As grass fed beef became more fashionable in the past couple of years there were more and more naive articles and books written by advocates. They selected, exaggerated, speculated and did their best to be persuasive. This stung the miserabilist anti-meat crowd and the main stream meat industry. These strange bedfellows are now pushing back, repeating their old and largely discredited advocacy but scoring some hits by debunking some of the slimebag arguments of grass fed advocates.

Some of the push back is useful. It doesn't have some wacko or commercial agenda to flog, it just corrects the arguments.

On the PBS website for the muckraking documentary King Corn—a film that roundly attacks industrial agriculture—the following declaration is made: “Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef.” This claim, which has become a mantra in sustainable agriculture, is more often than not dispatched to rally support for grass-fed beef—a supposedly healthier and more environmentally sound way to feed cattle—which is to say, in accordance with the rhythms of nature rather than the time clock of industry. . .

I simply want to point out that any claim to cows eating corn being a recent development is, to say the least, deeply suspect.

Then several publications are cited which seem to refute the claim that corn fed beef was a post-WWII phenomenon. The comments following the post note that occasional and partial feeding of corn grain and corn silage or green chop isn't the same as current corn-fed practice and so the PBS claim that “Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef” is still true.

A more useful view sidesteps the grain vs. grass conflict to look at the general farming scenario in which both crops and livestock are produced. If it's tradition that you seek this is it. It was standard practice to feed whatever crops and crop residues that were not sold as produce to livestock. It's efficient. For example my area used to grow a fair amount of wheat and cattle were turned into the wheat fields after harvest to clean up. They fattened nicely on the crop residues, and their dung and urine benefitted the wheat fields. Their grazing and trampling also helped with weed management.

This illuminates a part of my objection to the grass fed marketing standard since its focus is on protecting a marketing claim based on a production method that isn't as sensible as one could wish. The best production standard is a flexible one suited to local circumstances. A national standard for such a huge and diverse nation is idiotic. If your objective is a rational and healthful food production system then you absolutely want crop residues and any other packing house trash that is truly nourishing and healthful to be fed to livestock, especially cattle since they can digest roughage that only bacteria can use if not fed to cattle.

The overwhelming majority of localities cannot graze fresh forage all year long. The days are too short and cold, or too long and hot, or too dry or wet to grow grass every month. Forage that was harvested and stored must be fed at those times. This is the perfect opportunity to make efficient use of whatever roughage is available, and if it has some grain in it that should not disqualify the residues as forage. Turning animals into crop fields to rummage about for standing residues, shattered seed heads on the ground or whatever is sensible general farming which benefits both the cropping and livestock operations.

Those who are concerned about the health benefits of grass fed beef sometimes object to general farming practices since it is only fresh pasture or direct cut grass silage that has the healthful fatty acids they seek in proper ratios. They argue that every bit of non-green-grass forage diminishes the value of the meat and milk. I counter that not all green grass is equally beneficial. If you really care about the precise food value of the meat and dairy then demand lab reports. They aren't that expensive and would become less expensive if they were done more often in volume. Then you would find that there is large variability. Yes, all grass fed beef is much better than grain finished beef, but some are better than others by significant amounts. And you would also find that some of the best meat and dairy is produced on general farms like those discussed above, even if the animals did eat some grain and other crop trash.