Beef: Its what's for dinner, lunch and breakfast

  According to the USDA, in 2007 an average American ate 170 pounds of meat (chicken, beef and pork) per year, about 50 pounds more than the average per capita consumption in 1955.

 According to a study at Johns Hopkins University, this increase in meat consumption is a result of the cycle between producers providing artificially cheap meat and consumers continually demanding a supply. However, it is uncertain whether meat production in this quantity is healthy for humans or for the environment.  

Beef production is one of the most controversial production methods because of  its high popularity in America and its large carbon footprint. The two processes used in beef production – conventional and grass-fed production – are very different in terms of nutritional value, food safety, and environmental impact.

The Processes

The conventional process of beef production includes both small farmers and conventional feedlots.  Small farmers generally raise cattle from birth until weaning or about age seven to eight months.  According to Matt Poore, head of the beef unit at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems and a professor in the animal science department, North Carolina is the home to 17,300 of these farmers who raise approximately 375,000 cattle at any given time. 

When these cattle are ready for processing, they are shipped to feedlots across the country where for a few weeks they are fed diets rich in corn before being sent to a slaughterhouse to be processed for beef.  

Anahid Behrouzi, a senior in civil engineering, went on a tour of an "all-natural" dairy farm in Indiana, where the ultimate destination of the cattle was a slaughterhouse.  

"The cows were kept in a very cramped barn, left to stand in their own fecal matter and weren't allowed to graze though there were open fields outside," Behrouzi said.  

Behrouzi also said that the owners of the farm seemed proud of themselves because they kept the cattle on an all-natural diet consisting of grains mixed with vitamin powder. 

"If this is good production, what does bad production look like?" Behrouzi said. 

At the slaughterhouse, packaged meat is mass produced, so beef from different cows is combined into large grinders and then formed by the many workers into patties and ground beef.

In opposition to the conventional method of beef production is the local method, which is heralded as being sustainable and better for both cows and humans.

In this method of production, cows are raised from birth through weaning by the same farmer. This allows for more closely watched cattle, possibly meaning a higher quality of care since the farmer has a day-to-day relationship with his or her herd. In addition to better care, these cows are grass fed and free to roam their designated pastures.

Generally, this way of raising cattle helps develop them more slowly than thtte conventional way, which fosters quick growth though a diet rich in corn — corn is more energy (calorie) dense than grass, leading to faster weight gain.

Cattle that are grass-fed and raised locally are processed by being sent to a processing unit, cut and ground individually versus mass. This method of processing greatly reduces the risk of contamination.

Nutritional Value

The main difference between nutritional values of grass-fed beef versus corn-fed beef has to do with the fat concentration. Grass-fed cattle, in general, are leaner than corn-fed because of the fatty acids found in the corn oil.