The Rural Voice, 2004-02, Page 12Robert Mercer
New approach for marketing meats
Robert
Mercer was
editor of the
Broadwater
Market Letter
and
commentator
for 25 years.
This year's Vancouver Island
Forage Seminar was attuned to
animal and human nutrition. It talked
about new ways to market meat
rather than on how to produce it. The
theme was why grass-fed was better.
That meant from land to the table. It
was an excellent program with a lot
of forward thinking ideas based on
new research which can be used right
across Canada.
The keynote speaker was Jo
Robinson from the U.S. who gave a
convincing talk on the consumer side
of why buying grass-fed livestock
products is good nutrition and a
healthy. natural change from grain -
fed or fattened livestock.
The presentation developed the
concept that what is fed to animals
directly affects the food quality on
the consumer's shelf. Jo's motto
seemed to be "if it's in the feed — it's
in the food".
Jo said that she tries to he neutral
in her approach to animal nutrition.
that she is a believer in the scientific
method of determining the best
course of action. but admits that she
has no formal training in the area.
She is at heart. a freelance journalist.
author and researcher.
She said the thrust into why grass
is best got a new ally in the recent
discovery and research of a fat known
as CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid).
Preliminary research that Jo
presented indicated that CLA has so
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
far shown it to be a potential cancer
fighter. Its presence in meat products
derived from grass-fed animals and
poultry, far exceeds that found in
livestock products fed supplementary
and grain -based rations.
This early research. Jo Robinson
said, has also shown that CLA has
helped to slow the growth of an
unusually wide variety of cancer
tumours for skin, breast. prostate and
colon forms in laboratory animals.
One of Jo Robinson's sources for
this information also shows that
grazing animals have from three to
five times more CLA than animals
fattened on grain in a feedlot. Thus
the new push to suggest that grass-fed
is better.
To indicate why this new
development is important. it is
necessary to realize that CLA is a
different form of cancer fighter. For
agriculture this may be the new vital
Zink to give grass-fed products a
classification that is truly consumer
"price worthy".
To quote Jo Robinson and the
work she researched from her website
"Of the vast number of naturally
occurring substances that have been
demonstrated to have
anticarcinogenic activity in
experimental models, all but a
handful of them are of plant origin.
CLA is unique because of its
presence in food from animal
sources, and its efficacy is expressed
at concentrations close to human
consumption levels."
As far as the natural grass-fed end
product is concerned, Jo realizes that
the meat is not as tender as grain -fed,
(beef needs to hang for 21 days),
generally the meats do taste better, it
has less fat, (grass fed 2.5 per cent to
six per cent for grain fed) it has better
fats, it has better colour, it is lower in
calories at 129 for grass-fed to 175
for grain -fed.
For those who want to market or
buy grass-fed beef, mutton, poultry,
milk products or wild game in
Canada or the U.S. information can
be obtained from her website at
www.eatwild.com