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<blockquote data-quote="IGotMyWings" data-source="post: 741036" data-attributes="member: 8639"><p>I was raised working on my uncle's grain and livestock farm. When I started my own herd (many years later), I was somewhat at a loss because I had never started from scratch. My uncle had cows, his pastures were established and all that sort of thing. I was taking my little patch of ground that had been grain farmed for years (I cash rented it out), and turning it into pasture and hay ground. If I am out of touch, it's with the grain farming portion of things as I haven't pulled a plow, etc. for ages.</p><p></p><p>Now, with that said, I do consider myself to be more up to speed with cattle. Do I know it all? Nope. Do I know more that some? Yup. When I decided to raise cattle, I had figured on doing it the way my uncle did, and the way everyone else did. Matter of fact, that's exactly what I did. I fed grain, calf starter, creep pellets, and such. When my friend was telling me about her, once in a while, similar reaction to meat that she has to penicillin, I started checking things out. That led me to ponder the effects of growth hormones, along with antibiotic residues. I honestly believe that the same things that make our cattle fatter faster makes us fatter. </p><p></p><p>My research led me to what I do now. I raise grass fed beef. I do so because I believe that it's a healthier choice, and that's important to me. If you Google or whatever grass fed beef, you'll see that there are sellers that are charging $25-$40 per pound. I think that's gouging, and can't figure out how they can justify prices that high. Yes, grass fed takes longer, but I don't think it takes long enough or cost enough that a person needs to charge that much to show profit. As for organic being a scheme? Well, I think to some it is. They jump through the hoops in order to cash in. I was just at Kroger earlier today, and they have organic milk for $5.39/half gallon. What a bargain! I deal with those who are consumers, and to them, organic or natural food is a real concern. Some, as I've said before, can't drink "normal" milk because it makes them sick. They drink raw, unfettered milk, and they are fine. So far, the majority of my interested customers have been college educated people, some with backgrounds in nutrition. These are people who do their homework, and that homework has led them to the natural/organic market. They want natural meat, raw milk, and vegetables that were grown within minutes of their urban homes, not picked before ripe an gassed to change color.</p><p></p><p>GMO seems wrong to me, personally, because I believe it takes away from the nature of the product. Since the USDA, and their "truth in advertising" say that organic producers cannot use the product because it doesn't qualify as "natural" feed, they agree that no matter how good it might be in one respect, it still isn't natural. Sadly, even with that being proven to be true, there are still some that argue that GMO is natural. Even if I was all for GMO, but were to be a certified organic producer, I would have to be against it because it jeopardizes my feed supply especially if the alfalfa takes a market share comparable to what other RR crops have taken.</p><p></p><p>Natural food tastes better. I'm not talking about grass vs. grain fed, I'm talking about food, in general, that is made with real (meaning natural) ingredients. Real butter, real sugar, real everything makes the end product better. Like I asked before (but nobody answered) do you prefer artificially flavored vanilla ice cream, or naturally flavored vanilla ice cream? Do you prefer margarine over butter? How many of you, when you go into a town that has "city water" salivate like Pavlov's dogs at the sight of the first water fountain you see because you just dig you some chlorinated water? The same principle applies to our meat and dairy. If we feed real feed, the end result will be better tasting meat. Along that line, I also said that it's not so much you or me, the producer, that controls the end product, but those who taint it when it's processed. Although I have never toured a feedlot, I have driven by them, and although not all are as bad as the media shows, there are plenty that are. Why would a feedlot keep sick cattle with the healthy? Because SOME of them don't care. If the meat from a sick steer is ground up with the meat of ten healthy ones, the mixture will be low enough that it'll pass inspection. The FDA has guidelines for acceptable levels of all sorts of bad things in what we eat, like mouse droppings in peanut butter, for example. Look at all of the meat recalls because of E.Coli. E.Coli is a naturally occurring thing. It is more prevalent in grain fed cattle than grass fed because the corn, during digestion, creates an environment where it flourishes. Because the same concerned people who would never stuff cattle with unneeded antibiotics to keep them from getting sick because of the dirty conditions (that don't exist, right?) hire unskilled people to carve up the cattle, E.Coli contaminates the meat. Rather than slow things down a bit, or better train their people, they spray the meat with ammonia. Yum!