Grain Fed Rant

[silkiemomma9]

It's true we would be better to just cut the cow out completely. Now who wants to be grain fed and who wants the grass diet ?

LOL - now that would work too
This is the FDA's info on feeding rendered meats: http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/ComplianceManuals/CompliancePolicyGuidanceManual/ucm074717.htm

 

[OldGuy43]

First, as I've stated before, (and got lambasted soundly for it) "We have overpopulated Spaceship Earth!"

Next, all beef sold in the U.S. is inspected and graded by the USDA. There are seven grades of beef and they are described here:

Grades of beef

Now, back to the original topic, grain fed beef. If you've ever driven on IH10 from Fort Stockton, Texas to El Paso you can understand the need for feeding cattle grain.

As you can see, you wouldn't get much meat off of this steer, so most beef will be grain fed.

What I really object to is the term "Certified Angus Beef". like that has something to do with the quality of the meat. It's a brand name and a marketing ploy. To be called Certified Angus Beef it must be USDA grade Choice or Prime, but it's still the same inspection standards.

Sidebar: For a short period of time I worked in a meatpacking house. Would you like to know where the commercial hamburger came from? If anyone is interested, I'll tell.

 

[chickened]

First, as I've stated before, (and got lambasted soundly for it) "We have overpopulated Spaceship Earth!"

Next, all beef sold in the U.S. is inspected and graded by the USDA. There are seven grades of beef and they are described here:

Grades of beef

Now, back to the original topic, grain fed beef. If you've ever driven on IH10 from Fort Stockton, Texas to El Paso you can understand the need for feeding cattle grain.

As you can see, you wouldn't get much meat off of this steer, so most beef will be grain fed.

What I really object to is the term "Certified Angus Beef". like that has something to do with the quality of the meat. It's a brand name and a marketing ploy. To be called Certified Angus Beef it must be USDA grade Choice or Prime, but it's still the same inspection standards.

Sidebar: For a short period of time I worked in a meatpacking house. Would you like to know where the commercial hamburger came from? If anyone is interested, I'll tell.

I have driven that highway... it is barely suitable for deer... which are about as big as a hunting dog... from the quality of forage available.

 

[hemet dennis]

First, as I've stated before, (and got lambasted soundly for it) "We have overpopulated Spaceship Earth!"

Next, all beef sold in the U.S. is inspected and graded by the USDA. There are seven grades of beef and they are described here:

Grades of beef

Now, back to the original topic, grain fed beef. If you've ever driven on IH10 from Fort Stockton, Texas to El Paso you can understand the need for feeding cattle grain.

As you can see, you wouldn't get much meat off of this steer, so most beef will be grain fed.

What I really object to is the term "Certified Angus Beef". like that has something to do with the quality of the meat. It's a brand name and a marketing ploy. To be called Certified Angus Beef it must be USDA grade Choice or Prime, but it's still the same inspection standards.

Sidebar: For a short period of time I worked in a meatpacking house. Would you like to know where the commercial hamburger came from? If anyone is interested, I'll tell.

Please tell all.

 

[OldGuy43]

Please tell all.

Okay, but remember, you asked.

Circa 1965:
The meat was delivered in 'sides' to us from the Chicago slaughter houses. After the professional meat cutters got through taking off all the good parts like the steaks, roasts, ribs etc. what was left over went to the back room to us guys, the De-boners. We would all stand around a large table with knifes about the size of a paring knife and remove everything, tiny scraps of meat, gristle, tendons, just anything that wasn't bone, and throw it into a big metal tub. That was than dumped into a great commercial meat grinder along with some white powder that we referred to as 'glue' because it would keep the patties from falling apart when they were cooked.

After grinding it went to the patty maker. This was a machine that formed the ground beef into nice uniform patties with a layer of wax paper between each one and stacked them up. Depending on what you wanted to make the machine could be set up to make 4-in-1's, 5-in-1's or 10-in-1's, the first number being the number of patties per pound. The first time I ran the machine I adjusted it to make 4 per pound and was told to loosen it up because, "our customers really expect our 4-in-1's to have 5 patties per pound." You know, that "¼ pound hamburger" that you just bought at Mickey D's? Right!

We than wrapped them in 5# loaves and stuck them in the walk-in freezer at -30° F. Seven minutes later they were rock hard. There was one exception. We had one customer that insisted that their hamburgers were "never frozen" so we kept enough out for their order every day.

All of this was sold as USDA Choice because that was the grade of the carcass the "meat" came off of.

There was one restaurant in town that the salesmen didn't even try to sell to, Steak 'n Shake. As their name implies they were picky about the meat they used.

We wore the same white coats for a week, never had to wash our hands and never did any cleaning in the shop.

Well, do you still think you really wanted to know? Things may have changed since 1965, but who knows?

 

[cassie]

I laughed when I read your post. I have yet to meet anyone, anyone at all, involved in food processing at any level who couldn't tell you stories about why you didn't want to eat whatever it was they were processing. That was true whether it be it animal, vegetable, or, I suspect, mineral. As for me, as long as it won't hurt me, I just don't wanna know.

 

[sourland]

It's true we would be better to just cut the cow out completely. Now who wants to be grain fed and who wants the grass diet ?

I'll opt for the grain fed. Tried the grass diet long ago, and that was not a really good thing.

 

[hemet dennis]

What was the name of the book that, came out in the 30's I think, it was about meat processing ?

 

[chickened]

Here's a twist to the grass/grain debate... several years ago there was a fungus in fescue grass that was causing horses to abort fetuses. Any cultivated pasture has fescue or other grasses that were developed right here in the willamette valley incuding native grasses that contain the fungus. They say up to 75% of pastures have tall fescue.

 

[jnntefend]

What was the name of the book that, came out in the 30's I think, it was about meat processing ?

It was Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"