Worried about what you are "really" eating? Have peace of mind with pasture grazed meats.
Trust
It seems everyone is pitted against everyone else these days. What happened, who can we trust? I hear that we are now in a “service-based economy”, yet it seems difficult to get simple jobs completed, and on time. Quality is sacrificed at the altar of “cheap and efficient”. When it comes to the agriculture sector, Bob Quinn, in his book “Grain by Grain”, describes the following in our country’s obsession with “cheap food” and the impacts of industrial agriculture on our rural areas as follow:
“deleterious social impacts, unemployment, crime, depression, diminished civic participation, even a reduction in the degree to which rural people trusted one another.”
Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle “Grain by Grain”
At DS Family Farm, we are not removed from those who eat the food we produce, trust is important.
Lack of Trust
Not only do rural neighbors show a lack of trust in each other, but the toll of industrial agriculture in the chase for “cheap food” has pitted eaters against farmers. Why is that? Bob Quinn goes on to explain that this lack of trust results from the farmer being “further and further removed from any sort of concern with the people who ate the food.” It isn’t completely the farmer’s fault. They are just doing what they thought was best and what people wanted, producing as efficiently as possible. The same could probably be said for the ag and food corporations (but the industrial food complex has profited the most from this situation). Let’s face it, as a society, for what seemed like good intentions, we took the road of “cheap is better”. After a couple of generations traveling down the “cheap is better” road, the results are a more sick society and sick environment in which we all live.
Efficiency & Quantity versus Quality
When we started our pasture-grazed (grass-fed and grass finished) beef operation, we understood that to produce an acceptable product, Quality was our only option. We were warned that cutting corners in pasture finishing animals would result in a product you could not sell. Finishing animals on pasture takes longer than finishing animals using the “efficient industrial agriculture process”:
- 40% longer for pastured cattle (100% Grass-fed and 100% Grass Finished)
- 35% longer for pastured pigs (Pastured with supplemental grains)
- 40% longer for pastured chickens (Pastured with supplemental grains)
Grain finished versus Grass Finished Beef (grain finished photo source USDA).
Flavor = Quality
We have written previously that flavor in meats is a result of numerous factors, such as diversity in diet. Our bodies intuitively know that food nutrient density (Quality) follows flavor. If you take a bite of food and it tastes great, chances are that food is extremely nourishing!
The Choice is Ours
Despite our society’s previous choice to go down the road of an efficient and cheap food system, we have the power to choose what we put in our body daily. Voting for the type of agriculture you want to support comes down to how you want to spend your income. Over the past few generations we have witnessed a switch from more of our income being spent on FOOD to now being spent on HEALTH CARE. This appears to be caused partially by the choice of putting CHEAP FOOD into our bodies.
We encourage you to do your research on this topic. If you would like to be able to look your food producer in the eye and trust the food you are feeding your family, please consider sourcing directly from a farmer. Here are some resources to help you in your search:
We are thankful for all of our customers that have searched out and source their families food from our small grass based farm. It is very rewarding to receive thank you notes like the one from Heather above. If you would like to visit our farm to see what we are doing, please reach out to us. We would be happy to gain your TRUST.
