Betsy and I originally started our farm because we couldn't find "no shortcut" food in the grocery or farmer's markets.

I know and respect many "factory" farmers who work tirelessly for too little income. They often have good intentions of feeding people the most affordable food. I can disagree with their practices and avoid their food while still respecting their intentions.

There is a balance. But being honest about the choices empowers everyone to find the right food for their family.

More than ten years later, some local co-ops have moved the needle and are offering some great options: A farm like Pork And Plants is one of the very few available in a grocery I'd feel comfortable buying. 

I think the key is transparency. Sadly in Minnesota, our natural food stores and farmers' markets generally do a pretty poor job of this. Heck, even the buyers at many natural food stores don't know the questions to ask their suppliers.

Below I've put together some of what we've learned and compare that to our standards. I struggle with publishing the comparisons because I understand we all have to decide where to be on the food choice continuum. A "shortcut" for you might be an upgrade for others. We should celebrate the great work being done at nearly every level.

USDA guidelines for items labeled as 'pasture raised' require that the animals have "free access to the outdoors for a minimum of 120 days per year"

Let's break this down:

• 'Access' to the outside doesn't mean they ever GO outside
• 120 day is less than one third of the year
• No requirement for any forage for the animals

The USDA definition of pasture raised is setup so that massive factories can open a little door and give 'access' to land making any sort of claim they want about the amount of pasture. However, that food isn't being raised the way we as consumers expect it is raised -- and certainly NOT the way it is being depicted on the images on the labels. 

If you're buying something in the store that says 'pasture raised', you should assume it meets the standards above, but not much more. They probably have minimal access to the outside and if they actually GO outside, it is probably a dirt feedlot without any forage to eat. 

Example

Before we had our farm, we toured local farmer's market farms. The 'pasture raised' pork we had been buying was actually raised in a small mud filled pen. Feed was just thrown over into the mud for the pigs to dig through and find. It was NOT the pasture I had envisioned when shopping at the market. 

All TC Farm animals are raised on green growing pasture with at least 50% green growing forage during the entire growing season. For animals which live longer than one growing season, winter access to pasture is strongly encouraged and enjoyed. Hay is also provided in the winter. 

We don't raise chickens over the winter - that's why you need to buy frozen meats to get the highest quality.

USDA guidelines for items labeled as 'grass fed' require that the animals basically don't eat grains. 

Let's break this down:

• Not eating grains doesn't mean eating grass like you expect
• No requirement for pasture makes feedlots common
• No restrictions on growth drugs or antibiotic use
• No organic requirement

Of all the claims, grass fed is the one most abused. We as consumers believe that grass fed beef must be healthier and from some sort of Micheal Pollan utopia. However, that isn't a safe assumption.

While many smaller farms do a great job with their beef, I have come to assume most are raised on a feedlot. In the grocery if I don't specifically know the farm, I feel safe assuming they are fed things like sawdust, fruit or candy industrial waste, cotton gin and other garbage (Read more here)

I believe well cared for grain fed cows are healthier than most 'grass fed' beef from the grocery.

Example

A farmer friend of ours toured a giant facility raising grass fed beef for a national high end grocery chain. Everything was being portrayed as a great way to raise cheaper grass fed beef.

The beef was all on feedlots and trucks would continually dump conventional industrial food waste from other food processing facilities - like fruit cores or rejected food intended for humans. Since these were not 'grains', it counted as 'grass fed' - despite the fact that none of the cows were eating grass. Sure they had some forage mixed in, but he said they all looked unhealthy and it was worse than a normal feedlot. 

It really shouldn't be that complicated.

All TC Farm Grass Fed beef or lamb is 100% grass fed and rotationally grazed on pasture or provided hay in the winter. The only supplements allowed are minerals and in some cases a small amount of non-GMO molasses in the winter.

Consumers have started demanding darker yolks as they learned about the benefits of pasture raised eggs. 

It is way cheaper for them to dye the hen's feed so the yolks are darker. 

Some will also claim 'pasture raised' which as shown above is pretty meaningless, but they combine that with dyes in the feed so consumers think they are getting a healthier product.

I've been watching this trend and have seen the egg yolk colors change over time -- at this point I believe most premium eggs in the store now use these dyes. The dyes are organic in nature, so they probably aren't unhealthy, but I hate the deception.

Providing green pasture is hard and labor intensive. It is way cheaper for companies to just dye the eggs and since most everyone else is doing it, they feel they have to as well.

Look - we're just not going to dye our hens' feed. In the winter, our eggs get paler and every month someone cancels their egg orders because yolks in the store are darker.

I always feel bad that it costs us customers, but I don't want fake colorants in my kids food... so we're not going to dye our yolks no matter how many consumers think super dark yolks are a valid quality test.

A few years ago we took the photo below. One of our summer eggs is to the right of a local factory organic egg. 

If you buy that exact same factory brand egg today, the color is much darker and in-between the two eggs shown below. Pretty sure they are now using the dyes, after all it only costs $8 per ton of feed to get a darker colored yolk

When consumers pushed back against hormones in meat production, the industry responded and sold lots of hormone free meat -- they just started using steroids instead. When consumers wanted steroid free meats, the industry responded again selling lots of 'hormone and steroid free' meats.

But once again, they just switched to a new class of growth drugs: Beta-agonists. These drugs are illegal in nearly every other country, but in our country 70-80%+ of the beef, pork and turkey are raised on them. All of which can be marketed as 'hormone and steroid free'. 

The reason these drugs are banned in other countries is that the health impact on humans eating the residual drugs is questionable, some studies suggest they cause heart abnormalities and worse. One thing we know for sure is that the animals on these drugs are really pushed to their limits. Many oppose their use purely due to animal welfare concerns - if you read some of the agricultural vet studies about the effect it has on the animals, you'll never want to eat conventionally raised pork, beef or turkey again. 

Example

Most people don't know beta-agonists exist and this includes those working in butcher shops or natural food stores. I once tried to find out about some deli meat from a local Co-op. Nobody I spoke with knew what beta-agonists were, but they were sure the food they were selling didn't use growth drugs. When I called the manufacturer, they also weren't quite sure what I was asking, so I had to ask if they specifically sourced turkey from farms that specified they didn't use beta-agonists or other growth drugs. 

The answer was of course 'no, we just buy whatever turkey we get'. Since I knew almost all turkey is produced with these drugs, it was pretty safe to assume that turkey at the Co-op was as well. 

Unless it is certified organic or you've directly asked the farm or manufacture, assume they are using these drugs.

We don't allow any drugs or feed additives which are designed to boost growth. In fact, we explicitly do the opposite.

We choose feed rations and rates which are healthier for the animals, but also have the effect of slowing down their growth to a balanced, healthy rate. This does cost a bit more, but it really impacts the taste, health and animal welfare for the better. 

Here is a bit I wrote about this as it relates to our chickens.