Civil Eats

I was having a conversation with a friend the other night, debating the merits of grassfed beef. We talked over the specifics of feeding and finishing (whether the animal eats grain or grass for the last few months of its life), and the superior quality and flavor of meat produced from a grassfed a diet. But this wasn’t the first time I had discussed this information.

Grassfed beef is a “new” product in the marketplace and as with any new product, there is a great degree of variability. While the notion of bovines eating grass is as old as, well, bovines themselves, grassfed and grass-finished meat products are signposts of an emerging sustainable market. Read More

Nicolette Hahn Niman has been thinking about livestock for nearly a decade. Before she married (and began ranching with) Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch*, Nicolette worked as a senior attorney for Waterkeeper Alliance where she was in charge of the organization’s campaign to reform the concentrated livestock and poultry industry. Nicolette spoke with CUESA recently about greenhouse gas emissions, the sustainable livestock tipping point, and her book Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms (HarperCollins, 2009). She also authored a New York Times op-ed on Saturday called The Carnivore’s Dilemma. Read More

This piece caused a flap on Civil Eats a couple weeks back and it got people talking, which is what is supposed to happen here. Responsible and passionate meat wholesalers and processors like Marissa Guggiana, who believe animals should be raised humanely in ways that are healthy for eaters, the soil, the water, and ecosystems weighed in, as did many readers. Read More

So we can just never eat meat again? Is that what all the science is telling us? Before you start gagging down fake bacon or eating your al pastor tacos behind a garbage bin on the other side of town out of sustainable food shame, let’s talk about the real problem. Read More

The clamor is getting louder: Cows are bad news for the environment.

It’s astounding how far we’ve come in a few short years. Read More

Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma is familiar with Joel Salatin, a self-described “grass farmer” and owner of Polyface Farm in Virginia. The end product of Salatin’s farm is meat (and eggs), but the production process bears little resemblance to the standard American livestock ranch. Salatin’s cattle rotate between “salad bars”—pastureland with an unusually high level of plant diversity—leaving in their wake a field of manure that Salatin’s chickens and turkeys then make their way through, turning droppings into compost with their beaks and claws. Pigs nudge past in the chickens’ footsteps, aerating the soil with their snouts and hooves. This inter-species cooperation keeps Polyface pastures in a state of continuous, rich regrowth, and makes for delicious, naturally-raised beef and poultry. Read More