The Medicine River

Why buy grass-fed or pasture-raised meats?

Most people looking to buy grass-fed or pasture-raised meat products do so because of the well known health benefits which we have shown at the bottom of this page. There are several other benefits to buying grass-fed products direct from a farmer in your area which I’d like you to consider:

Knowing and trusting the producer

By buying direct, the consumer and farmer have the chance to re-connect - something that has been missing in the age of industrial food and supermarkets. This allows for a dialogue between the consumer and farmer where questions or concerns about the food production process can be asked and answered. It allows for the word “trust” to come back into the realm of the food system – everyone should be able to trust that their food is safe, wholesome and nutritious and that it was reared humanely and with respect to the environment. We are happy to welcome our customers onto our farm to meet us and see our cattle and pastures. We have nothing to hide – so if you are interested in seeing where your food comes from please get in touch and arrange a visit.

Local food

We consider the beef we deliver to Edmonton and Calgary to be locally grown food. We are certainly within the “100 mile diet” specification that is gaining so much popularity. Our calves are born on the farm each spring and remain here until they are ready to make the one hour trip to the processor’s plant. The money we earn selling beef is largely spent in the local economy of rural Alberta. This is in contrast to most cattle reared through regular beef channels where a calf born at Rimbey will be fattened in a southern Alberta feedlot before being sold to one of the mega packing plants and the proceeds finishing up in US corporate bank account. Concentration of cattle feeding in Southern Alberta and the processing being done by foreign based corporations have been hugely detrimental to most of rural Alberta. It is one of the factors leading to rural depopulation and a decline in both the number and profitability of family farms.

Environmental impact

Mainstream agriculture has become very industrialized – in the beef sector that means feedlot beef. Cattle from all over Western Canada get trucked hundreds of miles to “feedlot alley” in Southern Alberta or sometimes even to feedlots in the American Mid West. Any time you congregate tens of thousands of cattle in a relatively small area you create the potential for air and water pollution. In addition, the concentration of fattening cattle in these areas means millions of tons of feed grains need to be trucked across the continent. In turn, these grain crops are grown with chemical fertilizers derived from oil - both of which also need transported and processed. Finally, the frozen beef is shipped to every corner of the country and around the globe. The environmental impact of this system is huge and damaging; we have built an industrialized model where the beef animal has become another fossil-fuel powered machine. In his groundbreaking New York Times article “Power Steer”, Michael Pollan had an expert calculate how much oil it takes to grow a beef animal to slaughter weight under typical feedlot conditions – the answer was a staggering 284 gallons !!

Due to the cold climate and need to winter feed animals as well as pump water in summer, we can’t completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels on our farm but we certainly only use a fraction of the quantity mentioned above. Our system is essentially built on converting solar power, water and soil nutrients into a saleable product (beef) using a self propelled, ruminant bio-digester …. called a cow!

Health Benefits of Pasture-Reared Meats
Compared to store bought grain-fed meats our products are:

* High in Omega-3 fatty acids. If your diet is rich in Omega-3s, you are:
a) less likely to have high blood pressure;
b) less likely to have an irregular heartbeat;
c) you are 50% less likely to suffer a heart attack;
d) you are less likely to suffer from depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder or Alzheimer's disease;
e) reducing your risk of cancer.

* High in CLA. Meat and dairy products from grass-fed ruminants are also the richest known source of another type of "good fat" called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA may be one of our most potent defenses against cancer. In a Finnish study, women who had the highest levels of CLA in their diet had a 60% reduced risk of breast cancer compared to those with the lowest levels. Switching from grain-fed to grass-fed meat and dairy products places women in this lowest risk category.

More extensive information on the health benefits of pasture-raised products is available on the excellent website EATWILD.COM