It still sounds a bit too easy but at least it's some progress. For meat eaters (or dairy lovers) there's no comparison between grain (at best) fed versus animals that eat seasonal grass. As good as a Cantal cheese can be, try a Salers and there's no comparison between the two similar cheeses from the same area. The cows eat mountain grasses from April through November to produce milk for the Salers cheese. For Cantal, it's almost the same model except the cows are fed hay.
We spent some time on a cattle (and mohair goat) farm in South Africa a few years ago and asked the owner why the South African beef was so good. The rancher had studied and worked in the US so he could easily compare and contrast the two models. Besides the significant amount of drugs used on US stocks, the major difference was grazing. The South African cattle tended to eat seasonal grasses and the end result was excellent.
None of this mattered during the Bush years, so it's good to see Obama stepping up in a few areas.
What makes milk or meat organic? After a drawn-out debate, the Agriculture Department has significantly narrowed the definition to livestock that spend a third of the year grazing on pasture.
New rules announced Friday say organic milk and meat must come from livestock grazing on pasture for at least four months of the year, and that 30 percent of their feed must come from grazing. The old rules said only that animals must have “access to pasture.”
