- Playing
- Grass Fed Beef
- From
- Guy Hand
(Description and Suggested Intro):
We'd like to think that the juicy steak we toss on the grill comes from the kind of pastoral landscape it did a hundred years ago, but few do. Most beef cattle in American are fattened up in feedlots, feed a complex diet of grain, antibiotics, and agricultural byproducts. The beef industry says that's what consumers want, but critics argue its a system that pits biology against the bottom line. Producer Guy Hand visits one of a small band of cattlemen who've abandoned the feedlot for pasture, raising their herds, from start to finish, on grass.
This piece aired on Living On Earth in July, 2003.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
(Description and Suggested Intro): We'd like to think that the juicy steak we toss on the grill comes from the kind of pastoral landscape it did a hundred years ago, but few do. Most beef cattle in American are fattened up in feedlots, feed a complex diet of grain, antibiotics, and agricultural byproducts. The beef industry says that's what consumers want, but critics argue its a system that pits biology against the bottom line. Producer Guy Hand visits one of a small band of cattlemen who've abandoned the feedlot for pasture, raising their herds, from start to finish, on grass. This piece aired on Living On Earth in July, 2003.
2 Comments
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Review of Grass Fed Beef'I can't talk right now, I'm listening to a radio show about grass fed beef.' It's true, you might say this if you were listening to this piece on the radio, which is an indepth and balanced exploration of the cattle industry. Corn-fed cattle vs. those raised on grass is at the center of this piece and inevitably larger issues are addressed: our economy , environment, and culture . This show would be comaptible with a larger show on the economy or environment. It's something that would work on "Living on Earth," or All Things Considered, if it were shorter. It's informative and versatile and the interviews give this piece some personality. CM |
Transcript
- Grass Fed Beef Script
- 1 We'd like to think that the juicy steak we toss on the summer
grill comes from the kind of pastoral landscape it did a hundred
years ago, but few do. Most beef cattle in American are fattened
up in feedlots, feed a complex diet of grain, antibiotics, and
agricultural byproducts. The beef industry says that's what
consumers want, but critics argue its a system that pits biology
against the bottom line. Producer Guy Hand visits one of a small
band of cattlemen who've abandoned the feedlot for pasture,
raising their herds, from start to finish, on grass.
- 2 Lots of mooing, whistling sounds, gates opening
- 3 Come on guys, get down there, come on guys (sound of cattle Glenn 3; 28.14
clattering through gate)
- 4 On the Idaho, Montana bor...
Read the full transcript
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Ben Trefny
Posted on December 22, 2005 at 08:22 PM | Permalink
Review of Grass Fed Beef
A 12-minute piece that moves along FAST. I enjoyed listening to this vaildation of conscious consumption, and I think others who think about what they eat would as well. Certainly, it's clear that the producer feels strongly about the value of sustainable farming and avoiding GMOs. I think that's both a strength and a weakness of this carefully constructed piece.
An effort was made to get the "big ag" perspective into this, with in-person quotes from a "corn-fed cattle" guy. But it gets buried under an avalanche of contrary perspectives, and that leaves the story feeling a bit imblanced to me. The perspectives of economics and mass-marketing are touched on but ultimately glossed over. I already sympathize more with the family farmer going into the story, and I don't learn too much about why that's so great, other than the understanding that I already had before listening. I expect lots of public radio listeners are something like me in that regard.
Still, this is a well-produced piece, there's no phone tape, lots of farm tape, and I enjoyed listening to it.