Katie Strand World: markets

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

And All the Cows Said Moo!

Help finding Raw, Humane, Grass-Fed Animal Products

I forget, sometimes, how lucky I really am. Besides the facts of my life that are intrinsic - great parents, family, health, friends, etc., I also live in southern California, more specifically, in Santa Monica, which means I can find good, organic, pasture-raised, grass-fed animal products and food by simply going to a local farmer's market, Whole Foods (though their selection is limited), or to my favorite, local, co-op-style Farmer's Market, Rawsome, which I will go to later today. (*details on Rawsome below)

The independent, family-run Rawsome is extremely strict and diligent about the food they sell at Rawsome being organic and raw and if it's not completely raw (like some cashews they carry because heat makes harvesting easier) they'll post a sign about it or tell you. Oh, and they also visits all the farms from which they get animal products to make sure they are organic, clean, humane, natural/pasture-raised and grass-fed (or natural-fed depending on the animal). Since I tend to sometimes get obsessive and/or research-driven, they make my life easier. I can relax. They do all the research and due diligence for me. (Thanks, Rawsome.)

Here's a testimony on Rawsome from yelp.com:

There are about 3,000 of us, in So Cal, who eat only raw food, including raw meat. Most of us follow a book called "We Want To Live," written by a man named Aajonus [Vonderplanitz]. Rawsome has all the foods that we eat: healthy raw meat, raw dairy, raw honey, and raw vegies to make juice. Most of us work with the theory that bacteria are our friends and not our enemy and some of us eat old raw meat, with seemingly healthy results.

I'm 71 years old, in perfect health, and have been eating raw for about six years, with excellent results. I have good steady energy and often run from my car to wherever I'm going, just because it feels good to do it.

Good luck and good health.

*Rawsome:
665 Rose Ave.
Venice, CA 90291
Hrs: Wednesday 12-8pm; Saturday 9am-4pm
Rawsome is a members-only organic and raw food co-op. You can pay $1 for your first visit, but must pay cash-only for your food. Membership is $25/year per person (or $2 per month), and is pro-rated, and once a member, you can pay by check.

I'm especially lucky because I live about 4 miles from Rawsome. But if you live outside of the Los Angeles area, you might be hard-pressed to find the most healthful foods. Well, due to the fact that I'm a little bit obsessive (to my own benefit and demise at times!), I recently came across Eat Wild, a website that is a resource for finding healthy, grass-fed and pasture-raised beef, poultry and dairy farms near you. Basically, this website is supporting natural, old-school farmers who believe that the way these animals naturally live and eat is best for them and for us. When you find the farm near you, please remember to check that your humane meat is 100% grass-fed (beef and bison), never frozen, and that the dairy is raw and unpasteurized, as the health benefits are astounding over frozen and pasteurized dairy (and will be detailed more fully in a near-future blog).

So before I sign-off and leave you with an excerpt from Eat Wild's Grass-Fed Basics page, I'm just going to say that we are all lucky because more natural farming is catching on again. What animals and humans did for thousands of years as co-habitators of the earth that went out of fashion for purely economic reasons in the last 75 years or so is now, increasingly, back in vogue.

And all the cows said, Mooo!

Here's an excerpt from Eat Wild's Grass-Fed Basics page:

Back to Pasture. Since the late 1990s, a growing number of ranchers have stopped sending their animals to the feedlots to be fattened on grain, soy and other supplements. Instead, they are keeping their animals home on the range where they forage on pasture, their native diet. These new-age ranchers do not treat their livestock with hormones or feed them growth-promoting additives. As a result, the animals grow at a natural pace. For these reasons and more, grass-fed animals live low-stress lives and are so healthy there is no reason to treat them with antibiotics or other drugs.

More Nutritious. A major benefit of raising animals on pasture is that their products are healthier for you. For example, compared with feedlot meat, meat from grass-fed beef, bison, lamb and goats has less total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. It also has more vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and a number of health-promoting fats, including omega-3 fatty acids and “conjugated linoleic acid,” or CLA. Read more about the nutritional benefits of raising animals on pasture.

