For today’s Real Food Quote Monday (RFQM), I’m quoting from Joel Salatin’s “Salad Bar Beef” – the book where he outlines his creative and alternative production model of raising grass-fed beef for healthy animals, humans, and ecology.
“…the salad bar beef production model offers hope to rural communities, to struggling row-crop farmers, and to frustrated beef eaters who do not want to encourage desertification, air and water pollution, environmental degradation and inhuman animal treatment. Because this is a program weighted toward creativity, management, entrepreneurism and observation, it breathes fresh air into farm economics.”
I just finished reading Chapter 13, on choosing a breed. I read it because my husband thought it applied not only to cattle (which we don’t have, yet) but also to goats (which we do have). I learned much about common sense breeding, but what stuck out to me were a few paragraphs in which Joel Salatin debunks research that puts down organic or natural growing methods. Even though long, every bit of this quote is important.
“You know how the research is done. Some company provides seed money to a land grant university to do some research on the experimental farm. The herd on the experimental farm, of course, is on all the latest crutches available to the industry. That’s just the nature of the system. I don’t know of any experimental land-grant farm that operates a salad bar beef program.
What that means is that these animals come into the study crutch-dependent [pharmaceuticals, grain, etc.] already. It’s kind of like the research that showed organic farming couldn’t produce anything. Typical research went into something like this. They would go out behind the soil or crop sciences lab and pick a couple of plots they’d been using for two decades to run chemical fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide tests. They wouldn’t do anything to these plots at all: these were the organic plots. In the adjacent plots they would pour on the regular dose of chemicals, or, as Charles Walters, Jr. calls it, “toxic rescue chemistry.”
Then they’d plant the corn and at the end of the season take their measurements. Well of course the chemical plot did great and the organic plots did miserably. Conclusion: “If farming went organic either half the world would starve or we’d have to plow up twice as much acreage for the same production. Clearly, organic farming doesn’t work.”
Such research, of course, makes a mockery of true science. Anyone involved in organic farming knows that it takes a lifetime to build a healthy soil. To take soil that has been abused for decades, do nothing positive to it one year and call that “organic” is a lie. And yet this technique was and is employed all over the world to disprove alternatives.”
To put this in perspective, recently we heard the news that grass-fed beef is just as susceptible to E. Coli as feedlot beef.
“A recent article refutes the assumption that E. Coli contamination won’t happen in grass fed beef. Studies have been performed in the past several years have noted that rates of E. Coli in grass fed beef are similar to feedlot cattle. See studies here and here.”
And there are more statements like this across the internet. But, what animals were studied, where and how were they pastured, and how was the meat processed?
Was the E. Coli contaminated grass-fed beef from among Joel Salatin’s cows or similar cows? (I doubt it.) Was their pasture rich and diverse with a smorgasbord of grasses? Did fowl follow the herbivores completing the natural task of cleaning up parasites?
Or, had they just been taken off various crutches, put on a scrawny piece of land, and dumped into a study?
You see, we hear the claims but we don’t get details about the study. If you wanted to see the study yourself, you’d have to purchase access for $20 or $31.
We have not purchased access to the study. We know what we’d find if we did see it, though. The grass-fed model won’t have been a good one.
(If you’ve purchased either study and want to share one with us, I’ll have my husband take a look. I’ll also send it to Joel Salatin and ask him what he thinks.)
Does anyone really believe that raising any crop – whether animal or vegetable – in a truly organic and natural way is not superior? Apparently some people do, or perhaps they’re deluding themselves. The trouble is, they will concoct studies in an attempt to delude the rest of us.
What are your thoughts?
Note: The book link in this post is an affiliate link to Amazon.com. If you choose to buy the book via my link, I’ll earn a commission. But I don’t care about that too much. The point of this post is for us to share inspirational words. That’s my sincere disclaimer. Thanks for reading.
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Thanks again Wardeh! I love that you read these books, pull out the most useful info and share it with all. My favorite Joel Salatin quote is, “If you think organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?”
I listened to a podcast interview with Joel Salatin last week at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness. If you just type his name in the search on that site, it should come up. He very effectively refutes every single objection that is out there with clarity and common sense regarding organic farming practices. How refreshing to be on the “good guys” side!
I just finished ‘Everything I want to Do is Illegal’ by Joel Salatin. Great book! He made the same argument in that book about the ‘tests’ that are done. It’s insane!
.-= Sarah´s last blog post… ‘Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal’ by Joel Salatin =-.
As the mother of a family who is trying to find her way with whole foods and convince the rest of her household, these studies are very frustrating and confusing.
Thank you, Tammy, for posting your info. I’m going to look into it.
