How now, brown cow?

Once upon a time, people looked forward to Sunday and the treat of a roast with all the trimmings. Then they’d make that joint stretch over a couple of days of pies and stews, before the bone became the base of Wednesday’s soup. But now, for those who aren’t living on the breadline, meat is a daily convenience food. It’s just so easy to fry up a pre-crumbed schnitzel, or bung a ready-made lasagne into the microwave.

How much meat should we eat?

Fact is, eating too much meat puts a strain on our bodies and the planet. Animal protein is good for you, but you only need about 300g–500g a week: about three or four servings. At most, you should have a daily portion not bigger than a pack of cards, says clinical nutritionist Sally-Ann Creed. (Children, who need more protein for growth, can have about twice as much.) Poor quality fatty red meat is associated with ‘lifestyle’ diseases such as heart disease, and eating more than 160g of red meat a day has been proven to increase your chances of developing bowel cancer.

Livestock contributes to global warming

World meat production has grown fivefold since 1950, which means that the livestock population has mushroomed even faster than the human population. Everyone is eating meat, and more of it – about 85kg a year in industrial countries and 32kg a year in developing countries. Recently, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, called for people to cut one meat meal a week to help curb global warming. The buzz word of the moment is ‘environmental vegetarianism’ – giving up meat because of the damaging effects and unsustainability of intensive industrial animal farming.

Best farming practice is key

Over and above the atmosphere-damaging methane (up to 18% of greenhouse gases – more than produced by all forms of transport – is produced by livestock) and the huge amounts of bodily waste pollution ruminants produce, meat is not particularly energy efficient. Farm animals eat large amounts of plants to convert to small amounts of animal protein (their meat), exacerbating food shortages. That’s not to say food animal farming is bad for humanity and the globe – it makes sense to graze cattle and sheep on grasslands that are otherwise not useful for agriculture. Ruminants are designed to digest grass, which we cannot do (although we can digest their meat, in reasonable quantities). Their grazing – if managed correctly – even maintains natural grasslands by keeping tall plants in check and spreading grass seeds. But these days, most cattle are not fed on grass.

Is grain or grass better for cows?

Cows are mainly fed grain in giant fattening farms called feedlots. The SA feedlot industry produces approximately 75% of SA beef (about 1,35 million head of cattle a year), proudly labelled ‘grain-fed’. The problem is that cattle are not made to eat grain. A diet based on starch (not to mention rendered
animal fat and other unsavoury things that find their way into cattle feed) rather than roughage affects the fermentation and rumination processes in a cow’s stomach, causing digestive problems that contribute to the methane problem.

So you should try to get cattle that has been fed on their natural food – grass. ‘Grass-fed beef has an impressive fatty-acid profile,’ says Creed, ‘including CLA (which aids weight loss), and omega-3 fatty acids, missing in regular farmed cattle.’ When good food goes into your meat, good nutrition is passed on to you. As Michael Pollan says in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: ‘“You are what you eat” is a truism hard to argue with, and yet it is, as a visit to a feedlot suggests, incomplete, for you are what you eat eats, too.’

Meanwhile, down on the farm

Packed together in dirty, miserable conditions, feedlot animals wouldn’t last very long without regular doses of antibiotics. The crowded conditions also necessitate docking of tails and, in pigs, clipping of teeth to try to prevent infections caused by animals injuring each other out of stress and boredom. Infections also spread because they’re constantly standing in manure. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has recommended that ‘excessive concentration of animals in large-scale industrial production units should be avoided’, as it fears intensive cattle farming could cause the spread of diseases to humans. Animals in these systems are also fed hormones, which help them use feed more efficiently (i.e. grow quicker) and create more muscle (i.e. leaner meat for the consumer).

There are concerns that steroid hormones in meat affect women’s breast cancer risk. However, there
is no evidence to either prove or disprove this claim. The EU has banned the import of meat containing artificial beef hormones, while the US and Canada have fought the ban.

No joyride

The Livestock Welfare Co-ordinating Committee Transport Code controls the conditions under which SA
animals are transported – they allow 1,4m2 per adult cattle (smaller than a single bed, but just enough for an animal to lie down). There’s no limit on how long the journeys last, but the suggestion that handlers check the animals every 200km and not stop for more than 30 minutes during their journey, or the provision in the South African Pig Welfare Code that ‘Pigs being transported over long distances must be provided with water within 18 hours’, suggests that trips can be very long indeed.

