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Grassfed Beef: A Cosmic Convergence

November 8th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Posted in food news

Will Harris, grassfed beef famer, and family

Will Harris, grassfed beef famer, and family

How’s this for coincidence: I walked down to the Whole Foods yesterday to buy some pork tenderloin for a dinner party and who do I run into in front of the meat counter but Will Harris, beef farmer extraordinaire.

You might recall Harris from the terrific videoI linked to recently in which a camera crew followed him around the ranch in southern Georgia where Harris’ family has been raising beef since 1866. Harris’ beef forages on natural pasture and is completely grass fed. The video, produced by the Southern Foodways Alliance, captures him in his element, driving around with his dog, holding forth in an utterly charming, Southern manner on the virtues of naturally produced meat.

What I didn’t know was that Harris supplies grassfed beef to all the Whole Foods stores in the Mid-Atlantic region. So there he was in his cowboy hat and cowboy duds, handing out literature and urging people to try a little beef an assistant was preparing to fry in a nearby skillet.

Seeing him there was a bit startling, like bumping into a character from a dream, since I not only posted about his video but this week was closely following the debate over grassfed meat in the wake of Nicolette Kahn Niman’s op-ed piece on the subject in the New York Times, and subsequent exchange, here and here, over the environmental impact of meat in The Atlantic Food Channel.

I explained this to Harris, who said, “I know Nicolette Hahn Niman,” and he handed me a DVD of the film in question. When I remarked that I had no idea it was his beef on display at Whole Foods, he pulled me over to a corner of the display case where, sure enough, there was not only a picture of him way down low, but a row of steaks labeled “grassfed.”

The labels don’t really jump out at you. In fact, they’re on the small side. But that is what you need to look for: “grassfed” in one corner of the meat label. That would be from Harris’ White Oak Pastures, where he has the only on-site meat processing plant east of the Mississippi.

“Look, you can see how much leaner it is,” says Harris, pointing to some of his steaks next to others that are not grassfed. Indeed, Harris’ meat does not have all the fatty streaks, or marbling, that distinguishes corn-fed beef. It looks much more like the lean buffalo meat a little farther down the meat counter.

Stunned as I was to find Harris there, I managed to collect myself and ask a question that has been plaguing me ever since I first saw the film. In it, Harris says that he no longer uses chemical fertilizers on the grass his beef feeds on. That was the first I had ever heard that beef producers used chemicals on their grass. Did he know how many farmers do that?

Harris, who is prominently involved in the American Grassfed Association, said he didn’t have any statistics, but ventured that it is “common practice” for producers of grassfed beef to douse their pastures with chemical fertilizers. So if you’re a purist, be sure to inquire whether your grassfed beef was really raised naturally, or with the aid of chemicals.

I felt a little guilty walking away from this conversation with a bundle of pork. Next time, I’ll be looking for Harris’ naturally raised grassfed beef.

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  • Georgiapeach

    Yes-I have met Will Harris several times in Whole Foods-Johns Creek, GA. He is a delight and his beef is outstanding. I am so grateful that Whole Foods is carrying his beef and that Will’s farm is right here in Georgia-since I do try to always buy “local”. Once you try his meat you can never go back to the “other” stuff. He’s the real deal and so is his pastured beef.

  • Ed Bruske

    Rhonda, you are indeed lucky to have Will Harris as a “local” farmer. I think if Iwere that close to his cattle, I would be visiting his ranch on a regular basis to purchase his beef. I’ve yet to taste it, but it looks outstanding in the display case.