# MPC grass-fed meat...



## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

I've been wondering this for awhile, but I didn't know how to ask without coming off like I'm accusing MPC of being dishonest which I am NOT trying to do. I've been very happy with the products the two times I've ordered from them. What's bothering me are the prices. I'm trying to figure out how grass-fed beef liver (for example) sells for $2 something for 2 lbs at MPC, and it's $4.99+ a pound at my local co-ops and Whole Foods. The other thing is that most cattle are free-range grass-fed for at least a portion of their lives (if my understanding is correct), but most are also "finished" with a grain-based diet. Can someone call their beef "grass-fed" even if it's not 100% grass-fed? Is it even possible to have 100% grass-fed cattle with Midwest winters being what they are? Don't get me wrong --I'm of course happy with the prices, but I guess I'd like to know exactly what I'm buying, and I'm a little confused as to what the label "grass-fed" means. Your thoughts?


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

Yes, I believe it's totally "acceptable" for farmers to say an animal is "grass fed" even if it's not grass finished. Because, technically, it IS grass fed.

I just bought half a cow from a wonderful farmer. He told me that he's of the opinion that there is more grass fed beef sold than there is raised.... 

I'm not sure how well regulated the term "Grass Fed" is. Could you feed a cow one handful of grass and call it "grass fed"? I don't know. Maybe. You can label something with arsenic in it "All Natural" (because arsenic IS a naturally occurring substance). So I have little faith in most food labels. 

I think it IS possible that a cow from the Midwest really could be grass fed/finished. The farmer could be feeding hay, which IS grass. Just a dried version. 

That said, I don't think that corn/grain finishing is that awful. Cows have 4 stomachs. THEY were sort of meant to eat corn/grains. Us single stomached animals maybe weren't.

If you're getting beef that was fed primarily grass for most of it's life, you're doing great. But at that price, I very much suspect that those cows ate something else.

I'm not sure what MPC is. Is it a grocery store?


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## _unoriginal (Apr 8, 2012)

Ania's Mommy said:


> I'm not sure what MPC is. Is it a grocery store?


MPC is My Pet Carnivore. It's a raw feed supplier, basically. It's mostly in the Midwest but I believe they'll ship anywhere but that gets to be pricey and their prices are already up there as it is, IMO. I've never ordered from them and really have no intention to.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

Oh, thanks. I HAVE heard of My Pet Carnivore. I just didn't put it together. :tongue: It's been a long week....

My opinion is that $2/lb of "grass fed" beef is suspiciously cheap.


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## Elliehanna (Jan 16, 2012)

my thought is since they don't have to go through the USDA to get the human grade certification they can charge less, also your paying for shipping where the co-op paid for it to ship to them so that would be 2 added costs for something else


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## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

Thanks for the replies! MPC is about the cheapest I can get around here for red meat at the moment. When I've asked local butchers about buying beef scraps, they want to sell it to me for the same price per pound as ground beef/chuck because they say they use scraps to make the ground beef. The cheapest ground beef I can find around here is over $3 a pound. Grass-fed beef is $6-$7 a pound. Pork isn't much better, so I use MPC for the pork heart, tongue, and liver. 

I think I'll shoot them an email to ask about their grass-fed meat. I'll let you all know what they say.


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

JLeigh, where are you located?


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## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

Neeko said:


> JLeigh, where are you located?


I'm in Wisconsin, Milwaukee area.


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## _unoriginal (Apr 8, 2012)

JLeigh said:


> I'm in Wisconsin, Milwaukee area.


There's a supplier west of Madison called UW Provisions. I got 40# beef heart from them for $.89/# and that's what I use most for my beef.


ETA: I don't know if it's grass-fed though.. I'd imagine cows eat mostly grass, but who knows..


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

JLeigh said:


> I'm in Wisconsin, Milwaukee area.


Ah. I was asking because I was going to direct you to my coOp if you were near Indy or one of the satellite cities.


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## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

_unoriginal said:


> There's a supplier west of Madison called UW Provisions. I got 40# beef heart from them for $.89/# and that's what I use most for my beef.
> 
> 
> ETA: I don't know if it's grass-fed though.. I'd imagine cows eat mostly grass, but who knows..


