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Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I'm 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we've assumed to be true about health and wellness...Tell Me More
When making the transition into the Primal way of life, a lot of people get tripped up on the question of grass-fed beef. Is it necessary? (No.) Is there really that big a difference between conventional beef and grass-fed beef? (Kinda.) What does grass-fed actually mean? How do conventional cows live and what do they eat – and does that matter enough to me to make the effort to incorporate true grass-fed beef into my diet?
Hopefully, the following article will shed a bit of light on the subject, making it easier for you to make an informed decision based on your preferences, your needs, your budget, your personal ethics, and the objective information provided.
You'd think this would be a simple, single sentence section – grass-fed cows eat grass, grain-fed cows eat grain. Bam. Done, right? Not quite.
For the most part, all cows start on grass. Well, calves drink milk, obviously, and then "milk replacement" (which appears to be a sort of high-powered protein shake made of milk proteins, lard, lactose, added minerals, and several choice supplements) upon separation from their mothers, but even the most CAFOed out cow probably started with grass before being switched to concentrated feed. Concentrated feed can mean any number of things, but the base food is always a grain slurry, typically of corn and corn byproducts (husks, cobs), soy and soy hulls, spent brewery grain, spent distiller's grain, and other cereals. CAFO nutritionists can get pretty creative, though, sometimes including cotton byproducts, old candy (including wrappers), beet and citrus pulp, and peanut shells in their cows' diet.
To say grass-fed cows eat grass isn't telling the entire story. It's more accurate to say they eat graminoids, which comprise hundreds of different species of sedges (found in wild marshes and grasslands; a famous sedge includes papyrus), rushes (a small but plucky family of herbaceous and rhizomatous plants), and true grasses (cereals, lawn grass, bamboo, grassland grass – the type of grass that produces the leaves Walt Whitman writes about). And that's just the graminoid. Cows will also nibble on shrubs, clovers, and random leaves if they can get to them. Basically, they'll eat whatever's in reach, green, and leafy. Legally, grass-fed cows may also eat cereal grain crops in the "pre-grain stage," hay, silage, and non-grain crop byproducts (one of my favorite farms gives their cows leftover veggies, for example, and it's fantastic; that would qualify).
There's yet another hazy category: the pasture-raised cow. These guys get steady lifelong access to open pastures, but those pastures are supplemented with feed bins containing grain feed. Not technically grass-fed, but not quite sucking down gumdrops like Grandma. Purveyors of pastured cattle who include grain in the feed are usually pretty conscientious stewards of their operation, and I've had great meat from cows that were fed grass and grain concurrently.
While both grass-fed and CAFO cows start out on grass and milk (many of those cows you see grazing on open grassland along highways end up in feedlots eventually), only exclusively grass-fed cows live out their entire lives on grassland. CAFO cows move to feedlots once they hit 650 or 750 pounds, a weight it takes the average cow twelve months to reach on pasture. Feedlot life lasts three to four months, plenty of time to boost the animal's weight above 1200 pounds and increase intramuscular fat deposition (marbling). Feedlots have the potential to be pretty grim places. While I'm sure "good" feedlots exist, nondescript, bleak pens crowded with sick, overweight cattle and their manure are the norm. The purpose of the feedlot, after all, is to maximize weight gain and minimize overhead. You don't do either by recreating the cow's natural habitat.
Whenever I drive up the I-5 to Northern California, I pass the Harris Ranch feedlot in Coalinga. The Harris ranch feedlot is the largest I've ever personally seen – up to 250,000 head of cattle annually, 100,000 head at any one time, about 200 million pounds of beef produced each year – but it's actually considered to be a moderate sized feedlot. If it's above 80 degrees, you smell the lot long before you see the signs for it. Now, I'm not citing any studies here, but I think it's a safe assumption that cows prefer a grassy paddock to a pond of their own manure. You don't have to care about the animal's welfare – after all, we're going to end up eating them – but I enjoy my meat more knowing that it comes from an honest operation that respects its participants' living conditions.
Does it matter?
I think so. I make no bones about my primary reason for supporting grass-fed beef (I, ahem, want to eat delicious animals and buying delicious animals promotes their production), but that doesn't mean I don't care about their welfare while alive. I've been to grassland farms with families of cattle ranging, and if you get to close to a calf the mother will stomp and chase you down. I didn't even know cows could run like that. Are they cud-chewing ungulates with minimal brainpower in the grand scheme of things? Sure, but they care about stuff in their own beefy way. And I find that pretty touching. I've also hiked through cattle farms and watched the cows roam and range all over for acres, contrary to the grass-fed detractor's claim that cows prefer to be confined to a single, safe spot.
I've been one to bang the omega-6 in feedlot beef drum, perhaps as loudly as anyone, but I think a revisiting is in order. Simply put, while the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in CAFO beef is worse than the ratio in grass-fed beef, it's not because the omega-6 content of beef fat skyrockets with grain feeding; it's because the omega-3 content is basically nonexistent. The absolute totals of omega-6 in grass-fed and grain-fed are roughly similar. Grass-fed is even richer in PUFA by percentage, owing to the increase in omega-3s. As long as you're avoiding or limiting the real big sources of linoleic acid in the diet, like seed oils, bushels of nuts, and conventionally raised poultry fat, the omega-6 content of conventional beef fat won't throw your tissue ratios off by much (if at all). What will, however, is the lack of omega-3 fats in grain-fed. Eat some fatty fish or take some high quality fish oil to round it out.
Grass-fed beef is also higher in B-vitamins, beta-carotene (look for yellow fat), vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol), vitamin K, and trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and selenium. Studies show grass feeding results in higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid, the "good" naturally occurring trans fat. Studies also typically show lower total levels of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats in grass-fed cows, but that's just looking at the trimmed cuts. If you look at the whole carcass post-slaughter, you'll find it's encased in a thick shell of saturated animal fat that gets removed because consumers are scared of it and many grass-fed producers love to market their meat as low in "bad fat" and low in cholesterol. Kurt Harris, who regularly hunts "lean" wild bucks and miraculously discovers ample stores of body fat, just put up a post dealing with this exact issue. Long story short: grass-fed beef has plenty of fat, it's just distributed differently. More subtle marbling and more subcutaneous deposition.
Grass-fed truly shines in the micronutrient profile for one reason. Grass-fed cows get more nutritious food. Remember: they aren't munching on monoculture lawn cuttings (let alone soy and corn). They're eating a wide variety of (often wild) grasses, sedges, rushes, shrubs, and herbs, each with its own nutrient profile. Of course, how nutritious those graminoids are depends on the quality of the soil, or the terroir. If we care about what our food eats, we should also care about what the food that our food eats is eating, right? Grass-fed isn't just miraculously higher in selenium because of some magic process; it's higher because grass grown in good wild soil patrolled by plenty of mobile, self-perpetuating organic fertilizer machines contains more selenium than soybeans or corn grown on nutrient deficient land. It should follow that pastured, grain-supplemented beef raised on good soil by good ranchers also contains higher levels of micronutrients when compared to the CAFO cow, albeit not as high as the purely grass-fed.