In the movie, Food Inc., Allen Trenkle, a ruminant nutrition expert tells us,
“The animals [cattle] evolved on consuming grass. There’s research that indicates that high corn diet results in e-coli that are acid resistant and these would be the more harmful e-coli”.
Michael Pollen follows with,
“See, you feed corn to cattle and e-coli which is a very common bug evolves and a certain mutation occurs. And a strain called the e-coli 0157:H7 appears on the world stage.”
I’m very suspicious of the source for the data that refutes the assumption that e-coli contamination won’t happen in grass fed beef. Their means for running tests lack credibility as you pointed out in the quote from Joel Salatin. It also makes me wonder who is funding this research.
E-coli first appeared back around 1993. There were ground beef recalls nationwide in 1998, 2001, 2002. The articles you posted are dated 2000 and 2003. Coincidence?
Another quote from Michael Pollan in Food Inc.,
“The industrial food system is looking for greater efficiency, but each step to greater efficiency leads to problems. If you take feed lot cattle off of their corn diet, give them grass for 5 days, they shed 80% of the e-coli in their gut. But of course that’s not what the industry does. The industry’s approach is when it has a systematic problem like that, is not to go back and see what’s wrong with the system, it’s to come up with some high-tech fixes that allow the system to survive.”
One of the links you posted says “There has been strong debate as to whether feeding cattle hay prior to slaughter will reduce the number and/or virulence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the bovine gastrointestinal tract (GIT). ”
Prior to slaughter?? Their last meal is grass? I would suggest to you that it is the industry, once again, trying to fix the system.
It’s all questionable.
.-= Marg´s last blog post… Heritage and heirloom seed shopping =-.
Tammy – Thanks for sharing the podcast. I’ve downloaded it and will listen to it when I get some peace and quiet.
Sarah – Oh, I love that book! It made me scream, laugh and cry alternately. He’s an engaging writer and explains things so you don’t need a degree – just common sense.
Adriana – I hear you. It is frustrating to wade through all the misinformation. When it comes down to food though, I think we have to pull back from scientific studies, recognize that people have agendas, and focus on God. God didn’t pasteurize, grain-feed, or process food. That’s all new stuff – the fact that it coincides with modern diseases, tooth decay, obestity, etc., confirms that we shouldn’t mess with God’s design. I hope you find the podcast helpful – Joel Salatin has a way of speaking common sense that everyone can understand (if only everyone would listen).
Marg – Thank you for sharing those thoughtful comments. Many of the quotes from Food, Inc. you mentioned stood out to me as well. Especially the one where Pollan says the food industry’s approach to problems is to find another high-tech “solution” – like ammonia washed beef! Crazy.
Joel Salatin makes a similar point over and over again in his various books – he encourages us to step back and ask why. In “You Can Farm” reason #8 for failure at farming is asking too much how and not enough why. He says, “We’ve become adept at growing 150-bushel corn without asking the question why we should be growing corn. We’ve become proficient at matching exact drugs to precisely diagnosed bacterial infections in concentration camp poultry houses, but we fail to ask why we are raising chickens in concentration camps.”
Just like you said, giving cattle a LAST meal of grass seems a bit like a bandaid solution to a gaping wound.
The results of these “studies” make sense because the ones leading them are the ones selling all the chemicals. I truly believe that organic food and grass feed beef are superior to the mainstream chemical filled products.
.-= kanmuri´s last blog post… Post Vacation Blues =-.
kanmuri – Good point. The studies are concocted to support their “concoctions” (because we can’t call what they make food).
Though I might have great disdain for biblical “literalists” and “creationists” and fundamentalists” I still read what they have to say just in case they might have something to say that is of some real value. This is one of those things that I consider to be of some value, and should be read and pondered by all………
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Why Don’t They Get It?!
http://liberationwellnessblog.com/2009/12/15/why-dont-they-get-it/
Posted by Maureen Diaz on December 15, 2009
The other day a frustrating thing occurred-again. I was sitting around with a group of women from our church when the subject of yet another very sick friend came up.
As usual the course of discussion went something like this: “Do you think this will affect her for the rest of her life?” “What kind of medication will she have to take?” And of course, “What does the doctor say?”
Now bear in mind, the person in question has a years-long history of severe health problems for herself and her family. Serious stuff. And I love her very much! That counts for something, right?
When this type of discussion comes up I usually keep very quiet, even back out of the room. After all, I am the health fanatic and nobody wants to hear what I think. So why not just melt into the background now?
Well, enough is enough! I could keep silent no more, something had to be said. I was choked with emotion as I chose my words carefully.
