A recent post on the Gristmill blog that recounted a conversation with a butcher reminded me that way too many people simply…have no idea. I might have to shamefully admit here that if I didn’t live in Burgundy, I would have no idea as well. Let me explain. The U.S. based blogger (Julia Olmstead) asked a butcher for grass-fed beef and he replied, ” I don’t think you could feed grass to cows…because they need vitamins and minerals and stuff.”

Um.

This brought me back to a conversation I had with my brother just a few months ago in California. He’s an avid foodie and loves to cook. We were talking about beef and I’d mentioned that Burgundy is very well-known for their Charolais beef. When you’re in our area, you can’t miss the white cows grazing on the verdant hills all around.

He said he’d come across some beef from northern California that was exceptional. “Why is it so good?” I asked. He said, “they feed it….GRASS.” And he said “grass,” I swear, like it was some sort of contraband, revolutionary forbidden feed.

“You mean weed?!” I stupidly asked. (but he said it as if it was illegal.)

“What?! No, silly. Grass, grass.” he said.

“Well. You know cows are SUPPOSED to eat grass and hay, right?” I said matter-of-factly.

“Oh. Yeah. I guess.”

The only reasons why industrial cows eat corn and “feed” is because it’s cheap and the cows get fatter quicker, so they reach slaughter months before a grass-fed cow will. Also, cows are crammed in warehouses or areas where there is no grass. Bottomline: the bottomline.

When cows are fed corn, soy and certain grains and feed (chicken manure, pig and fish proteins, bovine blood meal, pesticides), it usually results in a myriad of health problems for the cows. This is the reason why this kind of beef is pumped with anti-biotics: to keep the cow relatively healthy until slaughter time. Also, when cows are fed corn, e. coli outbreaks are more common.

Tags: france, french, cows, eat+grass, charolais, beef, mad+cow, e+coli+outbreaks