Some consumers, fearing that the first US case of mad cow disease is not a fluke, are buying more beef from grass-fed cattle -- even at much higher prices than conventional beef.
From the Midwestern heartland of the US$27 billion Ameirican beef industry to boutique ranches tucked away in California's wine country, ranchers report that the newfound public concern over food safety makes it a good time to be raising cattle the old-fashioned -- or, some would say, Argentine -- way.
"This thing made the phone start to ring," said John Wood, president of Grassland Beef in Monticello, Missouri, an online storefront selling cattle raised exclusively on grass without the use of growth hormones. "What it has done is make loyal customers out of our customer base."
Despite safety assurances from government officials and experts, some customers have shifted to buying grass-fed beef instead of conventional corn-fed beef because of concern that livestock feed containing tainted animal parts was the likely source of the reported case of mad cow disease, according to Wood.
"I've got a restaurant in St. Louis that wants to go from 10 percent grass-fed to 100 percent grass-fed," Wood said.
Rancher Bill Davies also is seeing increased interest in beef from the grass-fed cattle, which he raises in a remote part of Napa County, California.
"People are kind of in shock and just pulling back from beef altogether. On the other hand, people are looking for alternatives," said Davies, of Napa Free-Range Beef.
Even before the first US case of mad cow disease was announced last week, grass-fed beef producers were positioning their beef as an organic alterative to corn-fed beef, pointing to its lower levels of saturated fat and high levels of healthy fatty acids and antioxidants.
Some restaurants have taken up the banner, providing grass-fed cattle ranchers an important market in the US. In Argentina, ranchers raise cattle on grasslands to produce some of the world's most highly prized beef.
"It's healthier for the consumer," said Larry Bain, director of operations at San Francisco's Acme Chophouse and Jardiniere restaurants, which together serve some 2,800 steaks from grass-fed beef during busy weeks.
The grass-fed beef comes at a hefty cost -- about 25 percent to 30 percent more than commodity cuts at supermarkets -- and some restaurants expect that premium to widen.
"We called our meat purveyor as soon as this came up and said we wanted to make sure we could get as much filet [mignon] as we needed for New Year's Eve, and he said he couldn't guarantee it because demand has just jumped," Bain said.
"People are scrambling," Bain said. "We're a little bit concerned about March and April, about having enough supply, because these ranchers can't gear up to meet the new demand."
While ranchers of grass-fed cattle are seizing the moment, their product remains a rarity. Less than 1 percent of US beef is produced by grass-fed cattle ranchers, according to Ernie Phinney, general manager of Western Grasslands Inc.
The appeal of grass-fed cattle extends beyond what they eat to how they die, according to David Evans, a grass-fed cattle rancher and owner of Marin Sun Farms in Point Reyes Station, California.
Evans said he tells consumers that cattlemen who raise grass-fed beef are more careful during slaughter and processing than their mainstream counterparts.
They can afford to be because of the small volume of beef they bring to market, he said. Evans himself raises 60 to 100 head a cattle a year and slaughters about five a week during the peak season.
By contrast, raising corn-fed cattle is an industrial-scale business, ranchers said.
Most cattle are raised on mother's milk and pasture grass until they are about six to eights months old, then sent to feedlots for fattening. After about 200 days on feed they go to slaughterhouses and their carcasses are shipped as large cuts to retailers.
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