My discourse was short, and not well received. It was met with downward glances, fidgeting fingers, silence. One person afterward acknowledged that we rely too heavily on medication. Another, more friendly towards my opinions, encouraged me to contact the friend in question. And one other dear friend gave me that knowing smile, and a sense of camaraderie. But otherwise, in a group of women professing to be seeking and following God’s will for their lives, nothing.
It always upsets me that so many people intent upon following God in every part of their lives ignore this one, crucial area. After all, if we do not have health we can not fulfill many of the Lord’s desires for us. We must be helped instead of being helper.
Poor health destroys lives, negates the good deeds that might be done, diminishes the capacities of husbands to provide for their families and of wives to care for their households. It takes away the joy of children, and brings about heartache and hardship. It drains resources, and sucks the life (often literally) right out of us.
Dr. Rex Russell put it well in his book, What the Bible Has to Say About Healthy Living: “If we decide to pay attention to God’s design, health and blessing will follow, and God will be glorified in our lives. If we decide to ignore God’s design, the consequences can be dire indeed.”
The Good Book is full of instructions pertaining to every aspect of our health. Exodus 15:26 says: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you.” His promise to His people then still stands for us today.
From circumcision on the 8th day (the day when the blood-clotting factor Vit. K builds up to a life time crescendo) to the admonition against eating blood (Gen. 9:4) or unclean animals (Lev. 10:10), the old testament is filled with God’s wise advice for health. There is instruction in food, farming, sanitation, healing; most of these laws have in modern times been scientifically validated, but largely ignored.
The new testament books also claim their share of health-giving information including, of course, prayer, fasting, “a little wine for the stomach” (1 Tim. 5:3), and the use of healing oils (Mark 6: 13, James 5:14).
So where have we gone wrong? Well first, let me address a common perception.
People often incorrectly assume that before the age of modern medicine people just suffered and died, in multitudes, from the same afflictions we do today. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Yes, there were plagues and pestilence, diseases and death. Realize of course that people have not always followed God’s design for food, sanitation, and healing. The wealthy have over-indulged. The poor have been consigned to poor quality and limited food supply. Cities were built without consideration for proper sanitation. And hand-washing was not common practice in pre- Pasteur-era hospitals and clinics. The average life span in early 20th century America was very low not because people did not live long lives, but because conditions were so filthy and food quality so poor in the cities that infant mortality was very high. But if one were fortunate enough to survive past toddlerhood, he would indeed have a very good chance of living to a ripe old age!
So let’s consider our food.
In Gen. 1:29 God said, “I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food”. Also consider that Able raised sheep in those early days; was it just for the wool to cloth them, or was the First Family also drinking milk, God’s most perfect food?
The Promised Land was happily described as, “flowing with milk and honey”.
When Noah and his family left the ark, God told him to eat (clean) meat.
Even the angels ate meat, leavened (fermented) bread, curds (cheese) and whey! (Gen. 18)
All of these things are good, or they would not have been given to us or demonstrated as desirable.
In light of the above, compare modern “food” with that of people throughout bible times. In days of old, foods were whole (unprocessed, not devitalized). It was grown without chemicals of any kind. Animals were either wild or grazed on naturally rich forage. All people consumed some of their foods fermented (bread, wine, cheese, olives, etc.), and much of it raw. Organ meats were prized, and bones made into broth. Salt was natural and people would not do without it.
So why do we now condemn all of these things which God has said were good? A better question might even be, why did we change the way in which we raise and prepare these foods which in former times were the fount of health? And why do we now in all of our wisdom declare our processed “food”, stripped of vitality and devoid of nutrients, “healthy” and “good”?
It has always seemed curious to me that in the 6 days of creation, God never made a single food processing plant, grain silo, pharmaceutical, or hospital. Did He not, in all of His wisdom, know that we would require these things to live? And so it took the infinitely more wise modern man 6000 years to correct our Creator’s oversight!
We are as a nation and as a culture, sick. Just plain sick. And the answers to our problems are always more drugs, more doctors, more hospitals; with no thought of the food which we put into our bodies (other than to eat more manufactured junk in place of whole, life-giving foods). Do we not realize that we are, truly, what we eat?!
God has supplied us with everything we need to live an abundant life upon this earth. We just need to recognize and return to His nourishing and healing ways! Let’s return to His garden, His pasture. Let us embrace His healing ways; the herbs, oils, foods, and prayer which are our sources of health and healing. God’s medicine cabinet is full of good things! These medicines are not quackery or the delusions of fanatical, misguided people. They are God’s ways, and His ways are always good. Even Hippocrates understood these principles when he declared, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food”.
This is my choice for myself and my family. I encourage it to be yours as well! ” <<<<