The Search for Food Begins

Call me crazy. After reading “The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals” and getting excited about the higher Omega-3 content of grass-fed meats, I wanted to find out how easy (read: hard) it is to find meat and dairy products from pasture-raised animals (whether I can trust the labels or not is another story). A Google search for “grass-fed beef” returns a lovely site, EatWild, that gives me a guide to finding farms that are doing grass-fed beef. But I can’t buy anything on the site.

Where I can buy it is at…Amazon! Let me clarify: I can buy three supposedly grass-fed sirloin steaks by Tropical Traditions for $92.50. Usually I buy a pound or so of beef at a time, and I try to spend under $20. Amazon’s results don’t quite cut it for me. Furthermore, Amazon’s commentary on the product just confuses me. Why would a company called Tropical Traditions sell me meat that was “Raised on Family Farms in Wisconsin”? If they know that much, why can’t they tell me who the farmer is? And how could I ever verify whether my meat was, indeed, 100% grass-fed? The USDA defines “grass-fed” but does not regulate the term’s use on labels. So there. I'm skeptical.

I was pleased to see that my Google search also returned LocalHarvest. This gives me nice options and links me to some information about the farm that raised the animal I’m considering eating. The farm page is a nice touch. Foodzie also has a meat and seafood page, but when I search for “grass-fed” I get only one option that isn’t jerky. That said, I like that the site tells me that this meat was raised by Pops Grass Fed Beef, though I had to do another Google search to find out about Pop and his cattle.

A CSA, you say? Thought about it, but it’s too much up-front investment for a girl living on student loans, and I’m on the move too much to manage weekly food boxes. Let’s put it this way: I’m amazed at how few options I have to find a specific product that I know I want, and how many steps it takes to identify sources for grass-fed products, learn more about them than what I could see in the grocery store aisle, and make a purchase.

P.S. Check out Where is My Milk From. I entered the number of the Organic Valley whole milk that is sitting in my fridge. The site tells me that my milk is from Schroeder Inc. in Maplewood, MN, which is funny because I grew up in Minneapolis. What’s funnier is that either it’s really wrong about where my milk is from, or Organic Valley uses Schroeder’s facility and the system can’t detect the difference. Another possibility is that I’ve been paying extra dollars for milk in the high-end grocery store that is exactly what I could pick up at CVS. I’d like to think Organic Valley is better than that.