Grass-fed beef's popularity on the rise

UNITED STATES - For fresh eggs, Stewart and Shelley Bowring raise chickens in the back of their Weber County home.
calendar icon 11 December 2006
clock icon 1 minute read
For fresh potatoes and onions, they buy 50-pound bags from a farmer in Layton. And for seasonal fruit they head to Fruitway in Willard and Brigham City.

So it's no surprise that a few years ago, when a friend told them about Tami's Grassfed Beef, they immediately headed to the West Haven ranch and placed an order.

"I wouldn't go back to store-bought beef for anything," says Shelley Bowring, one of a growing number of Utahns - and Americans - seeking out beef raised on small, mostly single-family ranches near their homes.

Cattle on these farms forage and graze on natural grasses, not on corn or grain like their cousins sent to large industrialized feed lots. They also are free of synthetic growth hormones and antibiotics.

Today, it is called "value-added" meat, but it is really just a return to the old-fashioned way of raising cattle - the way cattle were raised before industrialized farming began more than 50 years ago.

These alternatives to mass-produced beef can have a number of different labels, including organic, natural, grass-fed and grass finished. They also have significantly higher price tags.

Source:The Salt Lake Tribune
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