alfalfa.
"The awareness is there, but yet I think there is confusion," said Leah Wilkinson, food policy director for NCBA. "We want them to come out with something that won't be misleading to consumers."
Producers who keep cattle on pasture began asking the Agriculture Department in the late 1990s to set standards to help sell their beef as truly grass-fed. They want to send clear marketing signals to consumers inundated by things like organic, natural, certified humane or hormone-free.
The department has tried to come up with rules ever since, but it's a bureaucratic process that can take years. Officials have proposed standards twice now, in 2002 and again this year, that were greeted with protests from the industry.
Before a deadline for written comments last month, the department was inundated with more than 17,000 responses to its proposal.
The department is reluctant to regulate a cow's time spent grazing because some parts of the country might suffer weather extremes that stress pastures, said William Sessions, associate deputy administrator of the department's livestock and seed program.
So officials provided leeway by proposing that only 99 percent, rather than 100 percent, of a cow's diet come from grass forage, and by defining forage more broadly to include things like leftover corn stalks from harvest and silage, which is fermented grasses and legumes.
"With the geographic diversity found in the U.S., a farmer or rancher in Minnesota is going to have a little bit different grass-fed scheme than, say, one that's located in Alabama, in the South where year-round grazing is available," Sessions said.
"What we tried to do with this grass-fed claim is make it where anyone in the U.S. that wanted to make this claim could," he said.
Insisting on access to pasture could be covered by another standard, such as the department's rules for organic meat, Sessions said.
But that's what many grass-fed producers are hoping to avoid.
The department's organic standard requires that animals have unspecified access to the outdoors, and big organic dairy operations have been accused of exploiting the broad language to keep cows confined in barns.
"I've been an organic user for years, and I am disenchanted," Whisnant said. "My personal opinion ... is that it's lost meaning."
"To me, the line in the sand is the confinement issue," she said. "A grass-fed animal needs to be raised on pasture, and that's not just token access to pasture from his feedlot, but he should get the majority of his ration from that growing pasture."
------
On the Net:
Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov
American Grassfed Association: http://www.americangrassfed.org
Chefs Collaborative: http://www.chefscollaborative.org
------
seacoastonline.com
A beef with federal rules
By Libby Quaid
Associated Press
Seacoast Online
September 5, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Meat-eaters usually assume a grass-fed steak came from cattle contentedly grazing for most of their lives on lush pastures, not crowded into feedlots.
If the government has its way, the grass-fed label could be used to sell beef that didn't roam the range and ate more than just grass.
The Agriculture Department has proposed a standard for grass-fed meat that doesn't say animals need pasture and that broadly defines grass to include things like leftovers from harvested crops.
Critics say the proposal is so loose that it would let more conventional ranchers slap a grass-fed label on their beef, too.
"In the eye of the consumer, grass-fed is tied to open pasture-raised animals, not confinement or feedlot animals," said Patricia Whisnant, a Missouri rancher who heads the American Grassfed Association. "In the consumer's eye, you're going to lose the integrity of what the term 'grass-fed' means."
All beef cattle graze on grass at the beginning of their lives. The difference generally is that grass-fed beef herds graze in pastures, while conventional cattle spend the last three or four months of their lives being fattened with corn or other grains in feedlots.
People buy grass-fed beef for many reasons: They want to avoid antibiotics commonly used in feedlots, they think it's healthier, or they like the idea of supporting local farms and ranches.
Grass-fed beef is a leaner meat; fat tends to form around the muscle. With conventional corn-fed beef, the fat streaks the muscle in marble-like patterns.
"When you eat steak that is corn-finished, there's a mouthfeel that you get specifically from the fat; it hangs there in the palate for quite awhile," said Thom Fox, the chef at Acme Chophouse in San Francisco and a member of the Chefs Collaborative.
"Grass-fed beef tends to have a much quicker finish. The taste lasts for a few minutes and cleans itself off very fast," Fox said.
Demand for grass-fed products is intense and producers are responding. By Whisnant's estimate, the number of farms has grown from about 40 seven years ago to around 1,000 today.
With so many producers rushing into the market, the definition of grass-fed varies. Some meat is sold as grass-fed when grass is only part of the animal's diet.
Confusion has resulted. A survey by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association found that half of consumers had heard of grass-fed beef, but only 28 percent believed it came from cows that grazed on grass their whole lives. Sixty percent thought the cows also ate other things, such as oats, corn, hay and alfalfa.
"The awareness is there, but yet I think there is confusion," said Leah Wilkinson, food policy director for NCBA. "We want them to come out with something that won't be misleading to consumers."
Producers who keep cattle on pasture began asking the Agriculture Department in the late 1990s to set standards to help sell their beef as truly grass-fed. They want to send clear marketing signals to consumers inundated by things like organic, natural, certified humane or hormone-free.
The department has tried to come up with rules ever since, but it's a bureaucratic process that can take years. Officials have proposed standards twice now, in 2002 and again this year, that were greeted with protests from the industry.
Before a deadline for written comments last month, the department was inundated with more than 17,000 responses to its proposal.
The department is reluctant to regulate a cow's time spent grazing because some parts of the country might suffer weather extremes that stress pastures, said William Sessions, associate deputy administrator of the department's livestock and seed program.
So officials provided leeway by proposing that only 99 percent, rather than 100 percent, of a cow's diet come from grass forage, and by defining forage more broadly to include things like leftover corn stalks from harvest and silage, which is fermented grasses and legumes.
"With the geographic diversity found in the U.S., a farmer or rancher in Minnesota is going to have a little bit different grass-fed scheme than, say, one that's located in Alabama, in the South where year-round grazing is available," Sessions said.
"What we tried to do with this grass-fed claim is make it where anyone in the U.S. that wanted to make this claim could," he said.
Insisting on access to pasture could be covered by another standard, such as the department's rules for organic meat, Sessions said.
But that's what many grass-fed producers are hoping to avoid.
The department's organic standard requires that animals have unspecified access to the outdoors, and big organic dairy operations have been accused of exploiting the broad language to keep cows confined in barns.
"I've been an organic user for years, and I am disenchanted," Whisnant said. "My personal opinion ... is that it's lost meaning."
"To me, the line in the sand is the confinement issue," she said. "A grass-fed animal needs to be raised on pasture, and that's not just token access to pasture from his feedlot, but he should get the majority of his ration from that growing pasture."
------
On the Net:
Agriculture Department: http://www.usda.gov
American Grassfed Association: http://www.americangrassfed.org
Chefs Collaborative: http://www.chefscollaborative.org
------
seacoastonline.com
My customers trust me and that is why I'm sold out AT PREMIUM PRICES!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: 8)