Food experts won't eat corn-fed beef (Yahoo Article)

2. Corn-Fed Beef

The expert: Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farms and author of half a dozen books on sustainable farming

The problem: Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grains. But farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans, which fatten up the animals faster for slaughter. More money for cattle farmers (and lower prices at the grocery store) means a lot less nutrition for us. A recent comprehensive study conducted by the USDA and researchers from Clemson University found that compared with corn-fed beef, grass-fed beef is higher in beta-carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. "We need to respect the fact that cows are herbivores, and that does not mean feeding them corn and chicken manure," says Salatin.

The solution: Buy grass-fed beef, which can be found at specialty grocers, farmers' markets, and nationally at Whole Foods. It's usually labeled because it demands a premium, but if you don't see it, ask your butcher.

Click here to read the full article http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-7-foods-experts-wont-eat-547963/

Farmer meets Neighbor

I originally found this on Huffington Post and just yesterday was talking to my boyfriend about how cool it would be to create local farms within local Chicago city neighborhoods. So instead of going to your farmer's market every Wednesday of the month you could have your own actual farmer within the community and neighborhood. This idea is a really neat one, definitely have to check it out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/how-to-grow-your-own-wind_n_252891.html

But my idea is more like creating a three story glass building (a vertical farm) with solar panels for the electricity, using rain water to actual fed the plants, etc. The basic idea is to recycling everything used within the building and what nature gives to the building as well as the community giving back to the local farmer living in the building while taking care of the plants while we purchase all the goodies.

I always forget something when I go to the fruit market and when it comes to traffic its the worst feeling when you forget a herb or vegetable you want to make for a special dinner. Wouldn't be great to just walk a couple of blocks to your farmer down the road and just purchase your daily goods from there? Wouldn't it be cheaper to do or just as cheap if you bought from a fruit market?

I envisioned these local farming buildings (vertical farms) in a like 2-3 block radius N-S-E-W. To get a better visual of the building itself this is what I had in mind (but on a much smaller scale)

Can't we make this happen? 

10 Restaurants Worth Dining

Paul Kahan, the chef and managing partner of the award-winning Chicago restaurants Blackbird and Avec, is one of the chefs who has been working with Will Allen's organization, Growing Power. The Growing Power organization is located in Milwaukee and just opened a location in Chicago. It has six greenhouses and eight hoophouses for greens, herbs and vegetables; pens for goats, ducks and turkeys; a chicken coop and beehives; and a system for raising tilapia and perch. There’s an advanced composting operation — a virtual worm farm — and a lab that is working on ways to turn food waste into fertilizer and methane gas for energy.

Others worth eating n Chicagoland:

• A Mano
• Bin36
• Bin Wine Cafe
• Bleeding Heart Bakery
• Delightful Pasteries
• First Slice
• Floriole Bakery
• Fraiche Kitchen
• Fresh Picks
• Great Lakes
• The Green Grocer
• Greg Christian Catering
• Green City Market
• Hot Chocolate
• May Street Market
• Pasta Puttana
• Prairie Grass Cafe
• The Publican
• Signature Room
• Terragusto
• Uncommon Ground
• Vie

Can ignorance kill you?

Depending on your ignorance what you eat might kill you, especially for children. The following article illustrates how a cow is slaughtered and the conditions in which they are living is beyond cruel. The probabilities of an e.coli or salmonella outbreak are higher than ever and lack of accountability of the USDA should be a crime.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-12-cargill-school-lunch-antibiotic-resistant-salmonella/

A juicy antibiotic-resistant salmonella burger, with a side of flame retardants

This is exactly what I'm talking about, WTF? We need to be more consciously aware of what we eat and not assume that if someone gets food poisoning that, thats normal. ITS NOT NORMAL, ITS NOT SUPPOSE TO HAPPEN. This should never happen in America and unfortunately it does too often then not and we have to understand what is in our foods before buying anything because if not one of us might be that next victim.

