Grass-Fed Beef

Nutritional Benefits

"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."
-"Why Grass-Fed is Best!” Author: Jo Johnson

Compare the Difference

While in the CAFOs, cows are typically fed a diet of grain, soy, corn, growth hormones, and steroids. Cows in nature eat nothing but grass. In fact their stomachs aren’t even designed to process corn, but it sure will put the weight on quickly. This can get them to market at less than a year old. This is an unnatural food source for cows who are supposed to eat fibrous grass and plants. Switching to high starch, low-fiber diets commonly causes disorders, including a condition called “subacute acidosis” where cows develop diarrhea, stop eating their feed, kick at their bellies, and eat dirt. As with everything, there are some upstanding and honest feedlots and there are others that abuse and mistreat their cattle. There are extreme examples where cows have been fed “byproduct feedstuffs” and repeatedly shocked with electricity. In contrast, our cows spend their entire lives in wide open pastures. They eat grass—the food that they were naturally intended to eat, in the environment where they are naturally found. Because of their low-stress lifestyle, our cows are rarely sick, and grow at a natural rate. The result is the most nutritious, best tasting beef for you and your family. Compare and contrast what we’ve just described with the meat you find on most grocery store shelves.

Most meat in your local supermarket comes from facilities called “Confined/Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” or CAFOs. The purpose of a CAFO is to produce large quantities of inexpensive meat. While the meat is available year-around at a low price, we are starting to recognize many of the consequences directly linked to factory farming, such as:

Stressful and abusive environments for animals
Feeding diets not natural, and stressful to ruminants
Animals may travel long distances from ranch to feedlot to slaughter
Processed by multinational meat packers
Unsanitary slaughter practices – Self inspection (HACCP)
Maximum use of hormones, steroids, beta agonists, sub-therapeutic antibiotics
Reduced tenderness and quality
Ground beef may include meat from 1,000’s of animals
May be sourced from several foreign countries
Typically 12% solution added with Modified Atmospheric Packaging (MAP)
May contain water, beef flavoring, flavor enhancers, preservatives, etc.
May contain Advanced Meat Recovery (AMR) like Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB aka Pink Slime)
Detrimental environmental effects and pollution

The Nutritional Benefits of Pasture-Raised Beef Cattle

Compared to grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef is lower in calories and fat, yet much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids (even as much as wild salmon) and has a healthy ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 fatty acids (a big problem with supermarket meat). It is also much higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), proven to build muscle, reduce body fat, and induce an optimum cellular environment for improved health.

Grass-fed beef also gives you more vitamins, including three to six times more Vitamin E than grain-fed beef and a number of antioxidants including lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotein. Moooove over grain fed, Grass-fed beef has 500 percent more of the essential fatty acid Conjugated Linoleic Acid than grain finished beef. In animal studies, CLA has proven to be an anti-carcinogenic in that it not only reduces the likelihood of cancer, it actually suppresses the growth of cancer cells.

Grass Fed Beef is also celebrated for:

Increases immunity to disease
Prevents atherosclerosis (heart disease)
Increases bone density
Prevents obesity
Functions as an anti-diabetic

In addition to the taste, nutrition, and animal welfare benefits of grass-fed beef, closed-loop, pasture-based systems help maintain healthy soils, which trap carbon and require only sun and rain as inputs. They’re a sustainable alternative to the environmentally destructive practices of the commodity beef industry. And what’s more, raising cattle on grass makes for a more profitable business — grass-fed is better for farmers, too.

Our grass-fed animals are free of growth hormones, steroids and antibiotics providing you with a Halal healthier alternative to conventionally raised commercial meat. Our animals are not raised in confinement, fed antibiotics and hormones, or force fed scientifically formulated rations for the singular goal of profit. Animals raised in commercial feedlots are confined in large lots and fed formulated rations comprised of mostly bi-product feeds left over from the human food industry. Bi-products like potato chip meal, cookie meal, pizza crust, pig blood meal just to name a few. Exercise is very limited and the feedlot environment creates social stress on the animals for a survival of the fittest atmosphere. Totally driven by profit, these operations, by design, keep the cattle on the edge of acidosis (sickness) and gaining as much weight as possible on the cheapest ration available.

And I can say from experience — as someone who’s been eating grass-fed beef from local farms since 2014, grass-fed beef tastes really, really good! In addition, we don't have to compromise between conventional halal and grass-fed/organic non halal meat. Alhamdulillah Allah (SWT) has blessed us with a better way to provide halal and wholesome food for our family and yours.

Here are some more articles about the benefits of grass-fed meats:

"Why Grass-Fed Animal Products Are Better For You" by Dr. Joseph Mercola Author of the Total Health Program: https://www.mercola.com/beef/health_benefits.aspx