Eat The Beef

Eat beef. 100% grass fed beef. As far as I can tell, nothing is more sustainable, regenerative and “right” than for humans to raise, butcher and eat 100% grass fed and 100% grass finished beef. It’s nourishing, health-promoting and delicious, and, the focus of the rest of this post, it is available at every Walmart across the country.

I’m not advocating that you shop at Walmart. All food from wholesome local farmers, beef or pork or chicken or eggs or produce, will be vastly superior to Walmart. Local producers of high-quality products can be found through Google Maps, realmilk.com, your local farmers markets, local co-op grocery stores, eatwild.com, or by just asking around your friends and community. It will take a bit of effort, but no more than planning a vacation or buying a car. Probably substantially less, and the relationship with that farm and farmer and the food you will procure will change your world.

The entire biome of a farm is represented in the food it produces. Everything positive and vital and diverse in that farm’s environment - from the farmer to the animal and the earth to the sky – is wrapped up in that food. And so is anything negative - any and all chemicals that were sprayed, sprinkled or injected in that environment or on that food – it’s all there too. Good vibes, bad vibes, sunshine and diverse ecology, pharmaceuticals and concrete. It’s all represented in the food, and, when we put that food on our tables, it literally becomes what we are. This is true for any and every food we buy and eat. All foods come from a farm, some of them then go through a long chain of handling and processing and manufacturing and distribution, all the while taking on the biome and nature of each step, and then the foods end up on our table and become what we are. Or we become what they are.

The molecules of what we eat literally become the very fabric of our existence, forming, building, repairing and replenishing our bodies and minds. I think it is self-evident that we have more fun, more laughs, more time with loved ones and in loved places when our bodies are sound and high functioning than when they are broken down and falling apart. It would then seem wise to build our bodies and minds of the best physical materials and positive energies available, and to include the least amount of physical poisons and pharma-industrial-plastic-and-concrete vibes as practical.

Your local beef, pork, chicken, egg, vegetable and fruit farmers can provide you these delicious and vital physical and energetic building blocks of unmatched quality to build the life and energy of you and yours. Wholesome, ecological, thoughtful, no-chemical, local farms will provide you food of unmatched quality and directly connect you to your earth – the local soil, climate, season and community vibe. Walmart probably cannot provide any of this. But Walmart is sometimes necessary out of practicality, convenience or accessibility, and when at Walmart I have one piece of advice – eat the beef.

When I say eat the beef, I mean to buy and eat beef from 100% grass-fed, 100% grass-finished cattle. (From here on, I’ll just call “grass fed” beef. You understand that I’m referring to “100% grass-fed and 100% grass-finished” beef, rather than feed lot grain-finished beef). Grass fed beef comes from cattle that were born outdoors, drank milk as calves, ate grass in summer and hay in winter, probably never went inside a building, and in general lived with very little human or industrial intervention. They collected nutrients and energy, every day, from a diverse, natural and extensive (many acres) landscape for 2+ years and incorporated these nutrients and energy into their flesh.

This is similar to what a truly pastured pig or pastured chicken does – they incorporate and concentrate the energy and nutrients of an extensive land area. Meat from pastured pigs or eggs from pastured chicken are concentrated sources of all of the good and vital physical building blocks and energies of a farm landscape.

All truly pasture raised meats and eggs are delicious and health promoting. So, if you have to shop at a grocery store, why should you buy grass fed beef rather than pastured pork or poultry or eggs? 2 reasons:

Clear Standard:

Did the cow eat nothing but grass and hay (and milk as a calf)? Boom - 100% Grass Fed. Did the cow eat grain? Boom – not grass fed. Simple and clear standard.

 Accessible:

Walmart is far and away the biggest grocery seller in the US, and every single Walmart has 100% grass fed beef. Just about every grocery store, Walmart or not, has it. There is no issue finding 100% grass fed beef.

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It’s not so simple for pasture-raised eggs, or pastured chicken, or pastured- or forest-raised pork. There is no clear standard. The pork, poultry and egg claims (such as “free range” or “pastured” or “regenerative”) have basically no enforceable labeling laws and hardly any commonly agreed-to definitions. At Walmart (or any store, including high-end grocers), when it comes to “high quality” eggs, chicken or pork, regardless of what claims the package label makes, you are not getting what you would expect. This is a long and fiery topic for me – greenwashing and the purposeful misleading of the public and the regulatory powers that prop it up the whole sham – too long and fiery for me to go in depth now. For now, just know that any pork, chicken or eggs that are sold at the supermarket with claims of natural, pastured, even organic, are a sham.

The marketers want you to believe that the supermarket products - the Vital Farms Pastured Eggs and the Tyson Free Range Chicken – that they are just like Farmcraft Eggs and Farmcraft Chicken. But they simply are not.

The supermarket grass-fed beef, on the other hand, is probably actually about what you imagine - a cow that ate nothing but grass and hay and lived outdoors on pasture.

You can access beef that is labeled “grass fed beef” and it really truly is actually grass fed. (Grass fed lamb is probably legitimate, too). That’s not the case for other claims at Walmart and almost every other grocery store. You can’t be sure what you’re getting when claims are made regarding eggs, chicken or pork. You can only be sure that it is not what you imagine. If you find yourself at the Walmart, it might be in your best interest to stick to grass fed beef. It won’t be as supremely excellent as from your local craft farm producer, but it will be at least what the label says – “grass fed”.

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Thanks so much for reading. Be well and rock on.

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If you feel like a Long Grass Rebel and want to hear more about my claims that Walmart Pastured Eggs are a sham, here is the link: https://longgrassrebel.com/blogs/blog/where-the-hens-at