Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Grass Fed Beef

- 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 border, where Lewis and Clark once walked,
rancher Glenn Elzinga is weening his calves. Despite this bright
October day, weening isn't a pleasant time for calf or cowboy
alike.
- 5 I just wonder if they know it's this time of year and they get Glenn 3; 29.35
that sinking feeling that this is the day, this is the day they
must part ways . . .
- 6 Cows bellow in protest as Elzinga shuts a gate (gate sound)
separating mothers from calves for the first time in their lives.
Cowpoke lean, his Stetson cocked over a bushy, Wild Bill
mustache, Elzinga looks every bit the traditional cattleman. Yet
he's all but apologetic as he ushers a few more calves through
the gate to new pasture.
- 7 . . . sometimes we call it Glenn and Caryl's counciling center Glenn 3; 5.54
for wayward cows . . .
- 8 If Elzinga and his wife Caryl were traditional ranchers, their
soft treatment would be short lived. They'd soon march these
young calves onto trucks that would then carry them to feedlots
hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away. There the herd would
eat an unfamiliar diet of corn and antibiotics, fattened up
quickly and efficiently for slaughter. Instead, Glenn's calves
will spend their lives on the pastures where many of them were
born.
- 9 Sounds of walking through grass 3; 40.57
- 10 I'm really a grass farmer, because this grass is the foundation Glenn 3; 53.06
of my entire operation. (Kids laughing in background).
- 11 Glenn and two of his five young daughters walk through green
pastures shadowed by the Bitterroot mountains. He is one of a
small but growing group of cattlemen who've chosen to opt out of
the feed lot system of beef production. That means raising
cattle the way they did in Lewis and Clark's day, on grass.
- 12 The more and more we remove these animals from the original Glenn 3; 86.43
things that they were meant to eat, the more and more concerns
we're going to see as we eat them . . .
- 13 Writer Michael Pollan agrees. In a scathing critique of the beef
industry he wrote for the Sunday New York Times last year, he
laments the broken connection between cattle and grass. Michael
Pollan:
- 14 Well, there's a wonderful coevolutionary relationship between Pollan 5; 00.00
cattle and grass . . . These are animals who have evolved to be
able to digest grass, which is a marvelous trick which we don't
have. We can not digest grass at all.
- 15 Pollan calls it a solar powered food supply.
- 16 The sunlight feeds the grass and the grass feeds the ruminants Pollan 5; 3.21
and along we come and we eat the ruminants. So it's an indirect
way for us to get our food energy from the sun . . .
- 17 He says it's an ecologically elegant system, but one beef
producers began to abandon in the 1950's.
- 18 . . . people discovered that if you put cattle on corn they got Pollan 5; 4.00
fat quicker. . . So that when corn got cheap?and there are a lot
of reasons for that, having to do with subsidies and
technologies?so when corn got cheap it made sense to take cattle
off of grass and put them on feed lots where they would get heavy
very, very quickly.
- 19 While grass fed cattle can take two to three years to fatten up,
corn fed cattle reach slaughter weight in fourteen months. But
Pollan says there's a big problem: cattle aren't built to eat
corn.
- 20 As soon as you put your cow on corn at six months you've got to Pollan 5; 10.04
start giving it antibiotics and the reason is the corn is going
to make them sick.
- 21 They get acidocous. They get bloat, which is a potentially fatal Pollan 5; 12.05
condition from too much corn too fast . . . Their rumens expand
until they press on their hearts and lungs, sometime killing them
- 22 Gary Weber, animal scientist with the National Cattlemens Beef
Association disagrees with Pollan.
- 23 In fact, from an animal behavior perspective, cattle would prefer Weber 6; 5.39
to eat grain rather than grass. It's just easier for them to
chew; it must taste good to them and that's why we have to
actually keep cattle away from grain because they'll eat so much
if left to their own devises, maybe like kids in candy perhaps .
. .
