At White Oak Pastures, Grass-Fed Beef Is Only the Beginning

More to the point, is White Oak NOP organic or federally certified on grass. Many promise grass fed. Many such do feed grass among other feeds. To provide proof that grass is the only feed, that no toxins are involved, requires federal inspection.

Is White Oak irrigated? Is the White Oak soil tested for metallic and other build up common to all irrigation?

Is White Oak well drained? If not, what happens in periods of heavy rain followed by drought? Root patterns in wet assure trouble when dry follows wet. Grasses may not thrive in ground not drained. Some roots drive deep when drained, pattern flat when drowned, then die out when baked.

We need detail to know if this fine marketing example can produce grass and what is fed when it cannot.

Grass fed means fed only grass in the federal program. Dishonesty in that program is punishable. The typical "grass fed" means fed some grass... not more.

The discerning must know more. White Oak will have the answers.

Ask them.

Grass fed is a hard federal standard. One farm in the nation has it. See the paperwork at lewisfamilyfarm.com for the means to register. White Oak is not so registered. White Oak is a splendid marketing effort, well managed, well-known, but I question the quality of what can emerge when the model is a polyglot sourced. Many farmers would love to have what is pictured here. The discerning will look with care.

Does any one know how clean the soil is? It was drenched with chemicals before the change over, which means a lot of the residual chemicals are still in the soil. Raising grass fed animals are just one factor of the equation to clean food. How the soil was and how it is now is an important part of the equation that must be looked at.

Far better grass fed beef comes from world wide cooperative " MavericK Ranch Inc" Their best, beside beef is grass fed Buffalo Meat. I have found that lean Rib Eye stakes are far better then medallian of beef tenderloin from Australia . The best and even better price is 16 OZ grass fed Chateaubriand sold by Trader Joe. The meat is genuine bona fide center cut tenderloin.
The article mentions the wild open grass lands of Serengeti Plains of Kenya/ Tanzania. I was born and raised around that part of the world and know for a fact that Masai Mara is far better and greener grassland Game Reserve. Where wild prize herds of Water Buffalo roam free just as over few million Wilder Beast also migrate with the rains. In fact their should no reason why Wilder Beast meat is not used in preference to beef.

I find this story interesting if not a bit late to the table. As the chef /owner of Tollys in Oakland,OR ten years ago I featured a half pound char grilled grass fed burger from Knee Deep Farms in Eugene. Our meat was custom ground from our local butcher who exclusively purchased Knee Deep product. My motivation was "pure, clean" burgers eaten the way I remember as a kid on our farm in Maine. Rare.
Although I am thrilled to see this concept catching on we should be concerned with big Ag's involvement. First and foremost we need a system to validate farms, source and finish. Because all cattle are "grass fed", it's the feed lot finish that changes the fat composition and quality of the meat. So I applaud this brilliant farmer /processor showing away to better farm to table foods. Hopefully more regional processors will begin to open and bring back a more pure style of animal protein.

I hope I can emulate that kind of forward thinking on my 20 acres in Wilkes County GA-- on a smaller and self sustaining scale.

As someone who cares about how our food is raised, I applaud his efforts and his results.

Thank you for the work that you do. I love this article, I love animals and I love grass fed meat.

I count Will Harris and his family among my friends. I know his path to sustainably raising both meat and vegetables has been killingly hard. I remember when he offered free meatballs at the Flavor of Georgia contest to anyone who would try them. He won the contest. I remember telling him one frustrating day that being a pioneer in any industry is tough. I am so glad he was tough enough and smart enough to make this successful journey. He is iconic in the state among those who care how their food is raised which includes me.

A friend started the concept in Holland. www.grasgrazers.nl
He cooperates with a farmer who actually keeps the cows in the pastures (as long as the weather allows) and they get to grow way past 6 months. Furthermore the animals ge grasses from the same land when they have to stay indoors in winter. My friend and his mates follow the cows through the whole proces, including taking them to be slauthered. My husband is enthousiastic about the quality and taste of the meat. I wouldn't know being a veggie myself. What I do like however is to elaborate on eating less meat, and if you want to eat the good stuff.

