The Difference Between Organic and Grass-fed Beef

It seems that nowadays “organic” and “grass-fed” are buzzwords; but are we really aware of what these terms mean? Is there even a difference between organic and grass-fed beef? With so many terrific and healthy beef recipes available to us, it’s important that we understand how we can ensure their quality by using the best meat out there. In this article, we learn that the term “organic” refers to how a certain food is processed: without synthetic materials and pesticides. “Grass-fed” simply refers to what the animals eat. Grass-fed animals consume a natural diet of grass and other parts of the earth to which they are naturally drawn. Curious to know how all of this plays out in your diet? Read on…

“Organic food is produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Many people realize that organic food is better for them because the synthetic herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, synthetic fertilizers, and the antibiotics and hormones in livestock, all of which are part of conventional agriculture, are all likely to result in terrible long-term health outcomes. Also, non-organic agricultural measures are generally very bad for the environment because of the contamination to the animals and ecosystems. The contaminants poison these animals and ecosystems in the same way that they poison us.

On the Paleo Diet we are interested in having foods that are very high quality and as similar as possible to the foods that our ancestors ate during Paleolithic times. Our ancestors ate organic food without exception because synthetic agricultural chemicals had not been invented, but our ancestors also ate what today we would consider to be “grass-fed, grass-finished” animals and animal products.

Grass-fed simply means that animals are eating their natural diet instead of the artificial diet of corn and soy that animals now eat in conventional agriculture. What are the natural diets of livestock? The natural diet of both cows and sheep are grasses; the natural diet of goats is grass and shrubs; chickens naturally eat grass, weeds, bugs, worms and other things they can catch; turkey eat mostly wild plants but some animal matter too when they can catch it like bugs and worms; and hogs eat roots, fruits, vegetable matter but also some animal matter that they find in the environment.”