Eat beef, first and foremost. Get the highest quality beef you can afford, whether that ends up being premium grass-finished from the farm up the road or USDA Prime from Costco. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Man cannot live on wild caught canned sardines and crushing angst alone.
For the average grocery store shopper, conventional meat is cheaper and easier to get. You drive your car to the grocery store parking lot, walk twenty feet to the entrance, walk to the meat counter, balk at the $9/lb grass-fed ground round, grab a few Styrofoam containers of ground beef for a few bucks per pound instead, and you're done. Not much thinking, hard work, or money required. This is how most people handle their meat acquisition.
If you want that same deal for the grass-fed beef, you have several options.
Each route involves more effort, more money, and/or more time. All three are worth pursuing (grass-fed is that much better, in my opinion), but I can understand why the barrier to entry appears so high – a combination of price and time. To reduce the former requires more of the latter, usually. And if you do it right and get a freezer to go with your side of beef, you're still incurring a big initial investment. Not everyone can do that.
To my knowledge, "average" price figures don't exist. Grass-fed from one Whole Foods can be a dollar cheaper per pound than in another Whole Foods two zip codes over; the same farmer who gives me grass-fed ground round for four bucks a pound at the Santa Monica farmers' market might charge five dollars at the Beverly Hills market.
Bottom line? Paying $12/lb for grass-fed flat iron steak regularly isn't worth it, to me, but spending extra time researching farms/visiting farmers' markets/scoping out sales to obtain affordable grass-fed beef definitely is worth doing.
From 1998 to 2009, the number of serious grass-fed producers in the United States grew from just 100 to over 2,000. Market share grew in the same time frame from just $2 million to $380 million (to over $1 billion if you include imported grass-fed beef). Today, you can find grass-fed beef (and lamb and bison, even) in standard supermarkets, not just your specialty upscale grocers. Farmers' markets are exploding (I gotta arrive earlier every weekend, it seems), and the Slow Food/locavore movements are picking up steam. Clearly, the availability of grass-fed beef is growing with growing consumer awareness and demand – funny how that works out, eh?
In the end, what else matters? The final arbiter of a food's worthiness is always taste. Food should – must – taste good for us to eat it, especially food that is responsible for a big portion of our caloric intake. Typical grass-fed beef is intramuscularly leaner, more robust, and "beefier" than typical CAFO beef, which I find to be somewhat mushy and bland.
Still, stringy, tough, unpalatable grass-fed beef exists along with incredible grain-finished beef. I've had both. I've eaten great conventional chuck roasts purchased for a few bucks per pound at the Hispanic supermarket and I've had excellent steaks from Prather Ranch, a Northern California producer that goes purely grass-fed until the last few weeks of a cow's life, when its diet is supplemented with chopped forage, rice, and barley. While good grass-fed is better than anything else, the grass-fed label can't make up for a bad rancher (or poor foraging) and a good rancher can make up for some grain in the diet (taste-wise; perhaps not nutritionally).
For me, the clearly superior version of beef comes from the grass-fed and –finished cows raised by ranchers committed to providing excellent stewardship of both soil and cattle. Next, cows that have been grass-fed, pastured, and grain-finished by similarly committed producers with similarly maintained soil quality.
After that? Just eat beef. Whatever you can get on a regular basis. Grab the occasional grass-fed cut when you can, see how it tastes, and figure out if it's worth it to you.
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224 Comments on "The Differences Between Grass-Fed Beef and Grain-Fed Beef"
we buy steer calfs for $25.00, raise them on pasture only and after a 1.5 years there hanging weight is 1100 pounds. we also raise are own pasture feed lamb, once you eat pasture fed there is no other. we feed no grains at all.
What do you do? Graft them onto nurse cows? Bottle feed? Milk replacer?
Not being an expert, I am going to guess that because it's a steer, the lack of testicles means a different hormonal profile and probably a tendency to put on more weight. Think about eunuchs as portrayed in literature, movies, etc.–they're usually fat, right?
Rainbow Ranch Farms is our grass fed CSA in Southern California. We took a day trip out to one of the pastures with about 15 members and it was incredible. We fill a freezer every 2 months and so glad to have found them. The beef is amazing and so is the pork. Next month we are picking up 20 chickens.
Im confused. I was under the impression that Pastured raised or pastured finished was the best quality. It has the highest prices in stores, (if you can find it) and I though grass-fed meant YES its fed grass, but not exclusivly. Just like Free-range means YES they have access to roam free (But not all day. Maybe 20 minutes to an hour a day)
What am I missing? What is the meat discription hierarchy?
I raise grass fed, grass finished beef and I've never seen a 1.5 or even a 2 year old steer, bull or heifer dress out to an 1100 lb. hanging weight. They are doing well to weigh 1100 lbs. before slaughter. You might get a grain fed beef up to 1800 lbs in two years but it would only dress out to about 900 lbs.
Steers are the hardest to put weight on. That's why they pump them full of steroids in the feedlots.
Wow…dont know where you live but here in Tennessee a 3 day old calf cost
$100 to $150 at the auction house and it takes 17 months to get a 1300# calf on grass live weight. What am i missing????????
I really love your reasonable, real world approach to these issues. I would love to eat only grass-fed beef, but I simply can't afford it all the time. Thank you for all this great and free information. I've just started primal in the past couple of months, and it's making a huge difference in my life. This site is a lifeline for me.
In my twenties I used to eat a steak every day, thinking it might improve my
sporting ability.
But later I stopped eating meat and found that not eating meat, made no differenceat all to my physical performance.
I have not had a Steak in decades and don't miss them.
Just out of curiosity related to this article:
Were you eating grass-fed meat and getting plenty of healthy vegetables(not grain) along with a low-carb diet?
If not, try it for a few months and see if you feel better or worse. We only get one shot at this, so why not take a shot at feeling the best you can.
Wow made you should get a metal you trendy loser. No one cares about what you eat, or what you don't eat, your a loser
I would suggest more posts on low cost healthy foods – since I agree with Tigerflower about high cost for good food. If someone could write a reply to my comment with the link on this site in case I missed these kinds of posts I would be very thankfull.
Thank you!
Thank you for explaining this. I had no idea it was so complicated.
For taste and my own peace of mind, there is no comparison with grass fed and finished.
And I know that feedlot well. It is quite a sight (and smell.)
