Ruminations

Origins of Our Food Crisis

2008-06-15T13:56:00.002-04:00

How did we end up in this "tainted" food crisis? Here's one perspective on how it has happened. Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times June 13, 2008, writes, ". . . there always seems to be at least one food-safety crisis in the headlines — tainted spinach, poisonous peanut butter and, currently, the attack of the killer tomatoes. The declining credibility of U.S. food regulation has even led to a foreign-policy crisis. ...

"... failure to regulate effectively isn’t just bad for consumers, it’s bad for business. And in the case of food, what we need to do now — for the sake of both our health and our export markets — is to go back to the way it was after Teddy Roosevelt, when the Socialists took over. It’s time to get back to the business of ensuring that American food is safe."

Bad Cow Disease By Paul Krugman

Change We Can Stomach: An Op-Ed by Dan Barber

2008-05-23T18:13:00.002-04:00

Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and is a buyer of Hardwick Beef. In his May 11 Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, Dan argues that as the price of oil increases, small farmers have an easier time competing with industrial agriculture.

He writes, "With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer."

Read the complete article.

Soil Being Depleted: A Global Crisis

2008-05-21T18:19:00.002-04:00

by Ridge Shinn

A May 8 article by the AP's Seth Borenstein discusses the worsening crisis in the world's soil, a critical ingredient if we are to feed the world's population. No matter how good the seeds are for crops, they can't grow in poor soil.

He writes, "Soils around the world are deteriorating with about one-fifth of the world's cropland considered degraded in some manner. The poor quality has cut production by about one-sixth, according to a World Resources Institute study." Unfortunately, the article continues, this topic isn't "sexy" enough to interest governments and charities, and doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Read the complete article here.

Cows & Natural Gases

2008-03-07T13:07:00.003-05:00

by Ridge Shinn

Two recent articles have come to my attention about the bad rap that cows have received regarding the methane they produce. In an article at IndyWeek.com, reporter Suzanne Nelson writes, "The methane cows exude has been blamed as a more potent contributor to global climate change than carbon dioxide, the primary byproduct of burning fossil fuels. ... But are cows really worse for the atmosphere than cars and all of the other implements of a global industrial economy? The answer, while complicated, appears to be no."

Finally, someone is talking sense about methane generation by bovines.

In a second report, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, "Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will unveil its latest renewable energy project today, a system that collects methane from manure on a Fresno County dairy farm and refines it into biogas, virtually identical to natural gas. The biogas then flows into a PG&E natural gas pipeline for use in homes and power plants. ... PG&E estimates that biogas could one day supply 5 percent of all the natural gas the utility needs."

Here are links to both articles:
IndyWeek.Com
San Francisco Chronicle

Some Thoughts on Michaeld Pollan's Newest Book & Clones

2008-02-21T19:35:00.007-05:00

By Steve Campbell

In his newest book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan writes:

The first time I heard the advice to "just eat food" was in a speech by the nutritionist and author Joan Gussow, and it baffled me. Of course you should eat food - what else is there to eat? But Gussow, who grows much of her own food on a flood-prone finger of land jutting into the Hudson River, refuses to dignify most of the products for sale in the supermarket with that title. "In the 34 years I've been in the field of nutrition," she said, "I have watched real food disappear from large areas of the supermarket and from much of the rest of the eating world." Taking its place has been an unending stream of food-like substitutes - "products constructed largely around commerce and hope, supported by frighteningly little actual knowledge."

Real food is still out there, still being grown and even occasionally sold in the supermarket. I agree with Michael's advice to help you recognize it, and then make the most of it.

Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

Why your great-grandmother? Because at this point your mother, and possibly even your grandmother, are as confused as the rest of us. To be safe we need to go back at least a couple generations, to a time before the advent of most modern foods. Some nutritionists recommend going back even further. John Yudkin, a British nutritionist whose early alarms about the dangers of refined carbohydrates were overlooked in the 1960s and 1970s, once advised: "Just don't eat anything your Neolithic ancestors wouldn't have recognised and you'll be OK."

Is Cloned Meat Safe?

More than 100 nuclear transfer procedures could be required to produce one viable clone. In addition to low success rates, cloned animals tend to have more compromised immune function and higher rates of infection, tumor growth, and other disorders. Japanese studies have shown that cloned mice live in poor health and die early.

About a third of the cloned calves born alive have died young, and many of them were abnormally large. Many cloned animals have not lived long enough to generate good data about how clones age. Appearing healthy at a young age is not a good indicator of long-term survival. Clones have been known to die mysteriously. For example, Australia's first cloned sheep appeared healthy and energetic on the day she died, and the results from her autopsy failed to determine a cause of death.

In 2002, researchers at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported that the genomes of cloned mice are compromised. In analyzing more than 10,000 liver and placenta cells of cloned mice, they discovered that about 4% of genes function abnormally. The abnormalities do not arise from mutations in the genes but from changes in the normal activation or expression of certain genes.

Problems also may result from programming errors in the genetic material from a donor cell. When an embryo is created from the union of a sperm and an egg, the embryo receives copies of most genes from both parents. A process called "imprinting" chemically marks the DNA from the mother and father so that only one copy of a gene (either the maternal or paternal gene) is turned on. Defects in the genetic imprint of DNA from a single donor cell may lead to some of the developmental abnormalities of cloned embryos.

In sum, this is just not a good idea.

Steve Campbell

Diet With Some Meat More Efficient Than Vegetarian Diet

2008-02-21T16:24:00.003-05:00

Cornell researchers report that a low-fat vegetarian diet is very efficient in terms of how much land is needed to support it. But adding some dairy products and a limited amount of meat may actually increase this efficiency. "If everyone in New York state followed a low-fat vegetarian diet," they conclude, "the state could directly support almost 50 percent more people, or about 32 percent of its population, agriculturally. ... Surprisingly, however, a vegetarian diet is not necessarily the most efficient in terms of land use. ... The reason is that fruits, vegetables and grains must be grown on high-quality cropland, he explained. Meat and dairy products from ruminant animals are supported by lower quality, but more widely available, land that can support pasture and hay. A large pool of such land is available in New York state because for sustainable use, most farmland requires a crop rotation with such perennial crops as pasture and hay."

This suggests that adding grass-fed beef in the diet might be more efficient than the vegetarian diet.

Here's a link to the October 2007 article in the Cornell Chronicle.

GMO Grass Seed: Farmers Beware

2008-02-15T20:07:00.003-05:00

Right now 100% grass-fed beef is GMO free. But will that be the case in the future? Grassfarmers need to weigh in on this issue now.

Specifically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be studying the environmental effects of a genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa seed. The USDA published a notice in the Federal Register recently, alerting the public to the department's intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and giving the public 30 days to comment on what issues should be considered.

For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/01/08/news/wyoming/2fae3a8109733018872573ca0000c330.txt

Jo Robinson Writes in Mother Earth News

2008-02-15T19:48:00.002-05:00

Author and grass researcher Jo Robinson writes about the current beef industry in the February/March issue of Mother Earth News. She writes, "Supermarket beef is an unnatural, industrial product. The good news is there are better and safer options. Learn how to avoid hormones, antibiotics and other unwanted chemicals in your food; stay safe from mad cow disease and E. coli, and choose better beef, including grass-fed, organic and locally raised options."

In this article, she writes convincingly and passionately about returning to the era of pre-industrialized beef. She discusses the widespread use of hormones, antibiotics, and by-products, and the resulting bad side effects of these practices. Read her article here.

In addition to her article are five related articles:

E. Coli Levels & Distiller's Grains

2008-02-15T19:23:00.002-05:00

The Des Moines Register reports that USDA scientists are investigating if there is a link between increased E. coli in cattle that are fed distillers' grains, a byproduct of ethanol production.

The reason for the research study is that scientists at Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska concluded cattle that were fed distillers grain had higher levels of E. coli bacteria as compared to cattle fed regular corn.

Read the entire news report here.

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler: A New York Times Article

2008-01-29T19:24:00.001-05:00

Mark Bittman regularly writes about food for The New York Times, and his January 27 article focuses on the cheap and abundant availability of meat in the American diet, comparing it to a similar addiction for oil. Both meat and oil are subsidized commodities, he notes, and its wide availability is having some unfortunate effects.

He cites these statistics: "Americans eat about ... eight ounces [of meat] a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total. Growing meat (it’s hard to use the word “raising” when applied to animals in factory farms) uses so many resources that it’s a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s icefree land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation."

Horrifyingly, with all the hunger in the world, he says, "the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens." Deforestation, pollution, climate change, health problems for both people and the animals themselves ... all are factors that cry out for a change in how harmful our food system has become.

He concludes: "Perhaps the best hope for change lies in consumers’ becoming aware of the true costs of industrial meat production."

Read the complete article here.

