Grain or Grass: Which Type of Beef is Better?
Grain or grass? Lately, it seems that grass fed beef is all the rage. From celebrities who swear it's the only beef they'll eat (even as celebrities who eat meat are becoming a dying breed), to a trend towards beef that doesn't come from so-called "factory farms," to claims that grass fed beef is healthier for your heart, people seem to be doing a lot of talking about the stuff. But is it all it's cracked up to be? How does it compare to "grain fed" beef? I'll address these questions in this blog post. First, in order to discuss grass fed and grain fed beef, it's important to know how to define them. In legal terms, there isn't an actual definition for grass fed beef. In October 2007, the USDA passed formal guidelines to regulate the grass-fed label, in exactly the same fashion by which they regulate organic products: through audits and the granting of permits applied for by ranchers. There was a standard for what could be considere...