I have a friend who declared herself a vegetarian after the first time she drove past that feedlot. She now touts the wonders of carbs, incorporating them into every single meal and urging others to do the same. (often using pictures of white bread cut in the shape of a heart)
It makes me want to cry.
Grass fed beef is what I raise because of the documented health benefits. However the logical benefits are unsurpassed. A cows natural diet is not growth hormones, antibiotics, corn or grains. Water is also natural. So I want to know the water, the feed, and the care. I want to know the ancestry. I raise purebred Angus from stock that was ultra-sounded for marbling traits. Adding growth hormones and grain adds a thicker layer of fat onto the carcass, and does not change the meat composition just adds fat between the fibers which makes for mushy "tender" junk food.
It's not really a "markup", it's a reflection of the difference in production costs between CAFO hogs and pasture-based pigs (which are supplemented with a lot of good-for-the-pig foods that doesn't just grow in the pasture). Believe me, the pastured pig farmer is not exactly getting rich raising pasutred pigs. Most do well just to cover their costs and eek out a reasonable profit for their efforts!
Just want to add an entry for local options for southern Cali folk… there's another local grass fed beef seller I'd recommend, his name is Frank Kirpatrick and his operation is called 5 Bar Beef (5barbeef.com). He's based in southern Orange County, his cows are raised in Silverado Canyon as well as Mojave. He can be found at the Irvine and Laguna Hills farmers markets and they now have a stand at the Beverly Hills farmer's market as well. He's got a vid on his website on what sustainable farming and management really is about. Good stuff!
I also buy 5 Bar Beef (Beverly Hills Farmer's Market), but mostly stick to the burger, which is WONDERFUL. The other cuts I've had from them have been a little tough and I think that's because all grass-fed cattle use their muscles grazing, whereas corn-fed just stand there and eat. If you have any ideas on how to cook other cuts, or if you can recommend some more tender cuts, I would appreciate the info. Thank you, Joe.
To cook leaner cuts? The pressure cooker. Fast and it really results in tender, moist meat! Second choice is the slow cooker.
Keep the heat a couple notches lower when you cook it, and give it an extra minute or two in the pan. I usually toss chopped veggies (celery, onion, peppers mostly) into the pan with my steaks and that flavors them while cooking and adds a little extra moisture to cook the meat gently.
Never cook grass fed beef above 145 degrees F. Some cuts need to be marinated for at least 4 hours. Never microwave even to defrost. Sear then, turn the heat down. Avoid BBQ sauces with chemicals.
Tender cuts are tenderloin, and T-bones, Buying the T-Bone steak in Canada assures the animal is not over 30 months old. However smoking the meats is the ultimate pleasure in eating. My store is theranchbbq.com
I will admit that I never realized that those cows grazing on the hillsides often times still end up in feedlots anyway.
On occasion I will buy the organic beef at Costco, but I do prefer the organic grassfed from my local supermarket. I definitely appreciate your approach that yes, situation A is certainly best, but B and C are not going to harm you if that's all you can do. Thank you.
Amen brother, great post and message Mark.
Good article.
Last month I called the local butcher and he said they had grass fed beef finished on grain.
Not quite exactly what I was hoping for.
Luckily there are grass fed & finished cows/farms not too far away from here in southern Virginia and North Carolina. And the stuff in local health food stores is usually frozen.
Even that is still better than some of the other inferior meat, thats pumped full with some kind of water to make it "juicier", that also has artificial food coloring in it, and is gased to give it a more reddish color, irradiated and whatnot.
If the cow stood most of its life on pasture and than gets fattened up with corn and corn ONLY for 90-150 days, I'd take that over the other 'alien' crap any day.
"If the cow stood most of its life on pasture and than gets fattened up with corn and corn ONLY for 90-150 days…"
You do realize that's exactly the model of "conventional" (CAFO) beef production, right?
This is all too common and something that anyone who is looking for high-omega-3 grass finished beef needs to watch out for! Even if they are local, farmers can be pretty ignorant. A lot of farmers can't get their mind around selling animals that haven't been fattened with corn, so they keep doing it. but they are happy to tell you 'Sure, this beef ate Grass!' but if they fattened with corn, you lose the omega-3 advantage and the CLAs and who-knows-what-else?
It's what's for dinner.
Lol I was thinking the same thing Brianna
I hopped on the grass-fed beef train without any real reason other than the fact that you said it was good but it's comforting to know there's science behind it. The alternative methods of attaining are also very useful — good stuff.
In Portland, OR, one can easily get 1/4 of a grass-fed cow for less than $3 lb.
Less than $3 in Portland? Oooh, where?
I would also be interested to know where this happens in Portland!
I don't know about $3/lb but I love Harmony JACK Farms for pastured beef… no I don't work for them but their beef is super yummy and I want their business to stay strong!! 🙂
You can also get grass fed beef grading exceptionally high in Yelm Wa. not far from Portland , from Lazy G Lowline.
We sell 1/2 or whole grass-finished steers for $4 lb. Carcasses average 200 for 1/2; 400 whole. We just finished a couple steers that our butcher raved about (and he's a hard sell when it comes to quality beef. He thought the steers were finished on grain and when we told him no, raised on grass-only he was totally taken aback. They had great marbling, and we eat it all the time. It doesn't require any special cooking instructions as was mentioned in this post. Lean meat requires special cooking.
Industrial feedlots and slaughterhouses are quite possibly the most hateful crime against nature humanity has ever devised.
Grass fed and ethically raised are worth it for that reason alone.
Slaughterhouses are not necessarily all evil, but knowing which slaughterhouse is used is an important part of choosing a farm for us. Unfortunately, the government is on the warpath to shut down the smaller family owned slaughterhouses, so that is just another reason to support your local farmer.
Having raised grass fed cattle (and still do), I'd have to say the most hateful crime against nature is white bread. Glazed donuts are a close second…
$3 per lb in Portland? That's great.
Here in Virginia Beach, I saw $10 per lb for frozen grass fed ground beef.
sigh…i ve just been researching grass fed beef local sources – i keep seeing posts like the one above where folks end up paying 3 -5 bucks a lb but the prices i am getting are 8-10 bucks a lb buying half the cow – i unfortunately can't afford that right now so i appreciate the 3 alternatives.
Where are you located? I haven't looked into all the in's & out's of shipping it yet, but I am sure that something could be worked out. Plenty of grass fed producers who sell quality grass fed beef in 1/4's or 1/2's for $5 or less & probably one fairly close to you.
Great info. That's always been on my mind. And I love this:
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
The mindset of "well, since I can't have a perfectly perfect diet, I'm just going to eat crap" seems rampant.
I'll take "good" over the average American diet any day.
I've only got 1 acre in front. If I could I would fence it in for one cow. Got chickens in the back, would love to have another food source on the micro farm.
