The latest hot topic for healthier meat and dairy involves the pasturing of animals for meat and dairy. It's likely to become even more controversial in the years ahead, given the decreasing availability of quality pasture land.
Grass and other pasture, including clover and alfalfa, is the only natural food for cows, sheep and goats. It affects their health, the taste and quality of their meat and milk, and in turn even the nutritional health of the consumer.
Following are several articles on pasturing livestock. Some include specific sections on the value to consumers.
Grass-fed beef: Organic, 100 percent, grass-fed beef from Eel River Organic Beef, information and recipes.
Access to pasture, feedlot cows are not fed grain exclusively, but usually a mix of grain and silage; letter to the editor, Sound Consumer, February 2006.
Access to pasture, letter to the editor about discontinuing the Horizon brand, Sound Consumer, March 2006.
Got organic milk — USDA certified?, article on industrial-scale dairies questions that the USDA will accept expert recommendations for pasturing; Sound Consumer, June 2006.
Pasture for organic cows, USDA received 80,000 comments about rules for pasturing organic livestock, including PCC's letter to the USDA. Sound Consumer, December 2006. Also see News bites December 2006