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-24-meat-wagon-antibiotic-resistant-salmonella/

An Inspirational Documentary: 'Food, Inc'

To learn more and how you can help, go to: http://www.foodincmovie.com/

The Hit List

The following steakhouses will be targeted to find out 3 main points (questions):

1. What percentage of fruits, veggies and other products are purchased by local farmers and/or vendors?
2. Do you purchase organic grass-fed beef? If not, will you consider it in the future? When do you see this happening?
3. Do you purchase anything else organic such as eggs, chicken or pork?

And when you think about it, what makes a restaurant "5 star", "Zagat rated" or even "Michelin star"? Do we ever think about the conditions these animals are living in, what they're fed and just as important how are the people treated who work in these industries? Have we become this detached that we don't care anymore until something happens to us?

Below you will see the following restaurants I've chosen to go after and this should help me figure out whom to support. Always remember we get to vote three times a day: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner so choose wisely:

• Gibson's Steakhouse: (312) 266-8999‎
• Morton's Steakhouse: (312) 266-4820 (UPDATE ON MORTON'S: 7/22/09: I spoke with Capri Kinney, Guest Relations Coordinator at Morton's Steakhouse in Chicago, her response, " We do purchase a variety of vegetables from local vendors however not at farmers markets or organic grocery stores. Our beef is grain fed which produces better marbling and flavor."

SIDE NOTE: Whenever you hear someone say "grain-fed" it really means corn-fed; I did respond to this initial email and request she be specific on what grain-fed means and she replied "yes - it is predominantly corn"

• Sullivan's: I met the General Manager at the Taste of River North festival and got the chance to ask the questions and his response, "produce is bought locally (i.e. fruits and vegetables) but Meat and Poultry is corn fed"
• Capital Grille: (#4 Best of CitySearch 2008) (312) 337-9400‎
• Rosebud: (312) 942-1117‎
• ZED451: (312) 266-6691(UPDATE: Got an email back from the general manager said they purchase from local farmers markets BUT yet again buys corn-fed meats)
• Ruth Chris: (312) 321-2725
• Myron and Phil's Steak Seafood: (#1 Best of CitySearch 2008) (847) 677-6663
• Saloon Steak House: (#2 Best of CitySearch 2008) (312) 280-5454‎
• Chicago Chop House Inc: (#3 Best of CitySearch 2008) (312) 787-7100‎
• Joe's Seafood & Steak: (312) 379-5637‎
• Keefer's: (312) 467-9525‎
• Gene and Georgetti's Restaurant: (312) 527-3718‎
• Kinzie Chophouse: (312) 822-0191‎
• Smith & Wolinsky: (312) 670-9900‎

Would you like steak with that corn?

I recently saw a documentary called, 'Food, Inc' and I'll probably never look at food the same again. This movie isn't what you think it is, it what you know it is and what we all should be educating ourselves for the sake of our health.


This movie is about how we eat, what we eat, where it comes from, how we treat our animals, ourselves and the environment. It talks about the struggle of farmers, a bio-tech company called Monsanto that owns patent to the soybean or as some would like to call it GMOs (genetically modified foods), a mother's grieving her 2 yr old son dying from e coli infection and how over 46,000 items in a single grocery store are actually owned by 5 companies.


This documentary has educated me and built awareness which I am now dedicating to research and reporting. I will post all of my findings on this blog. My first project is finding out what makes a five star high end steakhouse a good steakhouse? When we think of Gibson's, Morton's Chicago Chop House, etc we probably think of a big juicy steak that's rich in all sorts of flavors, but what if we found out where it came from how cattle are actually fed would it make any difference? What if you found out that cattle traditionally are grass-fed animals (herbivores) and were never really meant to eat anything else. What if you found out that about 80% of cattle are corn-fed and we make them eat it because corn makes them as fat as possible as fast as possible. What would you say if I told you that?

"when cattle are corn-fed, their intestinal tracts become far more acidic, which favors the growth of pathogenic E. coli bacteria, which in turn kills people who eat undercooked hamburger."

(source; http://www.foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm).

If this isn't reason enough to think about what we eat, where we eat and finding out where are food really comes from then I don't know what will.