The Art and Science of Grassfarming. Raising animals on pasture requires more knowledge and skill than sending them to a feedlot. For example, in order for grass-fed beef to be succulent and tender, the cattle need to forage on high-quality grasses and legumes, especially in the months prior to slaughter. Providing this nutritious and natural diet requires healthy soil and careful pasture management so that the plants are maintained at an optimal stage of growth. Because high-quality pasture is the key to high-quality animal products, many pasture-based ranchers refer to themselves as "grassfarmers" rather than “ranchers.” They raise great grass; the animals do all the rest.

Factory Farming. Raising animals on pasture is dramatically different from the status quo. Virtually all the meat, eggs, and dairy products that you find in the supermarket come from animals raised in confinement in large facilities called CAFOs or “Confined Animal Feeding Operations.” These highly mechanized operations provide a year-round supply of food at a reasonable price. Although the food is cheap and convenient, there is growing recognition that factory farming creates a host of problems, including:
• Animal stress and abuse
• Air, land, and water pollution
• The unnecessary use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs
• Low-paid, stressful farm work
• The loss of small family farms
• Food with less nutritional value.

Unnatural Diets. Animals raised in factory farms are given diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredients are genetically modified grain and soy that are kept at artificially low prices by government subsidies. To further cut costs, the feed may also contain “by-product feedstuff” such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken feathers, and candy. Until 1997, U.S. cattle were also being fed meat that had been trimmed from other cattle, in effect turning herbivores into carnivores. This unnatural practice is believed to be the underlying cause of BSE or “mad cow disease.”

Animal Stress. A high-grain diet can cause physical problems for ruminants—cud-chewing animals such as cattle, dairy cows, goats, bison, and sheep. Ruminants are designed to eat fibrous grasses, plants, and shrubs—not starchy, low-fiber grain. When they are switched from pasture to grain, they can become afflicted with a number of disorders, including a common but painful condition called “subacute acidosis.” Cattle with subacute acidosis kick at their bellies, go off their feed, and eat dirt. To prevent more serious and sometimes fatal reactions, the animals are given chemical additives along with a constant, low-level dose of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics are the same ones used in human medicine. When medications are overused in the feedlots, bacteria become resistant to them. When people become infected with these new, disease-resistant bacteria, there are fewer medications available to treat them.

Caged Pigs, Chickens, Ducks and Geese. Most of the nation’s chickens, turkeys, and pigs are also being raised in confinement. Typically, they suffer an even worse fate than the grazing animals. Tightly packed into cages, sheds, or pens, they cannot practice their normal behaviors, such as rooting, grazing, and roosting. Laying hens are crowded into cages that are so small that there is not enough room for all of the birds to sit down at one time. An added insult is that they cannot escape the stench of their own manure. Meat and eggs from these animals are lower in a number of key vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.

Environmental Degradation. When animals are raised in feedlots or cages, they deposit large amounts of manure in a small amount of space. The manure must be collected and transported away from the area, an expensive proposition. To cut costs, it is dumped as close to the feedlot as possible. As a result, the surrounding soil is overloaded with nutrients, which can cause ground and water pollution. When animals are raised outdoors on pasture, their manure is spread over a wide area of land, making it a welcome source of organic fertilizer, not a “waste management problem.” Read more about the environmental differences between factory farming and grass-based production.

The Healthiest Choice. When you choose to eat meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals raised on pasture, you are improving the welfare of the animals, helping to put an end to environmental degradation, helping small-scale ranchers and farmers make a living from the land, helping to sustain rural communities, and giving your family the healthiest possible food. It’s a win-win-win-win situation.

Explore these topics in greater detail. Read Pasture Perfect by Jo Robinson and continue to explore the wealth of science-based information on Eatwild.com. To find a local supplier of healthy, grass-fed products, visit http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Food should be As God Intended or Why isn't everything we eat organic?

Buckle-in, folks. This one’s a bit of a long and bumpy ride...but well worth it.

This morning while making my morning shake, which consists of the following:
Eggs - organic, raw, never refrigerated (3 eggs)
Milk - organic, unpasteurized, Amish (grass fed cows, no antibiotics) (1 cup)
Honey - raw, unheated, organic (1 Tbsp)
Orange Juice - organic valencia orange, fresh squeezed (this ingredient varies from day to day, and can even be omitted - today I wanted an orange julius style shake, but the following also tastes great: organic berries (your choice); cinnamon, nutmeg & all spice (for an egg nog experience); banana, and almost any fruit or spice that would taste good in a milkshake works great, but please only use organic, fresh ingredients (or organic dried spices).
Other optional ingredients: raw butter (softened); raw cream; bone marrow - all from organic, grass-fed cattle - Amish dairy and meat is usually raised grass-fed, organically and humanely. (See more at the bottom of this page on Grass-Fed Beef.)

