Why Eat Grass-fed Beef?
Unlike their forebears, today's cows don't get a chance to spend much time on the range. Instead they're shipped, often at great expense, to cramped, supersize feedlots nationwide to gorge on corn before being sent to slaughter. "Corn is not what a cow, which is a ruminant, should eat. Its stomach is not designed to digest grains," says Carrie Balkcom of the American Grassfed Association. Free-range cows raised exclusively on grass aren't given growth hormones and stay healthier than their corn-fed couterparts, thus eliminating the need for antibiotics. Likewise, grass-fed steer mature slowly and naturally, which results in a full-flavored meat that's leaner and lower in saturated fat than conventional beef.
- March 2009 issue of Country Living Magazine