To remind all the readers concerned about the welfare of the mammals and avians destined for human consumption: do not look at how sausage is made if you want to enjoy eating it.

$28 million on 2500 acres? That's a miracle if that's true

According to a GF beef consultant I recently heard at a class I took the US GF market represents 5% of the total market, not 0.5% as this author states. And that is the point at which the big players enter, which they are doing. Two of the top 4 US beef producers are planning to finish about 1000 steers per week to start. Cargill already has a plant in Australia and has been exporting beef to Asia and Europe from there. And contrary to the post from the Iowa farmer who says corn is needed for tenderness, this consultant regularly finishes out cattle that grade prime. He says the reason is genetics and high quality pasture. Many farmers are starting to see the merits of integrating livestock into their farming operations because of the huge improvement they see in soil quality due to livestock. With high density grazing (250,000 lb/acre) farmers have increased the soil organic content from 1-2% up to 7-8% in 5 years. This is how we will reduce atmospheric carbon content.

We buy White Oak Pastures chickens and eggs at our Whole Foods here in Atlanta. We are very picky about ingredients and have had the best from around the country (and France). They are as good as we've had anywhere.

I'm wondering how we can be sure "grass fed" means "pasteured." I'm always concerned that maybe the animals have been penned up or cooped up in bad condition, with the grass being thrown into the cages at them.

Mr. Harris doesn't want to "raise a princess and send her to a whorehouse." He'd rather lop her head of himself. Some princess. Most chickens are killed at about 6 weeks and cattle at about 6 months - just children really in their life cycle. Not so humane. People who eat "humanely raised" meat are kidding themselves. Unless the animal died of old age it's not a kind death. For an animal to be slaughtered it's terrifying no matter who does it. And this method of feeding the world's hungry is environmentally unsustainable, expensive, and not practical on any large scale with the amount of resources wasted feeding and watering these animals who simply convert the protein in the grains they eat into body protein. It would be better to use scarce resources grow protein crops to feed many more people much more cheaply and healthfully.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our bovines,
But in ourselves . . . and how we raise them.

I don't feel the need to eat a lot of meat (just my biochemistry, I assume), but when I do, I only eat grass-fed meat raised by my family or one of my neighbors. It tastes great--and even better when I think about my purchase helping a family run a farm that is a healthy ecosystem, provides wildlife habitat, and sequesters carbon.

For the folks concerned about wildlife habitat, I know that the pastures and woodlands in and around my neighbors' grass-fed beef farms are full of wildlife -- grass-nesting birds, forest habitat for owls, deer, coyotes, foxes, and a host of other critters. It's my neighbors who are industrial grain farmers who have destroyed every last bit of wildlife habitat. There's not even a fencerow for birds to nest in any more. And that's not to mention the ag chemicals that have decimated entire species -- there are virtually no more bobwhite quail, no amphibians, and precious few insects. Meanwhile, back on the grass-fed beef farms (which are actually certified organic multi-species animal and grain operations), the wildlife still have un-poisoned habitat and are thriving.

Regarding climate change, the permanent pasture that grass-fed beef is raised on is sequestering tons (literally) of carbon.

So if you want to eat beef, go ahead . . . just make sure it's 100% grass-fed, ideally by someone you know and trust.

A sign of the times that people are finally moving away from industrial and CAFO products, which is great. There will always be differences from farm to farm in terms of how many animals are raised, what particular animals, how they are integrated into the landscape. But make no mistake, this is a very positive step, for the animals, for the consumers, and for the environment. I am fortunate to have a number of similar, if smaller, such farms to buy from locally.

It's a shame that with all the interest in the paleo diet that offal needs to be composted, given how nutritious it is, and that tallow is used for soap rather than as a cooking fat, when it is far superior to almost every other fat (especially shortenings and vegetable oils for frying).

