By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

Sidebar articles to Splendor From the Grass

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

The American diet tends to be deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fat that is vitally important for the health of the brain and nervous system and for numerous biochemical processes, including those that protect us against heart disease and cancer. One of the claims made for grass-fed beef is that the fat from grass-fed animals is much richer in omega-3 fatty acids than the fat from animals that have spent many weeks in the feed lot. This notion has even led to programs entailing special feeding for beef cattle to raise the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their fat.

But this is one claim that should NOT be made for pasture-fed beef. Chickens raised on pasture or given special feed will have more omega-3 fatty acids in their skin and egg yolks than chickens fed exclusively grain, but ruminant animals like cattle are designed to produce saturated fats. No matter what they are fed, cattle will store about 7 percent of the various types of omega-3 fatty acids in their cell membranes and less than 1 percent of omega-3 fatty acids in their adipose tissue, that is, in the fat in and around their muscles.

When cattle get fat—as they do very quickly in feed lots—they put on a lot of adipose fat so that the overall percentage of omega-3 fatty acids compared to the other types of fat goes down. But the absolute amount of omega-3 fatty acids continues to climb. And the saturated fats that accumulate in the fatty tissues actually help the body assimilate the omega-3 fatty acids more efficiently.

Hunter-gatherers hunted older ruminant animals because they wanted the fat that was built up and stored under their skin. They never ate lean meat and for very good reason. The fats that come with meat help the body utilize both protein and minerals. When circumstances forced indigenous populations to eat only lean meat, they quickly developed diarrhea, followed by weakness, lethergy and death.

If there is a danger in the move towards grass feeding, it is the danger of eating meat too lean. Grass-fed beef cattle can be fattened by leaving cattle longer in the field, or by supplementing their diets with grain in the final weeks before slaughter. After all, much of the goodness from grass feeding is carried in the fat—from CLA to fat-soluble vitamins to a variety of important minerals.

Facts About Factory Farming

The areas of most intensive factory farming are New York and California (dairy farms); the Chesapeake Bay area (poultry farms) and North Carolina and Iowa (hog farms).

In the cattle industry, 2 percent of feed operations account for over 40 percent of all cattle sold.

Many confinement operations are owned by multinational corporations. For example, Texas Farms, an operation of 2 million hogs, is owned by Nippon, a Japanese corporation.

Three jobs are lost for every one created by a new factory farm. Small farms produce more revenue for local and state governments than large confinement operations and put much less strain on local sewer and water services.

Over 70 percent of pork producers use a carcinogenic drug called sulfamethazine as a growth stimulant and to control rampant diseases; another toxic hormone called PST is used to reduce the high fat content of pork.

Properly composted animal manure can be a valuable source of crop nutrients; but when manure is improperly applied to the land, imbalances occur; manure runoff carries nitrogen, phosphorus and other harmful substances into surface and groundwater.

The 1,600 confinement dairies in the Central Valley of California produce more waste than a city of 21 million people.

On large factory hog farms, excrement from as many as 12,000 animals confined in metal buildings longer than football fields is stored in open pits with capacities sometimes exceeding 25 million gallons.

Spill from waste pits and underground seepage have caused serious environmental problems; odor and swarming flies often create noxious conditions for residents within a 2-mile radius.

Wastes from huge factory farms threaten water supplies with parasites, bacteria and viruses including streptococcus, giardia, salmonella, listeria and chlamydia.

Chicken wastes spilled into rivers and bays cause "algae bloom" which adversely affects fish populations; in 1997, outbreaks of the toxic microbe Pfiesteria piscicida killed approximately 450,000 fish in North Carolina and approximately 30,000 fish in the Chesapeake Bay; in the Gulf of Mexico, farm runoff including animal waste is linked to the formation of a "dead zone" of up to 7,000 square miles of water that cannot support most aquatic life.