- 24 While Pollan looks at the feedlot and sees sick cattle wallowing
in their own feces, Weber sees something else entirely.
- 25 It's not uncommon on a cool day in the summer to see cattle Weber 6; 8.13
kicking up their heels, their tails up in the air, and hooves
kicking around having fun with each other in those feedlot
settings. And I can't put myself in their hooves, so to speak,
but I think they enjoy themselves in that setting to the extent
that any animal would. They have fresh food, they have water
available at all times; they've got their buddies with them. It
seems like a very pleasant place to be, looking in from the
outside.
- 26 Weber says the practice of feeding corn to cattle isn't the
product of cold economics, but came from the extra care pioneers
gave the steer they raised for their own families.
- 27 . . . and they'd feed grain to that steer and fatten him up as it Weber 6; 2.43
were and they learned that that beef was tastier, more tender,
more heavily marbled for their own family's uses. And the word
started to spread around and that lead to opportunities for
people to raise these animals in more of a commercial way. . .
- 28 But Michael Pollan finds the feedlot diet a good deal less
appetizing.
- 29 There's not just corn in there, there's antibiotics. . . We feed Pollan 5; 20.04
them chicken manure in places. We feed them brewery waste. We
basically look at cows as repositories for all sorts of junk. . .
And to think that what we feed animals, we're not feeding
ourselves is really to kid ourselves. You often hear you are
what you eat, but we are also what we eat eats, if you can follow
that (laughing). . . . And it has bearing on the healthfulness,
the wholesomness, and the taste of this meat.
- 30 Sounds of kids laughing
- 31 Studies show that grass fed beef is lower in fat and higher in
beneficial omega three fatty acids than corn fed beef.
Proponents say its healthier for cattle and the environment too.
But rancher Glenn Elzinga has other reasons for growing grass fed
beef.
- 32 It's a place to raise not only cattle, but my family. And Glenn 3; 63.46
they're just my number one priority. . . We eat together and
spend a lot of time together and really that's why I'm here.
It's for these kids. (Me: Do you like it here? Kid: yea, because
there's a lot to do. . .
- 33 Me: Do you like living here? Kid: Yea, because it's pretty. . . 3; 65.05
we can ride horses . . . we don't have to worry about cars . . .
you can slide down hills . . .
- 34 Seven year old Abigal smiles a big, if slightly mischievous
smile, then hanks a handful of grass out by the roots and tosses
it at her sister Mellanie.
- 35 Kids laughing and pulling grass. Glenn: Yeh, dont waste the 3; 93.26
grass guys . . .
- 36 But life for the Elzinga family isn't all pastoral bliss. Every
cattleman in America faces the fact that 80 to 90 percent of the
beef processing business is controlled by four large packing
companies. Those companies have tremendous
influence over cattle prices and production methods. So, small
ranchers, with profits falling and little bargaining power to
wield, are finding it harder and harder to stay in
business?feedlot or not.
- 37 (Big sigh) I, you know, I believe that, ah, . . . independently Glenn 3; 75.42
operated small farms or small ranches are going to be a thing of
the past over the next ten years. . . . The only way that I'm
going to maintain profitability at a small scale is by trying to
find my own market and eliminating the many steps between my
production and the consumer.
- 38 Fiddle music playing at the Boise farmer's market/crowd sounds 2; 7.33
- 39 Here, at the Boise farmer's market, Elzinga looks like he took a
wrong turn at the corral, frozen steak in hand, surrounded not by
pasture, but office buildings.
- 40 (Sound of rummaging through frozen steaks) Here's a rib eye. Glenn 2; 21.29
I've got more sirloins down here.
- 41 He had little luck finding customers among his rural neighbors
back home, so every summer weekend he drives five hours through
Idaho mountains to sell his beef to city folk.
- 42 It's a long drive. Yesterday my car died in Fairfield on the way Glenn 1; 29.55
down here and I had to . . . get out and push for a while and
found a nice hill on Highway 20 and managed to get it jumped
started . . .
