Why I'm about to start eating MORE meat

I, like most people I know, have spent the last 12 months or more trying to reduce the amount of meat I consume. This has led to me mainly living a meat free week Monday to Friday, whilst I enjoy meat most weekends. It's probably prudent to highlight (relating to Seth Godin's truly amazing blog HERE) that most people I know, are people like me - middle-class and at least like to feel like they can make a difference to this world. To be perfectly honest though, I have started to struggle with eating less meat for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I just love to cook (and eat) too much. My mid-week meals over the last few months have become prescriptive and dull - stir fry, fajitas, Thai and Indian; and whilst I absolutely love them all, they have definitely become rather routine. Ok, I realise I could be more adventurous and plan more time to cooking, as I do at the weekend, but after a long day at work followed by bed and bath time with my daughter (if home in time), starting to cook a long and well thought out meal at 7:30pm just isn't realistic.

Secondly, I can't help but feel 'is eating meat actually that bad?' And yes, before shouting and swearing at the screen in disgust, I have read many articles on this subject (including the Guardian's "Why eating less meat is the best thing you can do for the planet in 2019" which can be read HERE) but still that question remains in my mind. Is it more to do with the amount of the type of meat we are eating: meat that is fed and fattened on gargantious amount of technologically created and artificially grown grain and cereal. Bad meat is bad. But maybe good meat is good...

Thirdly, are the alternatives any better. Now don't get me wrong I love my fresh fruit and vegetables as much as anyone else and believe you can't over estimate the good they provide, but when I heard last year about fake bleeding burgers I couldn't help but be a little bit perplexed. Do I really want to eat 'soy leghemoglobin' that is grown in a lab or feed it to my daughter (article HERE)? The honest answer is 'No, not really.' Is it unnatural that I would rather eat something natural than unnatural?

This all got me thinking. Is there a way I can eat better meat, that is better for me, better for the animal, better for the environment and is (real) bloody delicious. I have recently listed to a great book called Wilding by Isabella Tree (HERE) which tells the story of the ‘Knepp experiment’, a pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, using free-roaming grazing animals to create new habitats for wildlife. Along with the myriad of extremely rare species, including turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, lesser spotted woodpeckers and purple emperor butterflies that have blossomed as part of the Knepp experiment, the thing that really stuck with me was their 100% pasture fed cattle. The cattle most definitely improve the biodiversity of the entire landscape.

"It may not look like farming but Knepp’s animal husbandry is subtle and complex. Conventional beef cattle reared on silage and grain are slaughtered at 24-26 months; Knepp’s free-range cows are 28-30 months old. So in farming terms, we’re losing four months from a conventional system, but we’ve not had to put any inputs into growing the animals – we’re not making silage, growing wheat, housing them, getting rid of the dung, treating them with antibiotics. We have none of the costs associated with the production.” Sir Charles Burrell

A 2015 research study from The Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University states that "livestock production, direct energy use for tractors and irrigation, and soil nitrous oxide emissions from nitrogen fertilizer application are currently the largest sources [of greenhouse gas emissions]."

So if I could find and eat meat that is 100% pasture fed (cattle that is fed solely on pasture containing grasses, wildflowers and herbs) and not just grass-fed, which can typically be used to describe a diet that combines access to grass, supplemented with grains and cereals, is there a way I can eat meat that ticks all three boxes. Better for me. Better for the animal. Better for the environment.

Better for Me

Research shows that 100% pasture fed meat has lower total fat levels, lower saturated fat content, higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a lower, more balanced (and healthier) ratio of omega-6:omega-3 fatty acids, significantly higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), higher levels of vaccenic acid and higher vitamin and mineral levels than meat and dairy from grain-fed animals.

Better for the Animal

Pasture-fed livestock are given the freedom to express their normal behaviours and often live in family groups. They are less likely to suffer from disease and require little veterinary attention or antibiotics. It is also the case that the 'wild' land in which these cattle graze is full of other life and shows levels of biodiversity that we rarely see in the countryside nowadays. Cattle is needed for this biodiversity.

Better for the Environment

The figures on this, if to be believed, are simply mind blowing. Wild grasslands help capture and store carbon so less is released into the air to harm the atmosphere. Grazing animals return nutrients and organic matter back to the ground as they deposit their dung, ensuring the soil remains healthy and fertile. Some experts claim that a 1% increase of soil organic matter across 15 million hectares of arable land would ‘lock down’ the equivalent atmospheric carbon of the Earth’s total greenhouse gases. Considering 1.4 billion hectares of land worldwide is used for growing crops this would only require 1% to be converted to pasture to achieve the goal. Improving the quality of our soil could stop climate change in it's tracks (HERE).

There has, it feels, this year been a resurgence in turning previously manicured green spaces into wild spaces (HERE). So can and should this happen on a much larger scale? I am not a farmer and have no farming genes in my blood. I am also not naive enough to think this is an easy solution. However, after having done my research, I for one am looking forward to once again starting a more meaty diet. That's not to say I am going to be gorging on high quality meat seven days a week, as every diet should be balanced, but having found Primal Meats online (HERE - with a 10% off code) who supply 'Pasture For Life' approved meat via subscription, I'm certainly looking forward to cooking my next steak.

Please let me know your thoughts and comments.

James