Argh, swamped today with other things. But here's some information on the benefits of grass feeding animals. "Animals raised on pasture live very low-stress lives. As a result of their superb nutrition and lack of stress, they are superbly healthy."
Also, there are some interesting comments happening in the If we want to save the animals we must eat them post. When I get a moment, I'll share my thoughts. Feel free to pop in with yours.
A nice little video clip of a grass-based dairy farmer and cheesemaker (my friend Jonathan White at Bobolink Dairy) talking about the benefits of feeding grass to his dairy herd:
http://curdnerd.livejournal.com/30627.html
Unfortunately, things are rarely so simple. I heard a global warming expert on CBC Radio a few days ago saying that yes, grass-raised cattle are healthier because it’s a natural diet for them, but they emit more than double the methane gas as “feed” fed cattle. (And methane is something like four times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.)
So once again we are forced to pick our poison.
blork–Could you post a link to the CBC radio spot? Or the name of the expert? I have never heard that before.
Thanks.
I googled “grass fed methane” and found this link http://www.eatwild.com/environment.html which tells about research showing that, despite the fact that grass fed cows produce more methane, the net result of grassfeeding is less greenhouse gases due to carbon sequestration.
Jean, I just went and did the same Google search and came back with the same article — then I saw your second comment. 🙂
The Sierra Club also takes the same stand — that despite the extra methane, grass-feeding is better overall. I agree.
Unfortunately I can’t make a link to the CBC thing, as I don’t remember what program it was on, or when. But it’s kind of moot now anyway.