We had an Angus cow/calf operation for twenty five years. Strictly grass fed beef requires a much longer time to finish, and, therefore, the steer is older and the meat less apt to grade prime (read: tougher). Finishing without some graining doesn't produce the type of marbling needed for superior flavor. The same is true with the meat goats we have. While 100% grass fed is desirable for some, the time it takes, and the much higher per lb. retail cost will make this type of meat well out of the hands of the lower and middle class

I read a good comment on heritage breeds - if you want to preserve them, eat them.

Great story -maybe the great Whole Foods chickens I like are from these fine folks.

Haters gonna hate! Next time answer the knock at the door…Farming is a business and Mr Harris is a very successful businessman.

Like many others, I try to buy meat from local farmers for many reasons. The problem with buying direct from local farmers, however, is that their meat is almost always frozen, which means it is harder to pick out what exactly you want (which frozen strip steak through the packaging looks best? Beats me). Sometimes I get lucky with particular farmers or particular selections. Some local farmers, however, despite their commendable efforts to raise their animals in an environmentally safe and humane way, also do not produce particularly good quality meat. I've often bought rubbery chicken and poorly butchered pork chops unknowingly on several occasions.

I also buy White Oaks beef (and chickens when they are available; they sell out quickly) at my local Whole Foods. The quality is excellent. I like being able to see the (fresh) meat behind the glass and tell the "butcher" what I want specifically. This is how most consumers shop. Getting humanely-raised meat into supermarkets is incredibly important in getting more people to buy it. Not everyone is going to go to the local farmers market or swing by the local farm to buy their meat. Especially not if you're hauling two screaming kids with you.

While White Oaks may not use utopian methods for raising their animals, they do an excellent job nonetheless considering that they have been able to scale up their production. This is exactly what the country needs to get more people to buy grass-fed and pastured meat.

Thank you NY Times for this great article! Though I avoid beef at all costs because of the cruel environment in which most of the cattle are raised and slaughtered, it is great to read about farmers who buck what is accepted as normal, and are succeeding due to their perseverance.
Put another way, I'm so pleased that, the next time I'm at a restaurant, and if it turns out they carry beef from White Oak Pastures, I will gladly order a dish!

I'm pretty sure White Oak is not the only farm with both federally inspected poultry and red meat processing on farm. Guntorp Farms in IN has both as well. Both farms are fantastic though! they do great things for the sustainable agriculture industry.

Excellent! A pleasure to read this kind of story that gives me hope that our way of food production will be more widely understood and therefore changed for the better. Good luck to Mr. Harris and others like him. Keep swearing. Maybe it helps!

We need more ranchers not less because as Harris tried to explain, there are so few people smart enough to understand that the land needs the animals.

The plains evolved with buffalo and deer and birds of every sort working the land, keeping it alive and keeping it from blowing away. Hooves make divots that hold water, passing through an animal is the only way some seeds will germinate, scratching of birds keeps grass from matting and dying and they eat the harmful bugs. This is not something that you can teach a novice in a single post and it is not even something the vast majority of Americans would know because they didn't take Earth Science in college.

Temple Grandin was my hero as a special education teacher and now that I am retired, she will be my hero as a farmer as I start my new life. I think that she should be part of the social studies curriculum, but I might be a little partial.

We sold a conventional farm in Arkansas and bought land that has never been tilled in Colorado. Two reasons, first the amount of time and effort needed for the soil on a conventional farm to be reclaimed for use in organics is something like 10 years and secondly, we needed to be closer to a market for those products.

Eating just one kind of thing is what causes famines. It also causes desertification, once that happens, the land may never recover.

Ignore vegans before they kill us all with their nonexistent knowledge of ecosystems.

Why import pigs (wild boar) from Spain when there are thousands running wild in south Florida? There is a company in Punta Gorda currently capturing and processing the animals for meat with the same logic - they are most likely descendants of the spanish boar, and they thrive on acorns in south Florida. In addition, it addresses the problem of the animals' runaway population explosion

We need fewer ranchers, not more. It's been well-documented that Americans would be healthier if we ate less meat, not more. According to a recent Cornell University report, "If all the U.S. grain now fed to livestock were exported and if cattlemen switched to grass-fed production systems, less beef would be available and animal protein in the average American diet would drop from 75 grams to 29 grams per day. That, plus current levels of plant-protein consumption, would still yield more than the RDA for protein."