We have a breeder who's finishing their lowline steers at 18-20 months. They're averaging 375-425 hanging, which is much better than buying a whole 'traditional size' steer.
Don't forget Dexter cattle, which are traditionally small.
What about a pig? They fatten up pretty fast, and you can feed it all sorts of scraps.
Are you raising chickens for meat? I have laying hens and ducks, but I'm considering adding meat birds too someday.
It's a great combination to have chickens and a ruminant (cow, lamb, etc.) on the same land – let the chickens follow along and clean up the worms and spread the poop. On your front acre, you could try portable electric fencing if you don't want permanent fencing. It's a great way to build the fertility of your soil also.
I appreciate this information. My dream is to have a small farm that will at least sustain my family. I never knew how feasible some it was. Who knew there were minis?
Check out Lowline angus! perfect for small acreage
With no local sources, I drive 90 minutes round-trip to the closest Whole Foods store once a month to buy all of our meat. I load coolers in the trunk to keep them cool. I just freeze it all and use it up. It's worth it for my family of 4!
For those of you in Northern California, I've been extremely happy with Morris GrassFed Beef near San Juan Bautista. About $6.30/lb. Half a beef will fit in one small freezer in the garage (about $100 on sale) with some in the house side-by-side freezer.
According to this thread and others at this site http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/32303-grain-fed-beef/ and other threads here there is no gluten in grain fed beef. Something else must be setting off your gluten signals.
Oh, can you share the name? I'm in MN too and looking for a good meat CSA!
I'm wondering the same thing. I live in the Twin Cities and have been primal since last June. Huge difference in my life. But really want to pursue large quantity of grass fed beef.
Jeepifer and Andrew –
I'm going in on a whole grassfed cow from a local farm through with CrossFit Minneapolis gym. Email me if you are interested – I think we still have 2 quarters left. They also do a pig share if you are interested.
I'm in the Twin Cities. Been about 70% primal since last June. Down 25 pounds and feeling great. But I digress…
To what meat only CSA's are you referring and where/what Farmer's markets can they be found?
Hi Kethry,
My husband and I sell grass-fed beef in the Chicagoland area, we are located 50 miles NW of the city. I see that you belong to a beef only CSA, will you send me your CSA providers program or website, we are interested in offering a beef only CSA program, the information can be helpful in creating our own program. I have a lot of info on vegetable CSAs, but minimal on beef only.
One more thing, why do you like the beef only CSA program you are participating in?
Your information and assistance is greatly appreciated!
thank you, fran
I live in the same city, and although I've been sourcing local beef, pork and eggs, it's been more than what you're paying. I'd love to find out where your sources are! I did get in on a summer CSA for this year, but missed out on the work share option, might be the same place.
Absolutely. Send me an email at firstname.lastname@example.com and I can write out a quick list.
Can you send me a list also please. Have been looking to fine better meats and eggs
I commend you for your creativity in lowering your costs in exchange for your labor… good for you!
Just wanted to give a shoutout. My wife and I are Paleo Peeps that live 25min south of the city near Steinbach!
I also live in Winnipeg. Will you share the places you get your eggs and meat please.
Awesome post. Thanks for covering sustainable meat economics here, Mark! I am all about that.
I pay about $5.50/single pound ground at my farmers market and get about the same through my CSA this summer. FYI (this is rural appalachia)
I know it's funny, but sometimes I wake up dreaming about steak. Just picked up a ribeye from Trader Joe's–organic, raised without antibiotics, etc., that pan-fryed up wonderfully. Cost $10, but it was large enough that I made it into two meals. Sometimes when I can splurge, I'll go to Whole Foods (a/k/a Whole Paycheck) for some grass fed/finished beef or steak, but when the budget is more stringent, a regular steak from the local supermarket will do. Gotta love steak!
Wondering if anyone has found a steakhouse that serves grass-fed beef. I've been able to get a good local supplier but its been for naught when dining out . .
Tom Colicchio's steak house, "Craftsteak" uses grass-fed beef… the Vegas location is AWESOME.
He's also an amazing celebrity chef, so the service ambiance, and food are pretty much to die for.
Depends on where you live. I know there are a few restaurants in and around San Francsico that do. Not necessarily steakhouses, but you you can get a good steak at a nice restaurant regardless.
Medallion Steakhouse in Burlingame does. It's a decent place, pricey but nice. I do not know anything about the source of the beef, though – whether it's grass finished, local or NZ, etc.
While grass-fed and grain-fed beef may not be severely different on nutritional grounds as far as we know it, it's still important to take into account that we don't know everything there is to know about nutrition. There may be nutrients absent in grain-fed beef and abundant in grass-fed beef that we have yet to identify. And what about the *nature* of the nutrients we already know about? Could we be more able to utilize the minerals in one and not the others?
Still, a good article with sound points.
I think it was Freakonomics that goes into how much methane is polluting our world far more than the entire transport environment put together… I think it was that book. Don't quote me!
um, you do realize that website you just quoted is written by the meat industry, don't you? I would hardly point to them for fair and balanced information.
There are some recent studies showing that under intensely-managed grazing (moved every day, concentrated numbers in pastures) cattle can actually help pastures sequester more carbon than is emitted.
Also, corn-fed beef creates more gas unless very well balanced – as it's quite acidic to cattle's stomachs. Feed lots don't sequester much of anything.
Can you say more about the chickens having Omega-6? Is this because of how they are raised? If the chicken is free-range, would the Omega-6/3 ratio be balanced enough to be healthy eating?
What are your thoughts on duck, goose and swan? The 1950's toxicity tests classed those 3 birds as "clean" meats, but I found them to be very greasy, and minimal meat for the size of the bird.
I know Soy does to chicken, what grain does to cows….very bad.
And I just found out that the big chested chicken (organically raised on organic "non-gmo" soy (so they claim but it's a lie) is actually a genetically modified chicken.
I asked my local grass farmer about it and he assured me it's totally true.
True chicken look like roadrunners. Long skinny chest with long and strong leg bones and giant feet.
The usual, large-breasted chicken is a Cornish Cross – a cross between 2 breeds, and I don't think it is genetically modified – it is specifically bred for the meaty growth. We raise pastured Cornish Cross and try to avoid corn and soy completely because of the GMO factor. Although they were originally bred for the confined, crowded poultry houses, they still love to get out in the sunshine, chase bugs, play, and make happy sounds. Heritage breeds tend to have less meat and a stronger frame – but are not necessarily "truer" chickens.
Cornish Crosses are not genetically modified, but it's not a cross between those two breeds despite the name of the bird. They use male and female lines specially bred to cross to make the chicks and the lines themselves are proprietary. You can't just go out and buy the parent lines. It's a very specialized industry that way.
