Dallas Morning News
By Wylie Harris
December 28, 2003
As a small Texas beef cattle producer, I’m as troubled as anyone by the recent discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the U.S. This country exports only 10 % of its beef, so if consumers here can’t trust the product, cattleraisers are in trouble.
Consumers can protect themselves just by changing how they buy beef. Cattle contract BSE by consuming feeds containing tissues from infected animals. But if the cows eat only pasture plants all their lives, that can’t happen. So to avoid BSE-infected beef, just buy directly from a small, pasture-based rancher. There are plenty of us – in fact, nearly a third of all cattle in the U.S. come from herds of less than 50 animals, mostly raised on pasture. We’re easier than ever to find, too, thanks to a website called www.eatwellguide.org that lets you locate nearby sources of pasture-raised beef.
Buying local, pasture-raised beef puts leaner and healthier meat on the table, while supporting a system of food production that promotes ecological integrity, animal welfare, and small family farms. With all these benefits over and above avoiding mad cow disease, why not let one of your new year’s resolutions be to eat only beef that’s pasture-raised?