Grass fed meat: all the antibiotics you save

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20

It is possible to find a middle ground between the bucolic image of grazing cows complete with cowbell around their necks, dear to advertising, it is a reality made up of intensive farming, animals crammed into cramped spaces, fed e swollen with antibiotics?

It is possible to eat in such a way healthy and sustainable, with one eye on health and one on that of animals without being accused of gastronomic idealism?

Those of you who saw the latest episode of the Report dedicated to bacteria that resist antibiotics, and the policies adopted (or rather, not adopted), might shake their heads in resignation. Come on dear carnivores, all is not lost.

With a little patience it is possible to find small breeders enlightened who agree to earn less in order to raise animals with longer times by excluding cereal-based feeds to favor grass and hay.

If you want to give yourself airs, call it meat " grass fed", Those who prefer Italian can opt for sustainable meat.

Consumer Report (American non-profit organization) analyzes of 300 samples showed that "grass fed" meat contains "more Omega 3, more antioxidants, more vitamins and fewer antibiotic-resistant bacteria" than regular grain-fed beef steaks..

The flavor is more intense and fuller than traditional meat.

Here's why we thought of a list geographically distributed of Italian grass fed breeders.

It might be interesting if you too, like the New York Times, think that farmed meat represents the rottenness of the food system.

Butcher Marco and Elisa - Corso Racconigi 65, Turin

Couple in work and in life who inherited the passion for the job of breeders from their parents. Forerunners, they have been selling grass fed meat since 2013 both in the butcher's shop and through the site.

Popular Butcher – Piazza XXIV Maggio 105, Milan

It is a butcher's shop with a kitchen inside the covered market in the Darsena. The owner is called Giuseppe Zen, quite well known in Milan for his other business, Mangiari di strada.

His choice is to sell (and cook) only beef and sheep meat from pasture-raised and grass-fed animals. It took two years to get there before finding seven suppliers. Of the animals, bought whole, all the cuts are sold.

Podere Il Santo - Via Kennedy 36, Rivanazzano (Pavia)

We are in the Oltrepò Pavese. The owner, well known by natural wine lovers, is called Eugenio Barbieri, one of the suppliers of the Popular Butcher (see above).

His farm is not just dedicated to wine. It is a farm where cereals are grown and cattle and pigs at risk of extinction are bred. In particular cabannine: the 17 items are grass fed. In case you are interested, goats, chickens, muscovy ducks and capons are also grown.

Cascina Lissona - Loc. Valgera 57, Asti

It was born as a farm about thirty years ago: agritourism and livestock farming were replaced with the initial cultivation of fruit trees.

The grass fed project by Nicola Solimeo, the owner, is called It Wild and involves breeding in the wild and feeding on grass. Heads take twice as long to gain weight than intensively farmed cattle.

Highland Italy - Via Zenivrega 1, Piazzolo (BG)

We are in the Bergamo area: Hans Quarteroni's breeding began about 6 years ago. There are about thirty of them, of the Highland breed (originally from the north of Scotland), resistant and long-lived, with good adaptation to the mountain pastures of the Brembana valley.

The whole herd of cattle lives outdoors (in an area of about 30 hectares of meadows and woods) and feeds only on grass and hay. The products of the Agri Bio company can be ordered from the site.

Real food – Via Melegnano 7, Udine

The project by Emanuele De Biase (statobrado.it) is called "angus stato brado": the meat is pure Angus breed raised and finished exclusively with grass. 20 Angus, reared at the Rio Selve Nere di Zocca ranch.

Nicola Abazzi, the farmer, has over 60 hectares of pasture where the cattle chew on green grass and, if necessary, local dry hay.

Biasia Farm - Via del Rovere, Veggiano (PD)

Small company in the Padua area at the foot of the Euganean hills. The cattle are fed only alfalfa and hay. The breed is the Rendena, originally from the homonymous valley in Trentino.

Rustic, it is particularly suitable for the exploitation of pastures, even the most difficult, especially in the hills and mountains. The calves aged between 16 and 24 months are used for the production of meat.

Melwill Farm – V ia Vignolese 2462 Guiglia (MO)

Company Shop Antichi Sapori - Via Tezza 3340 Zocca (MO)

The company is located in the Modena hills: 30 hectares of woods and pastures for breeding Aberdeen Angus, Red Angus and Galloway cattle. The animals are fed with natural plant products grown on the farm.

The sales point is the “Antichi Flavors” butcher's shop which is currently undergoing renovation. Orders can then be placed online.

Agri-butcher Giuseppa Gambino - Via Oreto 226 Cattolica Eraclea (AG)

It is a family-run farm. Sheep and goat, cattle and equine breeders, for about ten years have switched to real grass fed breeding (the manager Pietro Gambino specifies that real means that the pastures are not sown, the animals graze wild herbs and essences with the result that the flavor of the meat varies depending on what the cattle ate).

I sing hectares of pastures, 136 Charolais cattle: the meat can be purchased at the shop attached to the company.

GrassFed Europe

It is a portal through which you can order and receive grass-fed cuts of meat at home. The site specifies that the collaboration takes place with purchasing groups.

The meat - from cattle belonging to the Scottish Highland breed - comes from the Italian mountain areas bordering Austria. Delivery times are three to five days.

Faraneto Castle - Faraneto 39, Piacenza

The project of the architect and owner, Marco Ferreri, is to transform Faraneto into an eco-sustainable village.

A perspective that has led the farm to breed Highland cattle in the wild on the Piacenza hills, feeding them with grass, hay and spring water.

Fattoria L’aurora farm - Fraz. Caldirola 1, Fabbrica Curone (AL)

Family-run farm. The sheep are raised in a semi-wild state, grazing free for 9 months a year and consuming hay in the winter.

The owner is Matteo Ornati who left the city in 1991 and retired to the mountains. It sounds like a fairy tale but it's all true.

Rural Park Agricultural Company - Via Fornaci 1 / A, Fogliano Redipuglia (GO)

Karst family, the Samsa. On an area of 98 hectares they raise 40 sheep, 35 cows, 15 donkeys, 6 pigs and farmyard animals.

The animals graze in the wild throughout the year on certified organic pasture.

Marco Asara farm - ss 127 km 6 n.134, Olbia (OT)

Marco Asara, the owner, has been dealing with cattle since he was 17 years old. For its 30-35 Limousine mares (selected since 1998) it has abandoned the traditional system based on cereals in favor of green, spontaneous and sown mass.

His company extends for about 120 hectares between the territories of Olbia, Berchiddeddu and Padru.

Agricultural Society F.lli Nurra - Via la Rampa 9, Sedini (SS)

A small family-run farm that raises about fifty Charolaise heads. The breeding is in the wild and the feeding, of course, is grass.

At the moment they do not carry out slaughtering but sell the garments to those who are able to do it.