Not to be pedantic or anything, but every tribal group I've ever been in contact with strongly prefers "Indian" to "Native American".
If you live around Chicago, you can get grass fed beef delivered to the Chicago area 3-4 times a year from Flying S Beef in Central Illinois. They charge $3.75 a pound, hanging weight, for grass-fed beef bought by the ¼ side, and a modest delivery charge. It works out to about $4.50 a pound or so when you take the hanging weight and delivery charge into account. They also have chickens, and the chickens are awesome!!!
And they are really nice.
Well done, Mark. Thanks for this post and for all you do.
Perhaps you'll find some interesting information in these posts:
Peter Ballerstedt
Grass Based Health
What about bison?
The Davis, CA co-op almost always has *some* bison for sale, and sometimes has a wide variety, depending on — I dunno, demand, supply, something.
It's hard to imagine that bison are "finished" on grain in feedlots, but in 2011 who knows.
I was at a restaurant the other day (in CO), and the menu boasted "grain-fed bison."
I've seen that too.. meat being advertised as "grain-fed"… I don't get why they'd point that out.. I had to read it twice, thinking they had meant to put "grass-fed"..
As a grass-fed farmer in Fl I think it is important to note that many of the proven health benefits of grass-fed beef can be completely wiped out by feeding grain even if it is for a short time at the end of the animals life.
So if the fat I buy from "grass fed" beef isn't yellow, am I being had and actually purchasing grain finished? Or is there some natural variation?
No you are not necessarily being had. The time of year, type of grass/legume, quality of the grasses can all affect nutrient content of the meat. Typically the fat will be the "yellowest" in the spring when the grasses are the lushest and if there is a high percentage of legumes in the pasture. If the farmer can take you out and show you his production methods and you can verify that he is indeed only grazing his cattle on grass and not also supplementing them with grain then you are fine.
Great article! In terms of flavor, grain fed beef simply falls flat in the face of grass-fed beef.
I'm lucky to have two farmers at my local farmers market that sell 100% grass-fed beef for about 25% less than the Whole Foods just 5 blocks down the street. Both farmers provide excellent product and have a reputation for treating their animals, from birth to slaughter, more like pets than livestock.
If anything could convince me of the existence of a loving god, it is grass fed rib eye!
i read somewhere that what the cow eats in the last period of its life (i think it was the last 3 months) is the most significant in terms of the nutirition profile of the meat.. if that's true, then it'd be kind of pointless to have cows eat grass all their lives only to "finish them off" with grain – which is what most of the store-bought grass fed meat is.. i was only able to find "100% grass fed and finished" beef from local farmers..
Absolutely! Even a short period of grain feeding can wipe out all of the benefits of a lifetime of grazing grass!
I live in Phoenix and we ordered 1/2 a pig and 1/2 a grass fed cow from a local ranch called Date Creek Ranch. The people are super nice and they deliver to a central location in the city for free. The beef was about $4.50 per pound for all cuts and the pork was about $3.90 per pound. I recommend finishing your steak with some homemade cultured garlic butter. Holy cow!! Pun intended.
Love getting these emails and reading these posts! My fiance and I started going primal just 3 weeks ago and its been great! I just finished the book and I wouldn't hesitate to read it again! I tell everyone about it! Thanks so MUCH!
Sweet, thanks for the relief.
I have never ate grass-fed anything. The only thing I can get my hands on is an occasional half-gallon of raw, grass-fed milk.
Last I checked, a pound of grass-fed ground beef was $8.00 here in SoCal… And that was on a lean 10% fat cut.. I can get commercially raised filet mignon for cheaper!


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Get an overview of this hotelHotel in Greensboro with free breakfast and free airport shuttle
Popular property highlights
Situated in Greensboro, this hotel is 0.8 mi (1.3 km) from Celebration Station and within 6 mi (10 km) of Greensboro Coliseum and Airbound Trampoline Park Greensboro. Greensboro Arboretum and Safari Nation are also within 6 mi (10 km).
Hotel Features
Along with an outdoor pool, this hotel has a fitness center and a 24-hour business center. Free continental breakfast is provided, as well as free WiFi in public areas, free self parking, and a free airport shuttle. Additionally, coffee/tea in a common area, a seasonal outdoor pool, and a business center are onsite.
Room Amenities
All 105 rooms provide conveniences like refrigerators and microwaves, plus free WiFi and flat-screen TVs with cable channels. Room service, coffee makers, and free weekday newspapers are among the other amenities available to guests.
Guest Highlights
- Spotless guestrooms
- Good location
- Breakfast
- Overall property condition
- Helpful staff
- Comfy beds
Wingate by Wyndham - Greensboro
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Wingate by Wyndham - Greensboro features an outdoor pool and a fitness center. Public areas are equipped with complimentary wireless Internet access. This hotel offers access to a 24-hour business center and meeting rooms. A complimentary breakfast is offered each morning. Event facilities measure 1000 square feet (93 square meters). A roundtrip airport shuttle is complimentary to guests during limited hours. This business-friendly hotel also offers coffee/tea in a common area, complimentary newspapers in the lobby, and laundry facilities. Onsite self parking is complimentary.
- Free RV, bus, truck parking
- Total number of rooms - 105
- Number of floors - 5
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- 24-hour business center
- Conference space size (feet) - 1000
- Conference space size (meters) - 93
- Number of meeting rooms - 3
- Outdoor seasonal pool
- 24-hour front desk
- Business center
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Free airport transportation
- Free breakfast
- Fitness facilities
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Free WiFi
- Laundry facilities
- Meeting rooms 3
- RV, bus, truck parking
- Luggage storage
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- Year Built 2001
- Free self parking
- Outdoor pool
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Outdoor pool
- Free Wi-Fi
- Laundry facilities
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking, RV, bus, truck parking, Free RV, bus, truck parking
Room Amenities
- Cribs/infant beds (surcharge)
- Refrigerator
- Coffee/tea maker
- Private bathroom
- Hair dryer
- Microwave
- Cable TV service
- Flat-panel TV
- Free WiFi
- Air conditioning
- Free weekday newspaper
- Free local calls
- Shower/tub combination
- Television
- Desk
- In-room safe (laptop compatible)
- Room service (limited hours)
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Rollaway/extra beds (surcharge)
Where to Eat
Guests are offered a complimentary continental breakfast each morning.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Nearby Things to Do
Recreational amenities at the hotel include an outdoor pool and a fitness center.
If you have requests for specific accessibility needs, please note them at check-out when you book your room.
- Accessible bathroom
- Roll-in shower
- In-room accessibility
Hotel Policies
Check-in time ends at 6 AM
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is noon
Payment types
Children and extra beds
- Children are welcome.
- Rollaway/extra beds are available for USD 15 per night.
- Cribs (infant beds) are available for USD 15 per night.
- Pets not allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on property policy.
Optional extras
- Crib (infant bed) fee: USD 15 per night
- Rollaway bed fee: USD 15 per night
Hotel Name
- Greensboro Wyndham
- Wingate Greensboro
- Wingate Wyndham Greensboro
- Wingate Wyndham Hotel Greensboro
- Wyndham Greensboro
- Wingate By Wyndham Greensboro Hotel Greensboro
- Wingate Hotel Greensboro
- Wingate Wyndham Greensboro Hotel
We should mention
This property offers transfers from the airport. Guests must contact the property with arrival details 24 hours prior to arrival, using the contact information on the booking confirmation. The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.

subset: commoncrawl


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Department News
BYU electrical engineers light up ballroom dance team
Last summer engineering professor Aaron Hawkins saw a performance during an episode of America's Got Talent that caught his eye.
A group of dancers were performing in the dark, wearing suits that lit up in sync with the music.
"I thought, why can't we do that too?" Hawkins said. "Especially with the world-class dancers we have on campus."
Less than a year later, with financial support from L3 Communications, Hawkins and a team of electrical engineering students and faculty have created fully-functioning, eye-catching light suits that flash to music.
The suits will be worn this weekend by members of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company during a number in their annual concert.
See the suits in action at the BDC Concert, April 6-7, 7:30 p.m. in the Marriott Center. There is also a 2 p.m. matinee on April 7. More details here.
The light suits are equipped with 16 light channels that turn on and off in sync with a musical number. A master computer plays the music which is synched with signals that are sent wirelessly to a box on the back of each of the four suits.
The phonebook-sized boxes hold battery packs and a circuit board, with an antenna to receive the signals. Once the signals are received, a microcomputer in the box translates the instructions to the strands of electroluminescent wire on the suits.
The result is a flashy routine where dancers appear, disappear and reappear in lines of red, white, and blue light.
"The hardest part was making reliable circuitry on the boxes," said student James Mackie. "It's one thing just to have the circuitry turn things on and off, but it's another thing to make it work on a moving person. If the wires bend too much as the dancers move, we can get a short that turns off the entire suit."
Guided by their faculty advisors, Mackie and his fellow students built the entire system as part of a senior-level design class. They had to perfect everything from the circuit boards to how the lights attached to the fabric of the costumes. A good dose of computer programming was also necessary.


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O2 XDA Flame Video clips
O2 XDA Flame is a tri-band GSM PPC phone with UMTS support. It features 262k color TFT VGA touch screen, 2 megapixel camera with Auto-focus, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio with RDS and microSD slot for memory. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and is powered by 520 MHz Intel processor.


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Polish Pottery 11 1/2 " Stoneware Muffin Pan Floral Design Unikat 1274 Teresa
- Sold for: Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
- Item Category: Ceramics
- Source: eBay
- Sold Date: Jun 23, 2015
- Channel: Auction House
Six muffin pan in good used condition. Bottom shows where it sat on a hot stove with some black marks. No chips or cracks. Sold as is. I use pay pal and Ebay's estimated shipping.


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|By Business Wire
Article Rating:
|January 15, 2014 09:04 AM EST
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE:I), the world's leading provider of satellite services, today announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.71875 per share, to be paid to holders of its 5.75% Series A Mandatory Convertible Junior Non-voting Preferred shares, in accordance with the terms of the preferred shares. The dividend will be paid on February 3, 2014, to holders of record as of January 15, 2014.
About Intelsat
Intelsat is the leading provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. For over 45 years, Intelsat has been delivering information and entertainment for many of the world's leading media and network companies, multinational corporations, Internet Service Providers and governmental agencies. Intelsat's satellite, teleport and fiber infrastructure is unmatched in the industry, setting the standard for transmissions of video, data and voice services. From the globalization of content and the proliferation of HD, to the expansion of cellular networks and broadband access, with Intelsat, advanced communications anywhere in the world are closer, by far.
Consumers increasingly expect their electronic "things" to be connected to smart phones, tablets and the Internet. When that thing happens to be a medical device, the risks and benefits of connectivity must be carefully weighed. Once the decision is made that connecting the device is beneficial, medical device manufacturers must design their products to maintain patient safety and prevent compromised personal health information in the face of cybersecurity threats. In his session at @ThingsExpo...
Aug. 17, 2017 10:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,412
"We're a cybersecurity firm that specializes in engineering security solutions both at the software and hardware level. Security cannot be an after-the-fact afterthought, which is what it's become," stated Richard Blech, Chief Executive Officer at Secure Channels, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Aug. 17, 2017 10:45 PM EDT Reads: 6,457
In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Mike Johnston, an infrastructure engineer at Supergiant.io, discussed how to use Kubernetes to set up a SaaS infrastructure for your business. Mike Johnston is an infrastructure engineer at Supergiant.io with over 12 years of experience designing, deploying, and maintaining server and workstation infrastructure at all scales. He has experience with brick and mortar data centers as well as cloud providers like Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services, and Rackspace. H...
Aug. 17, 2017 10:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,122
SYS-CON Events announced today that Grape Up will exhibit at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct. 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Grape Up is a software company specializing in cloud native application development and professional services related to Cloud Foundry PaaS. With five expert teams that operate in various sectors of the market across the U.S. and Europe, Grape Up works with a variety of customers from emergi...
Aug. 17, 2017 09:45 PM EDT Reads: 6,691
You know you need the cloud, but you're hesitant to simply dump everything at Amazon since you know that not all workloads are suitable for cloud. You know that you want the kind of ease of use and scalability that you get with public cloud, but your applications are architected in a way that makes the public cloud a non-starter. You're looking at private cloud solutions based on hyperconverged infrastructure, but you're concerned with the limits inherent in those technologies.
Aug. 17, 2017 09:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,057
Detecting internal user threats in the Big Data eco-system is challenging and cumbersome. Many organizations monitor internal usage of the Big Data eco-system using a set of alerts. This is not a scalable process given the increase in the number of alerts with the accelerating growth in data volume and user base. Organizations are increasingly leveraging machine learning to monitor only those data elements that are sensitive and critical, autonomously establish monitoring policies, and to detect...
Aug. 17, 2017 09:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,459
SYS-CON Events announced today that Massive Networks will exhibit at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Massive Networks mission is simple. To help your business operate seamlessly with fast, reliable, and secure internet and network solutions. Improve your customer's experience with outstanding connections to your cloud.