Thank you!! I will look into them!


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## monster'sdad (Jul 29, 2012)

JLeigh said:


> I've been wondering this for awhile, but I didn't know how to ask without coming off like I'm accusing MPC of being dishonest which I am NOT trying to do. I've been very happy with the products the two times I've ordered from them. What's bothering me are the prices. I'm trying to figure out how grass-fed beef liver (for example) sells for $2 something for 2 lbs at MPC, and it's $4.99+ a pound at my local co-ops and Whole Foods. The other thing is that most cattle are free-range grass-fed for at least a portion of their lives (if my understanding is correct), but most are also "finished" with a grain-based diet. Can someone call their beef "grass-fed" even if it's not 100% grass-fed? Is it even possible to have 100% grass-fed cattle with Midwest winters being what they are? Don't get me wrong --I'm of course happy with the prices, but I guess I'd like to know exactly what I'm buying, and I'm a little confused as to what the label "grass-fed" means. Your thoughts?



Hay, Alfalfa, I am sure there is plenty of grazing but grass fed animals get tons of hay.


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## _unoriginal (Apr 8, 2012)

JLeigh said:


> Thank you!! I will look into them!


The downside is that because they're a restaurant supplier (they sell to Sam's Club, Walmart, and various restaurants), you would either need to pick-up your order or order 500+# to get free delivery. I'm sure they might deliver for a price but I've never checked. I've ordered twice from them and have always been very happy with my purchase. You have to order in bulk to get the best pricing so most my orders are between 100 and 150 lbs. I split orders with members from the BARFing Chicago Yahoo group.


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## Sheltielover25 (Jan 18, 2011)

It's really, really hard to find an animal truly "grass-fed." I have to ask many questions at the farmers market and make sure whatever they're feeding isn't GMO and is organic. With that, I believe MPC is about the best I can find unless I'm getting locally, which I'm not able to do just right now. I believe the animals are happy and see daylight and aren't crowded on top of each other; which is part of the key to a healthy animal. I know the chickens run free outside and they experience the sun shining on them and therefor are higher in vitamin D and such. You can tell when you get one of their whole chickens how much smaller and less fatty it is compared to a store-bought chicken. I trust Hare-Today, too, and have ordered their whole prey and been very, very happy. I don't think they're what an animal would eat in the wild, which would be a bunny that hopped all day and ate whatever nature provided, not human, but it's considerably healthier than anything you'll be able to get in the grocery store. It's not factory-farmed which is very important to me, I won't support the industry of factory-farming. I won't put my money into that kind of industry and I'm lucky I have no kids and can be that way; vote with your wallet and if you can afford to pay more for animals to have a good life, do it!


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## tem_sat (Jun 20, 2010)

Ania's Mommy said:


> Yes, I believe it's totally "acceptable" for farmers to say an animal is "grass fed" even if it's not grass finished. Because, technically, it IS grass fed.
> 
> I just bought half a cow from a wonderful farmer. He told me that he's of the opinion that there is more grass fed beef sold than there is raised....
> 
> ...


See: Definition of Grass Fed Beef

I agree, the price seems way too for what I consider to be "grass fed".


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## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

I wanted to update that I received a response from MPC. I hope it's okay to post the relevant parts here. If not, mods please delete.



> As for the beef, we source from a local dairy farm that feeds a primarily grass diet, though they do supplement with some grain. However, when they are sent to the plant, they are not "finished" on grain the way some dairy cattle are. That is why we have chosen to work with them, and you can really see the evidence of their diet if you every buy the tripe chunks as there are still bits of grass in the tripe itself. The Bison are much the same way, and while not used for milk, they are on a primarily grass diet. This particular outfit we work with likes to give interactive tours w/ visitors out in the pasture, so we are really pleased with that arrangement.
> 
> All of our animals are all hormone-free, steroid-free, antibiotic-free and denaturing agent-free, and we do not use any "downer" animals. Most every variety of animal that is listed as "Whole Ground" our producer brings in live (with the exception of muskrat and beaver), and we know where each of them come from.
> 
> ...


