-
You’ll have to decide…
…whom to believe. The government and scientific establishment, of course, says “eat less red meat”. There are many dissenters though, and we’re in that camp, who think we should eat all the red meat we can. And all the fat, too! What’s strange is that just about all the research demonstrates that it’s sugar, which is linked to most of our health problems. And nothing pumps sugar into our cells more efficiently than carbohydrates. We worry constantly about air quality but reducing pollution has had no appreciable effect on cancer rates and heart disease. Sugar consumption, meanwhile, has soared in recent decades while the FDA and its pals in Big Food keep pointing our…
-
A victory for the pure food movement….
….and unexpectedly. Whole Foods has just announced it will begin labeling all its products that are genetically modified. With four-fifths of the worlds corn and soybeans now GMO, we trust the company has budgeted enough for new labels. Just about any box on the shelf will need the alert, as well as most of the produce. We wonder if they’ll go so far as to put notices on their meat, too. The biggest consumers of genetically modified corn are cows. There’s a lot of Big Ag propaganda in the article (Monsanto never sleeps) but still the basic story is a major setback for the “don’t ask what it is, just…
-
It’s about time….
The boards of directors of the major Devon organizations in the United States have now voted, in principal, to a merger of the two associations. While the proverbial “devil is in the details”, this is the first time after two years of flirting, that a date for the marriage has been set. The expectation is that the final agreement will come at a joint membership meeting of ADCA and NADA in North Carolina September 26th-28th. NADA split off from ADCA six years ago in a bitter dispute over then-president Gearld Fry’s plans to enlarge the board and change some of its officers. He left ADCA and established the North American Devon Association,…
-
Magic becomes a centerfold….
….our thanks to Tomina Farms and Regina Tesnow for featuring Thistle Hill Magic S484 in their center-spread ad in the American Devon Cattle Association newsletter. Magic’s fame is certainly spreading and Tomina Farms is now marketing his semen. Here’s the centerfold: tominafarms2pgspread You can contact us if you’d like semen and we’ll pass on the order to the Tesnows.
-
Roundtable: Can I make money selling grass fed beef (continued)….
We could call this Exhibit A in our discussion. Someone who is making money with a small grass fed beef farm. If you want to begin at the beginning, scroll down to the roundtable that featured four men with wide experience in all phases of grass fed beef marketing….local to national…operating solely or in combination with others. But, to see what a “practioner of the trade” would say about all this, we sought out Guille Yearwood of Ellett Valley Beef Company in southwest Virginia. Guille is both a pure bred Devon breeder and commercial cattleman and is a member of the board of the American Devon Cattle Association. Whether you’re…
-
Saving the planet….
….not exactly a humble goal, but that’s what is at stake. The earth’s surface has been turning into a vast desert, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere every year than all the fossil fuel engines combined. This “browning” of the planet is the cause of all the hunger, suffering and war than we can possibly deal with. Strangely, while largely blamed for all our environmental woes, it is the lowly cow that holds the key to the problem. (I wanted to write: “our survival”) As pollyanish as it may sound, we do believe that grass fed beef is the answer. Good for your personal health, a grazing cow is good for the…
-
Open for business….
….once again. We had to drag one of those big utility company trucks through two pastures (making a mess of several years of holistic work) but we finally have power. The crew from southern Kentucky made a truly heroic effort and we appreciate their work. They thought the whole thing was kind of fun….and all were taking pictures of their adventure. Unfortunately I left my camera at home. The cows took the foot of snow in stride. The yearling heifers, pictured here, did graze through the white stuff but the grass really wasn’t long enough and they were glad to see a bale of hay show up. The temperatures during…
-
Look mom, no cavities!
One more “it’s good for you post”, then I’m taking the day off! Turns out grain not only has caused most of our health problems, it also is to blame for our bad teeth! http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/24/172688806/ancient-chompers-were-healthier-than-ours?ft=1&f=1001&buffer_share=e819f&utm_source=buffer
-
A treat instead of a treatment….
….wasn’t that the old Camel slogan? In any event, that thought came to mind as I read the latest posting about the health benefits of grass fed beef. I sometimes wonder if we don’t overdo this wellness stuff to the detriment of consumer acceptance. After all, spinach has never been able to overcome the stigma of “eat it, it’s good for you” even with the help of Popeye! As always happens when we put out a new offering of meat, we get a spate of rave reviews. Everything from “my husband said that was the best roast we’ve ever had” to “my husband and I agree that was the best…
-
Still more on marketing grass fed beef….
….my recent post on the price disadvantage American producers face when competing against foreign grass fed beef (see below “Roundtable: Can I make money selling grass fed beef) needs some fine tuning. My point was that I pay almost four times as much for butchering as my competitor in Tasmania. And so foreign beef can absorb the shipping costs and still undersell American beef. But my good friend Bill Roberts of 12 Stones Grasslands Beef files a mild disagreement (that’s what friends are for, to tell you when you’re wrong. Mildly.) Bill says we’re not up against price competition alone. As I understand it, price is not the main issue in…