Aug. 17, 2017 09:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,552
DevOps is under attack because developers don't want to mess with infrastructure. They will happily own their code into production, but want to use platforms instead of raw automation. That's changing the landscape that we understand as DevOps with both architecture concepts (CloudNative) and process redefinition (SRE). Rob Hirschfeld's recent work in Kubernetes operations has led to the conclusion that containers and related platforms have changed the way we should be thinking about DevOps and...
Aug. 17, 2017 09:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,124
SYS-CON Events announced today that SkyScale will exhibit at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. SkyScale is a world-class provider of cloud-based, ultra-fast multi-GPU hardware platforms for lease to customers desiring the fastest performance available as a service anywhere in the world. SkyScale builds, configures, and manages dedicated systems strategically located in maximum-security...
Aug. 17, 2017 09:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,754
The question before companies today is not whether to become intelligent, it's a question of how and how fast. The key is to adopt and deploy an intelligent application strategy while simultaneously preparing to scale that intelligence. In her session at 21st Cloud Expo, Sangeeta Chakraborty, Chief Customer Officer at Ayasdi, will provide a tactical framework to become a truly intelligent enterprise, including how to identify the right applications for AI, how to build a Center of Excellence to...
Aug. 17, 2017 08:30 PM EDT Reads: 310
Everything run by electricity will eventually be connected to the Internet. Get ahead of the Internet of Things revolution and join Akvelon expert and IoT industry leader, Sergey Grebnov, in his session at @ThingsExpo, for an educational dive into the world of managing your home, workplace and all the devices they contain with the power of machine-based AI and intelligent Bot services for a completely streamlined experience.
Aug. 17, 2017 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,891
Because IoT devices are deployed in mission-critical environments more than ever before, it's increasingly imperative they be truly smart. IoT sensors simply stockpiling data isn't useful. IoT must be artificially and naturally intelligent in order to provide more value In his session at @ThingsExpo, John Crupi, Vice President and Engineering System Architect at Greenwave Systems, will discuss how IoT artificial intelligence (AI) can be carried out via edge analytics and machine learning techn...
Aug. 17, 2017 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,176
FinTechs use the cloud to operate at the speed and scale of digital financial activity, but are often hindered by the complexity of managing security and compliance in the cloud. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Sesh Murthy, co-founder and CTO of Cloud Raxak, showed how proactive and automated cloud security enables FinTechs to leverage the cloud to achieve their business goals. Through business-driven cloud security, FinTechs can speed time-to-market, diminish risk and costs, maintain continu...
Aug. 17, 2017 07:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,585
With tough new regulations coming to Europe on data privacy in May 2018, Calligo will explain why in reality the effect is global and transforms how you consider critical data. EU GDPR fundamentally rewrites the rules for cloud, Big Data and IoT. In his session at 21st Cloud Expo, Adam Ryan, Vice President and General Manager EMEA at Calligo, will examine the regulations and provide insight on how it affects technology, challenges the established rules and will usher in new levels of diligence a...
Aug. 17, 2017 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,649
Existing Big Data solutions are mainly focused on the discovery and analysis of data. The solutions are scalable and highly available but tedious when swapping in and swapping out occurs in disarray and thrashing takes place. The resolution for thrashing through machine learning algorithms and support nomenclature is through simple techniques. Organizations that have been collecting large customer data are increasingly seeing the need to use the data for swapping in and out and thrashing occurs ...
Aug. 17, 2017 06:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,546


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Hope and possibility 5km Run, Walk or Wheel
This Sunday at North Harbour Stadium we see the return of the Achilles International New Zealand event, Hope & Possibility 5km Run Walk and Wheel 2014.
The main objective Hope & Possibility Run Walk & Wheel is to bring together those with and those without disabilities into the one main stream event. All funds raised on the day go back to Achilles New Zealand which aids them to assist disabled New Zealanders into and stay active in sport.
Race Director, Garry Butler, said "Lots will be happening on the day, for a start all finishers get a finishers Medal and goody bag. A chance to meet celebrities TV3s Mike McRoberts, and legends Frank Bunce and Tawera Nikau and fresh from his recent appearance at the Weetbix Kids Triathlon will be Jaden Movold, the most inspiring 10 year old you will meet."
He said that "individuals can support Achilles NZ by either entering online or turning up on the day everyone is welcome to join in, at just $20 adult and $10 per child, it's going to be a great day out".
The event is open to people of all ages and levels of fitness, with and without disabilities. Support this great inspirational event and see you Sunday, entries open at 9.00am.
Enter online at www.achillesnewzealand.org or visit Facebook page.


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ESS-Model is a tool for viewing and generating uml class diagrams from source code.
Version 2.2 changes:
+ Changed diagram bitmap format from .GIF to .PNG
+ Now supports Microsoft XML Parser 4.
+ 'Open folder' function for parsing large java-projects.
+ Fixed bug in delphi parser for projects with many subdirectories
+ Fixed memory leak when saving bitmaps
+ Changed scrollbehaviour when dragging items to the edge of the diagram window.
+ Fixed bug in .java-parser, attributes have correct visibility.
+ Fixed bug in .class-parser to correctly identify abstract methods.
+ .Java / .class parsers now handles interface attributes
+ Translated more source code comments to english
+ New IFDEF: ARGO_XMI for using Argo UML compatible xmi-format
+ Settings for default diagram options
+ Command-line control of diagram options
+ Abstract classes now have class name shown in italics


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June 19, 2009
Organic Farming 1, 2, 3's
Organic farming: simple, healthy…the way to save the planet? Indeed, as our world faces an alarming global warming crisis, more and more people are awakening to the benefits of organic farming.
Ever concerned for the welfare of Earth and all her inhabitants, Supreme Master Ching Hai frequently calls for the world to embrace the practice of organic farming.
Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai and Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos
Act Now! - For a More Peaceful and Safer World Taipei, Formosa (Taiwan) February 21, 2009
Supreme Master Ching Hai: The benefit of organic farming is immense, including great advantage to both human health and the environment. Organic farming actually restores the topsoil and cleans the air and water supplies even. It is even good for animals, all beings on this planet, including even trees and land, in part because it does not use chemical fertilizer or pesticides
Now, scientific studies have found that organic farming not only reduces energy usage and produces less CO2, which helps lower greenhouse gases, but it actually allows the soil to absorb even 40% of presently in the air CO2 emission. Before we even invent any technology to reduce CO2, or before we even reduce all the cars and transportations, if we go organic we reduce 40% of the current CO2 in the air already, and the daily emission.
Considerate viewers, on today's Planet Earth: Our Loving Home, we are joined by one of our Association members who is an organic farmer in South Africa. Mr. John Lefferts has been kind enough to guide us through the basics of organic farming, so let's go take a look!