I'm even happier to have a place like MPC to order from than I was before. I do order the tripe and I have definitely seen the grass. It makes sense to me that if the cows are finished on grain, there wouldn't be grass left in the stomach. I'm so pleased with this response! (I can't believe I'm this excited over raw dog food...)


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## Sheltielover25 (Jan 18, 2011)

JLeigh said:


> I wanted to update that I received a response from MPC. I hope it's okay to post the relevant parts here. If not, mods please delete.
> 
> 
> 
> I'm even happier to have a place like MPC to order from than I was before. I do order the tripe and I have definitely seen the grass. It makes sense to me that if the cows are finished on grain, there wouldn't be grass left in the stomach. I'm so pleased with this response! (I can't believe I'm this excited over raw dog food...)


That makes me really happy to hear, too! My dog takes the tripe and shakes the grass out! It is funny to see her instincts kick in as she doesn't so this with anything else. Yay for MPC!!


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I am definitely an MPC fan. Been ordering from them for over a year now.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Even if they are grain finished they would be fed some hay at least anyway. Just sayin. I wish more animals could be out in a pasture to. It's so unfair to lock them up and force feed them.

And I would love to know what it is they do to the beef in a supermarket. The hamburger is just gross, not at all what we eat when we raise them ourselves. When my father finishes one it is mostly grass or hay depending on time of year but I do believe he gives them a little grain for just a little bit.

Now I have been working at the meatplant for hunting season as I have for about 8 years and one of the gals that works there full time and I were talking the other day and she was telling me how gross true grass fed beef is. I told her that most of ours was mostly grass fed and she was saying yes but the little time your dad does feed grain makes it better.

She was saying that it falls apart and is disgusting. Now of course I am intrigued and dying to see if this is true. I can't get why this would be. I am wondering if she has just seen some grass fed that was just bad meat or something. 

I guess I'm just thinking out loud. Sorry for the hijacking.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

I had a friend who got "grass fed" beef from the grocery store. She went on and on about how awful it was. The worst she'd ever had. And this from the girl who buys thin-cut no-name sale steaks at Safeway. So for HER to say it was bad, it must have been pretty freaking bad.

But I still bought a grass-fed cow from my guy. I completely trust him. And my beef is delicious. The 2nd best I've ever had.

Now, when I was little and my family raised 3 steers/year for personal consumption, THAT was the best beef I ever had. And I know that they got a small coffee can (do they still make them that size!?!) of this special grain mix that my grandpa came up with. I'm not sure what all was in it, but I do know there were little molasses pellets. And it tasted gpood. I know this because I ate it myself sometimes when I went to the barn (don't judge).

I think it all comes down to the environment the cow was raised in. When you hear the term"grass fed" you automatically think of a happy cow out in a meadow with butterflies and rainbows. But you can most definitely factory farm grass feed beef. And the taste will suffer greatly.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

All the grain does really when they say "grain finished" is to add a bunch of weight before going to sale. A truly grass only fed cow is just that. Grass only and it takes them a year longer to get to sale weight. My dad raised grass fed cattle up until he had a heart attack last year and can't physicaly handle them anymore. But thats really the only reason grain is fed. To get more money faster at the sales. My dad never bought a bag of feed. Just alfalfa range cubes in the winter, and hay he baled himself. It really does make for healthier more quality beef.


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## Herzo (Feb 5, 2011)

Ania's Mommy said:


> I had a friend who got "grass fed" beef from the grocery store. She went on and on about how awful it was. The worst she'd ever had. And this from the girl who buys thin-cut no-name sale steaks at Safeway. So for HER to say it was bad, it must have been pretty freaking bad.
> 
> But I still bought a grass-fed cow from my guy. I completely trust him. And my beef is delicious. The 2nd best I've ever had.
> 
> ...


No judgement here I did the same. My dad has always fed his cows and sheep cake in the winter to help them get through it better. It is pretty much the same as the molasses pellets you are talking about.

They have many different kinds and some are better than others. I feed my horses alfalfa cake to get them to come in every day. It has some grain in there but mostly alfafa, and it's not as good as the grain ones hahahahahah.

Naturalfeddogs the hay cubes are allot like the cake I feed my horses. They may have some grains in them or at least that is what I thought, but are mostly alfalfa. And yes a much more quality beef than what so many get in the store. Such a sham.


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