Anyway, while making this delicious shake, I got to thinking...

Why isn’t everything we eat organic?

I don’t mean why don’t we all buy organic, because I think I know why that is and here’s the breakdown:

Organic is not always accessible or available for most people
Organic is usually more expensive (which is actually ridiculous because it costs less to grow organically, but the “conventional” growers are heavily subsidized by the government - which happens because the pesticide and pharmaceutical manufacturers (they are usually one and the same) lobby congress to maintain subsidies for pesticide and antibiotic-ridden meat, dairy and produce, aka “conventional.”
If the first two points don’t exclude any given consumer, the others simply don’t believe organic is really any different or more beneficial.

Please weigh-in if I’ve missed something. And believe me, I can relate to all of the above, though at this point my research has convinced me towards organic (I'm about 90% organic). But back to what I mean when I ask, “Why isn’t everything we eat organic?”

Why are we even using all of these unnatural means of producing food? It doesn’t actually make sense when you think about it.

Firstly, think of human evolution:

Human evolution is slow, to make a gross understatement. It takes thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years for the human being to evolve. This includes our digestive system. So think about this: we’ve been using pesticides for less than 50 years. Prior to Rachel Carson and her groundbreaking book Silent Spring http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson farmer’s primarily used natural means of “pest” control including peppermint oil, manure, herbs, salts and lemon - all perfectly safe and edible, obviously). So we’ve only used synthetic pesticides for about 50 years. What does this mean for the human system? Well, the human digestive and immune systems have no idea what to do with pesticides or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), because they don’t occur in nature. So our bodies processes and stores these chemicals as toxins. No wonder we’re more disease-ridden and medicated than ever before!

Secondly, think of toxic exposure:

It’s testimony to the resilience of the human being that we’re all not getting sicker, younger. Oh, wait, we are! But still, we are doing remarkably well considering the following. Fossil fuels have only been around for about 100 years. From polluting the air we breath to polluting the soil, to contaminating the oceans and ocean-life we rely on for so many things (fish-eating being only one of the many gifts our oceans grant humans), fossil fuels have exponentially increased the toxins that we take in on a daily basis. This is not about global warming, which is currently under debate, this is about TOXINS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT. Our bodies, though doing an amazing job of handling all of these toxins, are not really equip to handle all of these toxins...hence there’s more cancer, diabetes, heart-disease, obesity (which given how modified our foods are, should not be blamed solely on the individual since it has reached epidemic proportions). So what do the powers that be do? Add to this fossil fuel toxicity with more toxins in the form of pesticides and antibiotics in our food!

Think about it. Do you really think they’re feeding livestock a) organically and b) what they naturally eat? Cows aren’t meant to eat anything but grass. It screws up their digestive system and makes their meat and milk way more unhealthy for us. Here’s an excerpt from John Robbins’ website:

Cows, sheep, and other grazing animals are endowed with the ability to convert grasses, which those of us who possess only one stomach cannot digest, into food that we can digest. They can do this because they are ruminants, which is to say that they possess a rumen, a 45 or so gallon (in the case of cows) fermentation tank in which resident bacteria convert cellulose into protein and fats.

Traditionally, all beef was grass-fed beef, but in the United States today what is commercially available is almost all feedlot beef. The reason? It's faster, and so more profitable. Seventy-five years ago, steers were 4 or 5 years old at slaughter. Today, they are 14 or 16 months. You can't take a beef calf from a birth weight of 80 pounds to 1,200 pounds in a little more than a year on grass. It takes enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones.

Switching a cow from grass to grain is so disturbing to the animal's digestive system that it can kill the animal if not done gradually and if the animal is not continually fed antibiotics. These animals are designed to forage, but we make them eat grain, primarily corn, in order to make them as fat as possible as fast as possible.

