Food Politics

Buffalo? Bison? Grass fed/finished?

So many ways to describe meat today, here are some answers:

The big thing about grass fed - we call it finished - is how the animal ends its life.  All beef (well almost) starts on grass and roams the prairie munching away on clean green grass.  Then about 3-6 months (at least in Niman’s case) before the animal is set to be slaughtered it is moved onto a feedlot where it it eats a mix of wheat, corn and soy (mostly corn).  This grain mixture fattens the animal up and allows the marbling in the meat that is so sought after.  However grain costs money, and grass on the prairie is virtually free. So why is grass finished as expensive as feedlot finished?

Grass finished beef never gets moved to a feedlot.  The animals spend their entire lives eating grass on the prairie.  This is great for the animal who lives a more peaceful life.  What the consumer will find in grass finished is that the animals don’t get very big because they never eat grain.  The other challenging part about grass finished is that the animals have to be moved quickly from prairie to slaughter because they can’t eat anything after they leave the ranch.  This is an example why we prefer to call this beef grass finished since virually all beef is grass fed at some point in their lives.

 Bison (or buffalo) is a great alternative to beef.  Bison is super flavorful, slightly gamey and has less fat and calories with more protein and iron than beef or chicken.  Bison is the preferred name to differentiate between the water buffalo and the American buffalo.  Our Bison is raised in Wyoming and Nebraska and are finished on grain just like cattle for the last 100 days of their lives.  There is still enough fat in Bison steaks to make them very flavorful.

Check out these food heros from 2012!

http://www.cookinglight.com/food/food-heroes-00412000078544/

All natural meat?

“We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.” ~Alfred E. Newman

Pete was asked an interesting question the other day: “Why is your meat more expensive than so and so’s? They’re both all natural, right?”
WRONG. “All natural” on a label refers to the meat after it has been processed. Many retailers call their meats “antibiotic free” meaning that when tested, there are not residual antibiotics—it doesn’t mean that the animal was raised without their use. According to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, “natural” can be used on a label as long as a product does not “contain any artificial flavor or flavoring, coloring ingredient, chemical preservative or any other artificial or synthetic ingredient; and the product and its ingredients are not more than minimally processed (ground, for example).”  Under these guidelines,  CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation—the source of most meat in the USA) beef, pork and chicken can be labeled all natural. Under these guidelines, it includes animals that have received antibiotics and hormones to promote rapid growth. 
So what does Marczyk’s “all natural” mean? All our meats are raised without the use of antibiotics or hormones by family farmers within the Niman Ranch company.  None-Ever. They are naturally raised, outside, with room to roam. The chickens come from Boulder Natural Meats, raising chickens naturally since 1990. “We are concerned with husbandry and genetics, vegetarian feed and supporting family farms,” says Paul Marczyk. “but most of you don’t need a story… the proof is in the taste,” he says. Marczyk meats and chickens are antibiotic free, hormone free, and free range. If you ever wonder, come ask us at our Denver Store!

Niman Ranch Dinner in Iowa

Pete and Paul Marczyk, and baker John Hinman, just got back from Iowa and the Niman Ranch Farmers Appeciation Dinner.

At Marczyk Fine Foods, we’ve worked with Niman since the very first day, through the ups and downs. Nine years ago they hosted 50 farmers, this year it was hundreds. To see this part of the meat industry grow like this is astounding, and good news for farmers and diners alike.  Here is a post from Tina Haupert, a fellow foodie who was there: 

Classic Heirloom Apple Pie
Chef John Himan, Marczyk Fine Foods, Denver, Colorado

Obviously, dessert was my favorite course. Chef John used a blend of Cortland and Mollies Delicious apples from Berry Patch Orchard with Niman leaf lard for the crust. The apple pie was served with a small piece of Prairie Breeze cheddar cheese on the side. Interesting, right? Apples + cheese? Love it!

The apple pie was very special because Chef John was faced with every possible challenge for making it. When he arrived in Des Moines on Thursday afternoon, the Marriott only had nine pie pans for him. No biggie, right? He found 61 more, no problem. But, the night before the event, the machine that rolls out the pie dough broke. So, Chef John (and some of the other chefs), rolled the dough by hand, which was very time-consuming. Then, if that wasn’t enough, as soon as the pies are ready for baking, the ovens at the Marriott stop working!!! (Personally, I would have lost my mind at this point.) Luckily, a nearby restaurant was able to cook the 70 apple pies for the event, but the poor chefs were up until nearly 3:00 in the morning baking them. Their hard work was definitely worth it. I totally wanted a second piece!

At the end of dinner, the chefs were thanked individually for their contributions to the meal. Enjoying all of the courses, I could tell that each of the chefs really cared about the food. It truly exemplified the connection between farm and table.

Read more from Tina here: http://carrotsncake.com/2010/09/niman-ranch-farmer-appreciation-dinner.html

Time Magazine Gets Real about food

“Niman Ranch raises its livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to deliver the finest tasting meat in the world.”
This week’s Time Magazine cover story, Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food, is an eye opener about the industry we know and love. We have been plugging Niman Ranch for 7 years, and have been happy to explain over and over what makes them different and why it matters. (To be honest, we have felt like the slightly crazy guy standing on the box on the corner, yelling and waving his arms as people hurry by.) We watched the company grow and go through painful but necessary changes to be what it is today. So it was with great pleasure to see the only meat company mentioned as a viable alternative to commodity pork and beef is, drum roll please, Niman Ranch! (In Time freaking Magazine no less!) Congratulations to them!

Gluten Free in the Land of the Free

Our customers here at Marczyk’s have been asking for GF foods more in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years. We wonder why—especially when one of our favorite customers can eat the bread in Europe, but not here?
Here’s some anecdotal thoughts:
We wonder if the recent spate of gluten intolerance comes from the now widespread use of GMO foodstuffs in the US. GMO stands for genetically modified organism—like Roundup™ (a non-selective herbicide) resistant corn (both Roundup™ and the seeds for corn which is Roundup™ resistant are manufactured by Monsanto). While hybrids are a form of genetic engineering, the essential genome of the plants are not changed as in genetic modification - like the insertion of a fish gene in tomatoes to keep them firmer longer (FLAVR SAVR? Christ, they can’t even use the real words!).
The real issue is unintended cross-pollination. Now this is serious. Currently there is no way for GM pollen and non-GM plants to prevent cross pollination, and GM traits are being found in plants which came from non-GMO seed stock. Really a big deal in soy and rapeseed.
Across the ocean, the EU does not allow GMO crops to be grown or sold. This is a real sticking point with the US, as we cannot export many of our products there. The EU also does not allow for the use of hormones in beef production—which is why we can’t export our beef there either. (The use of six growth-promoting hormones in beef production was prohibited across Europe in the 1980s on the grounds that they posed a significant risk to human health. Imports of meat treated with these hormones were also banned. Canada and the US successfully challenged the import embargo as not being based on an adequate risk assessment as required by the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - SPS Agreement). Both countries subsequently imposed retaliatory tariffs on a range of European agricultural exports worth US $116.8 million for the US and C $11.3 million for Canada.
Anyway, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who know more about Gluten free than I. Let us hear from you! Thanks, Pete.

The Land of the Free?

In the U.S. 500,000 people die from smoking each year, 250,000 die from alcohol related causes; the FDA estimates 1 person every 9 years dies from raw milk related causes.  Soft raw-milk cheese is illegal.  Is this really the land of the free?