Declining Biodiversity in Cattle

2008-01-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

In a recent article in The New York Times by Andrew Rice, we read about a breed of longhorns known as the Ankole with traits suited to the hilly grasslands of western Uganda. Yet, they are being replaced by Holsteins. Rice writes, "Indigenous animals like East Africa’s sinewy Ankole, the product of centuries of selection for traits adapted to harsh conditions, are struggling to compete with foreign imports bred for maximal production. This worries some scientists. The world’s food supply is increasingly dependent on a small and narrowing list of highly engineered breeds: the Holstein, the Large White pig and the Rhode Island Red and Leghorn chickens. There’s a risk that future diseases could ravage these homogeneous animal populations. Poor countries, which possess much of the world’s vanishing biodiversity, may also be discarding breeds that possess undiscovered genetic advantages."

Read the entire article here.

2008-01-22T15:09:00.000-05:00

Expensive Oil? It's the Cow's Fault

Super-spook R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA and now a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton, argues that our dependence on Middle Eastern oil is a national security concern. In a satirical piece, Woolsey imagines a conference call between the nations of OPEC and the lobbyists of Washington, D.C.'s K Street. He explains, "[OPEC's] greatest fear is that the United States will become oil-independent -- and they're concerned that the crunchy types' campaign to feed cows grass rather than corn could mean not only a healthier America but one less dependent on OPEC."

Read the entire article by clicking here.

2008-01-21T19:36:00.001-05:00

Jared Diamond on the Consumption Factor

Jared M. Diamond, professor at UCLA and author of the best sellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, asks in a January 2 Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, "What's Your Consumption Factor?"

He writes, "The average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world. That factor of 32 has big consequences."

This level of consumption cannot be maintained, he writes, as our world resources dwindle and as people in developing countries strive to adopt our high-consumption lifestyle. What is the answer?

"Willingly or not, we shall soon have lower consumption rates, because our present rates are unsustainable. Real sacrifice wouldn’t be required, however, because living standards are not tightly coupled to consumption rates. Much American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to quality of life."

Read the entire editorial.

2008-01-21T18:11:00.000-05:00

Corn As a Fuel Having Serious Side Effects

Ethanol, a fuel made from corn, is playing a significant role in our nation's energy policy, and the growth of corn-based ethanol production raises serious questions about its impact on the environment. It takes 1.2 gallons of fossil fuel to produce 1 gallon of ethanol from corn (including the use of fossil fuels for fertilizer, tractor fuel, ethanol plant operation, among other factors). Run-off from all that fertilizer is having a serious impact.

A recent article by the Associated Press reports:

"Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since the Depression. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price. The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing "dead zone" a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate."

Read the complete article.

2008-01-21T14:57:00.000-05:00

Sally Fallon's Books & Blogs

We recommend another author for you to read. Sally Fallon advocates returning to a traditional diet, advising that animal fats are not necessarily the enemy, as the "Diet Dictocrats" want us all to believe. She supports organic and biodynamic farming and pasture-feeding of livestock, as you can read in her blog entry, "Splendor From the Grass ."

Sally is co-author with Mary G. Enig of Eat Fat, Lose Fat and Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

2008-01-08T20:41:00.000-05:00

Book Review: The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Alice Waters is likely more responsible than anyone for the revolution in the way Americans eat, cook, and think about food. She was named the most influential figure in the past 30 years of the American kitchen by Gourmet magazine, and she has “single-handedly chang[ed] the American palate” according to the New York Times. Her simple but inventive dishes focus on a passion for flavor and a reverence for locally produced, seasonal foods.

With an essential repertoire of timeless, approachable recipes chosen to enhance and showcase great ingredients, The Art of Simple Food is an indispensable resource for home cooks. Here you will find Alice’s philosophy on everything from stocking your kitchen, to mastering fundamentals and preparing delicious, seasonal inspired meals all year long. Always true to her philosophy that a perfect meal is one that’s balanced in texture, color, and flavor, Waters helps us embrace the seasons’ bounty and make the best choices when selecting ingredients. Fill your market basket with pristine produce, healthful grains, and responsibly raised meat, poultry, and seafood, then embark on a voyage of culinary rediscovery that reminds us that the most gratifying dish is often the least complex. All of her beef recipes specify grass-fed beef.

She is the owner of Chez Panisse restaurant and the author of nine cookbooks.

2008-01-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

Grass-Fed? Not Without Grass
An article from the Washington Post

Farmers trying to build a grass-fed cattle business are facing unprecedented drought conditions, especially in the southeast. The Washington Post reports, "Since 2000, the number of grass-fed beef producers has soared from 50 to more than 1,000 to meet growing consumer demand. But the Southeast's "exceptional" drought -- the kind that comes around only once or twice every 100 years -- and extreme weather elsewhere are crippling many in the new generation of cattle ranchers. Just when ranchers should be cashing in, weather conditions have delayed production, slashed profits and slowed grass-fed beef's move into the mainstream."

Read the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101600385.html

2007-11-14T16:24:00.000-05:00

New USDA Rules for Grass Fed Meat

An Oct. 19, 2007, article in the NY Times (by our friend Marian Burros) reports that the "Department of Agriculture has announced standards that would for the first time allow meat to be labeled as grass fed only if it came from animals that ate nothing but grass after being weaned."

That's the good news. The bad news is the standards allow the use of antibiotics and hormones and do not require grass-fed animals to live on pastures year round. Members of the American Grassfed Association are not at all happy, and these producers have decided to set up their own labeling standard. For more information, contact the American Grassfed Association, americangrassfed.org.

For additional information (and entertainment) read the thoughts of twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, who asks, "What does grass fed mean?" His website is at www.jimhightower.com.

2007-10-22T11:30:00.000-04:00

New Research on the Benefits of CLAs
by Ridge Shinn

The website FoodNavigator.com recently reported on research findings published in the British Journal of Nutrition on the use of CLA in milk which can cut body fat mass by 3%. This research has implications for food manufacturers to help create products for healthy fat loss featuring CLA additives.

Read the complete article here:
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=80605-cognis-cla-weight-management-tonalin

2007-09-04T12:03:00.000-04:00

What We Need to Know About GMOs
by Ridge Shinn

One of the advantages of 100% grass-fed and -finished beef is that it has no additives and no exposure to GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) being introduced to the food stream. There are new GMO grass varieties bedng developed. So far, they are in the experimental stages, but grass farmers need to be vigilant about their introduction to farms. Health-oriented consumers do not want GMOs in their food supply.

American consumers lag behind European consumers' awareness of the potential dangers of GMO products. The August 2007 newsletter of the Institute for Responsible Technology has a very interesting article about GMOs:

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=1458

2007-08-13T15:41:00.000-04:00

Consumers Demanding Cage-Free Eggs
by Ridge Shinn

It is exciting to see the consumers "pulling on the rope" and getting what they demand. Whenever I speak to consumer groups, I always remind them that they are the key to reviving the rural economy. As Wendell Berry says, "Eating is an Agricultural Act." Your food dollar votes definitely affect what gets raised for market and how it is raised.

I predict that 100% grass-finished beef will be one of the next very scarce products. Our challenge is that the ramp up time is 2.5 years for grass-fed beef, rather than a number of months, as for cage-free egg operations.

Read a recent New York Times article (from Aug. 12) about cage-free egg demand.

2007-08-12T16:36:00.000-04:00

Raw Milk in the News
by Ridge Shinn

There seems to be growing interest in raw, unpasteurized milk drunk straight from the cow. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned interstate sales of unpasteurized milk 20 years ago, but adherents claim raw milk is healthier to drink.

August 8, 2007 New York Times published a very interesting article about the interest, and controversy, over this topic. You be the judge.

Read the article.

2007-08-12T16:26:00.000-04:00

Return of a Dread Disease
by Ridge Shinn

We are both saddened and alarmed that foot-and-mouth disease has reappeared in English cattle, specifically on two farms in Surrey. This is a very contagious disease, as we recall from the outbreak of 2001. As a recent editorial in The New York Times noted, "It is really worth hoping that this outbreak is contained and its cause discovered as quickly as possible. The rural economy of Britain suffered a horrifying blow from mad-cow disease in the 1990s, followed, with surprising swiftness, by an equally horrifying blow from foot-and-mouth disease. Those two diseases changed the agricultural landscape and, especially, how people felt about it."

Click here to read the complete August 8, 2007 editorial here (printed in PDF format).

2007-07-06T17:58:00.000-04:00

A Recommendation
by Ridge Shinn

Tune into the most recent things to cross Allan Nation’s desk. Allan Nation, the long time editor of the Stockman Grassfarmer, was promoting grass-farming long before it was popular. His vast knowledge, relationships accumulated over the years, and his passion for a steep learning curve keep him constantly in front of the pack. I always turn to Allan’s Observations when I get my new issue of the magazine to see where he’s been, what he has read and his critical appraisal of what he has learned.

If you don’t get the magazine, you should at the least visit his blog: http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/Allan_Blog.html

2007-07-05T08:11:00.000-04:00

Diversity and Concentration
by Ridge Shinn

In the realm of animal breeding, there is a lot of discussion and indeed disagreement over the quest for diversity and the use of concentration in breeding programs. I would propose that both have their place.

As a founding director of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (www.albc.org) and one of the two researchers that surveyed the American Milking Devon in 1977 and encouraged creation of the American Milking Devon Association (www.milkingdevons.org), I feel qualified to speak to the importance of diversity. All breeds, subsets of breeds and landrace breeds are important to preserve. I think we all agreed that diversity is healthy and if we look at nature, we see that the ecosystems that are the most diverse are also the most robust and stable. There is something healthy about diversity. In terms of markets, diversity is critical since markets change and it is hard (read it takes a long time) to change breeds.

Three good examples of breeds that disappeared or were revived by market pressure are the Curly Coated Pig, the Texas Longhorn, and the North Devon:

The Lincolnshire Curly Coated Pig, a really fat pig, was quite popular in a time when lard and animal fat had a very important economic role. Animal fat was used as industrial oil as well as cooking oil. When these market needs changed, this breed actually died out in 1972 and is today extinct.

In the case of the Texas Longhorn, www.tlbaa.org, this was a breed that had dwindled to a perilously small population in the 1960s in this country. In its hey-day, who knows how many millions of these cattle existed. In the 1960s, when the trend away from fat cattle began, when folks began to look for lean and hardy cattle, there were only a few thousand. At that time, the Texas Longhorn was rediscovered and returned to serious popularity with many registrations and many, many crossbred cattle as a direct result of market pressure.

Another success story is the North Devon. This breed was included on the ALBC Conservation Priority list as “critical” as recently as 1997. Now this breed is enjoying a remarkable resurgence because it addresses the consumer’s demand for fat, 100% grass-finished beef (www.northamericandevon.com). It was always noted as the butcher’s breed and fell by the wayside in the last 40 years because it is “too easy fleshing” for the feedlot system that has evolved in this country. If your production modality is grass, then an early, maturing breed that fattens easily on grass and delivers an excellent meat to bone ratio is very desirable.

Preservation of diverse, heritage, minor, and regional breeds of livestock is a critically important job and I commend ALBC and its dedicated staff for the job they have done in the past 30 years. It is essential to the health and vibrancy of our agricultural potential. Who knows what the next market need will be? Hopefully ALBC and other similar organizations around the world will have successfully preserved breeds that will meet the need.
Preservation of diversity within the breed also makes the most sense in terms of keeping as many options as possible open.

Product Consistency

On the other hand, when farmers begin to bring product to consumers, they find that the consumer would like to have a similar product each time they buy. In other words, if customers buy a fat, tender steak this week, they will clearly be disappointed if next week they get a lean, tough steak. Variability and diversity are a problem in the market place. One can argue that differences are valued in the market place and I would agree; a quick trip to New York City will acquaint you with the diversity of the market, for instance, in the live animal markets in the Bronx a very skinny, intact billy goat will bring the highest price, some markets want lean (Laura’s lean beef www.laurasleanbeef.com). Some markets want fat, prime steak (Lobels of Madison Ave, NYC www.lobels.com).

The challenge for producers to make a sustainable living with livestock products is finding their niche and then learning how to make the consumer’s experience repeatable. If your customers want fat and you bring lean, they will be disappointed. So the question becomes, How do producers create a repeatable quality in their livestock?

Selection and Concentration are the options:

Producers can evaluate all their animals at harvest time and then only harvest the animals that fit their customers’ needs and then sell the rest to the commodity market. Many programs have been based on this methodology -- for instance, using ultrasound to scan live cattle to determine eligibility. The cattle industry sorts for quality once the cattle are slaughtered and the carcasses can be evaluated by a USDA grader. Most small to medium size cattle operations cannot afford a grader and definitely cannot afford to discard or sell for a low price part of their annual harvest.

The other option is to concentrate the desirable qualities of your livestock and have less variability and more repeatability. One of the best ways to do this is to breed close. Many folks today talk about linebreeding or inbreeding (“linebreeding is if it works and inbreeding is if it doesn’t” is the joke) and feel this is a good thing. The only thing linebreeding or inbreeding will do is concentrate genes. It will concentrate good genes or bad genes. In other words, if you have a terrible udder and you inbreed, you will fix this trait. On the other hand, if you have excellent conformation, great meat quality and tenderness, you can fix these traits.

Linebreeding includes breeding close relatives and is seen by much of the livestock industry as a heretical practice although it has been used as a tool for years in horse breeding and dog breeding. It must be paired with merciless culling; in other words the resulting offspring must be evaluated and culled if they show a problem.

Historical Results
Robert Bakewell, the famous animal breeder and the man we named our genetics company after www.bakewellrepro.com, summed it up this way: “Breed the best to the best regardless of the relationship.” His stunning results are quite well known. Remember, he had a large diverse pool of livestock to begin his selection from and then he put his masterful plan to work concentrating characteristics he and the market desired. He created very prepotent sires as a result and was able to produce large numbers of animals with very similar, desirable qualities.

Today, we find that concentration is almost totally lacking in the cattle industry because of fears if inbreeding repression and the possible resulting problems. My response to this worry or criticism is to cull mercilessly and eat the problems. The promotion of hybrid vigor by the industry and university system has created a situation where the great majority of commercial cattle are crossbred. Even some notable breeds like the Angus include a lot of crossbred, F1, or upgraded animal. Most breeds have become very diverse and have squandered the qualities of repeatability and indeed quality.

Prepotency is critical to the success of a sustainable livestock industry whether it is big farms or small. Prepotency, the ability of a sire to pass his qualities to all his offspring, is very rare today. It is only accomplished by concentration either intentionally or unwittingly. Repeatability is a tool the producer needs to make a living with cattle.

In conclusion, it is important to keep and maintain all breeds, subsets of breeds and landrace breeds and I applaud the efforts of those who are involved in this missionary type work. On the other hand, there is an important place for concentration of breeds and subsets of breeds to create truly prepotent sires that can produce “cookie cutter” offspring. Concentration and diversity should not be competing endeavors but both should be embraced by all as both being necessary for our agricultural future.

2007-06-17T10:14:00.000-04:00

Where Does Your Food Come From?
An Interview with Michael Pollan

Word for Word Program Archives, American Public Media
http://wordforword.publicradio.org/programs/

From June 8, 2007 Word for Word Program, American Public Media:
"Even if you're not a farmer, journalist Michael Pollan says you should still pay attention to what is in the farm bill, which is up for renewal this year in Congress. Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, argues agricultural policy affects everything from the obesity epidemic to global warming to national security. Pollan made the case for a more "sustainable" food production system in an April 19 speech at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. "

2007-06-13T18:41:00.000-04:00

Soil, Grass, & Genetics School
By Steve Campbell

When I found out Gearld would be putting on a school in Ontario, Oregon, come April 2007, I was excited about having another chance to learn from him. In my opinion, I don’t think a person can get too much of Gearld Fry. It was to be a three-day event focusing on soil, grass and cattle genetics. Doug Gunnink would be the other half of the expert instructor duo. The day before the conference Gearld was somewhat concerned. Doug Gunnink would not be coming and he asked me if I thought he could fill up three days without him. I was confident that he could.

The students were grass farmers from different locations (Montana to California) with backgrounds and varying years of experience and time in the livestock business. After signing in and refreshments, Gearld started with his normal gusto, speaking on the subject of linear measurement. It wasn’t long before the hands went up and the questions started.

Gearld explained why it requires an animal of specific physical proportions to utilize grass efficiently and that it is very difficult to find such animals in any real quantity because of the past 50 years of breeding for the feedlot industry. I could see the class digesting the information and trying to understand why the relationship between rump length and shoulder width with is so important on a cow. They were trying to grasp the concept that a certain amount of red meat is lost for every inch that the heart girth is less than the animal’s top line. As Gearld explained these relationships, I could see nods of understanding from some and furious note taking by others.

Gerald showed the group three pictures of escutcheons and once again, the hands went in the air. One dairy farmer was beginning to relate and made remarks about one of his cows that would drop off in milk shortly after becoming pregnant. Her escutcheon would reveal this characteristic. Gearld continued explaining details about the escutcheon, more commonly referred to as the “milk mirror.”

He discussed how an animal can be visually judged for its ability to produce gourmet meat. Fineness of bone, hide texture, glandular function, feel of the hock, condition of hair coat, shape of escutcheon, location of adrenal hair whorl, presence of yellow tail flakes, and even temperament are all indicators of an animal’s propensity to hang on the rail as gourmet beef or produce offspring that make gourmet beef.

What really got the group buzzing was the information about how one can tell if a cow is pregnant by observing her adrenal and pancreatic hair whorls and what the sex of the calf will be just by certain hair patterns on the cow’s tail.

Day 2
The second day started with lessons about the refractometer and how to use it as a tool to measure pasture quality. A refractometer is a small hand-held device that measures the brix level. Brix is the term given for the level of sugar. The level of sugar can correspond to mineral content. We measured the brix of several grass samples brought in from farms nearby. Looking through the refractometer like a small telescope, if one sees a clear distinct horizontal line that indicates that the calcium level is good. A person can verify that with pH paper without having to send the forage sample out for a lab analysis.

Gearld talked about how it takes a grass with a brix of 10 or above to have enough “energy” to put quality fat on an animal. The samples we looked at had readings ranging from 6 up to 11.

Every student was given an hour-long cassette recording of Doug Gunnink’s 2004 lecture at the Acres USA conference, titled “Grading Prime on Grass.” In his talk he speaks of the need for balanced forage, which is vital regardless of what the soil test report reads, to allow an animal to reach its potential during the finishing phase. With balanced, nutrient rich grasses, we can fatten the correct type of animal just like a feedlot can but using our pastures instead.
The most important factor to customers is meat quality and consistency. There are a lot of people who are willing to try a new product if it is claimed to be good for their health, but it is the flavor and eating experience that keeps them coming back – a must for repeat sales.

After lunch, we went out to the Livestock handling facility. Everyone was anxious to see on live animals what Gearld had just explained earlier in the classroom. Our subjects for evaluation were a few heifers belonging to one of the producers in attendance. Gearld took a handful of hide around the 12th rib and pulled. “She’s a three,” he says out loud.

What Gearld has done is made a scoring system using the numbers of one through five (one being the best) to grade each of the following traits of an animal: hide, hair, rib bone, hock, cannon bone, escutcheon, loin and adrenal whorl placement.

With the hide, you want a soft, pliable feel that can be pulled several inches away from the animal’s side and then spring right back when you let go.

Hair should be uniform in texture, short and shiny with no hairs standing up along the backbone.

The rib bone (12th or 13th) that is flat, or even better, has a dip towards the center of it denotes tender meat in the animal. Conversely, a bone that is rounded in the middle (convex) is attached to coarse meat. The jaw bone is the same as far as wanting it to be flat or dipped but not rounded.
A person can take their thumb and forefinger and feel just above the hock, where the tendon goes into the hamstring muscle. A really good eating animal will feel like skin against skin. The more connective tissue in the meat, the thicker and more “grainy” the feel will be in this area.

The cannon bone on the front leg should be short in length and small in diameter for high quality meat. As the cannon bone decreases in diameter below the knee, it should then slowly taper out to the top of the ankle and then smoothly connecting to the hoof.

There is little written information about the escutcheon or “milk mirror.” One book written by F. Guenon from France in 1873 goes into great detail about this amazing physical characteristic. It is another of the hair patterns that lets an observer see into the makeup of the animal. The hair in the area from the udder to the vulva (anus on a male) should be very short, shinny, soft and growing in an upward direction. The rest of the hair on the back of the animal, surrounding the escutcheon is growing in a downward direction. The preferred esctucheon tends to resemble a shovel with a broad handle lying directly behind the tail and the “spade” spreading out each side of the udder on the inside and back of the legs. In general, the larger and more refined each part is, the better.

When Gearld talks of the loin, he is referring to how the muscle behind the shoulder blade blends in with the rest of the spine. A #1 would be a smooth transition whereas any thing with a higher number has a progressive increase in the amount of dip behind the shoulder.

The adrenal hair whorl is a circular formation of hair along the backbone where the hair is actually laying in a 360° pattern. When this is located close to the shoulder blades, it’s a good indicator of quality meat, but a #1 will be positioned in front of the shoulders.

We put each animal through the chute and Gearld, working with his linear measuring calipers, explained the readings he was getting. During that entire process anyone interested was given the opportunity to try their hand at measuring. It’s quite critical that animals stand square and remain calm to get accurate readings. Once the animal was measured and released, Gearld continued to discuss both the deficiencies and positives and how those numbers related to what we saw with our eyes on that animal in the holding pen. We evaluated more animals for the physical traits listed above, which provided more opportunity for everyone to grasp the concepts and lesson.

Once we returned to the classroom, Gearld reviewed what we saw with our eyes and felt with our hands at the chute. I don’t believe many had ever been taught such a method for evaluating cattle. By this time, most people had some level of informal introduction to one another but now each would formally introduce themselves, give a description of who they were, where they lived and what part the cattle business played in their life. It was quite interesting to hear each other’s stories and it allowed each of us to appreciate the different paths that had brought us together for this seminar.

Day 3
On the third day we gathered a new mix of forage samples to test. People were remembering, what I call, the “crisp line” as they were looking through the refractometer as well as the benchmark of 10 for good grass quality. Gearld shared with us a couple of soil and plant samples that were taken from his garden. In some areas where the soil was deficient, the plant test was okay, and the reverse also showed up. We soon had questions that were best left for Doug Gunnink to answer. I bet he gets a lot of phone calls this spring.

Gearld talked about how to use a forage samples to balance the minerals we supplement our cattle. Robert Pul’s book, Mineral Levels in Animal Health - Diagnostic Data, was discussed and referenced. Gearld showed us how to decipher the information on the tags of mineral bags. He went through the calculations to convert PPM numbers and % numbers into mg/hd/day. This again brought lots of questions. For a better description, read Gearld’s newsletter on minerals at http://bakewellrepro.com/minerals.html

After lunch, we finished with the introductions that we didn’t get to the previous afternoon, then went to the livestock facility to measure and assess some Lowline cattle. We measured one bull and two heifers. The full blood Lowline heifer scored high. She presented a very good visual picture of an animal that would thrive on grass while her crossbred herd mate was a good example to the class of animal that would produce good meat but take much more time to do it.

It seemed like the school had just started and it was time for Gearld to head to the airport to catch a plane. People continued to ask him questions right up to point where he had to leave for Boise. I have yet to get “too much” of Gearld Fry and I believe those that just spent the last three days with him would say the same thing.

2007-06-13T18:22:00.000-04:00

Technology & Its Role in Food Production
By Ridge Shinn

Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., is author of an article in the July 2007 Food and Wine. This article is a result of Dan Barber's interest in how we use technology in sustainable and emerging agricultural systems.

Gearld Fry and I used ultrasound quite a bit in the early days of Bakewell and Hardwick Beef to sort cattle for processing and more importantly to sort out mother cows that would work in our grass-fed , grass-finished programs. Today we use a number of visual appraisal techniques to do the same sort of evaluation. We have found the correlations to the ultrasound readings to be quite high and now prefer to teach producer's how to "see" their cattle and the total health and quality by these visual signs or hide, hair bone and structure.

As mentioned elsewhere on the website, we do use brix readings from a refractometer to learn about the quality of the grass that our cattle eat. This tells us about the sugar content and nutrient density of the grass. Once we have determined the values we use a number of fertilization, cultivation and grazing techniques to increase the brix readings.

I invite you to read this fascinating article by Dan Barber.

http://foodandwine.com/articles/creating-flavor-in-the-field/print

2007-06-13T18:14:00.000-04:00

A New Life
By Gearld Fry

Some time ago, an article came to my attention describing the birth of a baby. Like many of you, I had always assumed that there was some mechanism in the mother that triggered the process of labor. But that’s not true. The fascinating real story is the same … whether we’re talking about a human baby or a cow and her calf.

At a very precise moment nine months after conception, a hormone leaves the unborn fetus’ brain. It travels across the placenta, enters the maternal circulation, and makes its way to the mother’s pituitary gland. Although this hormone is a very complex chemical, its message is quite simple: I am ready, start the delivery process. My lungs have matured enough to breathe on my own, my heart is strong enough to assume control, my gastrointestinal tract is prepared to process food, and my brain is eager to start learning about this world and environment I will live in. My ten trillion cells are poised to work together.

So it is the unborn fetus, not the mother, who makes this decision. Then, the mother and unborn fetus orchestrate the journey.

This journey is often cited as the most dangerous moment in the developing mammal’s life. Indeed it might be, yet every aspect of the process is well-coordinated, prearranged, rehearsed for millennia, and designed to bring a new life into being. Even the seams in the fetus’ skull bones have not yet fused, so that its unusually large head will be pliable enough to make it through the birth canal. As the process unfolds, the adrenal glands even add a blast of stress hormones to help the fetus cope with the stress.

The new-born baby will not breathe until it has cleared the birth canal. Anything sooner would lead to certain suffocation. It also will not tarry too long. Rising carbon dioxide levels and falling oxygen concentration will prompt that first breath. Otherwise, there could easily be permanent brain damage. The inner working of the newborn knows precisely when to breathe, how deeply to breath, and how to clear the debris inhaled from the amniotic sac.

Moments before the mother and newborn baby completely disconnect, the newborn receives a last-minute blood transfusion from the umbilical cord. The placenta, which has been purposefully storing nutrients for this moment, infuses extra nourishment. And there is evidence that the fetus sends some of its own stem cells into the mother’s blood stream. These newly discovered microchimera stem cells seem to be purposefully left behind to help maintain the mother’s health. The newly born babies’ survival might depend on it.

It is a beautifully choreographed moment; one that never fails to move me.

2007-05-11T18:01:00.000-04:00

Worry About GMO Plants
by Ridge Shinn

Even grass-farmers now have to worry about the exposure to GMO plants. Write to your congressmen and express your concern about GMO crops compromising 100% grass-fed beef.

In a May 3, 2007 article by the Associated Press, it is reported that a federal judge "barred the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa nationwide, ruling that the government didn't adequately study the biotechnology crop's potential to mix with organic and conventional varieties. ... The ruling is a major victory for anti-biotech crusaders, who have been fighting the proliferation of genetically engineered crops. It is the first ban placed on such crops since the first variety--the Flavr Savr tomato--was approved in 1994.

Read the entire article in Horse.com: "Judge Prohibits Planting of Genetically Modified Alfalfa" by The Associated Press

2007-03-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

The Debate Over Organic vs. Local Foods

by Ridge Shinn

The debate about local, organic, industrial or small farms continues to heat up. Recent debates between Michael Pollan and John Mckay, CEO of Whole Foods indicates tremendous consumer interest in food and food politics. A large segment of the market, sometimes described by the acronym LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health and Sustainability), is beginning to really dig in to the issues that are confusing at best. The general public has been plied by the corporate marketing campaigns for years such as: Shaw’s slogan “Good Food Costs Less,” Target’s “Expect More, Pay Less,” and Wal-Mart’s “Always the Lowest Price” (or as I explain to my daughter “Someone Always Gets Screwed”).

Today many pople understand how ridiculous these marketing claims are and many want to “do the right thing’ with their food dollars. But what is “right”? Here is the link to another interesting article in the debate from Time Magazine.

Eating Better Than Organic from Time Magazine

Take the time to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, because your customers are. Now is the time to learn and then explain all the points of the story of 100% grass-fed and finished beef, specifically the health to the consumer, the farm, the environment and the local economy.

Returning dollars to the local economy is critical for our survival. We know that each dollar spent at the farm gate expands 7 times through the local economy. “Local” is the current buzz word, perhaps replacing “organic” since organic has been seized to some extent by industrial agriculture.

I think what is most important about the local concept is the part about Source Verification. The consumer wants to know exactly where their food comes from and who the farmers are and how they grow and produce the food they offer. In France, a consumer can go into a butcher shop looking for lamb from one of their top brands (Label Rouge), and the butcher can tell you exactly which farm the lamb came from. Many times there is a digital printout above the meat case with the farm name, address and phone number of the producer of the product in the case that day. Distance of production, cost of transportation in environmental or caloric terms, and production protocols are critical ingredients of a consumer’s decision to buy. In some of the largest markets of the world like New York City, how local can the beef be? How many head of cattle can graze in Central Park? It’s my contention that Source Verification is the most important part of the “local” concept. With transparency of location, production protocol, and a connection to the farm, the consumers can and will decide with their dollars.

Link to John McKay’s letter

Michael Pollan’s Response

2007-01-02T12:37:00.000-05:00

Food Politics in 2006

A New York Times article of Dec. 27 by Marian Burros begins: “The headlines about food this year read like a remarkable replay of Woody Allen’s “Sleeper,” in which the things Americans think they should eat more of — lettuce and spinach — were suddenly the ones that could make them sick, or even kill them.”

In the article, Marian Burros discusses the various crises in our food supply of the past year and interviews Marion Nestle, Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, and other food experts about the implications for the future.

Read the entire article: “You Are What You Eat: 2006 and the Politics of Food.”

Read the article in PDF format.

2006-12-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

Devon Beef a la Beef Wellington
An Article in Forbes Magazine

The December 22, 2006 issue of Forbes magazine carries an article and recipe for individual Beef Wellingtons, using the chef's beef of choice: Devons. The chef is Mark Budd, who works at the restaurant in the Stafford, an old English hotel in London's St. James's Place.

Here is the link to the article, or you may read it in PDF format: http://www.bakewellrepro.com/forbesarticle122206.pdf

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/21/perfect-pairing-stafford-forbeslife-cx_sb_1222perfectpairing_print.html

2006-12-10T17:07:00.000-05:00

National Animal ID System
by Ridge Shinn

There has been a lot of discussion about the USDA’s proposed National Animal Identification System as a way for both producers and officials to respond quickly when there is a foreign animal disease outbreak. The controversy concerns the intent and the implementation of such a program. This program is ambitious and involves the enormous task of inserting a radio frequency ear tag into all animals including chickens.

Recently in a speech touching on this issue, Joel Salatin (www.polyfacefarm.com) commented that in light of the fact that our government seems to be struggling with controlling illegal immigration, how can they think they can possibly implement a program of this scale? The federal government has already back-peddled from the position of making this program mandatory and is leaving it to the states to implement or not.

At the recent Acres USA conference (www.acresusa.com) Chuck Walters, the grand old man of eco-agriculture, encouraged all of us to circulate his recent article entitled "Mark of the Beast." Here we present the 4-page PDF version.

"Mark of the Beast" by Charles Walters

2006-11-03T19:56:00.000-05:00

Brix and Quality Meat
by Ridge Shinn

We at Bakewell have spent a lot of energy finding the right cattle genetics for grass-fed production. The Rotokawa Devons and other subsets of English breeds produce great quality beef on a grass-only diet in various different environments. These cattle do better on some farms than others.

In an effort to figure out why cattle with the same genetic potential do better on certain farms, we have begun to measure the quality of forage on various farms. Doug Gunnink from MN conducted a seminar for Bakewell in July and started us down this fascinating learning track.

Brix is a measurement of nutrient density. A ruminant, of course, is defined by its rumen. A rumen is a unique part of a bovine digestive system that actually ferments forage and transforms it. It is really equivalent to a compost pile — although it is an anaerobic pile in that this takes place without a lot of air. The rumen works optimally when it has the right balance of ingredients just like a compost pile: the right Carbon Nitrogen ratio, the right pH, and the right amount of protein and energy. The quality and make up of the forage that the bovine eats becomes quite important as we focus on how to optimize rumen function.

Forage can be tested in a laboratory for the various elements that are present and Doug Gunnink suggests that this is more important than the soil test since if it’s not in the forage it never gets to the rumen. Actually he says, “Once the cattle start eating dirt, we will start testing soil.”

Another method of spot testing forage quality is with a refractometer or Brix meter. This is used for a field assay of “nutrient density.” It is a measure that is used often in the fruit business and especially in the wine industry to measure the sugar content of wine grapes. We find we can use it to measure the quality of forage. To change the quality of forage requires a forage analysis and then a prescription to change the mineral and sugar content of the forage (which we will address in a later bog article). To learn more about forage quality testing, read this series of articles explaining Brix, meters and optimal values for various crops:

USING A REFRACTOMETER TO TEST THE QUALITY OF FRUITS & VEGETABLES by Rex Harrill

2006-10-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

Devon/Angus Beef Proves to Be Tasty & Tender
by Ridge Shinn

The data are in. The Devon/Angus calves that Hardwick Beef is harvesting are tender and tasty!

This isn’t really a surprise, because we had heard reports from customers that our 100% grass-fed Devon/Angus beef was both tender and tasty. Comments from friends and neighbors, our meat processor (with years of meat-eating experience), our customers and our vendors have all been overwhelmingly positive. In addition, a national Whole Foods representative says it’s the best beef he has tasted in America!

So we decided it was time to test our hypothesis that the Rotokawa® Devon bulls stamp their progeny with the characteristics of high-quality meat. We would do this by analyzing a random sample of ½ Rotokawa® Devon steers as they were harvested. We cut two adjacent rib eye steaks from the 12^th and 13^th rib of 25 steers.

Some of these steers were calves that were born and raised in Montana. They were fed hay and alfalfa, combined with a mineral supplement, for their first winter. Then the calves were grazed on ryegrass on irrigated land. When they were 15 to 17 months old and fat, weighing between 1,100 and 1,250 pounds, they were harvested. The cattle were killed in Montana and the primal were “wet-aged” for 14 days before the rib eye steaks were cut 1” thick and then frozen. Other steers were raised in the Northeast on perennial pasture, hay and haylage; carcasses were dry-aged before samples were harvested.

Samples Evaluated

The samples were shipped to grass-fed meat researcher Dr. Susan Duckett at Clemson University to be evaluated for fatty-acid values as well as tenderness values as measured with the Warner-Bratzler shear force test.

Preliminary findings are very exciting; the first eight samples show consistent high quality. Total fat values were equivalent to USDA low choice values; the Omega 6 Omega 3 ratio was a near perfect 1.26 to 1; and the Warner-Bratzler Shear values averaged 3.6 -- below the 4.1 level, which is the generally accepted range where 98% of people feel the meat is quite tender and of restaurant quality.

Highly acceptable taste and tenderness values are essential for the consumer to fully embrace a 100% grass-fed and finished beef program. The story about the health benefits of this product for the consumer, the animal, the farmer/rancher and the environment have been trumpeted in the press and are no longer even debated.

More and more 100% grass-fed producers and vendors are bringing beef to market and the overall quality has improved. Marian Burros, influential food writer for the New York Times, reports that nearly 75% of the samples she tried recently were good, whereas three years ago 75% were either “bad” or not tasty and tender. (August 30, 2006; read it by clicking here.)

Consistent Quality

Consistent quality of product is the goal of any long-term market success. Numerous 100% grass-fed beef companies rely on sorting cattle for quality using the ultrasound method. Live cattle can be evaluated for quality parameters and can then be harvested if they meet the quality standard set by the meat company. Other meat programs are based on a production protocol like “organic”; the protocol and “purity” or adherence to a particular standard is the prerequisite for participation in such programs, but there is less emphasis on consistent quality of the meat.

One reason for the extreme variability of meat today is the adherence to cross-breeding programs by the cattle industry, and some companies actually market “composite” bulls that are generally a three-way cross. The resulting variability that we see in the industry is the enemy of producing meat of a consistent quality.

At Hardwick Beef, we use sorting methods, including ultrasound, to select cattle for harvest. We admit this is a short term crutch. How many producers will allow a meat company to cut their herd and “cherry pick” their good cattle every year? A better approach is to breed high-quality herds using condensed, high-quality bulls, and that is what we at Bakewell Repro Center are doing to create a consistent meat product.

It takes a long perspective and patience to wait for a return on investment to create 100% grass-fed bulls. We at Hardwick Beef and Bakewell Repro Center believe that using artificial insemination (AI) with semen from the right bulls is an investment that allows a producer to breed a consistent group of high-quality calves with the overwhelming majority fitting the profile of high-quality grass-fed beef.

We at Bakewell have evaluated numerous breeds of cattle and subsets of these breeds around the world to find bulls suitable for this job. The breed that excels in this arena is the Devon.

In spite of the mountains of press criticizing animal fats over the past decades, the consumer is now beginning to distinguish between good fats and bad fats. Essential fatty acids are just that -- essential for many aspects of health. Conjugated linoleic acids, which are produced in the rumen of bovines (one of the few places these are manufactured), have numerous health benefits including creating lean muscle mass and stopping tumor growth in mammalian experiments. The omega 6/omega 3 ratio is critical in determining how these essential fatty acids benefit human health, rather than harm it.

High levels of good fat and tenderness in meat are essential for palatability of 100% grass fed beef. The consumer’s acceptance and embrace of this product depends on experiencing quality consistently.

The recent data are excellent indicators that Devon are the ultimate grass cattle. They have always been an easy fleshing breed on grass and were also known historically as the “butcher’s breed” for the quality and volume of meat. We at Bakewell believe that artificial insemination using proven Devon bulls is the fastest and best way to introduce consistent quality to your 100% grass-fed beef program.

Click here to download the data: http://www.bakewellrepro.com/bulls/RotokawaDevonsdata.pdf

2006-10-25T13:26:00.000-04:00

Some Harsh Facts About E. Coli
by Ridge Shinn

E. coli is a naturally occurring bacterium that lives in the lower intestines of mammals, and most strains are not harmful to people. However, there is a particularly virulent strain (E. coli O157:H7) that is dangerous to human health.

We all have heard about meat recalls and outbreaks that actually kill people, including the recent media reports concerning tainted spinach. Some people are theorizing that this spinach was infected with E. coli by exposure to animal manure or human manure (for example, feces from farm workers).

E. coli outbreaks are often linked to meats or meat products that are improperly cooked. Meat can be accidentally contaminated by E. coli in the slaughter process or by contamination of meat by manure from harvested animals that contains the E. coli.

What is the biology of this syndrome? Although E. coli naturally lives in the gut of all bovines, it needs an acidic environment to proliferate. The normal pH of a healthy rumen (digestive tract of the bovine) is basic in a range from 6.2 to 6.5.

However, most cattle in this country spend their final days in feedlots eating food that includes substantial amounts of grain. This diet causes an acid environment in the rumen called acidosis, which becomes a challenge to combat. Feedlots incorporate baking soda into cattle’s feed in an attempt to counteract the negative pH. In layman’s terms, the high grain diet causes indigestion and provides an environment in which E. coli proliferates. Is there any way to reduce this threat to human health and safety?

CORNELL RESEARCH
Cornell University suggests there are ways to curtail this problem. Although the research was reported in 1998, the findings are even more appropriate today: “A simple change in cattle diets in the days before slaughter may reduce the risk of Escherichia coli (E. coli) infections in humans, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Cornell University microbiologists have discovered.”

As reported in the Sept. 11 issue of the journal Science, the research indicates that E. coli in the bovine digestive tract could be substantially reduced by removing the grain ration from finishing cattle and feeding them hay for about five days before slaughter. This allows the rumen to revert to its normal pH, which in turn makes a very unattractive environment for nasty strains of E. coli O157:H7 bacterium.

Here are the important points:

“In studies performed at Cornell, beef cattle fed grain-based rations typical of commercial feedlots had 1 million acid-resistant E. coli, per gram of feces, and dairy cattle fed only 60 percent grain also had high numbers of acid-resistant bacteria. In each case, the high counts could be explained by grain fermentation in the intestines. By comparison, cattle fed hay or grass had only acid-sensitive E. coli, and these bacteria were destroyed by an “acid shock” that mimicked the human stomach.”

“… acid-resistant strains of bacteria have evolved to overcome the protective barrier of the gastric stomach. The ongoing process of natural selection allows organisms with the appropriate genes to survive and multiply where others cannot. Because cattle have been fed high-grain, growth-promoting diets for more than 40 years, he says, there has been ample opportunity to select acid-resistant forms.”

Follow this link for the whole story: http://http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept98/acid.relief.hrs.html

Additional research on this topic is summarized at Jo Robinson’s EatWild.com site: http://www.eatwild.com/foodsafety.html

Once again we can see that changing how we raise cattle, moving them from their natural grass diet to a man-made diet of grain, has serious consequences for our food supply and our health. Raising 100% grass-fed and finished beef is just good sense.

2006-08-27T18:05:00.000-04:00

NBC's Today Show's Tips for Buying Beef

On Aug. 23, NBC's Today Show's food editor Phil Lempert shared his advice on buying beef. In summary, his advice is:

1. "When buying fresh meat, always look at the package carefully."
2. "Buy the select grade and marinate the meat."
3. "For the best-tasting beef, think grass fed and organic."
4. "If you want to be 100 percent sure that the ground beef you are buying does not contain any carbon monoxide, buy ground beef in a "chub" package."

Check it out online here:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14477703/

2006-08-27T14:21:00.000-04:00

Book Review

By Susan Beal, DVM

Alternative Treatments for Ruminant Animals
by Paul Dettloff, DVM, ISBN 0-911311-77-7
AcresUSA, 2003, $28.00

This is a practical and straightforward book, simply written and easy to understand, and valuable to readers with all levels of experience. It is long on experience and practicality and short on nonsense. It's easy to tell that Dr Paul Dettloff has spent some time in the trenches working with cattle and other production animals, just as it's easy to tell that Doc takes his responsibility for contributing to a healthy source of food very seriously.

Doc writes in his first chapter, To The Reader, "I do not want to treat an animal with anything that I wouldn't eat or drink myself or inject into any one of my six children." He takes this vow seriously, as do I (though I don't have six children!), and challenges his producers, the folks who reference this book and students at his "cow camp" practical workshops to that same level of commitment to the quality of the food in the food chain and the stewardship of the livestock.

While the body of the text includes lots of useful information, much of the heart and soul of the book is to be found in the introductory To The Reader section as well as in his chapter outlining the timeline of his sixty years of dairying experience. Equally good reading will be found in the Introduction.

The rest of the book is arranged by organ systems, with each chapter addressing a major system. Within each chapter the common (and some not so common) ailments are arranged alphabetically by diagnosis.

In each subsection, Doc discusses the presentation, some of the contributing factors to the conditions, and then offers some treatment advice. The treatment advice is sound and ranges from herbal remedies, homeopathic medicines, naturopathic treatments (hydrotherapy, massage, nutritional and special needs supplements, for example) and topical and supportive treatments. Doc Dettloff continually emphasizes the need for species appropriate nutrition and husbandry as well and is clear that the conventional industrial agriculture system does not always provide that.

Some of the diagnoses may be a little difficult to find when you look at the chapters. For instance, nutritional diseases such as iodine deficiency and copper toxicity are found in the chapter on endocrine diseases, as is pregnancy toxemia. Many readers might initially hunt for those things in different places, such as digestive system or reproductive system chapters. This minor fault is offset by the extensive index that helps in referencing the contents of this book.

There are additional chapters addressing the immune system and nosodes. The Immune System chapter contains good information on stray voltage and ley lines - again, not topics one might immediately associate with the title of the chapter but things which commonly influence the health, production and behaviour of stock.

The material on nosodes is presented as an alternative to vaccination – and while reducing dependence on vaccination is of real concern, over the years I have found that simply replacing the use of vaccination by the rote use of nosodes often creates health problems down the road. Oft times is it better to reduce or eliminate the use of vaccines and concentrate on bolstering the health of the individual and herd through proper nutrition and attention to the subtle signs of chronic illness than it is to rely on nosodes.

Dr Dettloff a real advocate of using the team approach to health care, realizing that there are some things the herdsman is able to do, while other things require the expertise of a veterinary professional. Doc also discusses management with an eye to prevention as well.

His advice is practical – ranging from how to administer medicines to how to roll a cow with a DA (displaced abomasum) (as well as when not to roll a cow with a DA!) to how to replace a prolapsed uterus. The photographs in the text are clear and illustrate his points well. Tales of practice and real life situations are rampant and help make the material in this book all the more real and easy to integrate into the day to day.

This book reminds me a little of the old Humphrey's patent medicine books common near the turn of the last century in that many of the treatment suggestions are for products formulated and sold by the author.

It is possible to use this book without using the particular patent medicine suggested by the author, but that requires a little more work and understanding of herbal medicines on the part of the reader. And, unlike the Humphrey's remedies, which were only identified by number, Dr Dettloff does list the basic ingredients of the medicines in the Resources section provided at the close of this text.

Alternative Treatment for Ruminant Animals is a primer of alternative treatments to common conditions in ruminant animals (goats and sheep as well as cattle). It is written from the perspective of a clinician offering care in a system that does not use conventional medicines, whether the producer is officially certified or not. This is a great resource for the herdsman or the hobby-type farmer as well as for veterinary professionals who may not have extensive experience in organic herds or in managing illness with other than conventional medical approaches. It is a resource that all herdsmen should have – and not stuck somewhere on a shelf looking pretty, and staying clean, but out in the barn or truck or medicine box, being used.

Susan Beal, DVM
Big Run Healing Arts

2006-08-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

Book Review

By Lynne Pledger

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, 2006

This book is by one of our favorite authors who is also a long-time friend of the Bakewell Repro Center. As fans of Michael Pollan know, he brings a fresh perspective to the often complex topic of what we eat. Below we present our own book review, by Lynne Pledger.

Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma could be a revolution-maker. In one engaging, comprehensive volume, Pollan reveals more than any of us knew about the way industrial agriculture, backed by government policies, erodes our health, environment, and quality of life. But he also addresses alternatives — notably the grass-fed meat movement — leaving us with hope that the situation can be righted

In light of the abundance of food, varieties of food and conflicting advice about food in our culture, the book asks, What should we eat? and then follows with a critical companion question, What are we eating now?

In a disarmingly earnest quest, Pollan leads us up and down the food chain to consider all the implications — health, environmental, ethical — of food he consumes as we read. These meals include take-out from McDonald's, a chicken dinner from Joel Salatin’s family farm, and a “personal” meal that the author hunts, gathers, grows and prepares himself. In the hands of a lesser writer -- or less thoughtful human being — this documentation might be a tedious tome or an evangelical diatribe. But Pollan is provocative, moving, and humorous, serving up fresh insight with every page.

Appropriately, the book starts with a beleaguered American farmer, George Naylor, who we join in his Iowa cornfield where he is planting yet another subsidized crop of that already over-abundant, cheap commodity fertilized by fossil fuels. Following the trail of kernels from cornfield to grain elevator, and then on to a feedlot and a maze of food processing, we end up at a McDonald's, where Pollan and his wife and son purchase three meals to go.

Pollan takes his research down to the level of the atom, utilizing a laboratory spectrometer that identifies the corn atoms, to find out how much of the carbon in McDonald’s various offerings comes from corn. The results: soda , 100% (high fructose corn syrup), milk shake, 78%, salad dressing, 65%, chicken nuggets, 56%, cheeseburger, 52%, French fries, 23%. Even those of us who eschew McDonalds are likely to be corn-fed without realizing it. Corn-derived substances are in many processed foods. And a great deal of corn passes through a steer on its way to being beef at the supermarket or steak house.

A central point is that cattle are ruminants, and ruminants have evolved to eat grass, not corn, which makes them sick, requiring medication to live long enough to be slaughtered. For those who think feedlots are an advance of modern agriculture, Pollan offers this chilling analogy:

“A feedlot is very much a premodern city …teeming and filthy and stinking, with open sewers, unpaved roads, and choking air rendered visible by dust…. As in fourteenth-century London, say, the workings of the metropolitan digestion remain vividly on display, the foodstuffs coming in, the streams of waste going out. The crowding into tight quarters of recent arrivals from all over, together with the lack of sanitation has always been a recipe for disease. The only reason contemporary animal cities aren’t as plague-ridden or pestilential as their medieval human counterparts is a single historical anomaly: the modern antibiotic.”

In Chapter 9, Big Organic, Pollan buys an organic TV dinner at Whole Foods. The meal turns out to be,

“… a highly industrialized organic product, involving a choreography of thirty-one ingredients assembled from far-flung farms, laboratories, and processing plants scattered over a half-dozen states and two countries, and containing such mysteries of modern food technology as high-oleic safflower oil, guar and zanthan gum, soy lecithin, carrageenan, and ‘natural grill flavor’… Several of these ingredients are synthetic additives permitted under federal organic rules. So much for ‘whole’ foods.”

He also purchases a “free-range” chicken and subsequently investigates its provenance:

“The last stop on my tour of California industrial organic farming took me to Petuluma, where I tried without success to find the picturesque farmstead, with its red barn, cornfield, and farmhouse, depicted on the package in which the organic roasting chicken I bought at Whole Foods had been wrapped.”

Instead he finds the chickens crowded into “barracks,” with fans on either end; not caged, but not ranging freely either.

Pollan’s week at Joel Salatin’s “beyond organic” grass-based operation is the author’s crucible for testing the wisdom of organic agriculture’s heroes such as Sir Albert Howard, who wrote (in 1943), “Mother earth never attempts to farm without live stock; she always raises mixed crops; great pains are taken to preserve the soil and to prevent erosion …” At Salatin’s Polyface farm, Pollan finds that both the theories and the food can take the heat.

A key observation of the book is that while agriculture has always been the business of capturing free solar energy for human use by growing plants or raising plant-eating animals, industrial agriculture has made a fundamental shift in this relationship by relying on a finite resource—fossil fuel-- for fertilizing, processing, and transporting food. The products may have a cheap price tag, but the cost to our society is incalculable.

Fed up with the system? Buy The Omnivore’s Dilemma for your family, friends, and elected representatives. Better yet: buy grass-fed meat and dairy, and pastured pork, poultry and eggs — and vote with your food.

Lynne Pledger

2006-05-23T15:07:00.000-04:00

Pricing & Parity
by Ridge Shinn

Establishing a fair price for our meat and milk is critical to establish a thriving, sustainable rural economy. But what determines a fair price?

Most of us are old enough to attest that prices in general have skyrocketed in our lifetime. But have the prices of meat and milk risen in accordance with the price of other everyday items? To clarify, Randy Cook of the National Organization for Raw Materials (NORM) provides the following calculations. Compare the price of a postage stamp in 1947--$.02—to the price of a postage stamp today--$.37. This ratio of almost 20 to 1 is reflected in many prices today in comparison to prices in 1947.

But look closely at the price comparison for milk and meat: the average price from 1947-1949 for milk was $4.37/hundredweight (cwt), and for beef was $20.13/cwt; the average market price as of January 2005 was $14.70/cwt for milk and $89.44/cwt for beef. Using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the base period 1947-1949 as 100, the value for 2004 would be 807.6. Therefore, to produce buying power equivalent to that in 1947-49, milk today should be priced at $35.29/cwt and beef should be priced at $162.57/cwt. At these prices, most farmers could make a living.

The year 1947 was not selected for this calculation arbitrarily. NORM, under the leadership of Carl Wilken and working with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), determined that the years 1947 to 1949 mark a period in American history when prices paid to farmers actually reflected the cost of production: in other words parity prices (“parity” meaning equal or similar). This was because an Act of Congress established a government-backed loan program for commodities at the level of 90% of parity; this created a period of nearly full parity. After the War Price Stabilization Act ran out in 1951, it was not renewed; supports for parity pricing disappeared and pricing for agricultural commodities started a rapid descent.

Importance of Parity Pricing
A compelling description of the importance of parity prices is found in NORM’s summation of 60 years of analysis of the nation’s economic records.

2006-05-23T15:03:00.000-04:00

Two Men and a Truck:
On the Road with Ridge & Gearld
by Steve Campbell (New Meadows, ID)
Edited by Laurel Hoffman (New Bethlehem, PA)

Gearld and Ridge invited me to travel with them in March during their quarterly “embryo-flushing” trip. I had read about the Devon heifers from New Zealand and also heard Ridge and Gearld describe them in a number of different talks, and here was my golden opportunity to see them first hand. I met them and Susan Beal, a homeopathic veterinarian, at the airport in Hartford, Connecticut. We drove to Wayland, Massachusetts, that evening.

The next morning we met Tim Henderson at the Mainstone Farm, where he is the manager. After the cows were flushed, and Ridge and Gearld were sorting through the magic with their microscopes, Tim and I headed out to look at the rest of his herd, including the mother of the embryos we purchased last spring. Even at the tail end of a droughty winter, she and her herd mates were in excellent flesh, as turned out to be the case at all of the farms we visited over the next 5 days. After a wonderful venison stew, cookies and taking a few pictures of Tim’s bull, we loaded the equipment in the truck to head to Rhode Island to meet the Minto’s, and see the Watson Farm.

When we arrived, Don and Heather Minto were just finishing sorting the cows and calves. Wow, more really thick animals. We took a pasture walk that evening and then enjoyed Heather’s marvelous cooking. That evening, Ridgeway told me that in the northeast, there is a local moving company called “Two Men and A Truck” and described how he and Gearld felt the same way on most of their flushing trips.

The next morning, after flushing, while Gearld and Ridge were sorting the embryos, Don, Heather and I got very familiar with the linear measuring tools and the hide and hair indicators on a number of their cows and calves. The soft hide and fine hair feel like velvet in your hands.

In the early afternoon, we went out to the pasture to look at the rest of the animals on the farm and view the Atlantic ocean that is the southern border of one of the paddocks. (for a bit of fun) I could not find any of those three legged, one-eyed animals Gearld keeps mentioning come from these line breeding programs. We left around 4:00 to take the 4 hour + drive to Bath, New Hampshire to see Tom Cope at the Woodburne Farm. Gearld and Susan renewed their ongoing “discussion” about animal health. We should have had a tape recorder. A book could probably have been written. We arrived in Bath, just in time for dinner, with milk (from their family cow)… and cookies.

Standard operating procedure says the first order of business on each farm is to flush all cows that are ready. Ridge and Gearld are very efficient with set-up and how they work the animals through. If one of the cows seemed a bit fussy, Susan would put a dab of one of her “concoctions from her apothecary” on the nose and the cow would settle down within a minute.

We sorted off all of the purebred Rotakawa bulls that Tom has on his place in to run through the chute for linear measurement, testicle evaluation, ultrasound and weight. Gearld has talked about docility before.

However, to see it in animal after animal almost made me think they were drugged. If I remember the conversation correctly, there will be a few bulls for sale in the fall. We helped Ridge pack up the “truck” and he headed back to Hardwick to get ready for the field day scheduled for the next day at his farm. That evening, Susan, Gearld, Tom and I had home grown chicken dinner with…. more cookies.

We arrived in Hardwick to find the Minto’s, Robert Cope, and Mike Scannell and Joan Harris already in attendance. We then proceeded to set up to weigh and measure the purebred Rotokawa yearling bulls. These animals were even more docile than the 18-month-old animals at Tom’s farm. After a full evaluation, it was decided to let them mature until 2 years of age before offering any for sale. The quality of the meat, both in New Hampshire and here at Hardwick, as indicated with the ultrasound and those visual indicators Gearld keeps talking about, was exceptional.

We went back to the house for a lunch of, soon to be world famous “Rotokawa Stew” (spellcheck keeps wanting me to say rutabaga). Gearld spoke to us about the challenges that the group had overcome over the last 2-3 years. His words are always kind and encouraging. Everyone there expressed how this project has “put new wind in their sails” about the future of Grass Farming.

The next morning we went to Devon Lane Farm in Belchertown, Mass. Will Shattuck met us at his implement dealership. During the flushing of 7 thick and docile cows, Gearld shared with me the story of how Will and this farm started Gearld on the search for superior Red Devon bulls. Without Will asking the right questions, Gearld may have never gotten to New Zealand and met Ken McDowell. These cows added 32 embryos to the total for the trip.

That evening, on the way back to the house, we stopped by the land trust farm Ridge is leasing. A lot of work is being done including water development, fencing, reseeding, etc. to get it ready for livestock this spring. The stonewalls that were uncovered by the “brontosaurus” are just amazing in size and quality of workmanship. Ridge's commitment to "this program" (other words here... sustainability,environment, etc.) is evidenced by the effort he is putting into converting his own farm and this land back to grazing.

Over a pork steak dinner, purchased from Mike and Joan’s farm, the decision was made to flush one cow in the morning at Hardwick and then do the microscope work at Mike and Joan’s. When we arrived in Schodack Landing, New York, Mike gave me a quick tour of the barns and horse drawn equipment. I saw some items I had never heard of before.

After lunch with more cookies, we went down to look at their thick, docile cows and calves. The hide here was just like at all of the other farms, thick, soft, pliable, and easy to move around on the animal. Gearld added the “Escutcheon”, under the animal’s tail, as another visual indicator to add to the list after reading some information, which Joan Harris found in a book written in 1892. Size, uniformity side to side, and hair “fineness” are the important terms here.

Before I knew it, it was time to leave for the airport. I said many heartfelt good-byes. Wished Gearld God’s help through his knee surgery next month, and Ridge and I were headed off to the airport in Albany. I had come to the Northeast with the intention of seeing those Rotokawa heifers (now cows) that I had only been able to picture in my mind’s eye. As impressive as they are, I was more impressed with all of the people I met there. As Ridge and I parted company, I could not help but think about “Two Men and a Truck” spreading hope for the future of small grass farming everywhere they go.

2006-05-23T14:36:00.000-04:00

Brasher: Studies say crop subsidies make us obese
Theory states farm policy leads to cheap foods that add sugar and fat to Americans' diets.
PHILIP BRASHER WASHINGTON FARM REPORT
April 30, 2006

Washington, D.C. — Farm subsidies help keep food cheap. That's long been an article of faith among farmers.
But are farm subsidies also making Americans fat? That's a line of attack against federal farm policy that is cropping up in a number of places, including a recent report by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and a new book by journalist Michael Pollan.
There are problems with the theory that subsidies and cheap food cause obesity: Fresh fruit and vegetables are relatively cheap, too, and farmers who grow them don't benefit from subsidies.
But farmers may well have to deal with the obesity issue when Congress writes the next farm bill.
At the very least, the nation's swelling girth could make an argument for using the farm bill to promote the consumption of healthful foods.
There are plenty of reasons for the obesity problem — overeating and lack of exercise, to name a couple — according to the report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
But the report argues that federal farm policy shares in the blame because it has encouraged the overproduction of corn and soybeans, crops that processors turn into cheap food ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
(It's no small bit of irony that the report was funded in part by the Wallace Genetic Foundation, a legacy of Henry Wallace, the father of hybrid corn and founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred International.)
"The problem with the extensive use of these cheap commodities in food products is that they fall into the very dietary categories that have been linked to obesity: added sugars and fats," the report argues.
Pollan, a longtime writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of the best-seller "The Botany of Desire," makes a similar argument, though more elegantly, in his new book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
Pollan likens the country's obesity problem — he calls it the "Republic of Fat" — with the national drinking binge that was blamed on a surplus of corn and corn-made booze in the early 1980s.
"When food is abundant and cheap, people will eat more of it and get fat," he says.
Pollan also faults subsidies for encouraging the use of corn as cattle feed.
Pollan would have us eat grass-finished beef, in part because farmers consume less fossil fuels growing grass rather than corn.
But even if you accept his premise that cheap, subsidized food makes people fat, it doesn't necessarily follow that getting rid of the subsidies will cause Americans to slim down.
Economists at Iowa State University analyzed what would happen if corn and soybean farmers stopped getting subsidies and found that prices would rise at most by 5 to 7 percent.
An increase of that amount would have no impact on the price of corn syrup and would boost the price of meat by no more than 1 percent, the economists said.
Even an ardent critic of U.S. farm policy like Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, doubts the subsidies-obesity linkage will have much traction in Washington.
"I have a hard time believing that if you cut farm subsidies people would lose weight," Cook says.
What the obesity problem could do, however, is push Congress to put more money into programs that promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
One of the ideas is to expand a program initiated by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., that provides free veggies to school kids in selected school districts.
The question is where lawmakers will find the money for programs like that.
One place they could go: subsidies for crops like corn and soybeans.

Ruminations

Origins of Our Food Crisis

Change We Can Stomach: An Op-Ed by Dan Barber

Soil Being Depleted: A Global Crisis

Cows & Natural Gases

Some Thoughts on Michaeld Pollan's Newest Book & Clones

Diet With Some Meat More Efficient Than Vegetarian Diet

GMO Grass Seed: Farmers Beware

Jo Robinson Writes in Mother Earth News

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Book Review

By Susan Beal, DVM

Book Review

By Lynne Pledger