- 43 Despite the glitches, Elzinga tries to stay optimistic. This is
only his seventh trip to the Boise market and he's not convinced
it'll pay the bills. But at least he's found people who
appreciate the fruits of his labor.
- 44 It's great. Wow. That is flavor. I'm really impressed! Market 1; 41.15
- 45 We love your meat . . . Thank you Glenn Market 1; 1.52
- 46 . . . The thing I like best about the market is just the positive Glenn 1; 26.06
aspect of interacting with these people. . . I haven't had one
person at this market come back and say they didn't like my beef.
And that's a real positive thing, that kind of keeps you going,
that kind of puts a little gas on the fire and keeps things
rolling for you.
- 47 I was told to come and try your grass fed London broil. Yum, Market 2; 9.29
yum. That's amazing, that's so good.
- 48 Sounds of cooking, kids
- 49 Elzinga's wife and business partner Caryl also likes the personal
contact of the farmer's market. She talks as she fixes dinner.
- 50 When you sell direct to somebody, you look them in the eye, you Caryl 4; 25.53
see how they like your stuff, you talk to them, you know they've
got kids just like you, you really want to make something good
for them . . .
- 51 But that close connection doesn't insure success
- 52 We simply can't compete with the way cattle are raised in mass in Caryl 4; 10.42
feedlots on cheap feed. Just can't do it.
- 53 Grass fed cattle are more costly to raise because it takes longer
to bring them to slaughter weight. It's also harder to keep the
quality of the meat consistent during the winter months when
cattle are eating hay rather than fresh grass. As healthful,
humanely grown, and ecologically beneficial as the Elzinga's
believe their beef is, they're not sure they can compete against
the low price, consistency, and convenience of industrial beef.
- 54 I don't know if there's a big enough clientelle out there that Caryl 4; 8.41
are interested in what we do to actually make this a viable
income for us.
- 55 Caryl stares out the kitchen window for a long moment
- 56 About six months ago we said either we're going to do this and go Caryl 4; 12.21
at it whole hog . . . or we're going to have to rethink
everything we're doing . . . And if it doesn't work well then
we'll have to just look at our family options and think about
what we want to do . . .
- 57 Caryl squints her eyes, trying to hold back tears
- 58 I don't think we'd leave the ranch (wabbly voice). The kids have
already said do we have to leave? (Daughter interrupts: I found
some candy! Caryl: You found some candy? Where? Behind my chair
. . .) I'm not sure what we'd do guy, I'm kinda, I'm kinda
guessing . . .
- 59 Raising five young daughters doesn't give Caryl and Glenn much
time to dwell on the future. The kids are hungry now. So they
herd them to the dinner table and set out piles of home-grown
vegetables and a juicy grass-fed roast.
- 60 Daughter: The corns ours, the tomatoes are ours, the cucumbers Kids 4; 36.57
are ours, and the cauliflowers is ours. And I love the corn!
(lots of kids sounds) . . . I love corn! Could I have a big
piece of corn?
- 61 Farmer and writer Wendell Berry says that eating is an
agricultural act. No matter how far from the farm we live, every
one of us, with every fork full of food, seals the fate of
families like Glenn and Caryl's. With every fork full of food,
we decide who lives on the land and who doesn't, how much
pesticide they use and how much petroleum, how much care?and how
much cruelty. There is no divide between the farm and and the
food we eat, no matter the distance, the layers of ownership, the
complexity of markets. We are what we eat and what we eat
determines, in many ways, the kind of world we live in.

For Living On Earth, I'm Guy Hand
- 62 OK lets pray. Dear lord, thanks a lot for this food and I pray Glenn 4; 37.55
that you please bless us, bless it to us. (Family singing:
Evening has come. The corn is cooked. Thanks be to God, who
gives us bread. Praise God for bread.) OK, dig in!