Grainfed vs. Grassfed

Grain-Finished:

Grain-finished beef is less healthy for you.
- See the Top Ten Health Reasons to Eat Grassfed beef above.
Grain-finished cows are unhealthier.
- Grains, which are simple carbohydrates, were not intended for a cow’s diet. When fed grain, it changes the natural bacteria and digestive process in the intestines making them prone to acidosis.
- Cows are confined in a feedlot in very tight quarters which promotes infections resulting in the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics, and are fed grains to accelerate the process of finishing.
Grain-finished beef is not as good for the environment.
- Feed for grain-finished cows has to be planted, harvested and shipped using large sums of fossil fuels.
- Many grain and vegetable crops require from 5 to 10 calories of fossil-fuel for every calorie of food or fiber produced.
- Growing corn and soy causes six times more soil erosion than pasture.

Grass-finished cows produce healthier beef.
- It has been scientifically proven that grass-finished beef is healthier than grain-finished beef.
Grass-finished cows are healthier.
- Our cows spend their entire lives on open pasture living in the environment nature intended for them.
- They forage on complex carbohydrates which their digestive system is developed for.
- Nothing about the grass-finishing process is accelerated – it happens in due time.
Grass-finished cows are better for the environment.
- A diet of grazed grass requires much less fossil fuel than a feedlot diet of dried corn and soy.
- Beef from grass-finished cows requires only one calorie of fossil fuel to produce two calories of food.
- On pasture, grazing cows do their own fertilizing and harvesting.
- Grazed pasture removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more effectively than any land use, including forestland and ungrazed prairie, helping to slow global warming.
For more information on the research behind these benefits see the Eat Wild website.