Grass or Grain?

Despite all the media and foodie hubbub over grass-fed beef, there was no grass-fed beef at any of the steak houses we rated. “Our regulars would revolt,” quips Phil Roberts, owner of Manny’s, “not because it isn’t good, but because it’s different.”

Grass-fed beef has less marbling than traditional commercial beef, and it’s a different type of fat, similar to Wagyu and more beneficial from a health standpoint than commercial beef. But when graded on the USDA scale, it invariably is rated of lesser quality because of less visible marbling. Grass-fed beef today in America is largely the province of small producers that cannot consistently meet large steak houses’ demand and do not submit it for USDA grading.

Producers of grass-fed beef have leaped onto the marketing bandwagon with campaigns saying grass-fed beef is the way beef used to taste, but no one under the age of fifty knows what that is. The vast majority of our palates prefer commercially raised corn- and grain-fed beef, the fattiest beef possible, because its producers have been selling Americans on it for decades.

When pressed, most consumers say they want healthy, satisfying food, but most don’t really care enough to seek it out.