I applaud Mr. Harris for leading the way to better conditions for the creatures we raise to kill and consume, and for practicing in a more balanced environment. Let his model grow to be the norm rather than the exception. At the very least, let the attention he is getting cause more people stop to think about that package of meat in their hand before they purchase it.

We need all farmers fighting to bring more sustainable agriculture options. There is plenty of room for White Oak Pastures and Darby Farms to serve our growing sustainable, organic food market in Georgia and the Southeast. I am a frequent customer of both. I have high respect for the Harris and Dover families. They are all fine, fine people. They produce outstanding quality meat. I personally know about both of their operations and commend them both for their high standards. I thank them for their tireless hours of toil, hard work, blood sweat, tears, and financial commitment.

There is no such thing as humane meat. No animal wants to die. This article is very pro-beef industry which unfortunately ignores the serious implications surrounding the industry with regards to environmental degradation, animal cruelty and unsustainablity. Furthermore, the beef & dairy industry wastes billions of gallons of fresh water (15,000gallons per 1kg of beef). It is an out of date, unnecassary industry that does not deserve an article like this.

furthermore the operation operates 365 days out of the year and claims to have pasture raised poultry during that entire time. the definition of pasture raised bird is that they are allowed constant access to fresh green growing pasture. however that is not the case at White Oak due to the fact that 2 months out of the year grasses go dormant and cannot sustain a pasture poultry operation. look at the pictures in the article no green grass anyway. what they have is a free range poultry operation.
another downfall of the white oak model excludes theI birds from the pastured poultry paradigm is that the birds housing stays in the same spot for essentially the whole grow-out cycle of the birds. the psychology of a chicken prevents them from wandering from their food water and shelter more than 150 feet. so these birds stick close and denude and over load the ground with their fecal excretions. just do a google earth search of white oak pastures and you will see for yourself.
yet another marketing gimmick is that their pastures are certified organic and they push that notion hard in all of their marketing materials. yet none of their meat is certified. most consumers think that if the pastures are organic the animals are fed organically. there birds are given GMO feed, not certified organic.
trust, responsibility and transparency are key to a sustainable food system. So let's all work to achieve that goal.

Great article on the contrasting views of all the parties involved. please allow me to clarify a few points in the article.
the majority of cattle that are slaughtered under the white oak pastures label come from many different farms throughout the South East and all away up to Kentucky, perhaps even farther. a farm that is approximately 2,500 acres has a carrying capacity of approximately 2.5 acres per beef hence the Harris operation can only support 1000 Beefs per year. they slaughter considerably more than that under the white oak label.
Also the Harris operation buys a large quantity of their cattle at sell barns reducing the transparency of the beef background and from what I understand take them directly to one of the many big and small slaughter houses they use across the southeast. which begs the question of whether these animals are truly grass fed to the satisfaction of the conscientious public who wants wholesome food for their families.

Eating grass-fed beed won't reduce factory farmed beef any more than driving electric cars is going to get traditional fuel-driven cars off the road. It's all a niche market that makes more affluent people feel better about eating animals they let be "humanely raised" until they inhumanely take their lives and eat them. There is not enough grass to keep this market going. It's all contributing to global warming, and there is nothing humane about slaughtering a sentient animal, no matter how it lives up to the moment you take its life.

I believe the US is one of only seven countries in the world that makes enough food to not only feed its own people but export food as well. There is room for more farmers/ranchers like Will Harris; we could certainly use more of them. I myself prefer grain-finished beef, but it's good to have the choice.

I don't begrudge this farmer his success at filling a niche market but people should know when cattle are supplemented with grains, their methane emission lowers. Our cattle eat about 80% grass/hay/alfalfa, 20% grain. More grain is needed in the winter months for protein and carbs (because the cattle are out in the fields and need to produce energy for warmth.)

http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/science-and-innovation/science-publications-and...