You've been duped!

It doesn’t happen often, but the other day I had someone cancel their Monthly Discount Box Subscription with us. When they did so, they left me a note that said this…

“The concept of your company is really great and we enjoyed having the meats delivered to our door. But, with more and more Whole Foods, Roots, Clarks, and Sprouts being built organic meats are becoming more accessible and are competing with the price of your product”

Then, just today, we saw this article in Farm Ireland.​

The USDA is allowing import beef from Ireland to be labeled “Grass fed" if they are fed grass 80% of the time.
 
In stark contrast, SonRise Ranch Beef are 100% Grass fed, all the time. This is called "Grass fed & finished" - scary stuff for consumers who rely on their imagination of what Ireland is like.

In fact, the article admits that most consumers associate Ireland with green grass - thus they can be fooled easily.
And so, the bigger picture begins to emerge. Terms like “Grass fed” and “Organic” are being confused with what we do, here at SonRise Ranch. ​

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To add insult to injury, the USDA, who introduced Mad Cow Disease, and spoiled import meat to the U.S. now permits import and domestic Big Ag to label their product “Grass fed” when their beef eat grass only 80% of the time.

​So what does all this mean?

​Let’s take a look at some definitions… from top to bottom (and I really mean bottom). 

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Grass Fed & Finished”
“100% Grass Fed”

“Grass fed”

“Grass fed, grain finished”

​“Pastured Beef”
“Free-Range Beef”

“Local Beef”

“All Natural Beef”

“Organic Beef”
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“Antibiotic & Hormone Free”

Only applies to beef. Born and raised on Grass and only Grass. Weaned from mother after birth, diet changed from milk to grass slowly. Grows much slower than grain fed beef (feedlot or conventional beef). Mature at 28 to 29 months for harvest.


USDA definition – must be fed grass at sometime in its life.  This means the stuff from the supermarket, which by definition must be mass produced, and may be fed grass as little as one day of its life yet can be labeled “grass fed” 


This is what is called “feed lot beef”, “conventional beef” or “commodity beef”
It is the most common, regular, supermarket beef.

May be any of the above – ask the producer. How do the beef live? Do you feed grain?
​Why don’t you just say “Grass fed & finished” like the other guys? – Hint… there is a reason they don’t.

Beef is not Local – sorry. It can’t be… think of it like this; imagine if you grew cabbage locally, but there was a government agency that enforced a law that you can only wash your cabbage (and you must wash it before sale) in a special sink located 600 miles away from your farm. That is what the USDA does – we grow our beef locally, but it must be inspected for safety 600 miles away from our customers. Note: We have been at this for 9 years and never had a single beef found to be unsafe.

This means nothing…. Literally. The USDA allows just about anything to be called “all natural” because Big Ag Producers were able to argue that just about anything is natural.

May be fed organic corn…. Still not grass fed, still not healthy. Don’t be fooled  - Wal Mart sells “Organic Beef”.  It just means that whatever they are giving the beef at the feedlot is labeled “Organic”

Means what it says. Not give Antibiotics or Growth Hormones. Most producers add this to their label if they have nothing else to say. Hormone and Antibiotic use is minor compared to feed use - feed is daily, medicine is occasional, so the former has much greater impact on the animal than the latter.

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Number two above is what really gets me – “must be fed grass at sometime”

All Beef eats grass, sometime in its life! In other news, water is wet…Come on, this is a ploy for the big time producers to recapture what they’ve lost to small time Grass fed & finished guys and the government is in collusion with them.

The sad part is that people can be fooled by what they read on a label and it is affecting real Ranchers in real ways. “Grass fed” should really mean just that, but such is not the case.
Key takeaway - you've got to know your producer!