What Are You Really Paying For When You Buy Food

When your shopping for food, the price per pound is the loudest thing on the label. It's also the least informative. It tells you what it costs to buy that specific food, not the nutrition you get from it.

I want to look at it differently: what are you getting for your investment, nutritionally?

Beef: grass-fed and finished vs. feedlot

Nearly all beef cattle start out the same way, on grass with its mother. The difference is what happens next. Most cattle in the U.S. are moved to a feedlot (a CAFO) and finished on grain, usually corn and soy, so they artificially put on weight fast. Grass-fed and finished cattle stay on pasture their whole lives.

Research comparing the two has generally found that grass-fed beef tends to have more omega-3 fatty acids, more CLA (a fat linked to a range of health benefits), and more vitamin E and beta-carotene, the pigment that gives grass-fed fat its slightly yellow color. It also tends to have a better balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fats, which is important because most modern diets are heavy on omega-6.

The amount of difference varies with the animal, the pasture, and the season, so I won't pretend it's a magic number. But the direction is consistent: the lifestyle of the animal directly affects the finished product.

Chicken: pasture-raised vs. factory-raised

All chicken sold in grocery stores comes from birds raised indoors in large houses. They're fed a formulated grain ration and never see a bug or a blade of grass.

Birds raised on pasture get to scratch, forage, and eat insects and greens along with their feed. Studies on pastured poultry and eggs have found higher omega-3s, more vitamin E, and in some cases more vitamin A and D. They also grow a little slower and develop more muscle from moving around, which is why it tastes substantially better, and holds substantially more nutrition than store bought chicken.

Pork: pasture-raised vs. CAFO

Pigs are natural foragers. On pasture, with room to root and some sunlight, they live very differently from pigs in confinement buildings. Research on pastured pork has pointed to higher vitamin E and better fat profiles, and some studies show higher vitamin D in pigs that get outside time. Confinement hogs also commonly need routine antibiotics, also known as artificial props, to cope with crowded indoor conditions.

The math nobody does

Here's the part I think about most. We measure food by the pound or the package, but we eat it for nutrition. Think of it as cost per unit of what actually holds nutritional value.

If a pound of cheap meat has less of the nutrients your body needs, and a pound of pastured meat has more, the cheap pound isn't a bargain. You're paying less for less. And a lot of people find that real food is more satisfying and filling, so you eat less of it while still getting the nutrition your body needs.

There's also what the low price leaves out: the positive land and water impact, the health costs that show up in the future, etc. Cheap food isn't really cheap longterm. The bill just goes to someone else, or to you later.

I'm not saying everyone can buy all grass-based meat all the time. Budgets are real, and I know that. But doesn't it come down to priorities? And I think you deserve to see the whole picture.

Why it's so cheap

Industrial agriculture is built for volume. A few very large companies control most of the processing in this country, and when a market is that concentrated, there's less pressure to compete on quality and less room for small producers to get in. 

The incentive is to make food as cheaply as possible, not to make it as nourishing as possible. I don't think the people working in those companies are villains. It's a system, and the system rewards cutting costs.

The label problem

This one frustrates me, because a lot of people are trying to make better food decisions and the labels aren't helping them.

"Grass-fed" and "pasture-raised" sound specific, but the definitions are looser than most people assume. The USDA withdrew its formal grass-fed standard for beef in 2016, so today the claim is largely up to the company that produces it. 

"Pasture-raised" on poultry has no firm federal definition either. Some producers who use these labels do it honestly. Others use them on animals that had minimal pasture access, were finished on grain, or lived in conditions most of us wouldn't picture when we read the word. And imported beef has often been sold under labels that make it look domestic.

A label can paint a false picture.

What you can do

Ask questions. How were the animals raised? What were they finished on? How much time did they spend on pasture?

Observe how transparent they are. Do they clearly explain their production system, or just use buzzwords. Real, authentic producers usually love to talk about their practices.

Know your producer. The best label is a person who has your best interest in mind, answers your questions clearly, and helps you make informed decisions.

You can ask us any questions anytime. We'd rather earn your trust than expect you to trust us blindly.

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