Eat a Grass-fed Steak for Mother Earth
Click to read the Time Magazine article.
Raising grass fed beef cattle reduces our carbon foot print. Now, I’m not one for recycling and ethanol. But, I could do my part this way. According to Eliot Coleman, who wrote the “bible of organic vegetable farming,” raising cattle the way they evolved to eat–that is by eating grass–causes a net reduction in green house gases, by strengthening ecosystems.
It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals’ grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant’s roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.
What’s the pay-off for more grass-fed beef?
Collins goes even further. “With proper management, pastoralists, ranchers and farmers could achieve a 2% increase in soil-carbon levels on existing agricultural, grazing and desert lands over the next two decades,” he estimates. Some researchers hypothesize that just a 1% increase (over, admittedly, vast acreages) could be enough to capture the total equivalent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions.
That’s just another blow to the meat haters. And another point for living in tune with your genetics. Its not just good for your plate and for the cow, but it is also good for the environment. Maybe we’ll live to see the day when a chunk of the money given to corn farmers will be given to support grass-fed cows.
–Nick
“Maybe we’ll live to see the day when a chunk of the money given to corn farmers will be given to support grass-fed cows.” I second that!
I guess you don’t realize that the money that would have been given to corn farmers (a crop that is grown in all 50 states in the Union) is going to be given to the same people to do a more expensive job. Food costs go up as production costs for grass-fed beef can be ridiculous without the proper facilities and management.
@Nick
This is the Nick that wrote the article. Subsidies are obviously not great for the economy, but if we are stuck with them, I’d rather we give them to food producers that make actual food. I’d also rather see that demand by consumers is pushed up for real food, like grass-fed beef.
Thanks for the input, though.