Junk Food?

[Sylvia]

In yesterday's Mail a Dr Gillian McKeith (she's a doctor so she must know what she is talking about) consigns all 'red meat' to the list of JUNK food. Elsewhere she begrudgingly allows a little trimmed organic meat. Does anyone else feel absolutely gutted that whilst those of us who are raising grass fed, traditionally reared cattle ( and sheep) with more care than we expend on ourselves (even if not registered organic) any ignorant person can group our tender, healthy, delicious beef (and lamb)with the most disgusting mass produced rubbish there is? I make sure my animals live in as stress-free conditions as possible, the media seems hell bent on making life as stressful as possible for farmers.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

It is never very amusing when someone whose opinions are total heresy to us set out their stall, but they are as convinced that their opinion is right as we are of ours. The only way to counteract this if for us to take every opportunity to puy out own views forward at whatever level we can cope with, be it in conversation with friends or articles in the press or whatever. All in all I think the Dexter lobby does not too badly. We have quite a number of outstanding publicity agents, Di Smith amongst them, Jan McCourt has won national awards for his Northfield Farm operation, to name one or two. There are many others, and lots and lots who do sterling work on a local scale all over the country. Carol Neilson and Jo Kemp gave large numbers of the Scottish public a taste of Dexter beef at Dumfries show, where several of us showed against other native breeds, much more daunting to me than having classes of our own.
I can even think of one Dexter butcher who sold beef to a number of French customers all through the BSE peak crisis.

Duncan

Duncan

[Inger]

This idiot Doctor is probably a vegatarian. A lot of people would surely take her advice 'with a grain of salt', so to speak. I don't think you have too much to worry about. Yes, some people may take note of her comments, but I'm sure most people will ignore her. Once people have tried Dexter meat, it should sell itself. It must be pretty annoying for you though.

[Sylvia]

Annoying enough for me to e-mail a letter to the Daily Mail yesterday morning, they phoned yesterday evening and are sending a photographer round today. Oh joy, with all the cows in, albeit nicely bedded down and with piles of food before them. If it had happened in summer they could have been dancing through the bluebells or munching away in the wildflower strewn meadows. I did e-mail some summer pics but I doubt they are good enough for them.

[Jo Kemp]

Well done to you Sylvia! More publicity.
I can't remember if I have mentioned this on site but grass/silage/hay fed animals have less 'bad' cholestrol than grain fattened and also have amino acids in their meat. A friend is now virtually vegetarian as he has heart problems. I mentioned the grass-fed meat and he said that it is sold in USA at DOUBLE the price owing to the above properties! Are we missing something?
Jo

[Sylvia]

Hello Jo, after half an hour of sheer torture (of course we want you in the photo, #### it!) I am now filled with doubt on 2 counts. First will they bother to put it in and second if they do will everyone think Dexters are as tall as Limos due to the height of bedding in the barn. Oh well, can't be helped - I hope he caught the look on the cows' and Apollo's faces when he said just sit down in their haylage. They think I'm mad too.:p

[Jo Kemp]

Let us know Sylvia, if you are in the D Mail as I don't normally buy it and perhaps the Scottish edition would miss out?
Bet you look great - I always look hot and bothered, as sweaty as poor Charles Kennedy and no it's nothing to do with drink
Jo

[Sylvia]

In today's (Friday's) paper, Jo. Letter has been edited, leaving out comments about tender meat etc, but remains more or less what I wrote. Photo is thankfully suitably (but not quite sufficiently) blurred but sadly poor old cows didn't get much of a look in. hopefully message is clear though.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Well done Sylvia,

It made the Scottish edition, I got the last one in the shop at 4pm. Very good to get it printed at all, but especially since the offending "guru" is still spouting forth on the previous page. Yours is a much more constructive cricicism too compared to the nasty personal attack in the other letter.

It is a pity they blanked out much of the cattle with the text, but the if they had left the cattle and blanked out you we wouldn't know what you look like, would we??

Duncan

[Kathy Millar]

Blanket comments really annoy me too. I recently subscribed to an American publication called the "Stockman Grass Farmer" and it is awsome. It carries very detailed articles on the constituents of grass-finished beef and the ongoing research on what makes beef tender. There is also a website called Eatwild by Jo Robinson that also addresses the research on the healthful qualities of grass-finished meat. She has also written a couple of books.

That doctor has obviously NOT done her homework BUT it has been found that even feeding small amounts of grain will alter the amino acid/fat composition in beef and reduce the heathful attributes of the meat. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any studies with sheep so not sure if feeding them some grain has the same affect on the meat.

Interestingly, there is a beef farm in the US that markets to folks with health problems who have been referred to him by a doctor!

Do they fatten lambs in the UK in feedlots or are they marketed directly off pasture?

Kathy

[chriskirise]

Hi Kathy,

I have just found the website: www.stockmangrassfarmer.net
and you can read all the articles. It is all very interesting.

One in the eye for 'Dr' Gillian McKeith

:p

[Inger]

Hey, send Dr McKeith an email with that website address in it. :laugh: