Our (mini) Food Revolution, Part 2

Continued from Part One: The Setup

Part Two: The Strategy

"Food is essential for life.  Therefore, make it good."
~Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-a

The last time I bought meat at the grocery store was October 2009.  

I still remember the first dinner I made after T and I finished watching Food Inc.  I made a pork roast, one that I had proudly purchased as part of a buy-one-get-one-free deal a few weeks earlier.  While the kids munched happily on their dinner, T and I picked at our plates.  Although we are both committed omnivores, we had both been affected by the scenes of industrial animal farming methods.  I am ok with an animal dying to provide food for people to eat.  But, I suddenly felt that my purchasing power was supporting some industry practices that respected neither the lives of animals nor the people that raised and processed them.  If my dollar could support better farming conditions, less antibiotics & disease spread, healthier animals & more nutritious meat, that seemed to me to be the way to spend it.

I decided we would finish all the conventional store-bought meat in our refrigerator and freezer (no reason to be wasteful on top of everything else), but my next purchases would be free-range and grass-fed.  Why did I think that would be better for our family?  My analysis went something like this:

Nutrition and Benefits of Grass-fed Meat

Grass-fed Beef	Grain-fed Beef
Low saturated fat levels, similar to chicken breast	Saturated fat levels 3-4 times higher.
2-6 times higher levels of omega-3 (most often found in fish).	Grain-fed cattle lose nearly all omega-3 during their time in the feedlot.
3-5 times the level of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), a possible new defence against cancer.	As CLA comes from the grass itself, low levels of it are present.
Reduced exposure to E.coli bacteria.	E.coli is a constant risk and growing concern where animals are overcrowded.
No risk of BSE (mad cow disease), since cattle are not fed animal by-products.	Cases of BSE have been confirmed in this country among conventionally-raised beef.
Ecologically friendly agricultural practices.	"Factory" production requires significant energy, chemicals and gasoline.

From Anderson Farm: http://andersonfarm.us/benefits.html

I was won over by the information I found at well-respected sites like EatWild.com.  Additionally, I was impressed with the way I was able to confirm the information I was reading about grassfed beef and free-range farming with primary scientific sources.  For instance, claims that grass-fed beef results in a reduced exposure to harmful E. coli bacteria are based on a major study published in the 2000 Nebraska Beef Report (check out pages 39-4, it's a long document).  The 2000 report confirmed previous study findings that even short-duration hay feeding reduces acid-resistant E. coli populations (read: bad E.coli) in cattle feces by over 99% (page 41).

While the daily health benefits might have been enough to make me switch, the farming families I met while searching for our cow and pig were the icing on the cake.  I found several great grass-fed and free range farmers in our Minnesota area and I loved that my dollars were directly supporting their families, their organic, sustainable farming methods and their animal treatment.  While I could buy free-range and grass-fed meat at certain specialty stores in town, I found that bulk buying from family farms was tremendously cost-effective.  Here are some of the farms that we have purchased from:

Grassfed Cattle Co. : I purchased our first grass-fed beef 20 lb. starter pack from them and loved it.

Anderson Farm:  Soon after, I bought my 1/4 pig and four chickens from the Andersons, located in WI.  It took us nearly a year to finish our 1/4 pig.  Their meat is outstanding, competitively priced and they have regular farm open houses with cooking lessons, tastings, animal viewing, etc.  I love getting their emails; you can sign up on their website.

Sunshine Harvest Farm: I later met the Brauchers at a local farmers market and was won over by their chicken prices when I had just run out.  They have another great farm raising grass-fed beef & lamb and free range pork, chicken and eggs.

Shepherd's Hill Farm:  Another outstanding grass-fed beef farm in MN, managed by a great family.

Before I knew it, our basement freezer was full of grass-fed, free range meat.  It has taken us 15 months to go through a 1/4 pig, 10 chickens and a 1/2 cow that we split with my parents. 

Following our transition to grass-fed beef, I made several other, less dramatic changes to our fridge and pantry: 

*High fructose corn syrup: I started looking at labels and stopped buying products containing high fructose corn syrup.  I posted previously about that decision here.  I was amazed how omnipresent HFCS is (in everything from the yogurt I was buying to the pancake syrup and tomato sauce I used) and grew increasingly concerned by studies correlating adverse health effects to its omnipresence in our diet.  Thankfully, my changes were mostly cost-neutral, as many vendors or grocers carry items that use cane sugar in place of HFCS.  Bonus, none of my family members seemed to notice or care.  By way of update, I have since noticed that several of the brands I previously stopped buying due to their use of HFCS have since changed to sugar.  Perhaps our votes are counting?

*Whole wheat and complex carbohydrates: whether pasta, bread, tortillas or goldfish crackers, I began to stock the whole wheat varieties of the carbs we ate.  I started experimenting with other complex grains and adding legumes to our diet too.  The result was greater satiety and a lower glycemic index for my family.

*Selectively organic:  I also previously posted on this transition here.  I became convinced of the adverse human health and environmental effects of certain pesticide use on our produce.  In an effort to maintain a rational cost-effective organic approach (I needed to prioritize because organics can be expensive) I started using the "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides," which you can find at Foodnews.org.  Summer farmer's markets, freezing when fruit is on sale and shopping around (Midtown Market Produce Exchange is the BEST!) has helped me keep my costs in check.

*Make it homemade:  The best way to know what my family is eating is to make it myself.  Over the past 18 months I have learned to make pita bread, tortillas, crackers, frosting, salad dressing, granola cereal, granola bars, irish soda bread, sourdough starter, beef, chicken and vegetable broth, oxtail soup, macaroni & cheese and countless other foods myself.  I started making all our bread in our bread maker, because buying wholesale oats, whole wheat flour and yeast was much cheaper than buying multiple fancy, healthy loaves at the store every week.

I should emphasize that I made several of these changes gradually, not all at once.  Many articles like this one in Time Magazine on the high price of cheap food renewed our resolve along the way.  However, these changes took some trial and error.  And in the interest of full disclosure, our revolution was not without setbacks.

Next: Part Three: The Setbacks....