Beef (and antibiotics and hormones) - it's what's for dinner

Chartwells recently made a move in March to include more grass-fed beef into the dining halls. But wait, don't all cows eat grass? Well, they're supposed to. An overwhelming number of farms in the U.S. use confined feed lots, or concentrated animal feeding operations, to raise their livestock. The big fuss about grass-fed or free-range meat is that "it's not about how the animal dies, but how it lives," said University at Albany biology professor Gary Kleppel.

Cows and sheep are supposed to have a diet of grass and other things like weeds that are typically found on open ranges and fields. In the feed lots, livestock are kept in cement confines, sometimes with more than 1000 other animals.

These thousand-plus animals are force fed corn. Corn has a large amount of protein and fat, so it gets the cows really big really quickly. It is also a cheap and abundant resource.

It seems fine, right? But, because of their specialized stomachs, called rumen, cows and sheep cannot process corn.

Corn turns livestock with rumen's, which are normally neutral, acidic. This acidity leads to the cows getting sick. "Imagine having acid indigestion all the time," said Kleppel.

"Giving cows corn is like putting diesel in a gasoline powered car," said Bill Kurtis, author of "The Prairie Table Cookbook." "It's wrong, wrong, wrong."

According to sustainable.org, a website devoted to environmental sustainability, about 12 to 32 percent of all feed lot cattle develop liver abscesses as a result of a high-grain diet.

In order to combat the various sicknesses, farmers then pump their livestock full of antibiotics.

"Switching a cow from grass to grain opens the floodgates to a host of serious maladies," wrote Star Ledger reporter Beth D'Addono, "which only a constant diet of antibiotics can begin to counter."

It has also been reported that farmers also inject hormones into the cows. "It makes them grow quickly and hold a lot of water so they weigh more," said Kleppel.

He likened the water weight gain in cows to the bloated feeling some females feel during that "time of the month. That's estrogen."

The hormones used to fatten cows up has been linked to early onset of puberty, too.

In a 1999 article from The Canadian Press, Carlos Sonnenschein of the Tufts University School of Medicine at Boston said that it is "very likely" that hormone residues in North American beef is a factor in the early onset of puberty among girls in recent decades.

"There is no other reason to explain it," Sonnenschein said.

All these bonuses in confined meat can lead to other heath risks, too. Cows that are fed corn have high concentrations of saturated fats.

The E. coli bacteria loves acid and cows' rumen, now highly acidic from the corn, creates a breeding ground for the deadly bacteria.

"We're creating the thing that kills 60 Americans a year and sickens thousands," said Kleppel. "Yeah, it's scary," he said. "But it's important because it's true."

In order to mitigate some of the health risks, Chartwells has entered into a contract with the Northeast Livestock Producers Service Company with the support of the University's Environmental Sustainability Taskforce.

Starting this past March, Chartwells purchased "locally and sustainably produced meat for the University's dining halls," said Mary Ellen Mallia, Director of Environmental Sustainability at UAlbany.

According to a Chartwells flyer, these cows' home is a farm in Troy. Chartwells serves more than 17,000 meals a day on the UAlbany campus, according to a press release.

The deal with NLPSC includes the shipment of about 20,000 pounds of grass-fed beef a year.

"This accounts for about 20 percent of all our ground beef needs," said Director of Chartwells at UAlbany, Ralph Lembo.

This beef is mostly used in the five dining halls, "but so some extent, we use the product in the Campus Center, except Wendy's" said Lembo. "It primarily has not been used in burgers in any location this semester," said Lembo.

Instead, the grass-fed supply has been used in casseroles, meatloaf, meatballs, tacos, chili, and soups.

Next year, though, Lembo anticipates grass-fed burgers to be served exclusively in the Colonial Quad dining hall as part of the "Balanced Choice menu rotation."

Grass-fed hamburgers will make their appearance as soon as this year's commencement weekend.

"About 800 pounds of this initial order has been ordered as 4-ounce burgers and allocated to the Commencement Picnic," Lembo said.

"You'll probably never taste the difference," Kleppel said. "They'll still overcook it, I think."

"If you're going to have crappy food, it might as well be good for you," Kleppel said.

Also, according to a Chartwells flyer, this 20 percent of beef Chartwells serves "has not received feed containing animal by-products, has been pasture raised and grass-fed," hasn't had any hormones or prophylactic antibiotics used in the production of its meat or milk, and has been USDA inspected.

Providing UAlbany students with grass-fed beef is "about double the price of our contracted ground beef price," said Lembo.

For example, Mark Faille, owner of a farm in Skillman, NJ, said his grass-fed beef sells for $8.50 a pound. Regular ground beef can be found for as little as 99 cents per pound, according to a Star Ledger report.

"We have assessed no increase in meal plan prices," Lembo said. "This is due to our balancing the frequency of use within a wide selection of other items.

We absolutely have not passed on any [price] increases to this product."

Lembo said he expects the price discrepancy between grass fed and CFEO beef to lessen within in the next three years as it becomes more popular.

"The price of food is going up anyway," said Kleppel, "because the cost of diesel [fuel] is going up. But, grass-fed beef uses less diesel" because it's local, so "the cost will start to equalize," he affirms.

A press release from the Department of Environmental Sustainability explains that locally grown food uses less fossil fuels because "more of the food dollar goes to producing the food and less to the need to transport it."

Grass-fed beef also has more yield pound for pound, stated the Star Ledger. So for double the price, what exactly are students putting into their bodies?

According to Kleppel, grass-fed beef is chock full of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, the type of fat that's good for you.

Also, according to a Palm Beach Post article from late March of this year, grass-fed beef has higher amounts of beta carotene, vitamin E, and has lower amounts of "bad fat."

Because it's fed grass and the pH of the cow's stomach stays at its natural neutral state, it cannot produce E. coli.

"All of the problems go away," said Bill Kurtis. "I mean all of them."

The average American eats 67 pounds of beef a year, stated sustainable.org.

"Switching from conventional beef to pasture beef would reduce yearly calorie intake by 16,642 calories."

Also, a 6-ounce grass-fed steak has about 100 fewer calories than a steak that was fed corn and grains, said the Star Ledger.

Kleppel just wanted to scream this information to parents. "I wish the University would make a big deal," he said.

"Having a state university paying attention to this is wonderful, though," Kleppel said.

"Parents should know that their kids are eating safe food."

"I think the students at UAlbany should be proud that we as a community have embarked on a sustainable mission to promote the use of green products and organic food and meats that are ethically raised and locally processed," said Lembo.

"In that sense," he said, "we are a among a group of elite local and national colleges and universities who, step by step, move toward a goal of providing excellent service combined with environmentally friendly products and processes."