And if this isn’t horrific enough, consider the affects this corn-fed beef has on humans who ingest the meat. When cattle are fed a corn or soy-based diet, their meat and dairy have only short and long chain fatty acids, which clogs arteries and the meat also oxidizes (goes rotten) faster. The medium-chain fatty acids (from grass-fed beef) are more stable, encourage our bodies to burn calories, and actually work to unclog your arteries (they’re the “good” fats). Predictably, there are currently no chain restaurants that serve grass-fed beef. (link to source - wikianswers)

Here’s more on the health benefits of grass-fed beef from author Jo Johnson (link for more), and an easy-to-read chart on why grass-fed beef is healthier:

Consumers have been led to believe that meat is meat is meat. In other words, no matter what an animal is fed, the nutritional value of its products remains the same. This is not true. An animal's diet can have a profound influence on the nutrient content of its products.

The difference between grain-fed and grass-fed animal products is dramatic.

First of all, grass-fed products tend to be much lower in total fat than grain-fed products. For example, a sirloin steak from a grass-fed steer has about one half to one third the amount of fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed steer.

In fact, grass-fed meat has about the same amount of fat as skinless chicken or wild deer or elk. When meat is this lean, it actually lowers your LDL cholesterol levels.

Because grass-fed meat is so lean, it is also lower in calories.

Fat has 9 calories per gram, compared with only 4 calories for protein and carbohydrates. The greater the fat content, the greater the number of calories.

A 6-ounce steak from a grass-finished steer has almost 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grain-fed steer.

If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to grass-fed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year [approx 15 lbs. of weight loss per year] —without requiring any willpower or change in eating habits. If everything else in your diet remains constant, you'll lose about six pounds a year. If all Americans switched to grass-fed meat, our national epidemic of obesity would begin to diminish.

Additionally, most of the issues with diary including lactose intolerance and it’s increased toxicity can be avoided by proper handling (of the cattle and the dairy in non-porous containers) and by simply not-pasteurizing! Oh wait, the government requires pasteurization of all dairy unless live in one of the three states where it’s legal or if you buy privately from a local farmer. For more, please link here to: Marcus Lovemore’s blog on Raw Milk FAQ.

Whew. I’m exhausted from this rant. Let me get back to the original question and bring this to a close.

Why isn’t everything we eat organic?

The answer is, I don’t know. It doesn’t actually make any logical sense. It seems the answer is simply political. Conventional farming is heavily subsidized, so it tilts the playing field in the pesticide- and antibiotic-using farmer’s favor. If subsidization were ended, it would level the playing field and organic would actually be CHEAPER than conventional farming because raising organic produce is less expensive.

So that bodes the question, What can we do?

Well, the first few seem to be a mantras among organic and natural-minded folks, but here’s my list thus far:

Buy local - from farmer’s markets where the farmer’s practice organic or pesticide-free farming. (Some small, local farmer’s can’t afford the “organic” fees so just ask them if they’re organic and they’ll usually say “pesticide free” and just watch them as they say this - you’ll know if they’re being honest.)
Let your representatives know you want a level playing field or an END to SUBSIDIZATION for pesticide and antibiotic farmers, aka “conventional” farming.
Let your representatives know #2: No crossover between corporations and the FDA. In other words, absolutely no one who worked for any sort of pesticide-profiting or pharmaceutical/agricultural company (e.g. Monsanto, Pfizer, Dupont, Cargill, etc.) should be allowed to work for the FDA - seems an obvious conflict of interest.
Educate yourself. Read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and see the Academy-Award nominated documentary film Food Inc. They both will blow your mind.
Become a food investigator. Ask a lot of questions of the restaurants and markets you frequent, eat organic produce, and meat and dairy from livestock that is grass-fed (or in the case of chickens, worm-fed - that gives eggs the natural Omega-3s.) Also, ideally eat only raw, unpasteurized dairy which you can usually find by asking a local organic market or co-op. Start asking questions.
Share what you’ve learned with everyone you know, but especially your loved ones.
Please, when entertaining friends, serve only organic, humanely-raised food.

What else? If you want to hear one of the more extreme people talk about this kind of thing and more, listen to Alex Jones on iphone apps or on InfoWars.com. He’ll blow your mind even more than The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Food Inc.

It’s funny that all of this is really the way we used to treat our crops and livestock 75 to 100 years ago and had been practicing for thousands of years. I love technology as much as the next blogger, but some things were meant to stay the way they were, or as some of my bible-belt friends might say, “as God intended.”

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

And All the Cows Said Moo!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Food should be As God Intended or Why isn't everything we eat organic?

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