However, it is economically (and, in some cases, ethically) important to meat producers to transport and slaughter meat with the least possible stress to the animal. Extreme stress shortly before slaughter (caused by manhandling, excessive use of electric prodders or fighting in pens) can cause a biochemical reaction that breaks down muscle glycogen and raises acidity, resulting in Pale Soft Exudative (PSE) meat. Animals that have been fatigued by travelling, or haven’t been fed or watered sufficiently, produce Dark Firm and Dry (DFD) meat. When the damage isn’t too severe, these meats are used for processed meat. Handlers are discouraged from hitting animals with sticks (unless covered by canvas flaps) as bruising also spoils meat.

Making good meat choices

‘Meat has had a bad rap,’ says Creed, ‘but in a nutshell, meat is good. There’s so much protein deficiency out there going unrecognised, it’s scary.’ Red meat is high in iron, but also vitamins A and D – basically what you want is the protein, which is used in building and repair of the body.’ And meat is especially good if you choose only the best.

It’s almost impossible to raise organically certified meat in South Africa. Animals are legally required to receive certain vaccinations and organic feed is prohibitively expensive. But why would you need certified feed when you have grass? There are farmers raising animals on fields and decent feed with plenty of space and using minimal medication: people like Werner Karg at Oak Valley (see How green is your valley), Philip Myburgh at Joostenberg and Aletta Venter who farms biodynamically at Hoekiesdam. To get this kind of meat, go directly to source or make friends with a good small butcher.

What about the supermarkets?

Supermarkets offer plenty of free-range options. There is no official certification for ‘free range’, so
definitions vary, but typically, farmers are required to provide feed free of animal by-products and reasonable space. They also don’t use growth hormones. These guidelines are enforced in chains such as Woolworths by external auditors.

What about ‘wild’ meats? Ostrich is particularly prone to disease and it’s impossible to raise them commercially without medicating them. A directive from the Department of Agriculture late in 2007 de-registered the use of growth hormones for ostriches, and their meat is low in fat and cholesterol, so ostrich is generally a safe and healthy option.

Indigenous ruminants such as springbok, gemsbok and kudu are farmed free range on wildlife ranches, grazing veld and building lean muscle through exercise. These animals are hardy and, if necessary, will
self-medicate (e.g. eat aloe for worms) although, if there is a serious breakout of disease the farmer will step in with drugs. But venison is almost always processed through a slaughterhouse, unless you have
a hunter friend to supply you.

Choosing a good piece of red meat

‘You should look for aged meat, which can be determined by the colour: fresh meat has a bright red colour, like in most supermarkets, whereas aged meat has a far deeper red colour and yellow fat,’ says braai-master Pete Goffe-Woode. Ageing (or hanging) meat breaks down tough connective tissues, making it very tender, and it improves the flavour of the meat, which will have less of an iron taste than younger meat.

Supermarket meat is aged for not more than two weeks (usually in its vacuum-packaging). You can get your farmer or butcher to hang yours for up to six, but only if the meat is of the best quality with a good distribution of flecks of fat, or ‘marbling’. He will ask that you pay for the meat before it’s hung, as it does lose some mass in the process.

Processed meats were traditionally a way to preserve meat and use up the ‘nasty bits’: making the most of a precious food source. Sausages and hams are no longer cured by salting, smoking or drying, but are artificially smoke-flavoured and preserved with nitrites and nitrates. Nitrites react with stomach acids to produce nitrous acid, which can then react with amino acids to produce carcin-ogenic nitrosamines. Frying may also stimulate the formation of nitrosamines. As for nitrates, children exposed to the preservative can develop methemoglobinemia, which leads to a lack of oxygen in tissue. Many commercial salamis are almost entirely made up of fat coloured to look like meat. Try find a good German butcher who makes cold meats and sausages on site.

You’re going to pay more for good meat. You’ll probably have to eat less of it. But when you consider the costs of eating too much bad quality meat, you might find it’s worth it. Go on, make meat special again.