</p><p></p><p>The cycle starts with GMO feed sources, that by the government's own standards aren't natural (but many of you argue that they are), and feeding steroids to the cattle, which is getting farther away from nature - ponder this...we all know what steroid use does to humans, remember Lyle Alzado? Anyway, I digress. After we feed the all natural genetically modified feed and steroids, and get that calf to market weight, we take it to the market. The market we sell too sells on up the food chain to those nice people who run those squeaky clean feedlots where they stuff the cattle with antibiotics and more steroids before taking the calf on it's last ride to the saw. In the slaughter house, where things move at a fast pace, and because of poor training, not one, or ten but, hell, I don't know; how many animals does it take to contaminate 22,000 pounds here or 41,000 pounds there? Sorry, I digressed again. A large enough portion of the animals slaughtered in the assembly line fashion that they are, are done so improperly causing tens of thousands of pounds of beef to be recalled because it's making people sick. Again, rather than slow the line down a bit, or hire/train better cutters, IBP comes up with a solution. A solution of ammonia to spray on our food to kill a bacteria that carelessness has put into our food supply.</p><p></p><p>Starting with GMO feed, and ending with ammonia fog, each step of the modern cattle raising process gets farther and farther away from nature, and I'm sorry if it offends some, but that HAS to impact the flavor and overall nutritional value. If your goal is to feed the world, why not try to feed the world better tasting, and better for them food? Oh yeah, I forgot. Genetically modified, steroid enhanced and ammonia sprayed food is just as good. My bad. I'll just sit over here with my little dunce cap on. :dunce: </p><p></p><p>Before I climb on that stool in front of the class, wearing my pointy little hat, I would ask that you check out <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/31/food-industry-environment#" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/31/food-industry-environment#</a>. Joel Salatin is a guru of sorts in the natural food world. He's much smarter about this sort of thing than I am.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="IGotMyWings, post: 741036, member: 8639"] I was raised working on my uncle's grain and livestock farm. When I started my own herd (many years later), I was somewhat at a loss because I had never started from scratch. My uncle had cows, his pastures were established and all that sort of thing. I was taking my little patch of ground that had been grain farmed for years (I cash rented it out), and turning it into pasture and hay ground. If I am out of touch, it's with the grain farming portion of things as I haven't pulled a plow, etc. for ages. Now, with that said, I do consider myself to be more up to speed with cattle. Do I know it all? Nope. Do I know more that some? Yup. When I decided to raise cattle, I had figured on doing it the way my uncle did, and the way everyone else did. Matter of fact, that's exactly what I did. I fed grain, calf starter, creep pellets, and such. When my friend was telling me about her, once in a while, similar reaction to meat that she has to penicillin, I started checking things out. That led me to ponder the effects of growth hormones, along with antibiotic residues. I honestly believe that the same things that make our cattle fatter faster makes us fatter. My research led me to what I do now. I raise grass fed beef. I do so because I believe that it's a healthier choice, and that's important to me. If you Google or whatever grass fed beef, you'll see that there are sellers that are charging $25-$40 per pound. I think that's gouging, and can't figure out how they can justify prices that high. Yes, grass fed takes longer, but I don't think it takes long enough or cost enough that a person needs to charge that much to show profit. As for organic being a scheme? Well, I think to some it is. They jump through the hoops in order to cash in. I was just at Kroger earlier today, and they have organic milk for $5.39/half gallon. What a bargain! I deal with those who are consumers, and to them, organic or natural food is a real concern. Some, as I've said before, can't drink "normal" milk because it makes them sick. They drink raw, unfettered milk, and they are fine. So far, the majority of my interested customers have been college educated people, some with backgrounds in nutrition. These are people who do their homework, and that homework has led them to the natural/organic market. They want natural meat, raw milk, and vegetables that were grown within minutes of their urban homes, not picked before ripe an gassed to change color. GMO seems wrong to me, personally, because I believe it takes away from the nature of the product. Since the USDA, and their "truth in advertising" say that organic producers cannot use the product because it doesn't qualify as "natural" feed, they agree that no matter how good it might be in one respect, it still isn't natural. Sadly, even with that being proven to be true, there are still some that argue that GMO is natural. Even if I was all for GMO, but were to be a certified organic producer, I would have to be against it because it jeopardizes my feed supply especially if the alfalfa takes a market share comparable to what other RR crops have taken. Natural food tastes better. I'm not talking about grass vs. grain fed, I'm talking about food, in general, that is made with real (meaning natural) ingredients. Real butter, real sugar, real everything makes the end product better. Like I asked before (but nobody answered) do you prefer artificially flavored vanilla ice cream, or naturally flavored vanilla ice cream? Do you prefer margarine over butter? How many of you, when you go into a town that has "city water" salivate like Pavlov's dogs at the sight of the first water fountain you see because you just dig you some chlorinated water? The same principle applies to our meat and dairy. If we feed real feed, the end result will be better tasting meat. Along that line, I also said that it's not so much you or me, the producer, that controls the end product, but those who taint it when it's processed. Although I have never toured a feedlot, I have driven by them, and although not all are as bad as the media shows, there are plenty that are. Why would a feedlot keep sick cattle with the healthy? Because SOME of them don't care. If the meat from a sick steer is ground up with the meat of ten healthy ones, the mixture will be low enough that it'll pass inspection. The FDA has guidelines for acceptable levels of all sorts of bad things in what we eat, like mouse droppings in peanut butter, for example. Look at all of the meat recalls because of E.Coli. E.Coli is a naturally occurring thing. It is more prevalent in grain fed cattle than grass fed because the corn, during digestion, creates an environment where it flourishes. Because the same concerned people who would never stuff cattle with unneeded antibiotics to keep them from getting sick because of the dirty conditions (that don't exist, right?) hire unskilled people to carve up the cattle, E.Coli contaminates the meat. Rather than slow things down a bit, or better train their people, they spray the meat with ammonia. Yum! The cycle starts with GMO feed sources, that by the government's own standards aren't natural (but many of you argue that they are), and feeding steroids to the cattle, which is getting farther away from nature - ponder this...we all know what steroid use does to humans, remember Lyle Alzado? Anyway, I digress. After we feed the all natural genetically modified feed and steroids, and get that calf to market weight, we take it to the market. The market we sell too sells on up the food chain to those nice people who run those squeaky clean feedlots where they stuff the cattle with antibiotics and more steroids before taking the calf on it's last ride to the saw. In the slaughter house, where things move at a fast pace, and because of poor training, not one, or ten but, hell, I don't know; how many animals does it take to contaminate 22,000 pounds here or 41,000 pounds there? Sorry, I digressed again. A large enough portion of the animals slaughtered in the assembly line fashion that they are, are done so improperly causing tens of thousands of pounds of beef to be recalled because it's making people sick. Again, rather than slow the line down a bit, or hire/train better cutters, IBP comes up with a solution. A solution of ammonia to spray on our food to kill a bacteria that carelessness has put into our food supply. Starting with GMO feed, and ending with ammonia fog, each step of the modern cattle raising process gets farther and farther away from nature, and I'm sorry if it offends some, but that HAS to impact the flavor and overall nutritional value. If your goal is to feed the world, why not try to feed the world better tasting, and better for them food? Oh yeah, I forgot. Genetically modified, steroid enhanced and ammonia sprayed food is just as good. My bad. I'll just sit over here with my little dunce cap on. :dunce: Before I climb on that stool in front of the class, wearing my pointy little hat, I would ask that you check out [url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/31/food-industry-environment#[/url]. Joel Salatin is a guru of sorts in the natural food world. He's much smarter about this sort of thing than I am. [/QUOTE]
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