John Lefferts Organic farmer Our Association Member from South Africa
Lefferts (m): I'm from the Western Cape, Plettenberg Bay, a place called Wittedrif. We've been here for two years. And We had to tackle a farm that was used as a grazing land. And We found that the land was very depleted of goodness. And for us the most important element was to try and put back humus compost back into the soil mulch.
Humus is decomposed organic matter which helps plants to grow. Mulch is a protective covering put in the soil to lessen water evaporation, to inhibit weed growth, to keep soil temperature steady, and to enhance the overall richness of the soil.
Lefferts: The soil that we have here is very clay-rich, so it requires air. And The only way we get air into it, because it becomes very compacted with rain, is by putting this wonderful humus with it. Obviously it starts a whole worm population because they can breathe inside the soil. All the microorganisms can survive. And basically that is the secret to really growing a good product is to have very healthy soil which has got good aeration, good drainage.
A ridge-style arrangement of the land has many advantages.
Lefferts (m): The second step is to make ridges on this land. Then we fill that with some of the mulch to be able to get better drainage, because the soil here, as mentioned, has been a little bit overworked. And it compacts because it's very clay-rich. So in order to give the plants a better drainage, what we do is we ridge it up and then we put mulch inside it. That gets mixed and the plants get planted on top. And obviously the healthier the soil, the better the product.
And If you look behind me you'll be able to appreciate that the ridging in itself creates the drainage that the plants so desperately need. In addition to that we then cover the top of the beds with a straw. And that obviously conserves water. It allows us only to spray twice or three times a week instead of having to spray every day.
Lefferts (m): This is a bale of the wonderful hay that I'm talking about. And What we do is we take this hay and we spread it not too thickly. We spread it on the top of our ridges, as you can see, on the eggplant, in order to conserve moisture.
Lefferts (m): So now as mentioned we put a nice layer of this straw inside, conserving the moisture. And if you look it's so beautiful and wet and easy to dig with your fingertips. That's how wonderful the soil becomes. And Then you put this nice straw, or hay as we call it, around the base of the plants to conserve water.
Strawberry cultivation is a fine example of where the use of hay is immensely beneficial.
Lefferts (m): Our strawberries are finished, but this is an interesting fact about strawberries. They're called strawberries because when the plant throws out little flowers and they become berries, if you don't put straw the berries will land on the soil. And The insects and the worms and everything else will eat it from the bottom. But when you place a nice bed of straw, the strawberries land on it and they ripen beautifully without insects getting hold of them, hence the word "strawberries."
When we come back, Mr. Lefferts will tell us about the wonders of companion planting. You are watching Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.
Welcome back to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Organic farming means no chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used during cultivation and thus the environment is spared from having to absorb these harmful unnatural substances. Also, the soil on organic farms is able to absorb CO2 from the air, thus helping mitigate global warming. Our Association member in South Africa, Mr. John Lefferts, is showing us the art of organic farming on today's show. He will now discuss the important concept of companion planting.
Lefferts (m): The spray program that we have obviously does not include insecticides or pesticides or any herbicides. We use a system called companion planting. The companion planting allows us to combine plants, which will help with the insects.
Because we give them something else that will attract them or with these pungent smelling khaki bush and marigold plants, or these strong onion plants which keep the insects away from our produce.
Some of the examples of companion planting would be: spring onions with strawberries, yarrow with beans, stinging nettle amongst your spinaches, khaki bush and marigold where all your spinach is, and tulbaghia, which is a wild garlic plant which you plant almost all the way around your vegetables patches. A lot of the insects don't like the pungent smell of the tulbaghia flower.
Things like khaki bush and marigolds are also planted generally all the way around your vegetable patches. We also use things like lemon verbena, which we put one on each corner, because that too has this wonderful pungent smell. Things like lavender are used as well extensively in the rows to be able to detract a lot of the insects. .
Organic farming done right means few to no insects eating the crops.
Lefferts (m): What I've noticed with having planted in this wonderfully mulched, very healthy soil, and with moon, there are no insects. If the plant is weak, it would naturally attract insects. So remember the secret is very good soil and to time your planting. Obviously good water, preparation of your soil, mulching of the ground, straw inside keeping the water retention, all of these elements make up a very healthy plant, and the healthier the plant is, the less insects are attracted to it.
Lefferts (m): The other thing that's quite vital is the type of mulch that you use. For example, potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries love acidic mulches. These mulches are made from pine needles. Whereas, a lot of the other plants which are alkaline, like the leafy vegetables, spinach, lettuce, they like the alkaline mulches. And it' amazing, the tomato tastes completely different when you're using an acid mulch with it.
Another key element of organic farming is selecting the correct time for planting.
Lefferts (m): It's so important to follow your planting regime according to the moon and the zodiac signs. The moon controls the tides and the gravity. So at a full moon the water has come up to its maximum.
So when the first sliver of the moon starts pulling, that's when you would plant all your leafy vegetable plants. And when the moon is pushing, you plant your root vegetables. The reason for that is the root vegetable follows the water or the leafy plants get water to actually to be pulled out of the ground.
Organic foods are truly rewarding to grow and to eat!
Lefferts (m): When you pick a spear directly off the plant, within 6 hours the sugars have changed and this is no longer sweet and crunchy, but quite bitter because the whole sugar composition of the plant changes. And That's why it's important that everybody grows their own organic veg. Picking an asparagus spear out of your own garden or a tomato or pulling a potato out of the ground, you will never compare the taste of what you've just pulled out of the ground to something that's traveled extensively. And That is why it's so important to try and grow your own produce. "Mmmm, mmm, mm" Wish you could taste this!
That sure does look fresh and full of flavor!
Lefferts (m): Finally, the difference that you will notice in picking a fresh asparagus or picking fresh produce out of your garden is obviously because they're so healthy. There is no substitute for healthy vegetables. We've noticed, for our kids and our family, that having the blessing of being able to eat our own organic vegetables, unbelievable how our children never need doctors and antibiotics and they don't get sick. Try it.
John Lefferts' farm is flourishing with happy crops. Anyone can start growing organic produce, no matter how small one's available space is for cultivation.
Lefferts (m): It's been really nice spending a little time with you talking about organic farming. But you don't have to have a farm to do organic plants, you can plant tomatoes in pots on your balcony, you can put potatoes in them. You can have these shelf pots that you can plant all your herbs. You can plant your lettuces. Try something. Just experiment. Obviously remember it must get a bit of sun because that's what causes the photosynthesis.
But you don't really need a farm. You need to actually have a passion to grow your own vegetables without insecticides, and herbicides and pesticides and chemical fertilizers. All you need is natural products, give it a bash, try it. It's healthy. Be Veg, Go Green. Thank you.
We thank John Lefferts for all the wonderful tips on growing organic fruits and vegetables. Not only is it fun and simple, but it is the best way of raising food for the health of our Earth!
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